I was wrong!

[Guest]

Please note: This is not a complaint in any form, just a list of facts which tells me the service i offered is not needed anymore.

Asking questions like UO-Auction: Why dont *YOU* use that site? or How to Improve UOAuction? did gave me the feeling another auction-site might be needed.

So i created my own site added a feature to create bulk-auctions from UO-Assists-Vendoragent, created auctions on different shards (mainly for cheap tokens and gifts) added many items to my homeshard Europa and even offered some prices to reward sellers.

Where are we today after about 2 month?
<ul>
[*]53 registered users
[*]no actual sellers except me
[*]almost no bidders after i stopped selling tokens for 50K each
[/list]

Yes there were good things as well, like a castle beeing sold on a shard that never used uoa2 before, nice PM´s from ppl telling me they appreciate what i did, but in the end i have to admint the site didnt develop like i hoped.

So, i dont think its worth to wait longer but to close the site again and start using uoa2 again to list my items.

Maybe i give it a little more time to see wether or not things change, but tbh i dont expect much.

Oppinions?
Suggestions?
Comments?

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>


[*]no actual sellers except me


[/ QUOTE ]

[*]almost no actual sellers except me

I did try, but I only managed 5 sales, several other items were unsold.
With no one much bidding my stuff sold really, really, cheaply.

 

[kennykilleduo]

2 things come to mind..


1. Uo is so item based , its not worth trying to sell items beyond the character based vendor..

2. UO is dying and EA is allowing it by not putting resources to fix it fast enough.

 

[CassieDarksong]

2 months is not enough time to gather a base of people who are willing to buy and sell on a site, plain and simple.

It took UOA2 longer than that. Even now, the most popular shards for selling on there are Europa and Great Lakes. I won't even bother to list stuff for Legends or Origins or when I played Oceania on there because it wasn't worth the time.

There has also been a decline of items posted there in the last 3 years to what it was 3 years ago. I haven't used UOA2 in 2 years. No need after I left Great Lakes.

There is no incentive to post there, no guarantee items will sell on either site for smaller shards, which might be the reason people don't bother.

 

[Guest]

I think your auction site is very well put together. I've visited on a few occasions to see what goodies were up for bids on Chesapeake, but I found very few auctions for my Shard. This is what has deterred me from being more active.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I did try, but I only managed 5 sales, several other items were unsold.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know exactly what u r talking about

Sounds like a typical Hen/Egg-Problem: There is no seller because there is no buyer because there is no seller because there is no buyer ...

 

[imported_Goron]

amazon.com lost money for the first many years of its existence.
You cannot just make a website and expect it to be a hit. It takes time. I am not saying your site would succeed if you gave it more time, but I am saying you cannot think your site won't succeed with only the time you have given it.
Leave it up for a year and then see how it did.

Also, no offense but you didn't market it very well.
I have not seen a single rune on the floor of every bank and moongate with the url.
I have not seen a single google ad for it.
I have only ONCE heard of the site before.
I have seen pretty much no advertising at all... if people don't know it exists, they won't use it.

 

[Guest]

BEST TO STICK WITH INGAME SHOPS..ops caps...well thats my view..i hate the large vendor fees like the next person but even uo-auction is getting little used, and it harldy a auction anymore..just a list of high buyout prices and a place to sell keeps and castles with piccies...

 

[imported_Hanna]

1 word - advertisement

Word of mouth only goes so far.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Also, no offense but you didn't market it very well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Got some tips how to market a / this site?
Marketing is not my profession, feeling more like a pure-techie, but i am willing to learn

Maybe via PM, so others aren´t offended by bumping this thread.

 

[Der Rock]

------------------------------
1 word - advertisement

Word of mouth only goes so far.
----------------------------------------

most times u hear word about uo, then u hear jokes, but no advertising

 

[Guest]

Zof,

One of the problems is, I used to ebay, gold pretty much took over auctions. Basically, years ago, I could put up items and weapons on ebay and people would bid. Then gold starting to come into play and people would sell 100 million for like $75. That pretty much killed auctions. Now you have everyone selling gold (inlcuding me) for about $1.75. Why do I sell it? I dont need it all. I have clients I sell to here and there with a goal to pay for my accounts. Keeps the piece with the signicificant other.


Now you have all this gold and nothing to really buy. How does this effect your auction-site. Well there is nothing that is really needed in game anymore. In general. What could people sell (beside EM rares) which a lot of people dont collect and the collectors are pretty well intergrated and just trade via boards like this or with their clients directly. No need for auction-sites. You can buy gold cheaply. Run to Luna and buy what you need very very easily now.

I have some ideas about a website, auctions, trading that I would be glad to discuss with you. Send me a message if you interested.

 

[5% Luck]

For years I used tradespot. It was very good for a long time and still works great for atlantic as far as i know. But, since i moved to legends, its been a complete waste of time. Noting that its not a real auction though, it was still a great way to get good prices for no vendor fees(as well as non vendorables, castles,near perfect pets).

What we need is not a new site but to consolidate all selling!

With that I will tell ya I logged on your site and saw some great token prices. At the time they were 50k (like you posted) and I felt it was too good to be true and figured the seller would pull to ad before the date expired. Call me a worriy wart but I didnt trust a newer site with out a long term commitment

Id like to see a site like trade spot is (or was) again. Ive bought many and sold even more there. But as things go they seem to have no ads and no real want to place them. What they did for the most part was corner a market for cash value items and that seems to have dried up. Since they have no revenue they stopped actively pursuing new hits. Or so its seems to me. Hence I dont even post there... anymore!

But all said Gl with your site the rules on sales of virtual items Ebay put forth killed us alll!!

I Love you Lynn of Trade Spot!!!!!!