I've seen a few discussions about alternatives to eBay for coin sellers. Looks like Yahoo is doing something about it.

Yahoo Auctions system looks good. They pioneered some of the original features which eBay picked up later. With some effort they could make a good dent in eBay's business. There aren't as many search and notification options. I tried to ask seller a question and the page timed out. I'll be watching for improvements and running a few trial auctions.

Coin auctions currently listed:

# United States (11172)
# World (2760)
# Ancient (52)

Paper money:

# United States (907)
# World (770)

http://auctions.yahoo.com/

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06/06/05 Changes to Yahoo! Auctions
Yahoo! Auctions has changed its pricing to create a model that is free for all consumers listing items on our Auctions platform. We have eliminated all fees associated with Auctions listings, including listing fees and final value fees.

Many users have been asking for this type of structure, and we are happy to provide it as a way to strengthen our partnership with the seller community and clearly demonstrate our commitment to our sellers' success. The new pricing model will go into effect Monday, June 6, 2005.

This move to free listings was designed with the consumer in mind, as we are continually looking to offer the most relevant and useful products and services to our users. Over the years, we've achieved our objective of improving the quality of the site, making it easier for buyer and sellers to connect. This most recent move will make auctions more cost effective for both large and small sellers who wish to list items on Yahoo!, ultimately improving their margins.

The free part is interesting. I wonder how long that will last. I used to use Yahoo about three or four years ago and actually liked it better than ebay but the richness of offerings just didn't keep pace.

Well, It's a start anyway.

This is why I'm not active there:
"In the next step, you will verify your credit card with Yahoo! Wallet"

Doesn't eBay do the same for seller accounts?

Yes to sell. You need NO accounts or Credit cards of any type to buy/bid @ ebay.
You need credit/debit card or bank acct. to just buy/bid @ yahoo. Doesn't make alot of sense when you consider 99% of the offers accept M.O.'s.

Well, you should know there is always a catch somewhere.

i've only been burned once in 8 years of buying stuff online and it was on a yahoo auction about 7 years ago. paid 25 bucks for a record that i never, ever got. that was the first time i used yahoo auctions even.. never went back until a month or two ago and bid on a '22 plain lincoln, and turned out to be a scam.. so i don't venture into yahooland too often, i think the whole yahoo thing in general is pretty lame anyway. but it is my preferred search engine i'll give em that..

too bad too cuz free auctions sounds nice.. it's almost tempting



ebay and paypal are getting too big

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody pays for the Yahoo auction service and if it isn't going to be the seller, it will have to be the buyer.

I've never liked the Yahoo formats. There are too many other ways of buying coins for me to waste much time with online auction sites anyway, whether the venue is ebay or yahoo.

i'll say this Yahoo's stuff is full of spyware, and bs, thats prolly why it's FREE!

I believe that advertisers will pay for auction services. There are lots of ads on Yahoo auction pages.

One good thing that could come out of this competition is eBay lowering or dropping its listing fees, which will be a great help to occasional coin traders.

We'll bring back CoinPeople live auctions in the next few months (whenever auction software becomes available) and then the competition will really heat up.

Part of me likes the idea of free listing for sellers. I would be more likely to list on a free site rather than a charge site.
The main auction site here offers free listing. However, as a buyer I dislike it because I end up seeing the same overpriced stuff week after week because no one buys the stuff and they are constanly relisted.

I don't have a problem with paying a fair amount to list an item and a fair amount for a final valuation fee. I've heard all the arguments from friends of mine - it's too much, it cheats the buyer, it cheats the seller, I have to sell for more because of the fees -- well DUH! If you went to the local flea market and rented a booth for several years, and then they raised their prices 10% wouldn't you have to adjust your prices - assuming you are a business.

The old adage often holds true; "You get what you pay for."

I just took a look around and there may be a lot of coins for sale (over 11000 in the US section) but there are very few with bids. I would look at Yahoo if I was buying as I do with overstock but I doubt very much I would sell on either as there just don't seem to be enough users to bid the price up to a level where I would be comfortable selling at. A High start price is the kiss of death for most auctions and it does not make sense to put a low start with only a few people bidding.