Right now, Light.Fish provides a fixed-price storefront similar to Get Gills. Auction-style listings offer a dynamic selling option that has advantages compared to buy-it-now including:
Benefits for buyers:
-Opportunities for bargains
-More unique lots and rare fish
-Frequent new auctions
-Excitement during highly competitive auctions
Benefits for sellers:
-Eliminates pricing guesswork – Buy-it-now price too high = no sales. Price too low = lost revenue
-Guaranteed sale on a specific date – Easier to plan shipping and manage tank space
-Competition among buyers drives up final selling prices, especially for rare fish
-Dynamic pricing for rare fish or one-of-a-kind lots – These are typically overvalued or undervalued on fixed price listings
Benefits for Light.Fish
-Encourages buyers to visit regularly to browse new auctions
-Auctions are time-sensitive and competitive – lots of user engagement
-Puts Light.Fish in a position to take over Aquabid’s niche and take some traffic from Ebay
Great suggestions! I have some BIG features scheduled to go out over the next few months and auctions are definitely on my radar.
I am curious, as a seller, if you set a minimum reserve price on an auction, would you incorporate the shipping cost into the reserve, or would the shipping cost be an additional cost to the customer once the auction concludes?
Different sellers each have their own preferences. On Aquabid, I have seen every combination of free shipping, fixed shipping cost, variable shipping cost, and reserve/no reserve. I personally list auctions with free shipping, no reserve, and $1 starting bids to get featured on Aquabid’s $1 auction page.
Aquabid has colored icons on auctions that indicate whether there is/isn’t a reserve and if the reserve has/hasn’t been met yet. This is so bidders aren’t surprised by a reserve after the auction ends.
Ebay displays shipping cost next to the bid amount when bidding. It looks like this: