Bid4Jeeps Blog

Wow! There are definitely some collectible magazines on Bid4Jeeps. Odd how some things come about.

Back in 2010 when we were getting the website setup and went into beta testing I ran into a gentleman with a Jeep at a local gas station. I mentioned Bid4Jeeps to him and suggested he try it. So, I saw that he registered, but never listed anything. Last week I ran into him again, so I gently worked the conversation toward the auction site and asked why he hadn’t listed some items.

He told me he didn’t have any Jeep parts for sale. I reminded him it wasn’t strictly for Jeeps and Jeep parts. While I would like to see much more in the way of Jeepers becoming active with their jeep items, anyone can list anything. He told me he had a bunch of old magazines that he wanted to sell, but it wasn’t worth his time on eBay after paying a 15% final value fee and listing fees. “List ‘em all,” I told him.

And is he ever!

When I noticed his total listings were approaching 100 I gave him a call. These were old magazines and very much a collectors dream. He had Sports Illustrated magazines from 1955 – the first year they were published and he was selling them below what was being asked on eBay.

He told me that he was happy to start listing them again and even if they didn’t sell, at least he wouldn’t be making eBay rich using their website (I knew I liked him!). So, we talked some more and being a bit of a sports enthusiast I was curious about the early Sports Illustrated magazines he had among the Time and Newsweek magazines.

Seems he has hundreds of them, including the first and second Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues from 1964 and 1965, among his collection.

He tells me that though it is a tedious process listing so many magazines he is going to keep at it. “Is 500 too many?”, he asked. He thinks that is about the total number of magazines he has collected.

Bless you, PlayItAgain. If only we could find a Jeep enthusiast willing to list that many items!

If you want to check out PlayItAgain’s magazine store where you’ll find collectible magazines from Sports Illustrated, Time, and Newsweek, CLICK HERE. He is offering some real bargains!

Members may notice that in their control panel is a link for our Bulklister. We’ve had a number of questions regarding the bulklister for listing Jeep parts, so we’re hoping to answer some of the most common ones here and explain what a bulklister is.

A bulklister is most often used by those who are in the business of selling Jeeps and Jeep parts, or have a vast majority of items that they continuously sell. Bulklisters are used in conjunction with a .csv file in which items are listed and delineated with a separator character such as a hash bar, comma, or other character.

This delineated file can show a variety of information the seller wants to display, such as the title of the item, stock number, a url address of picture to be displayed, a description, price of the item, and other information.

If you’re lost at this point, the bulklister probably isn’t something you’ll need, but to continue, a delineated .csv file might appear as below, shown as a small part of a text file:

With our bulklister, we offer the ability for members to create their own .csv files for use on Bid4Jeeps. It can also import .csv files that you prepare on your desktop.

It should be pointed out that the preparation of a .csv file can be a tenuous task, which is why most sellers don’t create one. It is much simpler to just list a few items at a time after setting the prefilled fields/global settings on your account. Only advanced computer users familiar with a bulklister should try to tackle using the bulklister. You should also be aware that the bulklister we provide was developed by a third party we outsourced to create it for our use. It functions, but we hoped for something better.

However, for our members who use eBay and turbolister, we have plans to install a new feature before summer arrives, depending upon the amount of members we have. It will be costly and we have to weigh the expense against the amount of use it will actually have.

This new program we hope to have installed will allow anyone using eBay and their turbolister to import all their eBay listings to Bid4Jeeps with as few as 3 simple clicks. Your ebay listing will be copied to Bid4Jeeps, transferring all information and having your Bid4Jeeps listings appear exactly as they do on eBay.

We’re seeing a surprising trend this month. Most of our newest members seem to be vendors who are opting to purchase our vendor advertising package that allows them to offer links in their listings. Not that we have a problem with this. We’re happy to provide people with the ability to generate more business for themselves selling Jeep parts, or other items.

What we’re surprised at is that there aren’t just more of the everyday people listing their items on Bid4Jeeps. For years we listened to and talked with people on blogs and forums who constantly complained of high eBay fees and how it wasn’t worth listing their items because of the expense and how much was taken in the end from their sale.

Perhaps they’ll start listing things in the coming months. We don’t know. Many of these members we contacted directly when our site was in beta and they registered. Some of them listed a few jeep parts and personal items, but many we never heard from again. We just expected more from those who yelled the loudest.

Anyway, back to our vendors…

We’re happy to have them on board. Most have chosen to send vistors to their own website, but that is their privilege they paid for. Since we make no money on fees and people can list personal items for free anyway we’re happy for the revenue that keeps our site paid for.

Just note, if you are a vendor, or have your own website, you must contact us to arrange payment for inserting redirection links on your listings.