More auctions....

Well, with about 75 auctions already going, IAW decided to list almost 100 more auctions 4 days later. Why? I have no idea. A bad decision for alot of reasons. I have, for the past 20 months, tried to share eBay best practices with IAW. But they never listen.

IAW NEVER had a consistent eBay strategy, something you need for long term success. And while they have so much stuff, they probably care more about just getting rid of it, than maximizing their sales, you would think it is a pretty simple thing to start auctions the same day, every week. Here are a couple reasons why IAW needs to have a consistent strategy:

1) The day you get the highest price on your items is for auctions that end on Sunday. No question, this is a basic axiom of eBay. Everyone knows this. (Monday is second). Now, I don't care if it is Thursday, but IAW should if they are smart business people.

2) There are a loyal group of collectors who want to be able to plan their finances. IAW's lack of a strategy ignores these collectors. We all have limited budgets, whether that is $ 100 a week or $ 10,000 a week. Many collectors work on a two week payroll.

3) Having a consistant start and end date allows people to plan their auction bidding if they don't use a snipe program. How many times has something ended you were going to bid on because you forgot when it ended?

4) Consistency is a corporate value that people respect. It shows that you know what you are doing and are disciplined. Now by this time, we have all formed our opinions of IAW, good and bad. And I will tell you that many of us had negative impressions of IAW based on an inconsistent eBay stragey early on (and the bad customer service early on didn't help either). Do you know consistency is McDonald's main corporate value? They want anyone to be able to walk into ANY McDonald's anywhere in the world and your burger will taste exactly the same in Osaka as it does in Demoines!

Finally, most big sellers use an auction management tool like Vendio to manage their business. It allows easy automation of these tasks and allows consistency. I have preached this to Dom for almost 2 years and even offered our service free and nothing. So, you get the picture. I understand that IAW has reduced their staff and thus there is an increased burden on Colin and Brian, (another reason to have an auction management system). Those guys work hard, but this is something EASY that takes no time. I know I am shouting at the wind.

Oh well. I still l ove seeing the auctions each week and am thankful for what we get.

Alec