Caithness Auction Website?

[Matthew]

Hi everyone

I've been living in Caithness for a couple of years now and have noticed that there seems to be a growing need for more Auction places in Caithness. Since the closure of Coghills Auction House in Watten, only the Quoybrae Auction remains... and they don't do non-livestock auctions very often.

I have come up with an idea of creating a Caithness Auction Website. It would be a website like eBay but just for Caithness. I think something like this would work out quite well...

• A high percentage of the auctioning fees would go to local charities in Caithness.
• It would be an cheap, quick and easy way to advertise anything you want to sell.
• There would be a high chance of being able to pick up items instead of sending them through the post. This also means that people that are afraid of paying for goods over the internet could pay by cash.
• It could help local businesses as they could create their own "Store" on the auction website. (If you are used to eBay you will know what I mean).

Do you think it would be useful? Do you think people would use it? I would love to know what other people think of this idea...

Thank you!

[TRUCKER]

Hi i think it is a good idea there is a gap in the market for something like this

[Matthew]

Thanks for your feedback trucker!

[hotrod4]

Sounds kool to me,beware of the doom and gloom merchants though!!! They may try and dampen your spirits, but I think its a top idea-go for it!!!

[riggerboy]

yeah i would buy in to that, but who can make such a place in cyber space eh eh eh

[joxville]

A similar venture operates within the company I work for, only employees have access to it, and it's successful.

[porshiepoo]

Yeah, it could be just what we need. Especially with the rip off postage charges due to our postcodes that we get charged.

[funkypumpkin]

What a great idea Matthew! Caithness is desperate for something like this. Like you say especially with Coghill's now shut and Quoybrae being very hit and miss. I am an avid ebayer and get really annoyed at the people who want to charge ridiculous postage costs because of where we are! I think this is a wonderful idea and hope it comes to Caithness real soon!

[changilass]

Was this not tried last year, but went belly up through lack of interest - or did I imagine it.


Yup, here it is:
http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?p=375575

[kmahon2001]

I think this is a great idea. I'm an Ebay user and often get frustrated by sellers saying "ship to UK Mainland only excluding Highlands", as if we're not part of the Mainland! Or charging huge amounts of money to deliver something up here by courier when it could just as easily be sent via Royal Mail at half the price.

The only trouble is that if you put the site on the internet, the whole world will get to see it and you could end out with people from all over trying to buy or sell items, which would give us the same problems as on Ebay.

I suppose you could make it a members only site and make sure that all members are based in Caithness. Or you could allow sellers to list items as deliver/ship to Caithness only so that they don't have to agree to send something to Cornwall if they happen to get a buyer from down there. You would need to have delivery/postage offered for those that don't have access to transport, so this side of things would definitely have to be considered.

[kmahon2001]

Was this not tried last year, but went belly up through lack of interest - or did I imagine it.


Yup, here it is:
http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?p=375575

That was more of an actual auction, where you could only bid on items that were already registered at that specific point in time, rather than the sort of rolling auction that Ebay is. With the Ebay approach, people can list items whenever they want to, for as long as they want to, and anyone can search the auction lists at times to suit them, put in bids and wait to see if they win. The beauty of the Ebay approach is that you don't need to have a whole load of items registered for auction before starting off, you just let the whole thing tick over slowly and gradually build up custom. If local businesses get involved and set up their own "shops" then there is a greater chance of success.

[S&LHEN]

Excellent idea sounds fantastic and like just what is needed. I think Caithness would benefit from something like this specially as the money is going back into the community.
Definatly would use it and sell on it. I like ebay but fed up of paying crippling postage costs I end up being cheaper getting it from here or Inverness
Well done on the idea good on ya.
Between this and the tourist ideas on another post Caithness will be on the up.

[newpark]

I would use it for sure. I buy a lot and sell a few bits on ebay and I would love something more local. Good Luck with your venture.

[Venture]

If confined to Caithness this will be a good idea. I for one use eBay a lot and also get fed up with excessive postal charges. On some occasions the item is cheaper than the postage. If set up I would certainly use it.

