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Is Apollo Duck losing its relevance?


Starcoaster

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As above, really.

I have had two (paid, one featured) adverts up on Apollo Duck for just over a month now, for two vastly different boats (a new narrowboat and a small GRP sailing boat) and I am getting virtually no hits or genuine expressions of interest on either from the Duck-the Nigerian princes are still in the game though.

However, having the exact same adverts up in other areas including Ebay, certain FB groups and other channels, I am getting lots of bites and genuine interest, which has been something of a surprise because I thought AD was pretty much the last word in selling a boat unless you use a brokerage-or are a brokerage and ergo, pay megabucks for large print ads and other features.

 

Has anyone else noticed that AD isn't really the go-to boat buying and selling site these days too, or am I wrong and just facing a bit of an anomaly?

Edited by Starcoaster
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Middle men have gotten to greedy in recent years. Folk starting to sell direct via social media such as face ache.

 

Social media killing off a lot of specific interest forums - car based ones in particular I've noticed. Chances are it will get this one too in due course.

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I think Appolloduck is quite complecated to some people when it comes to refining a search.

 

Its a maze of every type of boat and not percific to any.

 

The boat market in general has changed massively this year and ABNB is a good example of that.

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Middle men have gotten to greedy in recent years. Folk starting to sell direct via social media such as face ache.

 

Social media killing off a lot of specific interest forums - car based ones in particular I've noticed. Chances are it will get this one too in due course.

Facebook want everything for themselves. It's evolution of the internet. What will happen is that everyone using the net (or "web" if you prefer that description of a trap) will be channelled into one of say 10 major internet sites making shedloads of money. After a while people will get fed up with it and realise it was just a temporary glitch in human interaction and go back to buying candlesticks from the candlestick maker :rolleyes:

 

Either that or we face the prospect of the world ending.

 

If that happens Armageddon outahere

 

Sorry to be off topic.

 

I suspect eBay may be squeezing apolloduck. EBay are one of the webshites I predict will still be there when the end comes.

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I suspect eBay may be squeezing apolloduck. EBay are one of the webshites I predict will still be there when the end comes.

Yes i can see it now ;

 

1 pair of trainers never worn by a zombie - will swop for any food or decent axe.

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Middle men have gotten to greedy in recent years. Folk starting to sell direct via social media such as face ache.

 

Social media killing off a lot of specific interest forums - car based ones in particular I've noticed. Chances are it will get this one too in due course.

Very true.

 

I think even eBay is taking a hit from the likes of Facebook. Of course people are often wary of buying from FB but if you are carefull and apply the safgaurds that you would as if buying from a classified ad. in a newspaper the risk can be minimised.

 

But why hand dosh to eBay/AD when you can sell at no cost?

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Re MJG

 

Its a good question. I think apolloduck do free ads as well but FB can probably reach more potential customers and that effect could 'snowball' and kill of a lot of other sites. I wonder if the monopoly and mergers thing applies to the internet?

 

Edit to add first line

and sold via ebay but not through ebay if that makes sense.

It certainly does and I always find it quite laughable the way eBay say you are not 'allowed' to sell outside the site :lol:

If its mine and I want to sell it and someone wants to buy it I do not need a middle man thanks.

 

Does seem to be an obvious weakness. I bought a boat on eBay a while ago but using mobile phone number so it was not subject to eBay fees. Paypal asked the seller to get me to verify the transaction but all they were doing was trying to see if it was an ebay advert :rolleyes:

Edited by magnetman
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If I were buying a bote, I wouldn't begin to know how to search FB for what I want. Apolloduck would still be my first port of call.

 

 

(Bloddy speelccheker)

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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There's always the Exchange & Mart, Happy days.

 

 

Yes! I always uased to smirk at the grammar in them adverts.

 

"Hilman Minx 1966 Whitewall tires. Drives superb. £80 ono. Ashord 3379" might be a typical entry!

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It is perhaps a sign of the time that no one has mentioned the monthly boatimags as a place for selling boats. I have just had a look through the "boats for sale" section of Canal Boat and though there are plenty of brokers' display adverts, the number of private insertions has declined.

 

I've used AD only once, to sell my Springer. The second person who viewed it bought it - albeit after I had reduced the price to what I had wanted for it in the first place. That was two years ago, perhaps things have changed since then.

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As above, really.

I have had two (paid, one featured) adverts up on Apollo Duck for just over a month now, for two vastly different boats (a new narrowboat and a small GRP sailing boat) and I am getting virtually no hits or genuine expressions of interest on either from the Duck-the Nigerian princes are still in the game though.

However, having the exact same adverts up in other areas including Ebay, certain FB groups and other channels, I am getting lots of bites and genuine interest, which has been something of a surprise because I thought AD was pretty much the last word in selling a boat unless you use a brokerage-or are a brokerage and ergo, pay megabucks for large print ads and other features.

 

Has anyone else noticed that AD isn't really the go-to boat buying and selling site these days too, or am I wrong and just facing a bit of an anomaly?

 

 

It might be that enough AD adverts are badly drafted, misleading, overpriced, attempted frauds or simply sold, that boat buyers have learned that time spent responding is quite often wasted. So they don't.

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It might be that enough AD adverts are badly drafted, misleading, overpriced, attempted frauds.

Not at all like eBay, then.

I seem to remember that at one time Gum Tree was king of the fraudsters; is this still the case?

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I think people like sites that have a proper app for their phone, Facebook might be popular now but the yoot are using Snapchat. I know that when people started using Facebook in numbers, that some forums had their membership and page viewings go down. Now its established, that's changed a bit.

I don't like the single thread format on Facebook, all the info gets buried and is hard to access. In fast moving groups it can be a problem as requests for help drop off the page and are missed.

And as has been pointed out, Facebook is full of scams and fake accounts, you have to be careful.

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If I were buying a bote, I wouldn't begin to know how to search FB for what I want. Apolloduck would still be my first port of call.

 

 

(Bloddy speelccheker)

If I were selling a boat (which I am) I wouldn't have a clue how to advertise it on Facebook. Though I might try and find out.

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It might be that enough AD adverts are badly drafted, misleading, overpriced, attempted frauds or simply sold, that boat buyers have learned that time spent responding is quite often wasted. So they don't.

 

Essentially, that was our experience of AD. About 50% of people never answered our queries so, indeed, was a waste of time.

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Essentially, that was our experience of AD. About 50% of people never answered our queries so, indeed, was a waste of time.

 

My guess would be those who failed to respond had already sold and couldn't be arsed to take their advert down. A perennial problem with any free ad format site.

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For me the problem is that AD is a very poor site. Hard to navigate (no pun intended), unattractive, awkward, not well optimised for mobiles and tablets. Intrusive ads, no app(?)

 

It looks like a site from the 1990s. Things have moved on and the site operators should take note. It needed a re-model around 10 years ago.

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