Storage Auctions
Online Storage Auctions => Online Storage Auctions => Topic started by: Travis on September 11, 2014, 07:01:48 PM
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Has anyone heard anything anything about Storage Battles raising their buyer's premium to 15%? I just got an email which explained that unless you subscribe to Storage Treasures' paid storage auction listings service, you'll have to pay a 15% buyer's premium.
What do you think about this? Is a 15% buyer's premium reasonable?
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They way I understood it auctions on storage Treasures have the 15% fee and has nothing to do with auctions on storage battles.
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They way I understood it auctions on storage Treasures have the 15% fee and has nothing to do with auctions on storage battles.
Storage Battles is closing down. They will be operating under the Storage Treasures name beginning in December 2014. Apparently, the current buyer's fee on Storage Treasures will remain in effect.
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Here is the entire text of the email I received:
"Storage Battles Announces Merger Details
Many of you may be aware that we've been planning a merger with storage auction community, Storage Treasures but now we're ready to bring you more details on this exciting news!
Over the next three months, we'll be moving out auction information and our subscribers over to Storage Treasures. While we make the switch, Storage Battles will remain up and running, but beginning in December, you'll be able to visit one site for both online and local storage auctions at StorageTreasures.com!
What Does the Merger Mean to You?
You'll have the chance to interact with an even larger community base than ever before in order to share your stories, find buyers, and appraise your items on the site.
You'll have access to Storage Treasures tools that will help you improve your business, such as the Treasure Chest! The Treasure Chest is a resource that allows you to sell, appraise, and share items with the Storage Treasures community of over thousands.
You'll automatically have access to a FREE Storage Treasures account an 10 local listings a month.
PRO Membership
Want even more account information? Become a Storage Treasures PRO Member now!
When you become a PRO Member, you'll have access to an unlimited number of auction listings each month!
On top of that, Storage Treasures Subscribers pay just 10% on Buyer's Premiums for Online Storage Auctions (http://onlinestorageauctions.com/forum/online-storage-auctions/), offering them a savings of 33% on average over non-subscribers who pay a 15% Buyer's Premium for each online auction that they win.
Monthly subscriptions are $10 a month, and offer a 50% savings on the purchase of the PRO Training Series. That's $139 savings!
Yearly subscribers receive the Pro Training series at no cose with their $100 subscription. That's a value of $300, completely free!
The Pro Training series is a complete training program to help you succeed as a reseller or picker while getting expert advice from the Pro's.
For a limited time, we're offering Storage Battles members their first month at the reduced price of only $1! Don't miss out on your chance to save money on your Membership and the Pro Training video series!
Become a PRO Member Now! "
Anything to make a another buck off of the buyers. I won't be buying anymore online from them.
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IT's like anything else, start with a good thing... and then they want to gouge you later on... People will be forced to transfer over and to pay their 10$ a month.. Maybe though, just maybe you will be able to make comments about storage facilities that are not on the up and up to people that might be buying them (I doubt this) and maybe you can contact other buyers by their bidders name/number... Sometimes I see one item I want but don't want to buy the whole unit...
If they do this it might be worth while to pay the 10$ a month. I hope the auction site is a tad faster and can handle the workload too!!
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If they do this it might be worth while to pay the 10$ a month.
It might be worth the $10 per month if the auction information was comprehensive, but it's not. They aggregate most of their auction information from other sites, but there is no way to aggregate it all since a lot of newspapers and storage companies don't publish their auctions online.
Maybe though, just maybe you will be able to make comments about storage facilities that are not on the up and up to people that might be buying them (I doubt this) and maybe you can contact other buyers by their bidders name/number... Sometimes I see one item I want but don't want to buy the whole unit...
Just for the record, OnlineStorageAuctions.com has a feedback system and an anonymous internal messaging system which allows you to contact the seller or other bidders.
