Demand for a Disc Golf Auction website?

[WesleyJohnson]

I'm new to the forums here so if I am violating any guidelines I apologize. I am looking to gauge interest in a disc golf auction website. I know that DGCR has several marketplace forums for selling and auctioning discs and it seems fairly active. I also know that there are Facebook pages like Dollar Disc Golf Auctions that serve the same purpose. And, of course, there is always eBay.

I'm interested in developing a speciality auction site that only deals in disc golf merchandise. I feel like, if done properly, it can combine the best of DGCR's auctions with DDGA and eBay's auctions, while cutting out some of the frustration I've read about (unreliable bidders, high eBay fees, etc).

I know there have been a couple of sites in the past that have attempted this (discaroo comes to mind) and weren't able to succeed, but I enjoy a challenge.

Is there a market for a site like this? For those of you who run auctions on DGCR or any of the various facebook auctions sites, what would it take for you to start running your auctions somewhere else? I would assume having more bidders competing for your used plastic is key, but what else?

Would love some feedback.
Thanks!

 

[bradharris]

The Auction section here is a pretty good source for reliable auctions. The problem is there were more buyers driving up prices on Facebook, so the sellers followed the buyers there and the auction section here has been virtually dormant. I can't imagine a new site being able to build a buyer community strong enough to lure the sellers away from FB anytime soon.

 

[scarpfish]

As long as there are fools loosely parting ways with their cash on the FB auctions, I don't see how a more reputable auction site is going to lure people to use it. If such were so, the MP auctions here would still have traffic.

 

[WesleyJohnson]

Discouraging replies, but I appreciate them all the same! I definitely agree that sellers are going to flock where the buyers are and so you have a chicken and egg problems with a new site where seller won't come unless there are buyers and buyers won't come unless there are sellers.

Will have to give this some thought. In the meantime, more feedback is always welcome.

 

[mbntheman]

I think it could be successful but would need advertisement and links from sites like this. Good luck!

 

[JC17393]

The uphill battle any auction site faces in competing with Facebook is cost. It costs to run a site, and the busier it gets, the more expensive it becomes to maintain. Facebook is free. Free to join, free to list, free to bid. Now that Facebook is the place for these transactions, I think the only thing that will cause people to move away from it would be Facebook itself cracking down or instituting their own auction system (so they can monetize it). Somehow I doubt there's enough cash in the disc golf auction sites (or any other possible Facebook auction sites) to raise any alarm bells at Facebook HQ anytime soon.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

seems dumb. already 100000000 places you can set up an auction why try and reinvent the wheel?

 

[kw83028]

Check out this thread and the auction site link in there: http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20686&highlight=auction

The first few dealers on that site charged ridiculous prices for discs. I jumped on board and listed my complete 500 disc inventory on there at normal prices ($14.99 shipped for champ/Z/Opto/VIP/etc.). I sold maybe 10-15 discs, but overall the site never caught on. There ended up being only a few sellers. It looks like it's still kind of live too, which surprises me. The seller's fees that were charged on the site were half of what ebay charges, which helped me make more money per disc.

In the end, though, I don't think it would be feasible to have a site like that with facebook dominating the market, and ebay giving me an instant audience of millions of people. If a site did come around again, I would definitely help out by listing stuff on it.

 

[WesleyJohnson]

seems dumb. already 100000000 places you can set up an auction why try and reinvent the wheel?

If everyone thought that way, then Google would have never been invented as there were many, many places to search the web.

It's all about innovating and improving on an idea. I feel like I have something to offer the existing sites don't. :thmbup:

 

[WesleyJohnson]

Thanks mbntheman and kw83028. I appreciate the feedback and vote of confidence!! I had seen discauctions.com before, but had forgotten about it. Thanks for posting about it again, I'll read up on that forum thread and see if I can get any ideas. Thanks again!

 

[ru4por]

No interest. I am not your audience though. I buy discs all year, never going to spend the time to bid on one, when I can spend a few moments to simply buy it. I am guessing the question is directed at collectors or those who are into the whole ebay thing.

 

[New013]

ive put some thought in to this as well and my opinion is that as long as the facebook pages are allowed to operate as is such a site wouldnt be very successful. if some kind of regulation were to come down on the part of facebook or a govt agency then a move to an independent website would probably be more of a viable option.

 

[WesleyJohnson]

No interest. I am not your audience though. I buy discs all year, never going to spend the time to bid on one, when I can spend a few moments to simply buy it. I am guessing the question is directed at collectors or those who are into the whole ebay thing.

I am actually not the target audience either. I buy discs to throw them, but I can't ignore the market that is there for collecting discs for show or the market for purchasing older discs that are no longer made or are now made differently enough that people prefer the older versions.

