Auction Consignment Sites

Chapter 6

Homework

Page 302  exercise E3
Follow the links in the Online Companion for the Auction Consignment Sites to at least two of the sites and become familiar with the services they offer. Prepare a cart that compares the services offered by two of the sites you visit. Include any important factors a customer would evaluate when deciding which site to use but be sure to include a comparison of prices, specific services offered, exclusions and limitations on services, specific services offered, exclusions and limitations on services, and guarantees if any. Summarize your findings in a paragraph or two in which you indicate which site you would recommend to a friend.

Auction Consignment Sites

• AuctionDrop (link does not work)
• Picture it SOLD (parked by go daddy)
• QuickDrop (invalid link)
• Snappy Auctions

The two top websites above (AuctionDrop and Picture it SOLD) are dead links. The third link is a parked website. As such, there is no option other than picking Snappy Auctions. As a standard comparison, I shall compare Snappy Auctions to a comparable website I found using Google sets, USA Auction Drop (http://www.usaauctiondrop.com/).

The first impression comparing both websites was easy. Snappy Auctions seems to live up to its name. The home page (http://www.snappyauctions.com/) is clear, clutter-free, intuitive, and very professional. USA Auction Drop is not much worse. However, the first impression is that of a lack of professionalism with too much bold text formatting and errant color scheme. However, I will note that people who are not on the Internet as much as I am would probably find this much less irritating. The map of the United States probably stands to symbolize some sort of patriotism but I could not find the evidence anywhere but in the domain name. It is confusing. The advantage goes to Snappy Auctions.

Going beyond the landing page, both sites seem to offer a "what sells" page, linked directly and prominently from the home page. Snappy Auctions has http://www.snappyauctions.com/whatsells.php whereas USA Auction Drop has http://www.usaauctiondrop.com/whatsells.htm. While Snappy Auctions sticks to the basics and offers general categories (in form of PNG images) and a quick link to eBay's guidelines, USA Auction Drop goes a step further, reminding the potential seller about specific USA Auction Drop policies such as "USA Auction Drop accepts items for sale that have a selling price of at least $50." which is written in bold-type and featured prominently on the "what sells" page. The advantage goes to USA Auction Drop.

Lets compare the "how it works" page. Again, both websites feature "how it works" prominently on their home page. Snappy Auctions  (http://www.snappyauctions.com/howitworks.php) seems to be more flexible with the fifty dollar selling price as a soft limit or a recommended lowest price rather than the hard limit which means USA Auction Drop (http://www.usaauctiondrop.com/howitworks.htm) does not accept any item that will sell for less than fifty dollars. USA Auction Drop also features another page, specifically dealing with fees, at http://www.usaauctiondrop.com/howitworks.htm which details the costs. Snappy Auctions has the fees listed in the same page as "how it works" page. Both pass on applicable eBay fees (USA Auction Drop seems to clarify further and makes it a point to mention Paypal charges as well) so they are equal in this regard. Both offer similar services but USA Auctions would probably cost less in most cases. However, there is one last major deal-maker or possible deal-breaker: location. Depending on where you live, either website could end up costing you less and thus being a better deal. However, if location is a non-issue. I'd give USA Auction Drop the upper hand. Perhaps there is a reason why it is still in business in spite of its bad web design.