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On top of that, Storage Treasures Subscribers pay just 10% on Buyer's Premiums for Online Storage Auctions, offering them a savings of 33% on average over non-subscribers who pay a 15% Buyer's Premium for each online auction that they win.
So in other words, they're raising the price and extorting you into buying something you don't want in order to get a discount (which actually comes out to regular price.)
My grocery store does that. They'll offer a $1 off in-store coupon for an item, make you buy another item to get the discount and then raise price of the original item to make up for it.
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So what is left to do... We just skip lunch one day and pay the piper.. Besides we are all in this for fun! Right??
I would love to contact some of the bidders on Storagebattles.com
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So what is left to do... We just skip lunch one day and pay the piper..
$500 unit X 15% = $75. Hell, that's lunch for a week.
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Let's think about this logically..
A) They are trying to milk an extra $120 a year from their member base..
B) Some members will just use the same account to bid on stuff, instead of separate.
C) We don't know what type of deals they might of worked out with the facilities.. Because higher premium translate into lower bids, so perhaps they charge 15% to the buyer, but the facility gets Price + 5% (No one really knows what kind of incentives are being offered to the facilities, if any) Or pehaps it' on a scale, or just straight up.
D) StorageTreasues don't have the ability to execute successfully, StorageBattles did, hence is whey they bought them out, before it was to late. Hopefully, they left SB staff in place and eliminated the non-executing ST Staff.
E) Their are some synergies savings
In theory they should just eliminate "Premiums" and just take a cut of the final sale (Much like ebay does)
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C) We don't know what type of deals they might of worked out with the facilities.. Because higher premium translate into lower bids, so perhaps they charge 15% to the buyer, but the facility gets Price + 5% (No one really knows what kind of incentives are being offered to the facilities, if any) Or pehaps it' on a scale, or just straight up.
That wouldn't matter because storage facilities are actually (unknowingly) paying the buyers premium. Buyers reduce their bids to compensate for the buyer's premium resulting in lower bids and a lower recovery rate for the facility.
D) StorageTreasues don't have the ability to execute successfully, StorageBattles did, hence is whey they bought them out, before it was to late. Hopefully, they left SB staff in place and eliminated the non-executing ST Staff.
Actually, Storage Battles bought out Storage Treasures. It was a strategic move to eliminate a competitor. Storage Battles is shutting down and reorganizing under the Storage Treasures name. Lance & his staff are gone and Storage Battles' staff has taken over the site. Hence, why productivity at Storage Treasures has come to a standstill.
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That wouldn't matter because storage facilities are actually (unknowingly) paying the buyers premium. Buyers reduce their bids to compensate for the buyer's premium resulting in lower bids and a lower recovery rate for the facility.
I really don't think facilities are stupid, I'm sure they know what's going on..
Actually, Storage Battles bought out Storage Treasures. It was a strategic move to eliminate a competitor. Storage Battles is shutting down and reorganizing under the Storage Treasures name. Lance & his staff are gone and Storage Battles' staff has taken over the site. Hence, why productivity at Storage Treasures has come to a standstill.
That makes more since, because ST couldn't execute - but they had brand recognition from the TV Series which gave their property a little value. That's the first thing I would of done is eliminate the entire ST Staff within a year (Worthless people normally stay worthless)
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I really don't think facilities are stupid, I'm sure they know what's going on..
I didn't say they were stupid; however, a lot of them assume that they're only paying a 10% fee to sell. Most don't realize that buyers are reducing their bids to compensate for the buyer's premium. As the industry grows, more storage operators will become aware of the high fees Storage Battles charges. Storage Battles is getting away with it now, but eventually the industry will get tired of it and look for cost effective alternatives (like us.) ;D
That makes more since, because ST couldn't execute - but they had brand recognition from the TV Series which gave their property a little value. That's the first thing I would of done is eliminate the entire ST Staff within a year (Worthless people normally stay worthless)
Most of you are aware of my distaste for Storage Treasures. That being said, this might come as a shock. Storage Treasures built an incredibly sophisticated site and they did an excellent job with SEO and marketing. There isn't much I would do differently if I was building a site from scratch and had an unlimited budget. Of course, a lot of it had to do with them being at the right place at the right time and having the capital to scale quickly. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Storage Treasures' former staff did an excellent job building the site. It's unfortunate that it's now in the hands it's in. I can only compare it to putting a chimp in control of a jet fighter.
