Hello everyone,
After not having made any pokemon purchases in a few months, I’ve been looking to pick up a few cards and made my way over to PWCC’s new online auction.
I’ve been searching around their auction but can’t totally figure out how their auctions work and how to best work on building a bidding strategy. Can anyone share tips/tricks/strats on how to use the platform effectivly/efficiently?
You can find some pretty recent discussion on this in the PWCC thread that’s already linked discussing the most recent auction. Some people really like PWCC and others loath it due to the time involved with the extended bidding system compared to eBay which ends right at the closing time. I think it’s definitely possible to develop some strategy if you’re bidding on enough stuff at once, I know myself I’ve managed to snag quite a few cards much cheaper than what I’ve gotten on eBay. I think what’s happening though is because of the layout it becomes very difficult to manage a bunch of bids at once so people just miss out in the extended bidding time window, but I’m not entirely sure. I’ve read numerous complaints while others seem to like it.
The UI looks clean at a glance, but UX is ass.
It’s pretty split between buyers & sellers. Most of the people who commented positively are selling with pwcc. And vice versa.
Doesn’t sound like a sustainable way to run a two sided marketplace…
I love extended bidding…when the auction block is 15 items total and the extensions run consecutively.
bigbrain design
With capped extensions to make sure things run smoothly while maintaining the excitement i.e you only get a certain amount of time to war with your opponent and only 3-4 items per block realistically is going to go all out anyway so nobody has to sit up until 3 AM.
The perks of smaller hobbies, unlike Pokemon, which feels more like attempting to forex trade in the delivery line at Burger King.
I don’t think the people that run PWCC give a flying furret about the buyer experience. Sellers will continue to submit cards, and PWCC will continue to take their fat cut. I suppose when you’ve captured that much of the market, there’s a mutual understanding that your users can’t really go anywhere else.
Absolutely, PWCC are currently in the transitory period going from “most viable/almost inevitable” to “tyrant with market chokehold.” It really is up to eBay and the eBay whales how much more power they get.
For the moment though, PWCC are currently somewhat dependent on maintaining the “by the people for the people”-image spiel, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to innovate and improve the experience for a certain amount of time. But, like I said, this is only a transitory period. Think of it like starting a new job in the service sector, or your first day at a very bad school. It seems doable at first, it usually takes a little while for the crap to really kick in. The way of all 100% profit-minded business, especially in pseudo-monopolies.