 

[WesleyJohnson]

ive put some thought in to this as well and my opinion is that as long as the facebook pages are allowed to operate as is such a site wouldnt be very successful. if some kind of regulation were to come down on the part of facebook or a govt agency then a move to an independent website would probably be more of a viable option.

I don't really see Facebook cracking down on these groups. I don't think they're violating any terms of service by using the group to run auctions and Facebook isn't looking to implement it's own auction system anytime soon. So I agree that having an independent site and having it be successful will be very hard, if not impossible. I think the key is incentives for buyers and sellers, but it may not be enough. Still, there were social networks before Facebook and most people assumed MySpace couldn't be topped. Facebook found a way through a single incentive, exclusivity, and people flocked to it. Being exclusive obviously won't work for an auction site (you need users!), but I'm still holding onto hope that there is a way to drive buyers and sellers away from Facebook. We'll see.

 

[JRW III]

I'm new to the forums here so if I am violating any guidelines I apologize. I am looking to gauge interest in a disc golf auction website. I know that DGCR has several marketplace forums for selling and auctioning discs and it seems fairly active. I also know that there are Facebook pages like Dollar Disc Golf Auctions that serve the same purpose. And, of course, there is always eBay.

I'm interested in developing a speciality auction site that only deals in disc golf merchandise. I feel like, if done properly, it can combine the best of DGCR's auctions with DDGA and eBay's auctions, while cutting out some of the frustration I've read about (unreliable bidders, high eBay fees, etc).

I know there have been a couple of sites in the past that have attempted this (discaroo comes to mind) and weren't able to succeed, but I enjoy a challenge.

Is there a market for a site like this? For those of you who run auctions on DGCR or any of the various facebook auctions sites, what would it take for you to start running your auctions somewhere else? I would assume having more bidders competing for your used plastic is key, but what else?

Would love some feedback.
Thanks!

There is definitely a market, the question is can you reach that market.

Both Facebook and DGCR forums are not the optimal ways to handle auctions and disc sales. Can be cumbersome to search and perform other basic functions. But they have an established base of users.

If you could overcome the initial challenge of establishing a base of users, I think there is a lot of opportunity.

 

[mark996]

I'm not the targeted audience, I have a hard time spending $20 on a disc, and a hard time "hoping" I win an auction when I can just buy it online or from the guys who sells used discs at the course and just be done with the issue, but I know there are folks out there willing to spend 100's on single disc just because it was made way back when or because it's not made anymore, or whatever.

But does ebay serve this purpose already? Most of the collectors I know around here are religiously on facebook and ebay looking for discs and deals.

 

[thelonepup]

Saucer Shuffle is trying, and while I've gotten some decent deals the amount of auctions is usually low (or none) and it seems like people are mostly using using it to commercially sell new discs.

 

[kingk6]

SaucerShuffle.com tried the same thing - to take the best of the DDGA fb page, Ebay, and other auction sites and make a new site.

I was an early adopter looking for a new place to sell, but none of the auctions met their reserve prices and most people left. I think it's still operational, but I've moved back to selling on facebook because there are way more eyes for me there.

 

[Pbmercil]

There are a few big problems with trying to compete with facebook:

1) The vast majority of potential customers already have a facebook. So there is nothing for them to sign up for, they just need to find a page. These users are already on facebook for other reasons, so they get exposed to auctions in their feed without any effort by anyone.

2) Facebook is free for everyone involved, buyers and sellers. No fees at all, which is difficult to compete with if you are trying to develop a service to compete with that format. You'll have to get paid somehow.

A new service would have some advantages. The biggest one would be that it would be easier to monitor for fraud and bad buyers/sellers. Facebook auctions are really easy to ghost bid up and easy for people to back out of deals they've "agreed" to.

The facebook selling format blew up in a completely different and unrelated hobby of mine. Its kind of interesting, because the facebook format drove a lot of prices up in this market, but drove the prices down in the other. Random. That market has also had new auction sites try and take some of the facebook business with mixed success. The guy that developed it sunk a ton of money into it. His page works great and gets a decent amount of traffic, but it still can't hold a candle to the volume the facebook auctions are moving. If he wasn't posting a ton of stuff on his site to keep that site relevant it probably would have died by now.

 

[Tjamesd]

You need to offer something people can't get somewhere else... if it's very similar there is not a lot of incentive for people to start using your service of FB pages or eBay.

You will naturally draw some users (buyers) because the allure, initially, is there are fewer users wich means lower prices. But you need something to keep them once there is enough volume that prices are similar to other places you can buy/sell.