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ST Web site stinks.. is hard to use... Hope they build on the storage battles site...
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ST Web site stinks.. is hard to use... Hope they build on the storage battles site...
I was just thinking the same thing. They've tried to do so much that the site has become overwhelming and complicated to use. From my understanding, they won't be using the Storage Battles name any longer. Jim paid for a survey which indicated that females felt the name Storage Battles had violent connotations. Not only that, Storage Battles doesn't rank well in the search results.
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I didn't say they were stupid; however, a lot of them assume that they're only paying a 10% fee to sell. Most don't realize that buyers are reducing their bids to compensate for the buyer's premium. As the industry grows, more storage operators will become aware of the high fees Storage Battles charges. Storage Battles is getting away with it now, but eventually the industry will get tired of it and look for cost effective alternatives (like us.) ;D
Why wait? Make some phone calls and talk to those facilities, you know who they are. Become a big enough pain, then maybe they will buy out this site :/
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Why wait? Make some phone calls and talk to those facilities, you know who they are. Become a big enough pain, then maybe they will buy out this site :/
The site isn't for sale; however, I am in negotiations with a potential financial partner. We're both optimistic and we've covered the major concerns, but we still have some smaller issues to discuss before a contract is drawn up. God willing, if the deal goes through, I'll be able to hire a full-time sales team to market the site to storage operators, among other things.
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Everyone has a price... you're no different.
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Everyone has a price... you're no different.
I can't argue with that, but it would have to be a ridiculous number. I've received good buyout offers, but this niche is in its infancy and if it continues on the same track, online storage auctions will be a 100M industry within a decade. Selling now would be moronic. In life, you might only get one shot to make something really big happen. For me, this is it, and I plan on seeing it through until it has reached its full potential.
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IT's like anything else, start with a good thing... and then they want to gouge you later on... People will be forced to transfer over and to pay their 10$ a month.. Maybe though, just maybe you will be able to make comments about storage facilities that are not on the up and up to people that might be buying them (I doubt this) and maybe you can contact other buyers by their bidders name/number... Sometimes I see one item I want but don't want to buy the whole unit...
If they do this it might be worth while to pay the 10$ a month. I hope the auction site is a tad faster and can handle the workload too!!
I emailed customer support and asked them to put that feature in. There are times when I want one or two items out of the unit and I want to be able to sell the balance to the next higher bidder. If they aren't interested then so be it but at least its an option.
They responded " No. Its illegal. You have to empty out the room in its entirety"
idiots.
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They responded " No. Its illegal. You have to empty out the room in its entirety"
idiots.
Why are they "idiots" for not wanting to break the law? :017:
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I emailed customer support and asked them to put that feature in. There are times when I want one or two items out of the unit and I want to be able to sell the balance to the next higher bidder. If they aren't interested then so be it but at least its an option.
They responded " No. Its illegal. You have to empty out the room in its entirety"
idiots.
You could always buy the unit, take what you want out and then resell it here. That way you never have to move the contents of the unit.
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Why are they "idiots" for not wanting to break the law? :017:
Because its not illegal.
To put a bidder history, with usernames and an internal contact feature that does not provide any real name or contact information is just a useful update
Ex:
$300 - auctionguy
$290 - jim2512
$280 - auction3429
..etc.
I win at 300 and each other name is a link that I can click and talk to the other bidders.
If i'm at a real auction i hear what everyone bids and can talk to them about selling. If I'm on ebay I can see what other people bid and contact them ..etc.
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You could always buy the unit, take what you want out and then resell it here. That way you never have to move the contents of the unit.
