Sella rolled into NZHerald

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geek4me

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#771099 27-Feb-2013 15:17

sleemanj:
geek4me: Yes I did misunderstand. So all those $10 or less user credits make a tidy sum for Sella to stick in their pocket. Perhaps I should add $2 to my $8.05 so I can get $10.05 - $5 back rather than nothing at all.

They are dropping the $5 admin fee apparantly stated on their facebook
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Community/MessageBoard/Messages.aspx?id=1218209&topic=10

sella: hey guys.. we have decided to remove the $5 admin fee on refunds. its not your fault we're closing the Sella.co.nz front end.. so you shouldn't be penalized by an admin fee. there will likely be further announcements re: refunds shortly. cheers

Will those with under $10 credit also get a full refund or only those with more than $10?

gzt

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#771102 27-Feb-2013 15:29

Performance of the would be killers has been dismal. Of the field ListSellTrade has the most listings overall but very few compared to Sella. Despite being headed by an advertising agency the marketing is lackluster and the unachievable 'million dollar prize' to attract buyers is extremely cynical and should probably be closed down by the commerce commission. A 'prize' like that is not something most people would want to be associated with.

ListSellTrade may be in the best position to move on Sella's empty field, but they would have to move fast in a number of areas.

Wheedle had some strengths but who knows if they can bring anything back. The founder's public statements during the first and second launch missed the big picture and all the details entirely.

turnin

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#771105 27-Feb-2013 15:31

Yeah I agree, There should only be the industry leader, everyone else should stop trying. although sometimes the concept of business competition has benefits, ever heard of Pepsi, Avis, remember IBM clones ? They all tried to take on well established leading brands and they did it. I agree trademe would be hard to take down but everyone who tries to compete with them so far has built a site with the same functionality. copying the same concept and adding a new logo is not innovation. If someone made an auction site with better functionality it would stand a far better chance that what we've seen so far.

freitasm

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#771110 27-Feb-2013 15:37

turnin: Yeah I agree, There should only be the industry leader, everyone else should stop trying. although sometimes the concept of business competition has benefits, ever heard of Pepsi, Avis, remember IBM clones ? They all tried to take on well established leading brands and they did it. I agree trademe would be hard to take down but everyone who tries to compete with them so far has built a site with the same functionality. copying the same concept and adding a new logo is not innovation. If someone made an auction site with better functionality it would stand a far better chance that what we've seen so far.

You are not saying anything new. No one here is against competitors. Everyone seems to agree though that dumb competitors that don't bring anything new, get a site developed with lower standards than the incumbent have less changes of succeeding.

Even established publishing companies such as APN have problems taking on the incumbent, what makes anyone believe someone with no experience, cheap development outsourced to a country where there's no oversight of the final product, with no adequate advice from knowledgeable people can succeed?

Throwing money at a problem doesn't solve it.

This is being discussed here.

Macros

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#771128 27-Feb-2013 16:07

turnin: Yeah I agree, There should only be the industry leader, everyone else should stop trying. although sometimes the concept of business competition has benefits, ever heard of Pepsi, Avis, remember IBM clones ? They all tried to take on well established leading brands and they did it. I agree trademe would be hard to take down but everyone who tries to compete with them so far has built a site with the same functionality. copying the same concept and adding a new logo is not innovation. If someone made an auction site with better functionality it would stand a far better chance that what we've seen so far.

The real issue for competitors is that they approach it from the wrong side (so far...).

Most seem to think that having sellers (no fees!) will bring the buyers, when that's not (always) the case. The main way to be successful would be attracting buyers, and the sellers will come over naturally. It's a lot harder than the recent competitors think - Sella's been in business for 4 1/2 years, and had no fees since day zero, and still couldn't do it. And I'd say that the people running Sella are more experienced, and more polished, than the competitors coming along now.

loceff13

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#771144 27-Feb-2013 16:45

gzt: Performance of the would be killers has been dismal. Of the field ListSellTrade has the most listings overall but very few compared to Sella. Despite being headed by an advertising agency the marketing is lackluster and the unachievable 'million dollar prize' to attract buyers is extremely cynical and should probably be closed down by the commerce commission. A 'prize' like that is not something most people would want to be associated with.

