There has been talk lately of a new auction venue, still in beta, which hopes to pick up disaffected eBay auction buyers and sellers, Boocoo.com
Public launch is scheduled for June 21st 2010.
June 14th AuctionWally extended an invitation from Boocoo.com to his readers and I went to check it out.
Bearing in mind that this site is in limited early beta and not open to the public yet, my overall impression is favorable.
The site - buyer view
Let me state again, the site is in limited beta, not everything works perfectly. I made two fixed price purchases on Boocoo, one because it was a deal on something I buy regularly for my business, the other because I liked it. The process was simple, the sellers were excellent, responsive and friendly. This is the bid screen.
The checkout was non functional but the contact seller email system worked. I was invoiced, paid, got feedback, and received shipping notification later in the day, on both purchases.
The site - seller view
The default view (left) is in list form with 60px x 60px thumbnail pictures, click to enlarge images. Optional gallery view shown below, increases the image size to 150px x 150px.
Listing is quick and very simple. I was able to list nine similar items in about 5 minutes, (exclusive of downloading my pictures to my computer for upload to the site)
Duration and Format: All listings may run for 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. Auction format, may also be offered with a buy it now option, or a reserve, and fixed price listings.
Fees:
Listing fees for both fixed price and auctions start at 20c for items under $9.99, $10 -> $24.99 = 40c, $25 -> $49.99 = 60c, $50 -> $200 = 80c and listings over $200 will cost $1.60, for any duration. Final value fees are a flat 6% for the first $1000.
A la carte fees:
Images 12c each after the first, which is free.
Bold listing, highlighted listing, second category, and something called an RFQ listing for which I could not find a definition, (might be a Request For Quote where sellers bid to supply the order?) all cost $2.00 each.
Category featured; “Your listing will be featured at the top of category lists” is $10.00
You can have a Boocoo Store for $10 per month.
Memberships
Boocoo appears to be adopting an approach similar to eBay’s stores with their Membership option, offering three levels of discounts for a monthly fee as follows:
- Silver - $7.95 per month for a 15% discount
- Gold - $29.95 per month for a 30% discount
- Platinum - $74.95 per month for a 50% discount
What makes Boocoo different?
In my opinion the caliber of people behind Boocoo give it a greater chance of success than any of the many auction start-ups who have come and gone, or lingered in obscurity in recent years.
Kip Knight joined eBay as the head of International Marketing early in 2002 from PepsiCo. He moved to Vice President of International Marketing and Category Management in 2004 where he was part of the eBay Express team. As vice-president of marketing for eBay North America he managed eBay Live in Las Vegas in 2006. After a brief stint as eBay Head of the Joint eBay/PayPal Task Force he was General Manager of eBay Canada until 2008 at which time he resigned and launched KnightVision Marketing.
Walt Kolenda also known as AuctionWally is a licensed Massachusetts auctioneer, one of the all around nicest guys on the internet and a paragon of honest dealing. He likes to hang out on the cutting edge of internet marketing, for example he pioneered successful Twitter auctions. I am impressed that Boocoo.com saw a need to add a real auctioneer to their stable of expert consultants.
Opinion as a buyer
I really do very little auction style business, as a seller I am happy with fixed price. I am equally happy to bid on auctions. I would buy on Boocoo, in fact I have a bid awaiting the end of an auction.
Search as it is currently set up discourages browsing by category. If you know what you want it works just fine. There should be the ability to choose a category leave the box blank, click search and see everything. Instead you get a rather annoying message “You must enter a search string to get results.” Fail!
Opinion as a seller
I would like to see more payment options than PayPal. I think plenty of ex-eBay sellers will agree. Amazon payments, Google Checkout, there are lots of choices and choice is good.
Proposed insertion fees have been carefully calculated to be slightly under eBay. However the shorter durations do not compare well with eBay’s 30 day fixed price listings, and gentlemen, you do not (yet) have eBay’s page views or visitor count. Bonanzle charges no insertion fees and eCrater charges no fees at all. Final value fees at 6% are lower than eBay but 20% higher than Bonanzle’s highest tranche of 5% (on items selling for less than $10) and a whopping $50 higher than Bonanzle’s $10 on a $1000 item. As a mainly fixed price seller I would not be tempted. The fee schedule feels very old style eBay nickel and dime.
For example, if image hosting costs are a concern, allow self hosted images from sellers. 12c per picture is end product of chickens and I am not talking about eggs.
Personally I am dubious about paid category featured, both as a buyer and seller. I believe adjusting the main body of search results for paid position corrupts search and makes it less relevant. Bonanzle features Premiere Members items in the sidebar where buyers can choose to check them out, or not, I like that.
