AuctionZip.com and this “other site” are both auction calendar websites, where auctioneers can post upcoming auctions. Recently, AuctionZip.com has changed its website (and as of 2015 started charging for listings) and some auctioneers are unhappy and switching to this other site.
It’s just that simple, right? If an auctioneer is unhappy with one auction calendar site, just switch to another? Is this issue really what you as an auctioneer are happy about? It’s not — and rather we would hold the issue is where are your bidders looking for auctions?
In January 2020 (according to our research,) AuctionZip.com had 1.2 million unique visitors and this other site had 211,800 unique visitors. Further, visitors stay on AuctionZip.com for over four minutes, where they stay on this other site a little over 1.5 minutes.
In other words, AuctionZip.com had over five times the number of unique visitors and people stayed on their site over twice as long, but you’re unhappy with them, so you’re switching?
I suppose with this logic, auctioneers would switch again to another calendar called NoAuctionViews.com so long as that site paid you $10 to list your auction? They have -0- visitors, and no traffic, but who cares since you the auctioneer would earn $10 and that has to be better than free or paying $40, right?
We used the Columbus Dispatch to advertise auctions in the 1980’s and 1990’s — it was expensive and we weren’t happy about it. I remember another newspaper calling to tell me how inexpensive their paper was …
… and I recall telling that salesperson that while they were cheaper, I couldn’t justify advertising (instead) with them, as “everyone” looked for auctions in the “Sunday Dispatch.” We didn’t switch to a less expensive newspaper with many fewer (if any) views because we had a seller to worry about.
I’m rooting for the folks at this other site (and any others) and hope to report that their platform outperforms AuctionZip.com in the near future. However, until they do, for an auctioneer to say that it’s better to advertise a seller’s auction on a lesser-visited website because the auctioneer doesn’t like the other more-visited website … seems curious to say the least.
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, CAI, CAS, AARE has been an auctioneer and certified appraiser for over 30 years. His company’s auctions are located at: Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, RES Auction Services and Goodwill Columbus Car Auction. He serves as Distinguished Faculty at Hondros College, Executive Director of The Ohio Auction School, an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and America’s Auction Academy. He is faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University and is approved by the The Supreme Court of Ohio for attorney education.
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