ANN: New components site

Hi Alan, Not a bad idea, in fact I had a similar idea myself a while back. My two cents worth:

1) There needs to be a "browse" function, not just a search function. 2) Having an indication of the number of entires in each category would be good. 3) I would not limit it to components. 4) You would need to initially offer listing for free until a database is built up, and only then consider charging to keep the site running, make a small profit etc. Otherwise there is no incentive to list there instead of eBay until there is a known audience. 5) Competing with eBay will be hard, there is already a category on eBay for components and gear. The automatic watchlists and searching features on eBay are hard to beat. 6) I would not limit it to parts, but test equipment as well. 7) Any support for photos? 8) Apart from the title, it is not obvious that this is an Australian focused site.

Dave :)

Thanks for the feedback Dave.

Some replies:- I'll have a look at how easy it is to implement 1) and 2). I did think of putting a browse function but decided originally that the resulting list might get out of hand very quickly.

Re: 3), 5) and 6) I wonder what else people would like to see on there? I'm not trying to compete with e-bay (I think google-ads will be doing that soon enough from reports) rather I though of a more focused site for us design/repair freaks.

Re: 4) I don't see any harm in offering free listings for the first three months the site is running to get some movement but then again I guess $1.10 for 13 weeks advertising is also pretty cheap (less than

9c a week and multiple sales from each listing is allowed) plus no percentage of sales!

Re: 6) Is there a demand for listing test equipment? I know there are a couple of sites in Australia already listing/selling such things. If enough people want test equipment adding then I guess we could do so.

Re: 7) Again I considered photos originally and then dismissed them for two reasons - a)an IC looks like and IC! and b) photos can really eat up storage space and bandwidth which means it costs more to run the site. Obviously if we add test equipment to the categories then we will have to look at the photo option.

Re: 8) Although the idea is to operate the site more for the benefit of us guys down here I don't want to disuade people from other countries at least buying from us. I know there are similar sites operating in the US and the international market but I have heard some horror stories about "relabeled" components and "rejects" that make me wary of using such sites and that was one of the reasons I considered setting up ozcomponents.com so that we could have some local based companies/individulas to deal with. Doesn't necessarily mean we'll get rid of all the sharks but at least we'll be in the same water!

Thanks again for the feedback, Dave.

More is welcome from yourself and others and to get the ball rolling let's say 20 free listings per company/individual to readers of the NG between now and 31st December (each listing will last 13 weeks). If you (or any one else) want to take advantage of this offer just send me an e-mail with your full name and contact phone number and I'll set up an account for that e-mail address and send you a password.

Regards

Alan

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Jenal Communications
Manufacturers and Suppliers of HF Selcall
P O Box 1108, Morley, Western Australia
Tel: +61 8 9370 5533 Fax +61 8 9467 6146
Web Site: http://www.jenal.com 
Contact: http://www.jenal.com/?p=1
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I don't believe so, most people browse eBay as well as search. I would consider it an essential feature. In fact without browsing or at least email watches it wouldn't be a "fun" site to visit.

I think it will take a lot longer than 3 months to get a decent membership, my guess would be at least 12 months. You need to get up there on Google and links on other high traffic sites too. People will want to know the traffic volume on the site too before they spend time submitting their stuff. As for cost, it is cheaper than ebay, but it's not as cheap as free which is what you get on the aus.electronics and Aus-Electronics groups. Occasional FS posting are allowed on these groups.

I think it would greatly increase the popularity of the site.

Photos are no problem for a say 5GB/month 500MB plan for under $10/month. If disk space is an issue then you can implement and automatic photo resizer script to limit the file size to say 50KB/photo.

Thanks Alan, I will consider it.

The reason I didn't go ahead with my test equipment/component advertising site is that I figured it would never be possible to reach the market penetration and compete with all the features of eBay. My site was going to be completely free unless bandwidth became an issue. For my own needs I have found that I have sufficient traffic on my own website to sell a lot of my excess stuff, so I either advertise on my own site or on eBay. I occasionally post on here too. New sites like this are really chicken and egg. You need the traffic and listings, but you won't get the traffic and listings unless there is already enough traffic and listings! Arghhh...

I would say that you'll have to offer a long fee free and hassle free period to get up to speed. If people have to create an account and password etc then that may dimisish the appeal. Ideally it would be nice if it was like a free forum based thing and people could post without having to create an account. Although I don't know how you would easily transition from that to an account system once it picks up enough speed.

