Sams Club Developing Online Ebay Like Auction..

[Krank]

My brother in law works for Sams Club. Apparently Sams Club is going to provide its members a "free" auction service similar to that of Ebay. Key here is it will be for Sams members only. That cuts out a lot of people but at least those of us with memberships will have another resource/option to buy sell, collect O. I don't know what the timeline is for the project, likely the next year or so.

 

[digi7alph0enix]

Doesn't cut anyone out, it drives in customers for their memberships. Countless people will flock to a $40/mo membership if they aren't subjected to all the fees that ebay and paypal hit you with for trying to sell. If it turns out to be truly free then you will easily save that $40 in just a few auctions.

 

[OakleyBoss]

Doesn't cut anyone out, it drives in customers for their memberships. Countless people will flock to a $40/mo membership if they aren't subjected to all the fees that ebay and paypal hit you with for trying to sell. If it turns out to be truly free then you will easily save that $40 in just a few auctions.

Its only $40 per year, which should attract more members.

The issue is that, if this is how they view it(to drive new members), they are looking at it the wrong way. They are looking at it as advantageous from the buyers perspective, when there will be no market unless there are advantages for the seller. Without sellers, there will be nothing to buy and no incentive to join, and what incentive do sellers have to post items on sams club? The fact that less people will view it, meaning lower demand, leading to a lower price paid for their good. Not very appealing.

One advantage they could offer is less fees, though paypal is already pretty low on the fee's(relative to the cut taken by CC's/banks etc.), and without a fee, how will they offer protection to buyers. And if buyers have no protection, they will never purchase anything from the site.

Seems like an interesting idea, I just wanted to play devil's advocate for a moment and pose some of the issues with entering a market where a company(eBay) already holds such a dominant share(and for good reason). eBay has essentially maximized the incentive for both buyers and sellers by being hand in hand with paypal. eBay appeals to sellers, PayPal to buyers, and everyone gets a long.

We'll see. It would be nice for some competition to come up against eBay.

 

[Krank]

Doesn't cut anyone out, it drives in customers for their memberships. Countless people will flock to a $40/mo membership if they aren't subjected to all the fees that ebay and paypal hit you with for trying to sell. If it turns out to be truly free then you will easily save that $40 in just a few auctions.

Its only $40 per year, which should attract more members.

The issue is that, if this is how they view it(to drive new members), they are looking at it the wrong way. They are looking at it as advantageous from the buyers perspective, when there will be no market unless there are advantages for the seller. Without sellers, there will be nothing to buy and no incentive to join, and what incentive do sellers have to post items on sams club? The fact that less people will view it, meaning lower demand, leading to a lower price paid for their good. Not very appealing.

One advantage they could offer is less fees, though paypal is already pretty low on the fee's(relative to the cut taken by CC's/banks etc.), and without a fee, how will they offer protection to buyers. And if buyers have no protection, they will never purchase anything from the site.

Seems like an interesting idea, I just wanted to play devil's advocate for a moment and pose some of the issues with entering a market where a company(eBay) already holds such a dominant share(and for good reason). eBay has essentially maximized the incentive for both buyers and sellers by being hand in hand with paypal. eBay appeals to sellers, PayPal to buyers, and everyone gets a long.

We'll see. It would be nice for some competition to come up against eBay.

I agree mostly. As large as Sams/Wallmart is, I'm sure the development of this project will evolve as it is produced. Will be interesting to see how it pans out.