Nice to see you on board CTCW, I have been selling on there for about 6 monthes now, with some pretty good success. I have been through most of the ins and outs of the site. So I thought I would try to address a few of your concerns about auctions. What I am addressing are ways I deal with these issues as it stands, but be sure to let Mike(Socal Mike on the CTCW or parrothead here on AA as he likes to get all the critiques so he can see what may or may not need changed in the next software upgrade window) know your concerns. THere is also a thread for improvements and suggestions in CTCW forum area, maybe check it out.
SO now for how I deal with some of these....
1) After you push the button to start an auction, you're asked if you want to list something similar. After this, there is no apparent way to access this functionality.
I have discussed this with Mike and I believe it is on his list of suggestions, but for now the easiest thing to do is always list something similiar when the second window opens just navigate somewhere else. It will not list the item simply saves it into your pending auctions and then you can come back and fiddle with it in the future. It holds items in the pending area for around 30 days.
2) Site doesn't do local timezone correction.
Never noticed that, but be sure to let Mike know.
3) The button to push to go to the next step in listing something seems to jump around. First it's at the bottom looking like a button, then it's in the middle looking like an ordinary link...
Your right here I jsut use it so much don't niotice it....
4) No way to change the ending time of an auction after it has started.
Well this one I don't think is really an issue just my opinion. I don't like the idea of people changing the end times if they decide it needs more time listed. I don't believe you can do this on any other site, either. BUt like I said this is simply my thoughts.
5) When selecting a category in which to list an item, it would be much easier if a hierarchy of spin boxes was used instead of one big spin box listing all categories.
THis is a great idea, be sure to let Mike know about this one. That would make it easier....
6) Something listed simply under the category "games" is unhelpful. It should not be possible to do that.
I think this may have been left in there for items that don't fall under any of the more specific categories. Every once in a while something pops up that isn't set up with a specific category.
7) It would be nice to see who the seller is before clicking on the auction.
Not sure about this one, I assume you mean when searching listings unless you search by seller you don't knwo the seller of the item. THat is a suggestion for Mike, I guess I see your point if I would have a bad experience with someone I may not want to deal with them and seeing ahead of time might save me some time...
There ought to be an explicit "save for later" sort of button at the bottom of the fourth step of creating a listing.
THis one you really don't need as it saves everything as you go and if at any point you navigate away from the page it automatically saves it into the pending auction section of my listings, so you don't have to save at any point. I mean I suppose it would be nice for a feel good button, but it really isn't needed I don't believe. Just my thoughts.
9) Those "LOOK!" arrows are annoying.
I agree they are kind of annoying but some people like them so I guess we are stuck with them...
Anyway hope some of that helps and look forward to more stuff from you in the future...
Bruce