Why are people ignoring the YORF Auction site?

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sandman

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I have 7 auctions ending today on the YORF auction site.

https://www.rocketshoppe.com/cgi-bin/auction.pl

I just found out that someone recently (yesterday) purchased an identical item on Ebay for more money and with a higer shipping cost than one item in the aution that doesn't even have a bid yet.

Let's stop giving money to GreedBay!:mad:

Come on everybody!

Go, Bid, Buy!
 
i did not know the auction site existed - but i do now, so i guess i'll be checking it out.
one problem is that it does not have anything on the site about international shipping, so i guess that might put no USA rocketeers off

(do you ship internationally sandman?) what would it be for the multiply kit jackpot?
 
i did not know the auction site existed - but i do now, so i guess i'll be checking it out.
one problem is that it does not have anything on the site about international shipping, so i guess that might put no USA rocketeers off

(do you ship internationally sandman?) what would it be for the multiply kit jackpot?

The international shipping question just never came up before.

Let me check and I'll post.

The US postal Service web site is...well, hard to navigate.

I'll get back to you later.
 
Could it be that nobody was interested in what was/is up for auction at the time?
 
Superbowl Sunday?

I checked it out today for the first time...I admit it! Just haven't really taken the time until today but I will check in on it from here on out.

Thanks for bringing this subject up.
 
Superbowl Sunday?

I checked it out today for the first time...I admit it! Just haven't really taken the time until today but I will check in on it from here on out.

Thanks for bringing this subject up.

There's a football game today on TV?

HUH...go figure.;)
 
It's just something to watch while we eat all the pizza and snacks...
 
I hate to complain but a few reason why the auction site is not doing well.

First, I am registered with ye old forums, but had to register again with the auction site. I thought you register for one and you had access to both.

The auction site itself needs work.

Although everyone (including myself) hates ebay and how it is so much different from before, it does do a good job of running auctions.

Some changes required:
  • small pictures on lists
  • search function
  • ability to save searches
  • get emails when new items are listed according to searches
  • advertising or promotion to get listings and buyers
There are a lot of auction sites not doing well and many more that have closed.

YORF auctions has a way to go.
auction site count
 
Superbowl Sunday?

I checked it out today for the first time...I admit it! Just haven't really taken the time until today but I will check in on it from here on out.

Thanks for bringing this subject up.

Is that the one with the pointy ball?

Football's for those poor souls who couldn't make it in the band!!
 
Why are people ignoring the YORF auction site?

No money, man, no money. Literally.

I'd love to bid, I'd love to buy. I just can't.

Mark \\.
 
Well, maybe the fact that there is never anything there might be a factor. As of now, you are the only one with any auctions posted. I do not go to YORF because it is a waste of my time.

P.S. Mark II: Ever try Super Slurm--tastes kind of like Royal Slurm--but not as sweet.
 
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Quite frankley, the item's that you have up for auction are nothing to write home about. I do not go to YORF because it is a waste of my time.

You might think so but their are some rockets their that myself and some others have been looking for for a while. you say their nothing to write home about. though others might say the same for items you have bid on or sold.
 
I don't shop on the YORF auction site because there is nothing there I want to buy. Sorry. Unless you happen to have a 6g Pro38 casing, a 38/720 casing or a chute good for an 7 to 8lb rocket all for an absurdly low price (yeah right, like that's going to happen) I am not interested. The only thing I see there is 7 kits. I scratch build most everything nowadays.

There is no supply my demand is interested in. ;)

-DAllen
 
I don't shop on the YORF auction site because there is nothing there I want to buy. Sorry. Unless you happen to have a 6g Pro38 casing, a 38/720 casing or a chute good for an 7 to 8lb rocket all for an absurdly low price (yeah right, like that's going to happen) I am not interested. The only thing I see there is 7 kits. I scratch build most everything nowadays.

There is no supply my demand is interested in. ;)

-DAllen

Obviously the auction and the question does not apply to you.

Why did you even answer?:confused:
 
Obviously the auction and the question does not apply to you.

Why did you even answer?:confused:

You asked "Why are people ignoring the YORF auction site?"

DAllen answered -- nothing interests him. Seems that is as valid as "poor selection", or any other reason.

I look rarely, but occasionally, like when someone asks "Why isn't anyone using the auction site?" ...

My reason -- you have to click thru all the different categories to see what is available. With eBay, I see pictures of all things Rocketry related if I want, or I can narrow the search to find something specific -- like "Centuri catalogs".
 
I agree with sunward about the double registration thing. I have no patience.

There is the yard sale forum here but i don't look at it much 'cause i just don't have any money for rocket stuff these days. Plus I have a back log of kits, I find scratch building more fun, I have more motor cases than I can afford to fill. :( Did you at least post a link to your auctions there? Couldn't hurt.

And then there is your known history of involving poor grasshoppers in NSIs. :eek: :D :D
 
Obviously the auction and the question does not apply to you.

Why did you even answer?:confused:

I was answering the question in the subject line of the thread. I never look there because there is rarely anything I want to buy. This is probably why people bought those similar items off of Ebay instead of YORF. I never knew there were auctions on YORF until the creation of this thread. Guess I should've explained myself better.

Maybe it's time for someone to create an auction site to unite all rocketeers. If YORF and RP could be convinced to shut down their auctions to support the single site it might work. Volunteers could scour the pages of Ebay and email rocket sellers educating them on this one rocket auction site. All profits from the sales on that site could go to the NAR/TRA legal defense fund or something like that.