Thats exactly the point ... you can do that, which would make them more money which is why they don't mind that work around.
Just telling me illegal when its clearly not is just a cop out of a person who doesn't know what they are talking about.
I'm fine if they just told me to mind my business or no, its too much work but to tell me its illegal, when its clearly not, is just plain ridiculous.
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I win at 300 and each other name is a link that I can click and talk to the other bidders.
Now, that's a killer feature. Innovative and forward thinking. As long as you clean out the unit as required, any resale arrangements facilitated through the site, after the fact, must be 100% legal - the transaction's long over at that point. Perhaps SB/ST misconstrued how you wrote the question.
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they should be offering a 5% buyers fee so online auctions actually take off and are worth it. by raising the price they are pricing themselves out of the market if theyre not careful. also i dont know if they charge on the sellers end but if they don't they should start doing that seeing as theyre the only game out there right now. And it saves the facilities the charge of an auctioneer. by offering no buyers premium(as most on site auctions do) or a very small one they will get more customers. this should not be about making money for them right now, it should be about getting a great market share quickly before someone else comes in and does it better(which would not be hard to do).
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Now, that's a killer feature. Innovative and forward thinking. As long as you clean out the unit as required, any resale arrangements facilitated through the site, after the fact, must be 100% legal - the transaction's long over at that point. Perhaps SB/ST misconstrued how you wrote the question.
Thats exactly how I wrote it. I didn't expect a parade but I did expect a response that wasn't a blatant misrepresentation of the industry.
There are already barriers for users so these sites need to be quick to adapt to new features. Otherwise they will be outpaced by scalable sites offering features that are geared towards the buyer/seller ... which in this industry is the same person.
I've been playing around on the online auctions for a couple of months now and see a bunch of areas where improvements are needed. Its obviously going to take time for the bugs to be worked but I'm hopeful that it will all eventually fall into place.
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Also ebid, if you are ebidstorageauctions.com my first suggestion to you would be to remove the registration required to see auctions.
I'm not sure if you are up or running yet but people want to see the rooms and that the site is legit before they invest the time to create a profile and provide their contact info to 3rd party.
If the rooms are good and plentiful you'll have sign ups.
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also i dont know if they charge on the sellers end but if they don't they should start doing that seeing as theyre the only game out there right now.
They charge a 10% premium to the seller, a $20 cancellation fee per unit and now a 15% fee to the buyer. So, essentially, the seller is paying 25% commission on every unit sold in addition to an average of $60 in cancellation fees every month.
it should be about getting a great market share quickly before someone else comes in and does it better(which would not be hard to do).
They were the first movers in this market and they have brand recognition. They can get away with price gouging for a little longer. I agree though, someone could build a better mousetrap (we did ;D), but there is a lot more to this than just building a better site. Anyone entering this niche at this point better have some deep pockets because of the enormous overhead this niche requires for marketing, development and personnel. A startup would need to invest at least 300K a year for the first few years to even stand a chance.
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I'm also convinced that some of the Storage providers BID up units.. I had one that went for 430$ or so, I bid (ran it up really) to 350 and didn't want it dropped on me. Some jerk ran up to 430 and won it, then didn't pay.. The auction site emailed me asking if I wanted it for my bid of 350.. Maybe a buyers feedback system could help. At least know they are not just bidding for the first time or something, have at least paid for a unit or two. Now if they would have wiped out all his bids I would have had the unit for maybe 100$. I would have been okay at the 350 mark except I felt I was being played.. Be nice to sorta see who you are up against if they are ligit or what.
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Hello All:
I have been reading all of your postings on our new program and the combining of our 2 sites, StorageBattles and StorageTreasures. I truly respect all of your thoughts and comments. I think that there might be some misunderstandings on the benefits of the new program. Hopefully, Travis will allow me to explain the costs and additional benefits that we are trying to offer. The last thing we want is to alienate our buyers, who are very important to us and make us successful. We are now performing over 5000 auctions a month, and want to keep our buyers happy.
