New auction competitor to eBay

[waywardangler]

Something new on Atomic Mall to check out.  They just started having auctions
www.AtomicAuction.c om
"Different strategies are required when bidding on Atomic Mall auctions compared to eBay auctions, which end at a fixed time. With sealed bids, each bidder enters an amount, and cannot see the prices at which other bidders have bid. The auction ends when the listing receives a pre-determined amount of bids - either 2 bids, 5 bids or 10 bids, and sellers may choose Reserve or No-Reserve auctions."

We believe AM's thousands of great merchants will appreciate the flexibility offered by a third listing option, and shoppers will enjoy using a unique bidding system which is resistant to common auction hassles like shill bidding and last minute sniping. At AtomicAuction.com, online auctions are Safe, Fun and Different!

** Please note that as of our Jan. 1st launch, auctions are limited to a select few listings for testing and debugging. Once out of our Beta test phase, auctions will be open to all sellers. Thanks for your patience!

[mart]

Interesting,,,have to check it out !

[Dean Perdue]

Thanks Wayward.

Looks good in the fact that there are alternatives in almost every respect compared to eBay.I also really like the fact that there are different payment options for sellers other than PayPal.Hope the popularity will increase and start to put eBay in check.

Any thoughts on if you guys think their auction format (# of bids opposed to length of time) will bring a seller more or less money than the typical eBay type of auction?

It would appear the seller fees are way more reasonable but I don't get how an auction would end dependant on the number of bids received.Wouldn't there be a huge amount of items that would go unsold and start to clutter the site?

I wouldn't mind trying this out and seeing how it goes.Appreciate another option to eBay thats for sure.

[waywardangler]

Dean said:

Any thoughts on if you guys think their auction format (# of bids opposed to length of time) will bring a seller more or less money than the typical eBay type of auction?

Yeah, I have not really thought on how that works either.  I just found out about this early this morning and posted it before I went to bed.  I am going to read more on the site about specifics today.  I will probably try it out to see how it works after the Beta test period is up.  I like the part about no shills and no sniping.  I am sure Atomic Mall will have some bugs or tweaking to do.  I found out about it by reading Auctionbytes.  That is where I get much of my info on eBay problems and complaints.

Maybe another player will cause eBay to get its' house in order because it needs it.

[mart]

One problem for sellers may be lower prices. I know from my own experience, that I can tell how bad someone wants something I am bidding on , if they keep raising their own bid. When I am bidding on a piece against someone else I always check bid history. Seems like not knowing what the bids are would be detrimental to the auction. You might be willing to bid a bit higher than your competitor as a last ditch effort. Couldn`t do that with sealed bids that had maxed out.  Sure would eliminate a bidding war. Which to me is part of the fun !!

[waywardangler]

I am not so sure prices would be lower.  From Atomic Mall...
•Reserve Price: If you want to prevent your item from selling below a certain threshold price, set the Reserve price to the minimum amount you are willing to accept for it. Leave this field blank, or enter "0" to make a No-Reserve auction, in which you are obligated to sell the item, regardless of high bid price.
•Max Bids: The number of bids from unique bidders required to end your auction. Set this to 2 for a quick auction, 5 for a standard length auction, or 10 for an extended length auction. Bidding for a "Max2" auction can produce volatile and unpredictable results! The 5 and 10-bid auctions will tend to generate gavel prices which more closely reflect an item's true market value, as bidder competition plays a bigger role.
•Listing Type: Select "Auction" to create a listing which can only be purchased by bidding on your item and waiting for the auction to end. Select "Hybrid" to simultaneously offer the item in both Auction and Fixed Price formats. A dollar value in the Selling Price field is required for a Hybrid listing, but not required for an Auction listing.

There appears to be an actual "No Reserve" auction format provided.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Interesting concept. I'm thinking limiting the number of bids would benefit the bidders rather than the sellers though. It will be interesting to see if the idea catches on.

[waywardangler]

"Unique bidders" I take to mean different registered bidders.  So if 10 bids are required to end an auction, two bidders could bid and bid and bid but there would need to be 8 other bidders to end the auction.  The 8 other bidders could bid less than the 2 bidders that really want it and could come in at any time with any price and bid to count as part of the ten bids.

This is a sealed auction format similar to a sealed bid like for a public sale.  Everyone submits a sealed envelope with what they expect to win the item for.  After ten envelopes are received from different bidders, the envelopes are opened and the bidder bidding the highest wins the sale.

That is how I think it works.  The number of bids can be set by the seller at 2 and 5 also.