I am starting a domain auction website, and will charge a very minimal insertion fee (just to stop spammers), and a small closing fee (only if it sells, exactly like ebay) I am trying to figure out how to charge for this. Should I: A: Require $5 on the first auction post, and then you continue to withdraw from that.... if you go over the $5, then you pay the bill at the end of the month. B. pay the insertion fee everytime you upload an auction. C. Charge a monthly membership fee (no closing fees or starting fees) D. Other? Please help me out here, +REP for helping.
Since eBay has such a huge market share, if you want to compete against them, you will need to give your users some advantage to not list on eBay but your site. It depends who you want to target. Let's say if your target are power sellers, then I would go with C. But to tell you the truth, it would be very difficult if you are starting a brand new site because who would want to list their item on a site where not many people visit? The possibilty of the item being sold would be slim compared to listing it on eBay.
My thoughts exactly, I am hoping to get teh "little guys" invloved, and have some of the power sellers to staple everything. which makes for a huge dilemma