[teenybash]

Would definately use it and like other it would take away the excessive postal charges some sellers have on ebay. A great idea seeing money going back into the community.....just what we need at this time....excellent.....loook forward to seeing it up and running.....hopefully.

[anneoctober]

Matthew, you have your answer, now where do we sign up?!!

[poppett]

Brilliant idea.

[Matthew]

Wow thanks for all the replies. It looks like most of you really like the idea. I'll get to work immediately

Sounds kool to me,beware of the doom and gloom merchants though!!! They may try and dampen your spirits, but I think its a top idea-go for it!!!

Thanks hotrod, yeah there will always be a few merchants that love creating a hassle, but I don't think it would cause too much of a problem.

yeah i would buy in to that, but who can make such a place in cyber space eh eh eh

I have been working on getting the basic layout and scripts and it's pretty much almost ready. Just need to proofcheck it for bugs.

A similar venture operates within the company I work for, only employees have access to it, and it's successful.

Oh cool, I'd love to see some screenshots of what you have going there if possible.

Yeah, it could be just what we need. Especially with the rip off postage charges due to our postcodes that we get charged.

Yeah some of the postal charges up here are absolutely rediculous.

What a great idea Matthew! Caithness is desperate for something like this. Like you say especially with Coghill's now shut and Quoybrae being very hit and miss. I am an avid ebayer and get really annoyed at the people who want to charge ridiculous postage costs because of where we are! I think this is a wonderful idea and hope it comes to Caithness real soon!

Thanks funkypumpkin!

Was this not tried last year, but went belly up through lack of interest - or did I imagine it.


Yup, here it is:
http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?p=375575

That was more of an actual auction, not an online auction however.

I think this is a great idea. I'm an Ebay user and often get frustrated by sellers saying "ship to UK Mainland only excluding Highlands", as if we're not part of the Mainland! Or charging huge amounts of money to deliver something up here by courier when it could just as easily be sent via Royal Mail at half the price.

The only trouble is that if you put the site on the internet, the whole world will get to see it and you could end out with people from all over trying to buy or sell items, which would give us the same problems as on Ebay.

I suppose you could make it a members only site and make sure that all members are based in Caithness. Or you could allow sellers to list items as deliver/ship to Caithness only so that they don't have to agree to send something to Cornwall if they happen to get a buyer from down there. You would need to have delivery/postage offered for those that don't have access to transport, so this side of things would definitely have to be considered.

The number of outside caithness people that would use the site would be very small. However I would need to create an option when listing an item for people to choose if they want to allow people from outside caithness bidding or not. Then that could just be linked to a script that checks your location you selected when you registered.

That was more of an actual auction, where you could only bid on items that were already registered at that specific point in time, rather than the sort of rolling auction that Ebay is. With the Ebay approach, people can list items whenever they want to, for as long as they want to, and anyone can search the auction lists at times to suit them, put in bids and wait to see if they win. The beauty of the Ebay approach is that you don't need to have a whole load of items registered for auction before starting off, you just let the whole thing tick over slowly and gradually build up custom. If local businesses get involved and set up their own "shops" then there is a greater chance of success.

Yeah I'm hoping that local businesses would get involved because they would help very much.

I would use it for sure. I buy a lot and sell a few bits on ebay and I would love something more local. Good Luck with your venture.

Thanks newpark

If confined to Caithness this will be a good idea. I for one use eBay a lot and also get fed up with excessive postal charges. On some occasions the item is cheaper than the postage. If set up I would certainly use it.

Great! Thanks for the feedback Venture.

Would definately use it and like other it would take away the excessive postal charges some sellers have on ebay. A great idea seeing money going back into the community.....just what we need at this time....excellent.....loook forward to seeing it up and running.....hopefully.

Cheers teenybash!

Matthew, you have your answer, now where do we sign up?!!

I'll probably be looking for beta testers soon to just test out the website and make sure that everything works. Keep an eye out.

Brilliant idea.

Cheers!

[Matthew]

Apologies for the double post.

Here is what I have come up with so far... EDIT: This is just an image, not a working site (yet)!

Click for Larger image

[funkypumpkin]

Wow Matthew that looks really good and very professional. You are obviously very talented in what you do. I hope you get it up and running as I am sure it will be a big hit here in Caithness.