FoulFoot wrote:A while ago I toyed with the idea of installing some sort of auction software on the site. Initially it would be free, and thereafter only a small transaction fee to basically cover expenses. I dismissed it because trying to go up against eBay -- even in a small category like RPGs -- would seem to be a losing proposition. Most importantly, the (good) software is several hundred bucks, and that's a lot to put down on an "experiment".Still an interesting idea, though. It'd be nice for the community as a whole to have a low-cost alternative to eBay, but I don't know how much interest is out there for such a thing.Foul
Xaxaxe wrote:We have had fundraisers here ... two of them, in fact (perhaps more, but only two I've heard of).In fact, it's the very top thing you see when you go to the main Acaeum forums page. And here's a link:Acaeum donations page
FoulFoot wrote:I think we only have/had one fundraiser... the main one, via the donations page. It's done quite well.I took a further look at some auction software, and the only one I could find that had some air of legitimacy (i.e., support, robustness, etc) was PHP Auction XL. It's $495 for the "normal" version, or $886 (ack) for the source-code version, which would probably be necessary in order to fix/customize the installation. Another issue is that there's a nasty review out there, which may or may not be legit: http://www.munchtech.com/phpauction.html . Gives you pause.Foul
Yes, we tried some auction sofware for a while, it looked promising but could be a little flakey: phpauction XL. There may be better stuff out there now.It had issues with notification of bidders and some auto bid updates, another factor was that I guess unless it's front and centre on the site, eBay is just the natural environment for auctions - biggest market - most traffic, sellers want their auctions seen by the most people most of the time. Even Amazon/Yahoo couldn't compete.
Deadlord39 wrote:The problem you will run into is this: eBay has an insane amount of exposure (comparatively), and since everyone here trolls eBay regularly, sellers would be far better off to list their stuff on eBay.
Beyondthebreach wrote:Would there be options for non-auction, fixed price sales?