The combination of both sites will allow buyers to utilize online auctions as well as our onsite auctions listings. To facilitate this very labor intensive exercise, we have hired 4 people to review onsite listings across the country and Canada and consolidate them into one list for the Treasure Hunter, hopefully saving them time and money. The Basic plan will still be free to see a limited amount of onsite auctions and unlimited online auctions, but the premium for online auctions will unfortunatly increase to 15%. We are not trying to gorge our clients, and hence have offered a Pro Plan which has many new and exciting benefits that will out weigh the costs of the program.
For a better savings and many more benefits there is the Pro plan for only $10/month, or about the cost of a cup of coffee. Some of the benefits are:
1. Reduced buyers premium of 10%. (If you buy $200 worth of online auctions per month this savings pays for your membership)
2. Unlimited views of onsite auctions anywhere in the United States and Canada
3. Unlimited views of online auctions anywhere in the United States and Canada
4. Unlimited postings in our new Treasure Chest option, your own online store! This will allow you to trade, buy, sell, and appraise items that you have won in a storage unit or have from other purchase avenues to our over 800,000 registered buyers. (I think this is what Auctionguy was talking about in his post)
5. 20 free pictures per posting for your Treasure Chest online store in order to help you dispose of or purchase items
6. A 50% to 100% discount on our Storage Wars Pro Training Video and EBook series (up to a $297 savings)
7. Free auctions and sales emails and alerts to all of our Members
As you can see, there are many benefits to becoming part of our Membership community for only $10/month. What we are trying to do is create a social media community that will allow everybody to be even more productive and profitable.
I wish everybody the best in their auctions purchases and welcome you to at least try the new services for only $1.00. When you register, just type in Promo code ONEDOLLAR and see if it's worth it. I'd love to hear your feedback as we are always striving to make our site better.
Respectfully,
Jim Grant
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online auctions are a godsend for me. because of the crapp pictures i just got 2 units for $400 total. the washer and dryer in the $120 unit will pay for the whole thing and tons of other great stuff. (could see the washer dryer from the door but not in the pictures).
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Storagetreasures was a bad investment, you bought complete trash. Just shut that site down lay off all those idiots and focus on your real business storagebattles. Also fix the ****ty interface on it.
1) it really sucks that you cant click on an auction and have it pop up in a new tab.
2) stop displaying auctions in a random order, its annoying.
3) get rid of the buyers premium and just charge the facility 10% of the sales price, instead of the member.
4) storing credit card information is just stupid to begin with. Major companies get hacked, what makes you think you are safe you have a fraction of the resources.
Hopefully, travis will be kind to leave this measage up too, he normally deletes all my cranky replies.
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Hopefully, travis will be kind to leave this measage up too, he normally deletes all my cranky replies.
My delete button isn't working today. ;)
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Constructive Criticism - I dislike Storage Battles site - mostly.. I find Storage Treasures at best distracting.. I'm looking for online auctions mostly..
o Keep up with the email alerts you send out about the auctions ending this week I like that..
o Give me some way of searching for unit by when they end, where they are located, Maybe even set watches for certain facilities.
o When an Auction is canceled maybe, just maybe have a way I can see which one it was. Would avoid me haveing to keep notes.
o Use some sort of ranking system for facilities, users, I'm not even sure how this will work, I'd like to see some way of knowing if the facility has had a lot of SET UP or BAD units, and if they buyer is actually paying for their units or just driving bids up and not paying for units he wins.
o Maybe since you are an auction site to begin with, I wind up with a lot of small items, could something be hosted to do auctions like ebay, where buyers could pick up locally. something like maxanet.com offers..
o Maybe a mobile app, It is hard to be around when auctions close and using the website via the phone can be hard.
Thanks for taking the time to consider a few changes.