-DAllen
 
I was answering the question in the subject line of the thread. I never look there because there is rarely anything I want to buy. This is probably why people bought those similar items off of Ebay instead of YORF. I never knew there were auctions on YORF until the creation of this thread. Guess I should've explained myself better.

Maybe it's time for someone to create an auction site to unite all rocketeers. If YORF and RP could be convinced to shut down their auctions to support the single site it might work. Volunteers could scour the pages of Ebay and email rocket sellers educating them on this one rocket auction site. All profits from the sales on that site could go to the NAR/TRA legal defense fund or something like that.

-DAllen

The real beauty of the rocket auction sites (over Ebay) is that all the profits actually go to the seller...
 
Thanks to everyone that bid and won!

There are a few more now items, not all mine.
 
The real beauty of the rocket auction sites (over Ebay) is that all the profits actually go to the seller...

In theory, true. If a seller could get the same price anywhere else.

But, a seller is more likely for their item to go for a much higher price on eBay, due to the greater exposure and wider audience. Especially since all the truly rocketry oriented auction sites are fractured. I am not sure if all rocket auction sites could be combined, if it would still make up the difference.

So, the greater selling price is likely to be way more than the fees for eBay.

Reminded me of a “hobby auction” site, or maybe even Model Plane auction site I saw in the late 1990’s. Oh, it was a GREAT place to get the few things they had. If you were a BUYER that is. Since the traffic was so slow, so few potential buyers running across what was there, that there was very little bidding competition going on. What really makes things sell well is the bidding, among some highly interested bidders. On eBay that often happens. On other sites like the one I described, it was not happening, the sellers were not making nearly as much as they would have if they had sold on eBay instead. Because so few highly interested bidders went there, or at least usually no more than ONE highly interested bidder, and it takes at least two highly interested bidders to make good $. Now, it is possible for a big bidding war to happen on a less known site, but a lot more likely to happen on eBay.

It has been a few years since I auctioned some things off. When I did, I used eBay for some collector’s kits. Now, there was one thing I did auction on a rocket site, and not eBay. That was a rocket altimeter, on Rocketry Online. I figured the Altimeter was one thing that might be more visible to interested buyers, there, than the kits on eBay.

BTW - I take note that right now there is barely any auction activity on ROL. Just 5 items total, only 1 rocket, most categories empty. Way way less items there than there were a few years ago. So if I had an altimeter to auction today, I would not use ROL, their auction site is almost dead. And for that matter, RP’s auction site is nowhere nearly as active as ROL’s used to be, either. I think a lot of people who used to do auctions on rocket sites may have figured out what I described earlier, about greater exposure and more heated bidding on eBay, despite the fees.

- George Gassaway
 
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After all the good points already posted, I don't have much to add. Maybe this is saying the same thing in a different way, but part of the problem in getting an auction site moving is to reach a 'critical mass' or 'get over the hump' or whatever you want to call it. You have to have a certain activity level to convince new sellers and buyers that your auction site is the place to go, and that lots of (or most?) people interested in rocketry will see the items listed there. That's a tough reputation to achieve, and it is not likely to happen just because someone offers a new auction site.

Back in the olden days of early ebay there actually were a few real bargains, but there were also many sellers who were not into our hobby, did not know what they had for sale, could not write a decent description, and could not determine a reasonable starting bid. Oh, wait, that sounds like many of the sellers who are still on ebay today....

I used the old ROL auction site to sell a lot of old rocketry magazines, and I thought it worked well. There seemed to be a steady 'audience' of several appreciative bidders, and I was always satisfied that the old (scarce?) items I was selling would end up in the hands of someone who was a fellow rocketry hobbiest/addict/maniac. Since I wasn't going to pull in enough money from those auctions to buy a Porshe anyway, I usually used the auctions to weed out who wanted the magazines the worst and then marked down the price of the actual sale. ROL didn't have the exposure that ebay did but that was OK.

ROL went down, and then came back in a slightly different form. While it was gone, a lot of the ROL auction activity just dried up. Plus, when the auctions did come back, you had to log in twice to use them (sound familiar?). For me, the extra log-in was just enough of an annoyance that I mostly quit looking, selling, or buying there. Yeah, I guess I'm lazy, but I just didn't like the change on the new auction. Funny, but after you get used to having things one way, it doesn't take much to put you off.

If we want to have a really good rocketry-related auction site today, it probably does not help that there are several of them (other than ebay) splitting up everyone's attention. OTOH, I am not holding my breath until we all get together on only one 'big' auction site. I expect that someday ebay will collapse after p1$$1ng off the customers one time too many, but I am not holding my breath for that one either.

To the dedicated guys that have made an attempt to provide rocketry auction sites, I say: Thank You! for your time and work. Myself, I simply don't have any items to try to sell right now so I don't use these sites.
 
I would be willing to guess one [auction] would do well here, due to the high traffic.

Rather than start yet another auction and divide the rocketry community's sales still more, I wondered if Troy would be willing to provide a direct link from here to YORF (if YORF is okay with that as well).
 
Rather than start yet another auction and divide the rocketry community's sales still more, I wondered if Troy would be willing to provide a direct link from here to YORF (if YORF is okay with that as well).

That makes a lot of sense!

Unless Troy wants to go to all the trouble of starting his own auction site.

It's not like he has a free time.:D
 
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