Subject:
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Re: SeriousCollector
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.auction
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Date:
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Sun, 4 Apr 1999 23:52:04 GMT
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Viewed:
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533 times
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The Serious Collector Ain't No Joke.
We're establishing a serious collector's community - a better,
service-oriented
alternative to online fleamarkets.
After holding a big Lego auction in the fall of 97, I started thinking about
how the auctions we conduct on RTL differ from those on the web. I also
began thinking about what I thought would be the ideal trading/collecting
environment. A place without the junk and with a 'rational' pricing model.
The Serious Collector is essentially my ideal of a Lego trading environment.
I tried to enhance the methodology to function better on the web, and give
the auctioneer more control with respect to regulating the speed of the
auction. In early 1998 I worked on a draft business plan and tried to shop
the idea to other online auction houses. (I even interviewed with Steve
Westly, VP of eBay). Nobody was interested. With encouragement from
friends and my NLSO, I further developed the business plan, raised $50,000
and borrowed another $25,000, and incorporated in August 1998. In
September I brought in a partner, a buddy from grad school who invested
$50,000 of her own and joined the team, and another friend came on as the
first employee. We made many business mistakes along the way, learned a lot
of lessons, and finally we launched on April 1st, 1999. Now we're a company
of six bright, hard-working people with high hopes for the future.
To respond to some issues:
1) We're itching to get our server secure - internic has delayed the
registrant change, so we couldn't get a certificate, but I expect to
eliminate that problem next week.
2) The basic concept of delayed auctions is not 'owned' by anyone, of
course, but to my knowledge, the methodology tweeks we have incorporated
(wherein the seller can program each individual auction) is unique, and to
my knowledge, EveryAuction does not use "going once" and "going twice"
incrementing (hairsplitting, I know). Please, don't let 'proprietary' loom
to big - it is, admittedly, part marketing (notice we don't say patented!).
This is going to be a long march to get this business off the ground, and we
need to distinguish The Serious Collector from the competition as best as we
can.
This is our baby - I want to make it fly!
3) Gee wiz! You're right, the bidding page does look very similar to
eBay's!. They did a very good job organizing the information, and an even
better job training 4,000,000 people on where to look for key information.
:-)
Anyway, I've go to get back to the code - we have so much work to do, you
wouldn't believe!
I am deeply gratified that you folks like what you see - and I am very
interested to know what you would *like* to see, to help us build a better
mousetrap.
Many Thanks
Derick M. Bulkley
http://www.SeriousCollector.com
Mailto:dbulkley@SeriousCollector.com
Larry Pieniazek wrote:
Check THIS out: http://www.seriouscollector.com/
If this isn't for real, it is one of the most elaborate practical/April Fool
jokes I have ever seen. Note the anti sniping policy! Any bid
keeps the auction alive for 24 hours. ** I LIKE that **
> trimmed.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | SeriousCollector
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| Check THIS out: (URL) this isn't for real, it is one of the most elaborate practical/April Fool jokes I have ever seen. Note the anti sniping policy! Any bid keeps the auction alive for 24 hours. ** I LIKE that ** I am not so keen on having to give (...) (25 years ago, 2-Apr-99, to lugnet.market.auction, lugnet.announce)
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