If you just want to create a good resource, and the objective is to simply cover the costs of the site, then perhaps it could work on a donation system or something similar. You might even be able to get free hosting via an aleady established site.

Good luck.

Regards Dave :)

Thanks again Dave. I'll bear all your comments in mind and see what I can come up with.

Wonder what anyone else thinks?

Alan

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Jenal Communications
Manufacturers and Suppliers of HF Selcall
P O Box 1108, Morley, Western Australia
Tel: +61 8 9370 5533 Fax +61 8 9467 6146
Web Site: http://www.jenal.com 
Contact: http://www.jenal.com/?p=1
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I think it's a good idea, test gear would be handy also. If you had a stock set of images, say DIP8, DIP14, 1/4W axial etc you should be able to cut down on the amount of images needed to give a good indication to the newbie of what they are getting.

I think it is great!! Would you consider extending it to the electrical trade? I also have had similar thoughts with left over stock which in the end I have just binned. eBay I feel is a dead loss - I have virtually given away stuff there - but having stuff online at a set price and just wait around is better. I would give 6 months tho rather than 3.

I have leftover PCB's, like a lot (100's) and components I would like to offload, maybe in 1's or 2's or 10's rather than 100's though.

Cheers.

what a wanker effort, if you don't know the part number of say a "display" you can not get out of square one, you may as well pick your nose, I am off somewhere else.

I agree. It needs a search facility with a browsing capability. Having to know the part number is just ridiculous. Like I may need 50 x 56uF 350VW electrolytics. I don't need a particular manufacturer's cap to do the job, but this database expects me to know then all before I can take a look. Stupid as....

Cheers, Alan

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 09:11:57 +0800, "Alan Rutlidge"

Excellent constructive comments guys. Just the kind of feedback I wanted.

Thanks

Alan

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Jenal Communications
Manufacturers and Suppliers of HF Selcall
P O Box 1108, Morley, Western Australia
Tel: +61 8 9370 5533 Fax +61 8 9467 6146
Web Site: http://www.jenal.com 
Contact: http://www.jenal.com/?p=1
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks Mark. I'll look at putting a selection of "stock" images on the site.

I'm a bit wary about making the site bigger than Ben Hur. The original idea was just for ICs - but it's growing!

Thanks

Alan

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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jenal Communications
Manufacturers and Suppliers of HF Selcall
P O Box 1108, Morley, Western Australia
Tel: +61 8 9370 5533 Fax +61 8 9467 6146
Web Site: http://www.jenal.com 
Contact: http://www.jenal.com/?p=1
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks for the feedback. I won't consider electrical stuff just yet. Perhaps later on we can expand the range but for now I'd just like to get the site going in a form that will please most people.

I agree with what you say about e-Bay. Some components I would never think about looking on e-Bay for, but there needs to be somewhere where they can be listed and left for eventual sale.

The idea of ozcomponents.com is that you list the quantity available but you can sell in ones and twos as you like. There is an option for putting in three price breaks that you determine yourself. For example you can say 1 - 10 or 1+, 25+, 100+ for the price break quantities and for the overall quantity you can say something like 23,

10+, 1000+ or even LOTS or PLENTY if you want.

Thanks

Alan

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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jenal Communications
Manufacturers and Suppliers of HF Selcall
P O Box 1108, Morley, Western Australia
Tel: +61 8 9370 5533 Fax +61 8 9467 6146
Web Site: http://www.jenal.com 
Contact: http://www.jenal.com/?p=1
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As the others have said and I concur a browse function would be good. Start with catagories and add sub-lists.

Good luck, will check on it.

Cheers.

Thanks

Browse facility has been added as well as a TEST EQUIPMENT category.

Alan

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Jenal Communications
Manufacturers and Suppliers of HF Selcall
P O Box 1108, Morley, Western Australia
Tel: +61 8 9370 5533 Fax +61 8 9467 6146
Web Site: http://www.jenal.com 
Contact: http://www.jenal.com/?p=1
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

thats OK Allen we (I) am used too it TESA or TELEVIDEO just measure the VCR belt and you have the order part number

Not TRADETECH you have to fart around with their stupid catalogue that is not even indexed well.

Excellent constructive comments guys. Just the kind of feedback I wanted.

Thanks

Alan

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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Jenal Communications Manufacturers and Suppliers of HF Selcall P O Box 1108, Morley, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9370 5533 Fax +61 8 9467 6146 Web Site: Contact: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++