From: JEFF HAIN-MATSON (flmv@flmv.net)
Date: Thu Feb 28 2002 - 15:29:28 PST
Ben Brown wrote:
> Jeff,
>
> Want to start by saying two things, one- thanks for all this feedback, it is
> very helpful, two- I love UNIMOGS. A good friend of mine almost bought one,
> but settled on a pinsgauer (misspelled).
>
> OK, I have read all of your feedback, and it is all very good, but I want to
> respond to just a some things right now.
>
> 2.
> watching / bidding page
> need the actual location of the lot. on multi location sales it can get
> hard to keep up with where everything is. especially if they have gone
> back and added items out of sequence to a location.
> this is not to be confused with the title of the sale like you used on
> the old site.
> i'm thinking that since you have multi line display you could add this
> to the "event id" as a second line.
>
> >>
> This is a good idea, we will look into incorporating this into our next
> release.
> >>
>
> 3.
> main sale page
> with "add to watch list" box checked i open a different item to look at
> it and when i come back to the main sale page my checked "add to watch
> list" is erased.
>
> >>
> Yes, a lot of people have brought this up. From a technical standpoint,
> this is correct behavior, i.e. once you leave the list (or search results)
> page your "changes" to that page are gone. If you want to tag something,
> you can tag it and add it before you leave that page. A box will pop up
> telling you that "X number of lots added" and you will NOT be taken away
> from the list/search page you are viewing. The reason that we do not keep
> your watchlist tags from page to page has to do with server performance.
> One of my main goals is to make the website as fast and reliable as
> possible, and sometimes to do that I have to sacrifice some functionality.
>
how about doing away with the check box, and making it a button at each lot that
puts it on the watching page, that way nobody loses anything if they look at a
second lot.....
> >>
> >>
> 4.
> in item page
> when adding item to watching page it takes me to the watching page, it
> is then 2 clicks of the mouse back to the main sale page. very time
> consuming, and that many more hits on your server. should just add it
> with out moving me around.
>
> >>
> Good point. we changed this just for you. ;-).
> >>
>
cool
>
> 5.
> how do i view current bid history with bidder #'s like i can on the open
> item of the old web site?
> would be nice to see bidder names with the bidder #'s. i tend to spend
> more when i know who i am bidding against!
>
> >>
> As it stands right now, you can not. We had a lot of discussion on bid
> history and we wound up taking it off.
THAT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!
> Although we are getting a lot of
> negative feedback and I am going to vote that we put it back.
GOOD, SHOULD INCLUDE BIDDER NAME. like i said i tend to spend more money when i
know who i am bidding against. and that is not just me, it is human nature!!!
>
> >>
>
> 6.
> my auctions page
> watched lots keeps defaulting to 5 items. (very annoying)
> can page display preferences (qty of lots shown at a time) have a choice
> setting under profiles i wonder?
> could also have a choice for the add to watching page jump from above
> maybe?
>
> >>
> Yes, we don't save that preference from page to page. It is a deficiency
> that will be taken care of in a later release.
> >>
>
good
>
> 7.
> sale location info
> currently norfolk shows 1245 lots on location page but only 312 lots
> from sale 618 come up. is this because of static testing?
>
> >>
> Good point, we will look into it, I believe it is a test data issue, but I
> will make sure.
> >>
>
> 8.
> bid increments
> 20.00 increment on all bids now??? that is a little steep, (greedy)
> considering your 10% fee at the end of the sale.
> was playing with lot #2.
> not sure your even jumping the bids correctly at the 20.00 jump rate:
> lot was at 280.00, next bid at 300.00. i auto bid 308.00 and it jumped
> the other guy to 320.00, shouldn't it have been 328.00 if you are using
> the 20.00 auto bid jumps?
> then my next bid (not auto bid) of 348.00 to beat the 340.00 needed,
> jumps the total to 368.00 like i would expect with 20.00 increments,
> with next due at 388.00.
> my next bid of 391.00 (autobid) jumps total to 408.00 with next due at
> 428.00. i would have thought this should be 411.00 with next bid of
> 431.00.
> so if i have this correct, i can no longer bid a dollar or 2 or 5 or 10,
> etc. in non auto bid mode to beat somebody, but in auto bid mode you
> will not necessarily go the full 20.00 increment for the other guy to
> beat me, but later for me to beat him i HAVE to go the full 20.00.
> do i have that correct??
