I am thinking about starting up an auction site exclusively for Mini LPs (and CDs generally).

Here are some of the features I am considering:
1) Sellers of counterfeit items will be banned.
2) CDs only (to start with - but may evolve into all recorded media).
3) Auction types similar to eBay (ie. 10 days, Buy It Now).
4) Payment of auction fees by PayPal only.
5) No auction fees (none) for the first 3 months.
6) Payment for items however you want it (your business is your business not mine).
7) Feedback system TBD but similar to original eBay (ie. simple).

Any and all ideas welcome either here or directly to me via email. (I may post your email ideas anonymously.)

Sam, I am all for the auction idea. I hope the people that come to this site and yahoo site are serious collectors and for that reason we can offer each other the hard to find minis that we may never listen to or have duplicate copies. No fakes is paramount, although with my 1000+ minis I may have a couple fakes that I am not aware of. I only buy now from reputable sellers but in the beginning I was just collecting. If a fake does sell, there should be a rule that seller accepts return and pays postage + cost of mini. I think all your other ideas are good.
steve

Great Idea -- I'm in.
William Childress

Sam,

This is a great idea. Thanks for taking this on.

Keith

IM in Sam. Id love to do this. Ill help get the word out. We can do this! Great idea!

Thanks for the feedback (including those who've replied anonymously). A couple of big sellers have expressed some interest too (I asked them directly) which is promising.

I have looked into software and I will need to spend some money and of course time in order to get this up and going. With limited funds and time I need to keep this very simple to start with - perhaps just Buy-It-Nows (in other words a shop) - but of course that depends on the seller and the software to support it.

I might even do something like have the last week of each month as the auction week but sellers would be able to and strongly encouraged to preview what they will be auctioning. I would send out a newsletter on the day the auction starts.

This does not necessarily meant that every auction finishes at exactly the same time (eg. midnight in a certain time zone on a certain day) but this may actually not be a bad thing - it would eliminate or at least reduce bids in the last 10 seconds because buyers wanting more than one item would have to place realistic bids a few minutes (or hours) before the auction ends. (Good for sellers and not so good for experienced buyers - but perhaps fairer and more realistic prices for all.)

Any thoughts on that one?

Great idea Sam, go for it!
steve