I've been approached a few times over the yrs. to try and start an auction site specifically for doll related items and have pretty much turned it down in the past due to recognizing that while sellers always want options the habit of buyers is something else. Historically, it's been tried(and I think by a few different members here) before but cracking interest in buyers away from the huge auction sites seems to lead to failure. Honestly, I don't think anything has changed in the regard and any attempt to try it again is a fairly bleak prospect but at the same time DF already has the resources available where the main investment would be time and energy; i.e. cost wouldn't be huge because already run DF on a dedicated server which can have the dual purpose of an auction site.
Anyway, I'm basically seeking ideas on it...no need to try and talk me out of it as a bad idea for I'm already pretty aware of it's downfalls
User-ship of it I assume would initially and perhaps forever be small but at the same time DF has been around for over 10yrs now and time is one of the main components in getting a site off successfully barring a huge advertising budget which I definitely don't have.My initial ideas are mainly to set it up not so much as a pure money making venture but have fees simply designed to keep sellers/buyers honest...doesn't always work to perfection but that was the initial idea behind $1/mo for the DF forums. I don't think there should be any real listing fees though that might conflict with a users ability to highlight an auction if they wanted...if $0 all auctions would be highlighted which would defeat the purpose. Maybe give a user the option there. End of auction fees is the main concern where I truthfully don't know what would be competitive....haven't used eBay in a couple of yrs now. Small priced items would more than likely need to have some type of flat fee otherwise the transaction fee for whatever payment processor used(PayPal, for example) could be larger than the charge. Am thinking higher cost items could run anywhere from 2-3% if it sells. Am definitely seeking guidance here.
I also like the idea of giving users the ability to have their own store where something like $12/yr, just an example, allows them to list within their own brand...could also be a sliding scale here....cheaper if limited to smaller number of items at time or more expensive if wants more. Am also debating whether or not users with their own stores can create their own categories and if that's a good idea for it would potentially lead to non-doll related stuff being auctioned.
Anyway, just throwing stuff out there....this is purely a development stage and nothing is set in stone including whether I'm for sure going to pursue it but since many of you use auctions to buy/sell I'm sure there are some good ideas out there I can mine.
thanks,
Steve