>
> >>
> I looked at the bidding activity in this event/lot, and it is correct.
> Bidding is seemingly very simple, but programmatically it is very complex.
yea, i can see that being a real pain to work out!
>
> I can say that after looking at all the bidding on lot #2, the bidding
> module did behave correctly.
>
> In regards to bid increments, they are now $10 and not $20. There is a bid
> increment regardless of whether you place your bid directly or the bid
> module places it for you (i.e. autobid). This is a change from the previous
> website. One thing that the new site has the ability to do, is to have bid
> increments in ranges. This would mean between $35-$100 the bid increment
> could be $2, and between $100-$500 the increment could be $10, and
> $500-infinity it could be $20 (just an example the ranges and increments
> could be anything). What are your thoughts on that. The main push-back
> that I got internally here at GovLiquidation was that it would be too
> confusing to our users- and for some I am sure that it would be.
yes i think it would be confusing. - although ebay does play at this, much to
the irritation of people on expensive lots!
on some cheap lots with a minimum of 35.00 to say that then next bid has to be
45.00 or 55.00 is not good. you will loose money on these with that big a jump.
i would go to 1.00 increments period. you will get more bids / money that way.
just go to a real auction sometime and watch. as the price goes up, the
auctioneer will normally jump the increment up. then when bidding slows down he
will drop the increment very low to get that last couple of dollars out of the
last bidders.
i have seen lots go at mechanicsburg to 12,00.00 by 100.00 then, 500.00, then
1000.00 increments. but the finish was down to 20.00 or 25.00 or 50.00
increments. that is an option that a live auctioneer can use.
since the web can not "read" the crowd or the bidders i think the best way is to
keep the increments very low and let the computer do the bidding.
the other thing here is ebay and the government DON'T CHARGE A 10% BUYERS
PREMIUM.
since you do and you are jumping bids in large increments it makes you look
overly greedy!
you need to look at the long dollar (repeat customers).
>
> >>
>
> 9.
> successful bidder info
> NEED NAMES AND ADDRESS SO I CAN BUY AND SELL ITEMS WITH THEM AFTER A
> SALE CLOSES.
> like when i can co 500.00 for a lot for 1 item and there are 25 items
> and it goes for 2500.00, i used to be able to call the guy (because i
> could find out who it was) and offer him money for the part i wanted.
> like wise i used to sell a lot of stuff i would have scraped other wise
> that way.
> i can also track a lot so that 6 months or a year later if i get a
> request for something i can track it down.
> it is a win win situation, i sell more, i have more to spend on your
> sales!!!
>
> >>
> HUGE topic of discussion around GovLiquidation. There are many privacy
> issues involved, and we are thinking of the best way to deal with them.
> This feature is on our list for sure. I think that for the Monday release,
> we will implement bidder number back into the "Past Bid Results" to make it
> like the current site.
> >>
>
here we go on the privacy thing again.
i have said in the past you could make a master list with bidders opting to
reveal their info as one option.
personally i think it should ALL be there, what do people have to hide?????
i also have a problem here in that this is billed as a joint venture between GL
and the government. as in it has been stated you and the government are
partners. at that point the freedom of information thing starts to become a big
issue.
if you are not a partner of the government, then the government has set you up a
a monopoly and the sherman anti trust act comes up.
the thing to remember is that most of your customers have dealt with DRMS / DRMO
in the past. some for a very long time.
this means that we are very used to being able to get this information the day
after a sale closed. in fact in the last few years the info was on the DRMS web
site, with name, address, and wait for it...... phone number!!!!!!!!!!
>
> thanks for all of your help!
>
> Luck
> ben
>
> Ben Brown
> ________________
> Chief Technology Officer
> GovLiquidation.com
> 202.467.6868 x224
> www.govliquidation.com
>
> --
> JEFF HAIN-MATSON
> FRONT LINE MILITARY VEHICLES WEB SITE: www.flmv.net
> WRIGHTSVILLE PA
> 717-252-4489 VOICE
> 717-252-4499 FAX
> flmv@flmv.net E-MAIL
> MVPA #1833
> IMPS #1726
> MVT #9362
-- JEFF HAIN-MATSON FRONT LINE MILITARY VEHICLES WEB SITE: www.flmv.net WRIGHTSVILLE PA 717-252-4489 VOICE 717-252-4499 FAX flmv@flmv.net E-MAIL MVPA #1833 IMPS #1726 MVT #9362
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