George
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Storagetreasures was a bad investment, you bought complete trash. Just shut that site down lay off all those idiots and focus on your real business storagebattles. Also fix the ****ty interface on it.
Stop holding back and tell us what you really think. :039:
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I don't like the idea of dumping the Storage Battles name in favor of Storage Treasures. I have only bought once from Storage Battles but was considering it for future. I most likely will not buy now that it is going to be Storage Treasures. I never did like their site, their membership and pro training series just seemed like any other program, ie "how to make it big in real estate" or any other number of get rich quick schemes where the only person making money is the one selling the program. The forum on Storage Treasures is not very active at all and the site just seemed like it was trying to ride the coat-tails of the show's popularity instead of providing a real useful service. I am guessing as well that most everything in the pro training series can be learned by just going out and buying units. Buy with logic and what you can see and leave emotion out of it and chances are you will do fine. After buying and selling a few units and coming to free forums like this one, you already have or can get all the information you need for free. Just my 2 cents.
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I am guessing as well that most everything in the pro training series can be learned by just going out and buying units. Buy with logic and what you can see and leave emotion out of it and chances are you will do fine. After buying and selling a few units and coming to free forums like this one, you already have or can get all the information you need for free. Just my 2 cents.
It think you hit the nail on the head. This isn't a difficult business to learn as long as you have common sense. Plus, I think the storage auction reality shows have taught the public the basics. Notice how rare it is that someone asks a question in the Newbie Center (http://onlinestorageauctions.com/forum/noobie-center/) these days.
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I don't like the idea of dumping the Storage Battles name in favor of Storage Treasures.
Especially since it was "Storage Battles" that was used on the Simpson's Episode. :)
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I don't like the idea of dumping the Storage Battles name in favor of Storage Treasures.
Jim, if you recall, I expressed my concerns about this. (1) You're losing your brand recognition. (2) There will be integration issues, lost customers, etc. I think Storage Treasures is going to turn a lot of people off because it's getting overly complicated. People (especially storage unit buyers) want this:
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Especially since it was "Storage Battles" that was used on the Simpson's Episode. :)
Pretty sure they just picked a name which was synonymous with Storage Wars. Had they of known that the name was associated with 2 businesses, they probably would have avoided using it. There's a game which uses the name Storage Battles as well.
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I totally love simple... Attention deficit Disorder kicks in and I get lost when I log in.. Except for on here I have never heard of ST..
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I think Storage Treasures is going to turn a lot of people off because it's getting overly complicated.
It looks like Storage Treasures' users agree. I just came across the following comments on their own site:
"well my first thought is this sucks to navigate. Doesnt show where the unit facility is for online bidding so who knows where it is. Trying to find todays auctions and i cant so im done. It used to be easy to find auctions on this site but not any more."
"Ya, I agree with Harvey Pj, the site is now extremely difficult to use. I use to be able to click on the province of my choice and it would display all of the auctions. Now, what I find is, I end up at the online auction portion of the website and can't find the auction listings for my area. Is this just an online auction site now? Surely we have auctions up in Canada, but if so, how the heck do I find them now?"
"i have not been on here for a while now im limited to how many auctions i can view... are you serious?"
"I'm in TX and I don't see any for me here- guess wasted my time & money on this one. Hopefully maybe the Treasure Chest will pay off is noting else. Guess I'll get some stuff listed this week. Navigating this site is not a easy task... Ughhhh"
"I am brand new and cant figure it out at all"
"how do i cancel monthly payments for the PRO bidding?"
"I agree with others, you're trying to tell me all the auctions, all over the world has ended, not buying it. See ya later"
"Site is very difficult to use. Doesn't have name or location of storage units. Need to fix this site"
Jim, your user base is sending you a message. That's the price a business pays for putting quantity before quality.
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Travis:
I agree the new site is more difficult than the old one, but we are moving from a Yuga to a BMW. Many more options and benefits. It's like getting a new cel phone, it will take a few weeks to get the hang of using it. But when you do, you will wonder how you ever lived without it and never want to go back.
