Stamp Auction Network - The Next Pivot

revenuecollector is correct that Tom's "just me thinking out loud" style isn't helping.

What intrigues is "why now"?

I imagine that (some of) the auction houses are putting pressure on SAN's fees, and getting more of SAN's revenue from the buyers would allow SAN to lower those fees.

Moreover, SAN will always face the threat of 'disintermediation', eg, cutting out the middle man (SAN). Anything Tom can do to 'engage' the SAN buyer population (keep them bidding thru SAN) is critical to his future.

The first time that I went to view lots at Dutch (2014?), they were very careful to insist that, if I had found them thru SAN, I would bid thru SAN. I had to laugh: I had found SAN thru Dutch.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Paperhistory - Point taken on whom is paying what. All of these transactions are built on trust. Lots of trust. It is a leap of faith that any given auction agent is not in bed with an auction house whether it is Tom or Spanky's Philatelic Auction Agent Service, Lagos, Nigeria.

I believe that the why now is tied to rates that have been static since the beginning more or less and feelers regarding increases did not go well. I believe that the one firm whose departure from SAN would do the most damage would be Siegel. High profile, high realizing sales. The Gross auctions coming up. Siegel is the anchor in the strip mall.

I also have not been getting the recent communications from SAN despite responding to the surveys and being a frequent user of SAN in the past. Also a big supporter of Toms charity auctions. So not sure why the follow up messages are occurring in such an erratic fashion if he's trying to drum up support. As I noted in an earlier post, I would be willing to consider paying for extra services if they appear to be helpful for the price offered. One feature which is useful is not revealing to the auction house what your max bid is. I got burned by that by a certain auction house which is now defunct before I wised up. Also if SAN can truly be an advocate for me as a buyer when something goes awry in an auction, which has happened a few times when bidding thru SAN, but for which no help was forthcoming for various reasons.

@ikeyPikey




And to reverse the question "why not now"? 2018 is likely the best possible year of all to launch a paid service, as the 'climate' against paywalls and other paid digital services is rapidly changing from overly negative into neutral one.

The message SAN/Tom is sending is IMHO pretty simple - they want to build some new tools for us collectors, but in order to do so, they need our money. The auction houses and SAN are not willing to invest in there on their own, and rightly so as the tools might not bring them any direct revenue (heck, the tools might even have the reverse effect). Those seeing SAN as 'bidding agent only' are really out of touch with the tech - their main business is/will be 'user behavior' (aka big data). So far they've used the knowledge for auction houses, now they are offering to 'balance' the act (at a cost, likely any proper business would do, LOL)

Just my 5 cents worth...

-k-

I am still buffaloed by the survey and the only value I can think of is an attempt to 'ease' people into the idea of implementing fees.

I think it would have been far better to have acknowledge the site direction from the beginning, set the expectations early.

And to SAN's credit and unlike some other websites, at least they acknowledge in their privacy policy that they will sell your personal information, including transaction details, to others.


Don

Generally you have it right, Don. My take is that Tom wants to sell out, be acquired by a larger entity, or attract venture investment. To do any of them, he has to show a recurring revenue stream - some basis to value the service at a multiple of the (low) value of its hard assets.

New business owners rarely anticipate this type of pivot so they can't disclose it to users at the start. They have the germ of an idea, they build it out as a free service, it becomes unexpectedly successful, new money or a buyer wants to come in (or a pal convinces them to cash out), and suddenly they have to create a revenue justification. That's what's going on here, and the modern trend is to use a "conversation" with customer to ease the transition.

Chris