Bargainland Launches Bidtopia Auction Site

[xwpopper]

I thought this Google Ad was hilarious!

Bargainland Auctions
Largest online liquidator Now with our own auction site!
auctions.bargainland.net

Bargainland figured out how to beat the eBay feedback system, and setup their own auction site for themselves where they can delete some of their unwanted feedback. Theirs is 97% here. The interesting part is... the site is owned by Bargainland, but they won't even put their company name at the top?

It appears to have been up since July, which is about how long it takes for me to pick up on things

[bargainbloodhound]

Positive- their auction site appears to have more sales than most of the sites listed on PSU's chart.

Negative- their eBay feedback speaks for itself.

They've apparently left eBay completely...the fact that their departure occurred during the holiday shopping season makes me wonder whether eBay's new crackdown on the bottom 2% had anything to do with it.

=================

It looks like they plan to open the site to outside sellers.
http://forums.bargainland.net/viewtopic.php?t=337

Here's one happy auction user's comments:
http://forums.bargainland.net/viewtopic.php?t=453

[dimucci]

whether eBay's new crackdown on the bottom 2% had anything to do with it.

Positive Feedback 90.5%
27,076 negatives

Item as described 4.4
Communication 4.1
Shippping time 4.1
Shipping charges 3.8

1,175,375 total - 1,087,983 positive= 87,392 negatives and neutrals

[Kristijntje]

Auctionbytes has an article on Bargainland's new auction site:

As a liquidator on eBay, Paul St. James has made a living turning bad situations into money-making opportunities. Lost freight, products from derailed trains and truck rollovers, discontinued product lines and returned and distressed merchandise are the bane of manufacturers and retailers, but they represent inventory to St. James. So perhaps it's not surprising that when eBay began limiting his sales on the auction marketplace, he turned it into a new business venture.

Bargainland has racked up over one million positive feedback on eBay since 1999 and is one of eBay's best-known, if somewhat controversial, sellers. That's because Bargainland has one of the worst feedback ratings on eBay. At times, Bargainland's feedback rating has dipped below 90 percent, something almost unheard of in a venue where both buyers and sellers experience angst over a single negative feedback rating.

full article: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y207...bu0204/s03

[mandy]

Bargainland Auctions
Largest online liquidator Now with our own auction site!
auctions.bargainland.net

The auction site has been renamed Bidtopia (www.bidtopia.com)

Spoonfeeder auction management software now offers support for Bidtopia:
http://www.spoonfeeder.com/

---------------------------
In other B-land news, their TN warehouse was destroyed by a tornado:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m02/i07/s01

[mandy]

In other B-land news, their TN warehouse was destroyed by a tornado:
http://www.auctionbytes.c...m/cab/abn/y08/m02/i07/s01

One week later...the tornado damaged warehouse has been hit by a fire of unknown origins.

Almost a week since devastating storms brought tornados to the Midsouth, there's another big blow to an area badly damaged.

We're talking about an industrial park in Southaven just south of Stateline Road.  A warehouse housing a business called Bidtopia caught on fire Monday. Thick black smoke billowed for miles.

"It's a terrible thing for Southaven," said Daniel Grayson. "I've lived here all my life, never thought I'd see anything like this."

full article and video: http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=7857125

[mandy]

Microsoft has a case study on the launch of Bidtopia:

Bargainland launched its own auction site in less than a month. The company bought the source code for a dated, barely functional auction Web site and, using the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008 Professional Edition development system, rapidly modified the several-year-old application to begin supporting its business. Bargainland is now updating the site, called Bidtopia.com, to run on the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5. When that work is completed, the company will be able to scale out the site at will to support growing demand from dozens of other large eBay sellers that also want to sell on Bidtopia.com.

The project began immediately after Bargainland was asked to reduce its number of auctions for the second time. “We began by looking for a prebuilt auction Web site, but we couldn’t find one that was based on the .NET Framework,” says St. James. “We ended up choosing one with a UI that we felt would be intuitive for former eBay buyers. However, we still had a good deal of work ahead of us because the application was based on classic Active Server Pages (ASP) and DLLs, used a Microsoft Access™ database, and crashed with more than 10 simultaneous users.”...

full article: http://www.microsoft.com/industry/hospit...4000001488

[mandy]

Bidtopia average daily page views top 1 million and the site starts advertising for sellers:

FEES – Lower fees mean lower costs for your buyers

Bidtopia offers an affordable approach to billing that is simple and easy to use. Bidtopia has one single flat rate fee of 2.75% of final sales price for all sales completed.  There is a one time registration and setup fee (upon approval only) of $100, and there is a 25 cent fee for items that fail to sell. The FTS (fail to sell fee) prevents the Bidtopia exchange from being clogged up with unwanted or overpriced merchandise, and helps to insure a vibrant marketplace.


MEMBERSHIP – There is no such thing as a level playing field

Buyers and Sellers each have unique and specialized needs.  Each behaves differently, acts differently and should expect to be treated differently. Accordingly, Bidtopia has two types of account, BUYER and SELLER, with a different approval process for each.  Unlike most other sites, an unsupervised minor with a false name and free e-mail account is not instantly approved to start bidding or selling on the Bidtopia platform. BUYERS must prove they have the ability to carry out an online transaction as well as submit legitimate and verifiable identification credentials.  SELLERS have to complete an application process, conduct a personal phone interview, and show previous e-tail or auction experience.

full info page: http://www.bidtopia.com/why/

[sneakymagenta]

Bidtopia is the first to institute a revolutionary feedback system which avoids the "tit for tat" retaliation found on others auction sites. Feedback is automatically left for buyers the moment they pay, or do not pay, for an auction. This eliminates the fear that the Seller has the ability to retaliate against a negative comment left by a buyer.

Sneaky likes the bolded part.

[amy]

[quote author=sneakymagenta link=topic=17539.msg69292#msg69292 date=1208708542]

Bidtopia is the first to institute a revolutionary feedback system which avoids the "tit for tat" retaliation found on others auction sites. Feedback is automatically left for buyers the moment they pay, or do not pay, for an auction. This eliminates the fear that the Seller has the ability to retaliate against a negative comment left by a buyer.

Sneaky likes the bolded part.
[/quote]

If there's a way to reverse the feedback if the buyer does a chargeback, I like it.  If not...