Date: Fri 02-Jul-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: SARAH

Quick Words:

Buynsellit.com-Internet

Full Text:

At Buynsellit.com, Smaller Is Better

(with 3 cuts)

By Catherine Saunders-Watson

History tells us that the wheels of progress have always run more efficiently

with the introduction of hungry competition. Without profit-driven contenders

to the throne of free enterprise, ours would be a world of Coke, but no Pepsi;

Ford, but no Chevrolet; Hertz, but no Avis. And does anyone remember what it

was like when there was only one telephone company? Mark Forss, president of

the newly-launched Web Services, Inc, was convinced the realm of Internet

auctions could stand some competition, too, when he developed the idea for

buynsellit.com, a relatively small but very powerful online antiques

multi-site that promises to give eBay a spirited run for its money.

Forss makes no apologies about his company's intention to carve a slice out of

the lucrative online pie currently being enjoyed by ehammer, amazon and the

site that started it all, eBay, whose first quarter 1999 revenues hit $34

million, nearly six times its earnings for the same period in 1998. But why

would David take on Goliath in a marketplace so heavily dominated by eBay, an

undeniably first-rate operation that is already a Wall Street legend?

"Because our goal is not to be another eBay," Forss explains. "We want to

start a new trend by offering a smaller, more personal site that isn't like a

big city. We think buyers will visit our site for the same reason people drive

to out-of-the-way towns in Maine to buy in small shops: so they'll find

something interesting.

Admittedly, the nucleus of buynsellit.com is its auction, which Forss

describes as "quicker to access and simpler to operate and download than other

online auction sites because the equipment and software programs used are

state of the art, unheard of four or five years ago when other auction sites

were in their planning stages."

He stresses that, in spite of the advanced technology, first-time users will

not be intimidated. "We've learned from the experience of those involved in

Internet retailing, as well as people experienced in the collectibles field,

that you can't apply the same techniques used in selling, for instance, CDs or

books, to the antiques and collectibles market. They're two distinctly

different marketing applications. Antiques and collectibles, by virtue of what

they represent, go through a `screening' process before they are bid on that

is nothing like, say, office supplies, which are usually purchased in a very

straightforward fashion with minimal description or interaction between buyer

and seller required."

Forss is quick to point out that the auction component is only part of the big

picture at buynsellit.com. The site also features a classified section for

making immediate, fixed-price purchases. "It costs only ten cents a word, you

can add a photo, and the ad runs for a full 30 days or until the item has

sold. The ads are very easy to search, and the format is more like a virtual

antique store. It's not just column after column of boring ads, like in a

newspaper, and the search engine, which is very sophisticated, is a snap to

use."

In fact, the search engine to which Forss refers is of the latest generation

available and superior to those with which the majority of online shoppers

would be familiar. With a click of the mouse, parameters can be set by the

user to search one specific area of the website, multiple areas or the entire

site, including all text. When accessed by a user whose computer is equipped

with a standard 56k modem, the buynsellit.com search engine returns a full

search result in seconds.

Although auction listings include everything from antique cars to Lear jets,

quality collectibles, i.e., items not old enough, technically, to be called

antiques, are expected to comprise some of the most active classifications

within the auction's framework. Anticipating this, Forss, whose background is

primarily in business and technology, intentionally assembled a support team

with a strong background in toys and other popular collecting fields. "We

simply responded to what we think the buying public wants, and has wanted for

some years, now, and hired highly qualified people who could `speak the

language.'

"Visitors to the site will quickly recognize the importance we place on the

proper classification of various items. We have carefully sub-classified the

categories that require being broken down so collectors can instantly get to

what really interests them. On some auction websites, there are toy

classifications, for instance, that definitely need their own separate areas

under the greater `Toys' umbrella but don't have them, so the person browsing

the site has to waste a lot of time scanning pages in other categories in

hopes of turning up what they're after. Sellers have a problem, too, as they

often cannot decide which category to list their toy under, since the correct

category does not exist."

Some of the early believers who have linked their websites to buynsellit.com

indicate the diversity of interest that already has been created. Businesses

included in the auction site's shopping mall are merchandising giant Lands

End, Randy Inman Auctions, Road American Race Track and Northern Tool &

Equipment, to name but a few.

Mark Forss envisions buynsellit.com as a viable side entry into the mammoth

marketplace that has `eBay' written in gold over the front door. "Some say

we're taking a big risk, but it really isn't such a risk. If you use a search

engine and pull up `online auctions,' you'll see that less than 100 of them

exist worldwide. That's not at all a saturated market if you look at the

colossal opportunity the Internet represents. There is no question that eBay

created this market, but the sites below eBay are the ones that stand to

thrive. At a site like ours, statistics show that a seller is likely to

increase profitability by an average of 40 percent. A study was done by one of

the smaller auction sites in which they listed the exact same items on eBay

and their own site, and the smaller site had a substantially higher rate of

auction closures than eBay. The closure rate on eBay, meaning the auctions in

which the items are ultimately paid for and shipped out, is about 30 percent."

"I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind it," Forss concludes, "But it could

be something as simple as a modern day twist on an old story in the antiques

business. Buyers are always hoping to find that little-known place off the

beaten path where they can turn up consistently good merchandise and the

occasional true bargain without an overwhelming level of competition. I guess

you could say we're the online version of that little shop in Maine that

people will drive hundreds of miles to check out."