Remember the good old fashioned auction where you rocked up and could crawl all over the goods, picking and pocking at it to see whether there was something wrong with it? I remember when people where reluctant to buy things from auction for the fear of buying someone else's problems even when they could inspect it before auction including the fact that most reputable auction houses even did some kind of pre inspection on goods and let you know there was something wrong with it. And now. Now you can go to online auction centers and buy anything you can think of from just about any part of the world. How times change. Well .... what changed? Was it the convienience of easily being able to locate goods? Or the fact you didnt have to wait for auction day as there are auctions taking place every minute of the day. Or the rise and rise of the internet as a shopping tool. Or brand name marketing that gained consumer trust and the mass marketing of it's services namely ebay. I believe it's a combination of all those factors and the fact that consumers themselves can also make money online via online auctions further promoting it's use. In a recent press release from ebay "Entrepreneurs in record numbers are setting up shop on eBay, according to a new survey conducted for eBay by ACNielsen International Research, a leading research firm. More than 724,000 Americans report that eBay is their primary or secondary source of income. In addition to these professional eBay sellers, another 1.5 million individuals say they supplement their income by selling on eBay, according to the July 2005 survey. In the first six months of 2005, eBay members in the U.S. sold merchandise worth approximately $10.6 billion." In the automotive market major manufacturers are making great use of online systems to sell ex lease vehicles saving them transportation costs, reconditioning fees and auction fees. Some manufacturers are now selling up to 40% of these vehicles via online auction. For purchasers it is a relief to not have to travel to an auction and spend a day standing around a warehouse to get the vehicles they need. How times change and there appears to be no restrictions to what can be sold online as anything from machinery to a dolls dress can be found for sale. Looking around traditional auction centres they all have some kind of online auction system in place as well as there traditional style. So how long will it be before they all move to online and the traditional style of auction is dead? I can see the freight business picking up! |
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