As for the posts, most of them were very old, before we took over the StorageTreasure's site, and tried to simplify it. I think in time, people will like it. Hopefully, but what do I know. Feedback from sites like this tell me more.
As for George's suggestions last week, most were in development currently, but one was not which we have added to our development list. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Travis:
I agree the new site is more difficult than the old one, but we are moving from a Yuga to a BMW. Many more options and benefits. It's like getting a new cel phone, it will take a few weeks to get the hang of using it. But when you do, you will wonder how you ever lived without it and never want to go back.
As for the posts, most of them were very old, before we took over the StorageTreasure's site, and tried to simplify it. I think in time, people will like it. Hopefully, but what do I know. Feedback from sites like this tell me more.
As for George's suggestions last week, most were in development currently, but one was not which we have added to our development list. Thanks for the suggestion.
Are you sure you're the person that owns Storagebattles? Cause you sound like a complete idiot. I just find it hard to believe a person that built a decent company, is so out of touch. Who's feeding you that information, it's not the customer and why are you listening to them.
1) Does Amazon, Ebay, or any other marketplace charge the "BUYER" a "FEE" to "BUY"? They all charge the "SELLER", there is a reason for that, do you think you're smarter then those companies?
2) You overpaid for StorageTreasures, people already know the current goto place for auctions is "StorageBattles.com" You already built up brand recognition. Don't be silly and change that - All the facilities already know what to put in the Public Notices.
3) Retire the StorageTreasures site and gimmicks - Cut your losses, it didn't work for them, that's why they were eager to sell.
4) Just make some minor enhancements to "Storage Battles" - Stop using Javascript to re-redirect the post back and allow users to right click on a link and select "Open in new tab" (Should take any coder, like 10 mins)
5) Stop randomizing the order of the auctions - It makes me lose track of what auctions I seen and didn't see. This way I don't miss something I didn't see. (Should take any coder, like 10 mins)
6) That's it, that's all you need to do, 20 minutes of work, everything else is simple and easy. Then all you need to do is get more facilities signed up and grow that business and get 10% from the facilities. All you do is invoice them once a month and collect a check.
7) You then only need a website admin, a billing person, a developer, and a sales team. Everything else just get rid of.
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I agree the new site is more difficult than the old one, but we are moving from a Yuga to a BMW.
That's funny. My first car was a Yugo. Traded $150 and a home stereo receiver for it. Drove it for a couple years and put 40K miles on it before it croaked. Most people don't know this, but Yugos make good off-road vehicles. When you get stuck in the mud, you and a buddy just lift one end of the car and move it.
I've never been much of a BMW guy. I prefer Toyotas, Hondas & Acuras; simple, reliable vehicles that don't break down.
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This sure is an interesting thread. I like Travis's Easy Button analogy. What we are building at ebidstorageauctions.com is much more an Easy Button than a BMW. It will be interesting to see how well received it is among buyers. I do think some of these comments represent some really good insight into the online storage auction space. But doesn't Jim deserve some respect for growing the market leader and pioneering the online storage auction trend? He wouldn't be doing 5000 auctions a month if he was the Kramer of OSA's, would he?
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This sure is an interesting thread. I like Travis's Easy Button analogy. What we are building at ebidstorageauctions.com is much more an Easy Button than a BMW. It will be interesting to see how well received it is among buyers. I do think some of these comments represent some really good insight into the online storage auction space. But doesn't Jim deserve some respect for growing the market leader and pioneering the online storage auction trend? He wouldn't be doing 5000 auctions a month if he was the Kramer of OSA's, would he?
You know me, always full of analogies. ;) Just for the record though, Jim didn't pioneer online storage auctions, sites have been around for 10+ years, they just never gained traction. Kevin Gorzny, who founded Sealed Online Bids, was the first to develop a following. Jim bought Kevin out. Jim bought Storage Treasures out. Jim's money has allowed him to scale quickly; however, other players with deep pockets want in and the playing field is about to be leveled.
