Dedicated online auction site

[Geoff Harris]

For those concerned there has been an update to the Privacy and terms and conditions links.

[A.A. Barry]

Geoff, I have just registered, it seems to me that the above problems are fixed,,, easy as, I thought,  one q do we get "prompts" when buying or selling?? 

great,  now more selling people needed

A.A.Barry

[Geoff Harris]

Hi AA, yes you get email notifications.

Geoff

[IanN]

Geoff, I've deleted my personal details via the method you mentioned.

 

Re your comment

"Unlike the market leader in online auctions the fees do not attempt to bankrupt sellers just maintain the site." 

Surely that depends on what you are selling? I recently listed 44 assorted plans and mags on fleabay, with pics, starting price 0.99, all for free. Assuming I sell half of those (optimistic) for the start price with lets say another 5 reaching £3 (very optimistic), I think - if I calculate correctly - that I would pay £3.68 fees (10% of £36.78 final purchase value). If I sell none I pay nothing

 

Minimum listing cost for a low value item plus a pic on your site seems to be 15p, so to list these 44 items with you costs me £6.60 regardless of whether I sell all or none? I appreciate you're creditting new joiners with £3 to get started, but you get my point...

 

Accepted that ebays 10% of FPV is steep for sellers, on higher value sales - it may well be that higher end items is where your potential market lies

 

Also re the bit about fees being to "just maintain the site"  is that really the case, or is there a critical mass above which point fees become profit for Frome Model Centre or yourself? It may well of course be the case that the busier the site is, the higher the running costs, but I think its a fair question...

 

I'm absolutely not anti the site. Just posing what I regard as fair challenges which you would (hopefully) have been expecting and anticipating

 

[Geoff Harris]

Hi Ian, 

First and most strenuously I must point out that the site is not owned or run by Frome Model Centre, it is purely a personal project. I chose to advertise the site in their window with a  poster and they joined as others have.

I will formulate a response to your comments regarding the fees etc and get back to you.

Geoff

[Geoff Harris]

Hi Ian,

following your well thought out comments on fees, I have made a slight adjustment on the lower levels, in particular 1p to 99p, as there is no FVF I think and stress think it makes it more viable for low start auctions and reasonably comparable to fleabay, if it sells.

At the end of the day any type of advertising costs, weather it be in the newsagents window or on an auction site plus it is the decision of the seller as to weather or not it is a worthwhile prospect. 

As for the comments on 'fees and profits' as I stated this is a personal project and as you may well be aware takes time and effort to achieve, plus I cant really see me doing a 'Del Boy' and becoming a millionaire, but your comments are reasonable.

Geoff

[Phil Claridge]

i hope you do a del boy geoff, at least you are trying

[Myron Beaumont]

Can I buy some shares please ?

[Geoff Harris]

Thanks yet again guys for the positive feedback.

[Myron Beaumont]

Geoff

Everybody is whary (spelling ?) these days.

So many dodgy people about aren't there ?

PS .Never used Paypal or E-bay cos I simply don't want my details available to the whole world

Edited By Myron Beaumont on 28/06/2010 13:40:29

[Geoff Harris]

I can see your point Myron, but personally I have used both for many years and had one or two problems with dodgy people, but thankfully both fleabay and paypal have always come thro for me. I just hope I can do the same, when paypal is used at my site they give the same guarantees as people get on ebay .

[Gemma Jane]

Have to say overall I've found Paypal safer than using a credit card on many sites. I've had three occasions where I've used a CC on what I thought was a secure site only to have unauthorised transactions take place (sadly all model related sites and no way to follow up how the details were stolen), never had that problem with Paypal as the details are not passed to the third party and use it now if the option is available.

 

[Geoff Harris]

Thanks for that Gemma, I forgot to mention about the way 'Paypal' protect your details. Plus the fact that I believe you don't have to have a 'Paypal Account' as such if you want to use your card.

[kc]

How safe is Paypal?  Who owns Paypal?  What country is Paypal located in?

 

What happens if Paypal goes bankrupt......are we protected by the the Financial Services  Authority ( British Government  ) like banks etc???

[Geoff Harris]

Not sure if this helps KC

appears to be the most comprehensive on the net.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal

[Aslan]

Paypal is without doubt the safest way to pay for items purchased on the net. That is why everyones uses it,both seller and buyer. By this I mean the majority of sellers insist on payment through Paypal,and purchasers only pay using Paypal...imho.

[Geoff Harris]

I agree 100% Aslan, but I feel that some of the posters here will always have some concerns about selling/buying and using any form of personal information be it financial or joining websites. 

I can understand their concerns but at the end of the day it is personal choice.

But even the so called dodgy sellers in China are getting much better, so maybe their is hope for all of us.

[Gemma Jane]

Geoff, not sure I agreed when I signed up to receive spam emails regarding promotion of the new site?

 

Perhaps you ought to contact my club regarding the site rather than asking me to! Good try though. Club details can generally be found on the web, mine is AMFC.

 

A half page add in the BMFA news is very reasonable too. 

 

If I did inadvertently agree to receive mail then please add an unsubscribe option to the emails as I do not want to continue to receive them.

[Bruce Richards]

I agree totally with what Gemma Jane says above.

[Geoff Harris]

There are some simple options within the site for you to select which if any emails you want to receive to prevent unwanted mails.

[Gemma Jane]

OK Geoff, but if is club members you want to promote to, the BMFA News is received by just about all of us.

 

I still think an 'unsubscribe' button is a requirement for such emails not a luxury, you also need a certain amount of legal blurb that is missing to cover yourself.

 

I'm not really moaning, just trying to help you get through the early stages. Trust me been there, got the T-Shirt regarding new web concepts and promotion of them. 

[Bruce Richards]

Geoff, I do not see that there is an option to stop the kind of email that you sent out today. Gemma may not be moaning but I am.

[Gemma Jane]

OK Bruce I was moaning too, I have enough spam as it is and was a little surprised by the emails to say the least.

[Geoff Harris]

OK all sorted, you are now removed from the newsletter.

All it takes is a polite request.

Although I think it would have been more appropriate to have done this thro the websites contact page and then a message here about missing un-subscribe link .

But if you felt that it was best served being aired here so be it.

Sorry forgot to mention unsub link and code being done as I type.

Edited By Geoff Harris on 29/06/2010 06:03:26

[Aslan]

I don't see the problem with asking members to put the word out to their clubs regarding the site...........surely there is nothing wrong with word of mouth............ To me, spam is delivered from outside sources,not directly from the site itself,however I do agree that there must be an option not to receive notification mail, which imho is not spam as such. I regard spam as like junk mail being shoved in the letterbox.