Re: [photo-3d] Esnipe begins charging 5/16/01

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <drt-3d@xxxxxxx>]

In my photo-3d message on this subject, I quoted the
service email for esnipe and I was surprised to get
the quoted very detailed response.  It is good to see that 
these people care for their service.  I am one of those
people who think that good services should not be free.
I will respond to this but in the meanwhile, I am posting
the message here in case anyone else wants to respond too.

George Themelis


At 05:16 PM 4/24/01 -0700, you wrote:
>Thanks for Cc'ing me on this, Dr. Themelis.
>
>First of all--there's a $10 cap on the percentage, so Realist would cost you
>"only" $10. Remember if you bought that in a traditional auction, the
>buyer's fee would be more like $75.
>
>Second--we couldn't figure out how to institute a for-fee system without
>discriminating against the under $25 bid crowd. There actually is more work
>in the guaranteed bids. During a few peak minutes on Sundays, for example,
>*everyone* seems to be using eBay. This poses a serious strain on our
>resources for just those few minutes, so there will in fact be some concept
>of bids that are guaranteed vs. not guaranteed.
>
>The flat monthly fee is just too heavy a burden on low bidders, who make up
>60% of our volume. If you're just buying a couple of $5 McDonalds
>promotional toys a month, you'll strongly resist a $5 (or whatever) monthly
>fee. All of this holds true for a flat snipe fee (which I would prefer,
>actually--it would make us a lot more money). The flat snipe fee is also a
>problem for infrequent users because the credit card fees
>
>Do you think I mistestimating the market? Do you think even lowball bidders
>would put up with a flat fee? If so--what do you suggest I do for billing,
>considering that the credit card charges of about $.35 on a flat fee would
>already come out to nearly the 1% amount for an average win?
>
>I'm *very* open to better ways to do this. It's just the best balance I
>could come up with.
>
>Tom RC Campbell, Site manager
>www.eSnipe.com
>Make eBay bids the last few seconds - automatically!


 

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