Storage Battles Raising Buyer's Premium To 15%

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. 

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?

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.

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.

 

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?”

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.