Two Years Before the Yahoo Mast!!!!

For the first time in what seems like weeks My auctions and my e-mail box are both silent and I thought I would take advantage of this time to say a few words about where I,m at in the wonderful world of Yahoo auctions.

In a few days I will have been participating in Yahoo auctions for 2 years. For the first year I was preoccupied with closing down my brick and mortar store and trying to stabilize my finances which the store adventure had nearly destroyed. I was able to get a few listings on and was at least learning how things worked.

The big turning point for me was in April of 2005 when Yahoo did away with all of their fees and became a totally free site. This was crucial to me because most of my merchandise shares two distinct characteristics that make it important that I have as low an overhead as possible. First, it is almost all very inexpensive which means that even small fees take a big cut out of profits. Secondly, more than 50% of my auction listings are replacement china. This is a line where a dealer must assume that he is going to have to wait 6 months or longer to find a buyer who needs the particular pattern that you are selling. Put these two factors together and you have a situation where you are selling an item for under Ten dollars that you have to pay around 35 cents every 7 days (on e-bay) for six months before it sells. That equates to $9.00 in listing fees paid to sell a $10.00 item. Then when you add in the final value and Paypal fees you have probably worked 6 months to lose a buck or two and this doesn't even take the cost of your merchandise into consideration. It's a no brainer. You are paying the auction site to let you lose money.

When Yahoo took away their fees (which I have to admit were much cheaper than the E bay group), I was able to start listing all of the rest of my merchandise and eventually sell it at a fair profit. I am now running about 1000 auctions with my only expense being my time (I'm retired) and Paypal fees. In the past year I have sold more than 1000 auctions with many of them for multiple units. A side benefit is that I have made dozens of new friends among my repeat customers. I admit my methods are a little unorthodox. I am of the rare breed (at least on the auction circuit) who believes in the old adage "The customer is always right!!".

It seems to be working well for me and I am looking forward to this next year with anticipation of many more good deals and a lot of new friends to add to my growing list.

thanks for listening.... the old guy