I love those live auctions. Very exciting watching those. It's amazing the prices some items fetch with 1 picture and no description at all!
I posed the idea for using that and getting TNet to sponsor an auction of member submitted finds and such, but it was met with an extremely cold reception.
I think live internet auctions are a growing industry. To have people submit items for the auction and be able to comment on them and then link the item from live auctioneers to the forum would add a lot more credibility than a lot of the auctions. I'd imagine many items would turn into bidding wars.
Why not have no charge for sellers and charge a 15% (plus live auctioneer fees) to the buyer? Seller would have to pay shipping fees. (You can pass this to the buyer, but that may be a selling point, free shipping)
Most of those places charge 15, 20 or more % to the buyers and then sellers to list get charged 20% commission fee.
The buyer premium would cover the cost of the auction and more. There will be a lot of work to list the auction, make sure everyone gets paid and that everyone ships their items.
So you can download live auction app and watch without registering? If so I will do that...
sent from a potato...
The problems I see are how to pay the sellers (if paypal, more fees) and then knowing that the item described and photo'd was what they sent to the buyer. If people had a LOT of trust they would send you the items so you can get some standards for photos and then be responsible for delivery. I've never heard of a drop-ship live auction.
As long as it was a STRICT return policy, such as item grossly differs from pictures and description...Thing is with live auctions what you are bidding on is right on front of you and you can check it out pre-auction. Online is basically sight unseen so you would need a return policy , at least a minimal one, maybe 7 days to contact for a return.