ListSellTrade may be in the best position to move on Sella's empty field, but they would have to move fast in a number of areas.

Wheedle had some strengths but who knows if they can bring anything back. The founder's public statements during the first and second launch missed the big picture and all the details entirely.

Very few professional sellers are going to pay $10 a month to list items on a site with almost no buyers, has anyone on ListSellTrade even got 10 feedback yet?

They failed to purchase listtradesell.co.nz and other variations which they will need if they ever do get popular, already gone to squatters

mattwnz

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#771146 27-Feb-2013 16:49

loceff13:
Very few professional sellers are going to pay $10 a month to list items on a site with almost no buyers, has anyone on ListSellTrade even got 10 feedback yet?

They failed to purchase listtradesell.co.nz and other variations which they will need if they ever do get popular, already gone to squatters

The name was always too difficult to remember, and what order the words should go in. Wheedle is easier to remember but too many spelling variations too.
Sella is a great loss to competition in the market, but I don't think they promoted it all that well.

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sleemanj

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#771154 27-Feb-2013 17:08

gzt: ListSellTrade may be in the best position to move on Sella's empty field, but they would have to move fast in a number of areas.

Personally I came to the conclusion that ListSellTrade is just some sort of test platform or sideline for selling ads or something, in fact I've felt from day 1 that it might be some sort of "give the junior developer something to do while business is slow" kind of thing.

I really don't think they can seriously be trying to run it as a marketplace, they just are not even trying.

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

mattwnz

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#771156 27-Feb-2013 17:22

There is that million dollar prize that will draw everyone in...

freitasm

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#771158 27-Feb-2013 17:29

mattwnz: There is that million dollar prize that will draw everyone in...

geek4me

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#771843 28-Feb-2013 17:25

If Sella has grown to 550,000 members and if say 100,000 of those still have $5 average credit then that represents $500,000 that will not be refunded as the balance is below $10.

I have $8.05 and tried to add to the balance today but Sella won't let me add to my credit balance.

I asked the help desk who just emailed a link to their Terms and Conditions Page.

I would not be impressed if Sella put that amount of members money in their back pocket as a perk!

mattwnz

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#771850 28-Feb-2013 17:38

geek4me: If Sella has grown to 550,000 members and if say 100,000 of those still have $5 average credit then that represents $500,000 that will not be refunded as the balance is below $10.
!

I can't see them being allowed to keep peoples balances under $10. Using you calculations, even if those users had just $1 in their accounts, that would still be $100,000. Perhaps if they gave the balance to a charity, such as the childrens hospital, many people with just a few dollars in their account may feel better about it. I can see it possibly being uneconomical to refund amounts under $10, with the admin involved, but it isn't their customers fault that they decided to close, as they also said. Or maybe they could credit it to peoples trademe accounts :)

Macros

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#771911 28-Feb-2013 20:04

mattwnz:
geek4me: If Sella has grown to 550,000 members and if say 100,000 of those still have $5 average credit then that represents $500,000 that will not be refunded as the balance is below $10.
!

I can't see them being allowed to keep peoples balances under $10. Using you calculations, even if those users had just $1 in their accounts, that would still be $100,000. Perhaps if they gave the balance to a charity, such as the childrens hospital, many people with just a few dollars in their account may feel better about it. I can see it possibly being uneconomical to refund amounts under $10, with the admin involved, but it isn't their customers fault that they decided to close, as they also said. Or maybe they could credit it to peoples trademe accounts :)

I pretty sure that there is NOT $100,000 worth of balances - remember that the majority who have added money are sellers, which are a fraction of the membership. Also, some balances have "credits", free credit given to use on enhancements. For a while they gave $25 credit for importing from TM, which is non-refundable (of course).

geek4me

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#775027 5-Mar-2013 15:27

I received an email from Sella requesting my bank details for refunding my $8.05 today after earlier refusing to refund my credit. I'd like to think that postings I and others put on Geekzone, Facebook and Trade Me made a difference as now everyone with over $5 credit will receive a refund.

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