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This sure is an interesting thread. I like Travis's Easy Button analogy. What we are building at ebidstorageauctions.com is much more an Easy Button than a BMW. It will be interesting to see how well received it is among buyers. I do think some of these comments represent some really good insight into the online storage auction space. But doesn't Jim deserve some respect for growing the market leader and pioneering the online storage auction trend? He wouldn't be doing 5000 auctions a month if he was the Kramer of OSA's, would he?
I like the look of your site, but here are my suggestions..
1) Making users sign up to see auctions is stupid - Notice how I didn't sign up?
2) Remove the buyers premium, read my comment to JIM, it's retarded. You might think in your head, it's a way to dope to buyer out of more money, but it's not.
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You know me, always full of analogies. ;) Just for the record though, Jim didn't pioneer online storage auctions, sites have been around for 10+ years, they just never gained traction. Kevin Gorzny, who founded Sealed Online Bids, was the first to develop a following. Jim bought Kevin out. Jim bought Storage Treasures out. Jim's money has allowed him to scale quickly; however, other players with deep pockets want in and the playing field is about to be leveled.
And what makes you think the other players who want in, won't just buy out JIM? If they buy him out, how does that level the playing field?
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And what makes you think the other players who want in, won't just buy out JIM,
From what I hear, that's already happened. I believe a storage company now has a piece of the pie.
If they buy him out, how does that level the playing field?
It wouldn't. But if an investor were to buy into us, it would.
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Travis's strategy confused me some. also. I see the real value of this site is in the discussions that take place on these forums, and the incredible breadth of topics discussed here. And with the dominance in google for "Online Storage Auctions", why not take down the Ad Choices ads, pivot to accept direct advertising from the growing list of sites offering online storage auctions, allow us to flagrantly promote our sites here, and make this the "#1 Community Resource for Storage Auction Enthusiasts" or some such. The unique value proposition here is the community and discussions, not the auctions themselves.
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Travis's strategy confused me some. also. I see the real value of this site is in the discussions that take place on these forums, and the incredible breadth of topics discussed here. And with the dominance in google for "Online Storage Auctions", why not take down the Ad Choices ads, pivot to accept direct advertising from the growing list of sites offering online storage auctions, allow us to flagrantly promote our sites here, and make this the "#1 Community Resource for Storage Auction Enthusiasts" or some such. The unique value proposition here is the community and discussions, not the auctions themselves.
DING! DING! DING..
But unfortunately, as a community the value is limited. The real money is in charging the facilities a FEE to list auctions.
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Travis's strategy confused me some. also. I see the real value of this site is in the discussions that take place on these forums, and the incredible breadth of topics discussed here. And with the dominance in google for "Online Storage Auctions", why not take down the Ad Choices ads, pivot to accept direct advertising from the growing list of sites offering online storage auctions, allow us to flagrantly promote our sites here, and make this the "#1 Community Resource for Storage Auction Enthusiasts" or some such. The unique value proposition here is the community and discussions, not the auctions themselves.
I agree, and that would probably be the approach I would take if I wanted to settle for mediocrity. OSA is steadily growing and once we get a sales team in place to market the site to storage operators, more auctions will come. It's going to happen, it's just a matter of time.
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For every discount that a company gives, there is always a catch. There is always an objective at every campaign convert the free users to become PRO and even those who are PROs should opt for an annual subscription. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Campaigns are thought carefully in order to gain some profits from conversion and later on, have a bigger platform to launch more profitable campaigns. But the question is, Is it worth paying the premium?
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But the question is, “Is it worth paying the premium?”
Depends on how much the unit goes for. If the unit goes for $10 and you pay a $1.50 premium then most wouldn't think twice. If a unit goes for $5,000 and you have to pay $750 to a guy that just worked 3 minutes auctioning off the unit, then most would be pissed.