Trading Ebay Post

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I was happy to find a note from my insider re: a promotion for August by Australia's prominent trading paper cum website, Trading Post.  It appears as though I/we have been given some free stuff too, always welcome!

You may be wondering why I care.  Well, all I can say is,  is Trading Post making a play for the online auction market in Australia ?  Of course they are, you say, and I say, what took them so long?  Maybe that is a bit unfair, maybe this is just the right time and the patience that they have displayed by staying in the newspaper market is about to pay off.

Here are the factors that make this move by Trading Post a good one, and a bit of this has nothing to do with Australia.  Ebay, I'm sure you have heard of them, has been king of the hill for some time, but the online market can be fickle.  It is funny how we forget that the whole Internet is based on kind of high school popularity contest.  And depending on the film maker, the underdog loser can also end up being the prom king in the end, with or without the girl.

As big as Ebay was, or is, some poor moves, a disgruntled user base and a lack of innovation has seen the rise of sites like Craigslist.  It is interesting that other sites trying to directly compete with Ebay haven't really kicked on (if you have info to the contrary, please let me know), but as the whale begins to slow, the silent achievers with innovation are starting to make ground.
debacle
I'm sure you may have heard of Ebays Paypal debacle here in Oz.  Ebay was pushing to make all transactions on the site go through Paypal.  I could see the wisdom of doing that, as it would be one way to tackle the big fraud issue plaguing the auction service.  Also Ebay owns Paypal so they would make the odd dollar, who could blame them for trying.

Funny that the issue of lack of innovation has effected the market side of the company, but the issue of Paypal has opened the door for a existing Australian brand to capitalise on the thousands of Paypalled off Ebay users, by firing up their online auction side.  And it is about time too, as I thought that this was their plan when I first saw their site years ago.  Little did I know that they had the patience of the print industry, and it was going to be a virtue rather than a noose, which is seemingly going to be the downfall of the rest of the print media.

I can't say that I'm a big user/reader of the Trading Post, but I did get my first computer through a Trading Post so there is a little bit of sentiment there.  I'm keen to see a challenger to Ebay as it is getting cluttered with mini retailers.  So a fresh start may be the way to bring back the original excitement of online auctions, at least for a little while.

I'll be giving it a go and let you know how it stacks up, usability-wise.  One plus is that it looks way better than Craigslist, and I hope for the newbie's sake that they can keep it easier to understand than Ebay.  Also the pricing looks better than Ebay so they should be able to mount a strong attack on the Aussie buyers and sellers.

Jason Remnant

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No bandwidth please, we're Australian

After a mention on one of the recent TWITs/MacBreaks, it must be common knowledge that here in Oz, bandwidth is at a premium.  Leo Laporte, after a trip down under, revealed our shame in talking about the horrid cost of broadband for mobile and fixed.  With the roll out of ADSL 2+ in it's early stages (12mb - 24mb) things were looking up, if you could afford it.  But then I hear that the Internet is going to be full by 2010, and I'm beginning to feel like the guy arriving to the party after the drunk guy has fallen through the glass sliding door and everyone is making a break for it before the owners come home.

Here at home, I'm on a ADSL 512/128, which would be around base access for most.  As much as I want/need a better speed I'm tied by location mostly, and price to a lesser extent.  There are cheaper and better plans out there but due to location, at the writing of this, these are the ADSL 2+ plans I have access to:

Plan speed Up to 24576 / 512 kbps	Pre-paid data	Excess data	Upload data	IP	Monthly cost	Calc TCO
600MB ADSL2+ (Bundled)	600 MB	$150 /GB	Counted	Dynamic	$59.95 /mo
600MB ADSL2+	600 MB	$150 /GB	Counted	Dynamic	$69.95 /mo
Liberty ADSL2+ (Bundled)	12 GB	Shaped	Counted	Dynamic	$89.95 /mo
Liberty ADSL2+	12 GB	Shaped	Counted	Dynamic	$99.95 /mo
Up to 24576 / 1024 kbps
Liberty 25GB ADSL2+ (bundle)	25 GB	Shaped	Counted	Dynamic	$99.95 /mo
Liberty 25GB ADSL2+	25 GB	Shaped	Counted	Dynamic	$109.95 /mo
60GB ADSL2+ (Bundled)	60 GB	$150 /GB	Counted	Dynamic	$149.95 /mo
60GB ADSL2+	60 GB	$150 /GB	Counted	Dynamic	$159.95 /mo

From Whirlpool.net.au.

The big T (Telstra ) has excelled itself in providing the worst broadband plans of all time, and because of their size and name, people pay it.  As a comparison, here is an ISP that isn't in my area yet:

Plan speed Up to 24576 / 1024 kbps	Pre-paid data	Excess data	Upload data	IP	Monthly cost	Calc TCO
HOME-Extreme-Starter	10 GB	Shaped	Free	Dynamic	$49.95 /mo
HOME-Extreme-Value	25 GB	Shaped	Free	Dynamic	$59.95 /mo
HOME-Extreme-Boost	40 GB	Shaped	Free	Dynamic	$74.95 /mo
HOME-Extreme-Pro	55 GB	Shaped	Free	Dynamic	$89.95 /mo
HOME-Extreme-Super	80 GB	Shaped	Free	Dynamic	$119.95 /mo
HOME-Extreme-Elite	100 GB	Shaped	Free	Dynamic	$149.95 /mo

From Whirlpool.net.au

We could go into the contentious issues, but from experience though my work, Telstra are not the premium provider that the price would have you believe.  Internode, whose pricing is above, are one of the more popular providers, but sadly isn't in my area.  Poor geography? Or poor penetration? but really, isn't it 2008?

Jason