Re: Another idea for Admin5
Hi Nathan. Interesting that you would suggest the idea of an ebay-type auction or some other form of "buy-sell" location on iboats.com. We get about 500 to 1,000 emails a day, on average, from people all over the USA looking to buy boating-related stuff of all kinds. So we also have been thinking and talking about this idea and are seriously considering starting something to help people to buy and sell their other "stuff", meaning all the other stuff that we all seem to collect over the years as fishermen, boaters, divers, sailors, and outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen besides our primary/only boat or motor. <br /><br />For the newer and/or more expensive boats and motors we already have our Classifieds Section where people can list their boat or motor for sale...with up to 3 pictures and all the words/data/information they want to use...for the one-time fee of just $39.95. (For a little more money they can also add a LOT more pictures if they want.) These classified ads are live on all our several hundred boating-related web sites (plus, at no extra cost through partnerships we have, we place these classified ads onto Yahoo's site, Overton's web site and Trailer Boats Magazine's web site, for up to 6 months or until the boat or motor sells, whichever comes first. It is NOT uncommon for someone to list their boat with us and get up to 800 people viewing their ad in a matter of days, and sell it within a week or so! Some obviously take longer to sell based on price, location and condition of the boat...and how good the pictures of the boat look online.<br /><br />Anyway, our thinking is that there are a LOT of boats that are not worth a few thousand dollars or more, but may be worth a few hundred dollars. Maybe we should have a place on our sites where people can list those (with pictures, etc, if they want) for something like just $9.95 or $14.95. For other things that people want to sell for just $25 or $50 dollars, maybe we would need to charge just $4.95. At some point when the item is sold for too little money, the cost to us of handling and processing the person's credit card, etc. makes it not profitable for us to get involved at all. At that point we ask ourselves whether it is even worth it to charge anything at all for something that will sell for just $4.00? At some minimum point of value maybe we should just say, "You guys and gals buy and sell the really cheap stuff (with some dollar minimum) among yourselves and we will just let you use our online services to place the items into the iboats.com network of sites and let people find those items online...free of charge. <br /><br />Now that we are getting over 3 million individual user sessions (people) every MONTH visiting our network of boating-related web sites, we think that we have enough people visiting us to make something like what we are talking about here work rather well.<br /><br />I have rambled on enough. I'd REALLY like to get input from as many of you GREAT Forum Members as possible on this topic...since it would be primarily designed to be a benefit to and serve your needs. So, let me know your thoughts on this subject, and thanks again Nathan for the suggestion. <br /><br />BV
If I had the means and connections you had, perhaps I would try it, as you're halfway 'geared-up' to start with.<br /><br />Go for it 
