St. George, UT
Another "no" vote.
I'm not sure what the upside would be. The problems it would cause have already been mentioned in this thread.
(Topic ID: 274387)
Quoted from DaWezl:I’m assuming that the reason for this is to try and drive more sales on to the site, thereby increasing revenues. The thing is that if you commit to an auction here, I’d assume it blocks you from listing your pin elsewhere. A lot of sellers already offer a slight “Pinside Discount” on their pins bc they know that the community here is more educated on the factors that drive pricing, and will push back on poorly priced listings. The benefit of an auction for the seller is that it should theoretically drive a higher price for your sale, but sellers aren’t listing here to drive the highest price. They’re listing here to drive the quickest sale.
So for the people who are already willing to take a lower price to sell a pin faster, you’re asking them to reduce the audience who will see their listing (ie not also listing on FB or CL where more newbies are likely to start), plus they have to wait for a listing to close before they can see the $. For the people who want to drive the highest price, you’re asking them to list on a site that is the least likely to overpay (ie the most educated buyers) and again commit to a smaller subset of buyers.
With that in mind, what’s the value proposition that Pinside would be offering to make the deal attractive to one or both types of pin sellers that would drive a greater volume of listings to the site?
It may have the opposite effect. A lot of people won't list on pinside due the fees. Sure, the regional threads if it is a sub 3k game, but facebook pinball groups are very active and free to sell on. Regardless on my concerns about misrepresented machines, the associated costs would make or break using such a thing for a lot of people. Incidentally there are a few pinball auction groups on facebook and they see very very little action. Too risky to list.
This is an all or nothing choice?
Plenty of people want the auction. Especially if Robin and crew can make it work efficiently.
Ebay is a world of people and potential scammers. Pinball is a small niche community where we pretty much all know each other.
The people that like the service should be able to use it, the one's who don't can ignore it. Just like we are able to do with people on here!
You could have an option to turn off the feature all together if it offends you somehow.
Do a trial run and see how it goes?
I say no, This can be a very slippery slope I wouldn’t mind seen it as a trial run and getting feedback on how it plans to work out.
We basically already have reverse auctions.
Guy lists game for stupid price, no bites. Drop it a little, get comical lowball offers. Drop it some more, get positive thread comments, "wish I was closer!" Drop it one more time and a local guy finally bites for a couple hundred under asking.
Community sets the price without Robin & the gang being on the hook as auctioneers.
Honestly it sounds to me like the site is looking to add another revenue stream (nothing wrong with that), but is the juice really worth the squeeze? You guys want to be in the middle when someone drives 6 hours to find the "working" game he won doesn't boot all of a sudden? Better brush up on interstate auction liability law.
There are simple solutions to the possible issues mentioned here.
The ability to Auction would bring Pinside in to a new Era. The old crowd against change will not always be the majority here, better to prepare now.
Young people hate face time, hate phone calls. An Auction is cut and dried, I have sold on Ebay for 20 years and rarely meet Buyers. answering questions by e-mail. You either win or you don't.
Take away the hagglers, the crooked flippers, make it a level playing field for everyone.
Start simple, pick up only. Pay upon inspection.pickup. Shill Bidders? Banned. Didn't pay? Banned.
Being a part of such a valuable Service would be important to the Seller/Buyer who wouldn't risk being banned.
Bitching about an Auction? Take it to the Auction Moderation Forum. Lock it from the normal Forum.
Honestly, the question should not be "Would you be interested in an auction option?" More so, "If we give you an auction option, what would you like to see and why?" No one is going to be forced to use the auction feature.
This is an opportunity to give buyers/sellers more options, potentially create a safer auction marketplace for pins versus eBay, and it could be a positive revenue stream for Pinside, which keeps the lights on now and into the future.
Why not? No reason why you wouldn't be able to check the game out before bidding if local. People not paying or retracting a sale is nothing new. If top bidder doesn't pay just go to next highest bidder. If seller refuses to sell at bid price then that will be easy to moderate.
Quoted from Ericpinballfan:I emailed Robin a few months back with an idea.....
For years I see way to many sellers of games selling there games, then dont pay the piper to pinside.
Always baffles me. Are people that cheap that when they sell a multi thousand game they can throw pinside a bone? The answer is yes!
Thousands of dollars have gone down the drain for pinside.
They promote there games on pinside, many ads have discussion threads. Games sell, no donation.
I feel every Pin listing for sale should have a fee. Pay pinside upfront to list the game.
The fee can be structured to starting price.
1% seems pretty fair, $100 game pays a buck. $10000 game pays $100 upfront.
You are right about people not paying. It bothers me when i see someone listed 284 items and paid on 2 and those are usually cheap parts with a minimal fee.
If you start charging $50 to list a $5000 game, you will see a huge drop in games being listed. I would be fine with a $5 listing fee or maybe if you pay the $12 for a featured ad you get the $12 knocked off your selling fee.
Quoted from LTG:How many more mods would be needed to deal with this ?
LTG : )
Depends on how many tacky mods have been glued to each game.
Quoted from Pinballer67:If this goes through, Pinside selling prices increase an average of 20%
true but the drama and comedy filled stories as well as my one liners will be well worth it!..this is the worlds pinball club..not an auction site
Most people will choose to list their complete machines in traditional classified ads format. If you have a machine with limited buyers, then you are willing to wait for 'the right' buyer to come along and pay what's its worth to you. Taking a $2500 machine and starting an auction at $999 wouldn't really work for most people... unless it also allowed a reserve at $2500. This reserve makes it just like the classified ads process anyway.
Perhaps when someone wants to unload a box of parts, or a project machine, or whatever and they really don't care how much they get (low balls ok), then auctions might be fun. But for mainstream pin sales, I think traditional ads with "or best offer" work best.
