Help with an auction site

[racerman28]

Hi,

I am in the planning process of having an auction site that deals with a specific niche.

For anyone out there that has any knowledge and/or experience with this topic: How would I go about getting people to post their ads and people to buy from them when there is no 'feedback' built up? I would think this might be difficult. If anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

P.S. Anyone recommend a good script or software for my site??

[petertdavis]

Well, you've got a real chicken/egg there. How will you get sellers, when there are no buyer, and how will you get buyers when there's nothing posted for sale? Actully, I'd recommend working on sellers first. Get them to list stuff with the understanding that at a specific point you'd start marketing to the buyers. Otherwise, when the buyer shows up and see nothing, they won't come back.

[racerman28]

Get them to list stuff with the understanding that at a specific point you'd start marketing to the buyers.

Example: Maybe have it be free for awhile or something like that? Would you be able to expand on that Peter?

Thanks for your response!

[OnlineGuide]

Just what we need, another auction site. Aren't their like a billion others? I think you are a little late to the game. It would be best to spend your money on something else. I think e-Bay has like 94% of the market. Amazon & Yahoo couldn't do it with million upon millions of $$$. What makes you think that you have a chance? Time to move on... Just being honest... I am known for doing just that... Being brutally honest... Should you choose to not to yield to my advice, checkout auctionbytes.com for some possible encouragement. But again, you would be doing yourself a favor by moving on.

[paladin]

I agree that starting an auction site now is going to be incredibly difficult. Most people consider "online auction" to be synonymous with Ebay. That makes it quite different from other genres where it is much easier to compete. No one has totally monopolized "online information" or "online commerce" yet.

[racerman28]

I appreciate the input, and believe me, I understand what you two are saying, but can we stay on topic so I could get some input on this?

FYI, this site is similar to Ebay ONLY in that it will use an auction style format but that's it. Our 'niche' is not covered by Ebay (technically, it is but VERY poorly) so we are confident of branding our niche with this site.

Anyway, any more input on my topic would be much appreciated.

Thanks.