For those sellers who love auctions above all Boocoo may be the answer, time will tell. Take Wally up on his invitation and check it out. I will be interested to hear your opinion.
Y’all come back!
Related: Business Wire: eBay and Craigslist face new ….
Full Disclosure: I am an ex-eBay seller, I currently sell on Bonanzle and my website. I have sold on eCrater in the past. I am not being compensated in any way for writing this article.
Well, no.
1. It’s eBay with faded colors
2. Total nickle and dime. For a start-up with no track record it is very pricey. (Quite frankly, who the people are is not enough for me to give them my money)
3. I will not pay for images. I sell old collectibles and my number of image range per item is 4-10 images.
4. Real auctions end when no else wants to bid. As far as I can remember the only viable (at the time) auctions that did that realistically was the old Yahoo auctions.
5. As you stated, the search fails for browsing. I did put a . in the box and searched for Collectibles and did get a bunch of them. Whether all, I don’t know. I didn’t take the time to determine the default search results.
I’ll watch to see what they do, and to see if they make some basic adjustments, but I won’t be running to join them just yet.
Posted by TomH on June 18th, 2010.
I just want to apologize for my late thank you for the coffee mug. Its great, and its at my desk at work…though when I had the crud I did use your cough medicine you told me about. Thanks so much Henrietta!
Posted by Jay in Nebraska on June 18th, 2010.
I agree with what is being said above. I looked at the site when Auction Wally first sent out invitations and my concerns were also that listing fees and picture fees will limit the amount of sellers that will test it out.
There are so many sites available without listing fees to choose from and I would much rather pay when the item sell.
Per picture fees will leave out a lot of the experienced collectible sellers as they know the pictures sell the item, and to avoid nickels and dimes, some sellers will use less pictures so sales will be less likely.
I do see that it has potential, and the site does have a very different marketing idea.
So I will be keeping an eye on it.
Karen
Posted by Karen - MommysBazaar on June 18th, 2010.
The fees are the killer. I would love to support a new auction site but I have to be able to make some money.
I agree that auctions need some IF or the site fills up with garbage but I don’t need to be nickle and dimed with the extras.
Paid category featured is so eBay and nobody needs a search like theirs.
Seriously, why would I pay $10 a month for a Boocoo store when I can have one free at eCrater or Bonanzle.
“End product of chicken” = chickensh*t
Posted by Irene on June 18th, 2010.
Not ready for prime time.
Signed up last night, cant get in the front door today. Had to use Wallys sign in and then sign in again with my ID. 3 days to open? Better get busy.
No way to search by seller, wanted to see what Henrietta had listed, too bad.
Feels more Craigslist than eBay but Craigslist is free to use.
Posted by R Thomas on June 18th, 2010.
Yes, Boocoo shows potental… even have seen TV ads for it here in Alabama on a local station (Wake up Bonanzle!)
BUT:
It does have a Craiglist feel
The fees are not competitive with the fixed market spots, and with eBay offering multiple pictures for free in collectables, they many want to rethink the picture fees.
It is going to take time to build traffic and until that time, the fee structure will scare off many.
Watching and waiting on this one.
Posted by Renagade on June 18th, 2010.
It’s interesting and definitely has potential. I agree with the views stated, though. I’ve always hosted my own photos and as a collectibles seller, having a lot of photos is important. I wouldn’t be able to make any money if I had to pay for all of the photos.
I also agree with having multiple payment options. I try to avoid Paypal whenever possible. They definitely should add other options, including escrow, and perhaps do like Atomic Mall and offer direct credit card merchant integration.
I did like the local vs. national option. If I were in the market for a large item, I’d definitely be more interested in buying local. Will there be international, as well?
I can’t figure out what the listings with stars in them are all about, though. Is that a premium highlighted option?
I’ll be watching this site to see how things progress.
Posted by Tula on June 19th, 2010.
To be the old ebay you gotta do like the old ebay. And that means no fix price ANYTHING. Just a steady procession of items flowing down the stream, until they hit the waterfall where they disappear.
No one seems to understand this item churn and flow today. No startup, wannabee contender seems to have the coconuts to do it right.
All site builders cave to the temptation. It’s just too easy to slip a little buy it now button in there and make a quick buck. But in so doing, you kill creativity, initiative, and magic. If you want what ebay has, you gotta do what they did.
Posted by permacrisis on June 20th, 2010.
I am an ebay seller but decided to try listing with boocoo.com with Auctionwallys invitation. First I have had and still have some success with eBay but am always ready to try new ventures. I find the sites that are free do not bring sales to me. If there is more exposure with the newspaper links and it brings sales I will gladly pay the fees.
Posted by Judy on June 21st, 2010.