The Wholesale Forums

[uhafmail]

Waste of time and money to be honest. It is not impossible to set a successful auction site but needs to have a USP and not go toe to toe with eBay. Look at people like Swoopo. Als the lowest unique bid sites.

[Freakzilla5]

I'm not sure on this one, think of something that will make your site stand out to the rest, Best of luck to ya

[papverpoppies]

I picked this up from another forum - can they do this?

Building an online Auction site? Be careful in your implementation.
If you get populate, Ebay/Amazon will notice you.
They have several related nasty software patents that they'll use against you.
And more lawyers than sense. :-/

Poppy

[Anthony]

Not to be too negative, but I advise you not to waste your time, money or indeed pride pursuing this idea. It isn't a viable business idea.

I would stick with your web design, ROI wise its a far more lucrative gig.

[peerielass]

People like the buzz from Ebay, competing against the competition, getting the best looking shop, winning in an auction, getting a bargain. They love it, hate the fees etc but still go back. Nothing new can ever be as big.

[Andy777]

Waste of time & money! Period.

[woodleyB]

If I were you, I'd 'pick off' the senior executives of eBay one by one, and have a signed document from each of them stating you are in full control of eBay.
Then lower ALL fees to make it feasible for small sellers to make some decent profit.
It would probably be easier than setting up your own auction site.

Oh, and still give all TWF members zero fees for LIFE

[freedosh]

The only way you could make it kick start is do all your advertising as you say but charge 10p per listing and give customers the oppurtunity to have free listings for life by placing a banner on there website/blog etc

The name would get around superfast - as people would want the free listing- the more adverts appearing on peoples blogs would entice more buyers....

Its a bad idea to try and build an auction site but if you do decide you need a gimic....

My way you would still earn money and all the free advertising in the world- when your site is succsessfull after 5 years - scrap the banner / free listing offer -

[jayjrc]

i would say if you are tryna rival ebay then its a no! come up with a niche, like the other sites where you buy bids etc.
look at the people in the past on these here forums that have tried and thought the same, i have only been here 9 months and there have been at least 5 people that have tried and failed at this

[freedosh]

Make a wholesale auction site, Target the wholesale industry for the ebayers..... Wholesalers would list there bulks - ebayers would bid for it to sell on ebay.....