Quoted from Markharris2000:Most people will choose to list their complete machines in traditional classified ads format.
My pinside collection says Sexy Girl and Big Buck Hunter. If I can't keep up with that, how could I list a complete machine?
Quoted from Pinballer67:If this goes through, Pinside selling prices increase an average of 20%
68% of all statistics are 92% crap.
At first I though why, but if you think beyond the surface it could be great. I mean bringing an eBay auction here is a terrible idea, pinball machine auctions don’t even work on eBay check it out there aren’t any there. This is pin side why copy eBay imagine this:
*Pinball Machine auctions where everything sells on the same night, boosting the site traffic at a specific time drive up the interest, maybe a monthly auction rather than all day every day. Auctions have to have hype, the chance of a deal, but safety for sellers so it doesn’t look like a giveaway.
*What if there was an organized shipping calculator set up for sti or another shipper?
*Required machine pic angles and a coil test/switch test video
I mean let’s be real these auctions could be fool proofed if the sellers were required to jump through some really easy hoops, then push the fee off on the buyer. You can do it give people a new option, you already own the interest of the player base. Good luck you’re gonna hear a lot of no you can’t......
What's wrong with giving it a try? I'm down for some new excitement on Pinside. Nobody is going to be forced to use the auction. If it doesn't work out because of all the issues described, close it down. That simple. It will take some time to work out the kinks, though. That's for sure.
At first I was like. . . maybe that could work. . . but now I am firmly in the hell no category. Sometimes you want to make sure the weirdo who is coming over to your house and will probably see all your pins etc. is your kind of weirdo and not the bad kind of weirdo. With bids you lose some of the control over who comes into your life. This is just one of many many reasons that I say nope!
We have enough drama already, can you imagine the drama that auctions would bring. Auctions are a really bad idea for pinball and Pinside. How about this, how about you price your games at a fair price and they will sell quickly. If you price them at a value, they will sell the same day. Wake up Pinsiders, we still have a supply shortage on games vs. the demand.........If your game doesn’t sell, it’s because you are clueless as to what it is worth.
4 EXT. CADILLAC DEALERSHIP - DAY 4
BB is now sitting in a cubicle in the office with the
Salesman, going over the contract on the car.
BB
Now don't try to hustle me here
... you know what I mean. I hate
being hustled. Give me an honest
price, not one of your 'special'
deals... give me an honest price.
Do I make myself clear?
SALESMAN
Now, how much are you willing to
pay?
BB
There ya go... there ya go...
you're doing it... you're doing
one of those hustle numbers.
(CONTINUED)
3.
4 CONTINUED: 4
SALESMAN
I'm just trying to get an idea
how much you're willing to pay.
BB
Four dollars... I want to pay four
dollars a month.
SALESMAN
That's not an honest answer.
BB
What do ya want to hear? That I'd
love to pay three hundred and fifty
a month... is that what you want to
hear? Tell me how much you want me
to pay and I'll tell you how much
I'll pay, but don't do a hustle on
me... I don't like that. How much
do I want to pay? I'd like to pay
nothing!
Either you are going to be the premier Pinball Auction Site or not. No middle ground, you have to go for the Ultimate.
Sounds like a good idea if you are committed.
Quoted from thedarkknight77:How about this, how about you price your games at a fair price and they will sell quickly. If you price them at a value, they will sell the same day.
I 100% agree with this, best post on here! I have done this and sold games same day myself.
(I voted yes because I think it may help this site to make some of the fee money Ebay is making on pins, and I would love to know Pinside is making a lot more money and Ebay is making a little less money).
As long as the marketplace and fee structure stayed the same here, I would keep using that myself for selling.
But I would look at the auctions, just to see if anything interesting was going on.
A while back I started a topic about I wish pinside would do a top 100 for video games. It went no where.
Maybe pinside should just start a new marketplace labeled "other", to make it easier to look for golden tee and big buck hunter, etc. (and I know that is already there, just hard to find).
Hell, when I asked my girlfriend what game would she like just to add some variety I gave her 3 choices: a pool table, a air hockey table, or a ping pong table.
She chose ping pong. First thing I did was call my pinball distributor to see if he sold those.
If the choice was here, next thing I would have done would be looking at ads here to see if any close by.
I hope pinside can expand to take away from ebay, and I also hope pinside can expand to other games also.
(and of course all on a different link to click, keep the main area just the way it is now). (marketplace, forums, etc would not change at all).
Quoted from RCA1:68% of all statistics are 92% crap.
60% of the time, it works everytime
Quoted from thedarkknight77:We have enough drama already, can you imagine the drama that auctions would bring. Auctions are a really bad idea for pinball and Pinside. How about this, how about you price your games at a fair price and they will sell quickly. If you price them at a value, they will sell the same day. Wake up Pinsiders, we still have a supply shortage on games vs. the demand.........If your game doesn’t sell, it’s because you are clueless as to what it is worth.
I would not mind auctions, but this is dead on. All my games sell within 24-48 hours.
Yes only if it’s a separate part of the site so I don’t have to filter through them all the time when scanning through all the other threads.
I think a better use of time would be to setup a game taskforce that would help me find the games I'm looking for, pinside and elsewhere. I would say hey I'm looking for a gottlieb 80b project and check a few price ranges. I would be pay pinside a "searching" fee and their task force would search out the game for me. They would review condition and get a shipping quote, etc. The fee would reoccur every few months or what not.
I would use an auction platform for parts, sparingly just like I use eBay. I'm with Iceman, let's do a trial run.
We need to make it easier for folks to buy/sell/Ship pins here. Facebook market place is currently where the deals are at. Just my two cents.
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