Review of Bonanzle

[xwpopper]

I got an email from a friend to check out someone's profile on Bonanzle today. I didn't see why, until I clicked the Myspace profile link.
An example of what not to include in your profile if you are running a business:
http://www.bonanzle.com/users/31733/profile
And in case it is removed by this seller, a link to the Myspace page that is on the profile:
http://www.myspace.com/iheartgaia

I've never seen a business "About Us" page that links to such obscenity. I didn't know that even the most complacent hobby seller would have a Myspace page like that linked to their Bonanzle booth for every potential buyer to view. I guess that's just how savvy some sellers on Bonanzle are.

[mandy]

Gang warefare in the comment trenches: AtomicMall cheerleaders vs Bonanzle cheerleaders. :

For the Bonanzle supporters, I am still doing my own research and testing on Bonanzle as it wouldnt be fair to comment on it in depth while I still havent received any sales, traffic or even exposure on Google or any other search engine after 2 weeks.

While I do not have the "entire" Bonanzle experience down just yet I do suggest that people go do their own research by starting with www.quantcast.com and type in Bonanzle.com to see what those statistics show you. What it shows me is that 4 percent of the unique vistors to the site make up 74 percent of the total traffic. These numbers support the comments about questionable listing counts, membership numbers and unique traffic to the the site. Since Bonanzle will not allow Quantcast measure the site directly, which also makes people wonder about the true nature of Bonanzle, we have to go by what data is available.

Perhaps the reason that Bonanzle doesn't bother with Quantcast is because the owners are smart enough to realize that the stats of many "Quantified" sites are as worthless as Alexa rankings because Quantcast's unique visitor counts can be easily manipulated.

[regic]

Perhaps the reason that Bonanzle doesn't bother with Quantcast is because the owners are smart enough to realize that the stats of many "Quantified" sites are as worthless as Alexa rankings because Quantcast's unique visitor counts can be easily manipulated.

Bonanzle uses Google Analytics, AtomicMall doesn't.  The data and tools provided by Google Analytics are very useful if you're a serious business owner who wants to grow your business/increase conversions/etc....the limited data provided by Quantcast is primarily useful as a tool to impress your forum buddies with by linking to it in you forum posts and saying "look at me, my dick ranking is bigger than yours!".

Google Analytics also has one other important advantage over Quantcast: the data is private and your competitors can't use it to gain a competitive advantage over you like they can with Quantcast.

[regic]

EDIT: Bonanzle's owner echoes what I said earlier today about one of the negative aspects of using Quantcast. 

Given the availability of Compete, I look at our business role models, Etsy and Amazon, for guidance. They have a lot smarter business people than me. I see that neither of them believed the business benefits of being quantified outweighed the competitive business liabilities.

Speaking of Compete, we updated the TT Channel Traffic Rankings chart today--don't strain your neck looking towards the bottom half of the chart where Bonanzle (#49 on the chart) and AtomicMall (#64) reside.

[amy]

I'm running an eyeball test...the same 3 items on 4 sites.  After 2 days the results are: Kijiji 39 views, iOffer 3 views, Bonanzle 0 views (0 views...OMG I've landed on the new Bidville).  I don't have a view count for Craigslist but I've received 11 emails. 

[sneakymagenta]

I've been selling there for two months and have sold about 80 items - it's incredible. I've bought over 100 - but that means other sellers are selling too!

it's incredible. 80-100=-20. - but that means you haven't made any money - dingbat. 

[sneakymagenta]

Bonanzle's new seller trust ratings:

Here are the nine points we're evaluating in the trustability reports in version 1.0.

Bonanzle considers nine different factors that suggest a user is an active member of the community at Bonanzle. The more active a community member is, the less anonymous, and the better one is able to evaluate the character of the seller.

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2. Have they used a valid credit card to pay Bonanzle fees or membership dues? Ray Romeo's Wagglepop II  patented this warped definition of trust
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7. Have they posted at least 20 messages on the Bonanzle forums? Hobby seller forum junkies who spend their days chatting are more trustworthy than sellers who actually have a real business and don't have time to post 24/7 ???  :

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/offers...ustability

blog post: http://www.bonanzle.com/blogs/More_Sales...More_Trust

[xwpopper]

To complete the quote:

Fraudulent sellers are less likely to have access to valid credit cards.  Note that the credit card used may not currently be valid, but at some point a valid card was used.

No longer having an active valid credit card usually means they have abandoned the site. That creates trust?Come to think of it... Bernard Madoff had valid credit cards, didn't he?

Have they posted at least 20 messages on the Bonanzle forums?  Scammers typically don't have the time  to establish an identity on the forums -- they've got scamming to do.  Of course, many credible sellers don't have the time or inclination for the forums, either, so take this one with a grain of salt.

Then why mention it at all?

If they have, you can learn not only about their  booth, but their writing style, which decreases anonymity.

Writing style? Are they serious? 

Have they recevied at least five positive feedback on Bonanzle?  Overall feedback score is a combination of  imported feedback (e.g., from eBay) and Bonanzle feedback.  This metric measures users who have a history of positive  transactions since arriving at Bonanzle.

So anyone with 5,000, 100% imported feedback and only 4 Bonanzle feedback is not trustworthy anymore. 

[amy]

    Have they posted at least 20 messages on the Bonanzle forums?  Scammers typically don't have the time  to establish an identity on the forums -- they've got scamming to do.  Of course, many credible sellers don't have the time or inclination for the forums, either, so take this one with a grain of salt.

Then why mention it at all?

...and why use it when determining reputation scores?

If every site used the 20 post criteria I'd be in trouble:

Overstock, 5 years, 2 posts rants
Amazon 9 years, 0 posts
iOffer, ePier 6 years, 0 posts
Alibris, 5 years, 0 posts
The late Yahoo, Bidway, Bidville, etc all zero posts.

The only time I posted frequently on a site's boards was during the period '04-'06 on the eBay boards, and 99.9% of those posts were complaints.