On Sunday the 5th of October 2008 the clocks will be put forward one hour at 2.00am in ACT, NSW, SA, TAS and VIC. 
Daylight savings in WA starts Sunday 26 October 2008.
 
All items due to end between 2.00am and 3.00am on the 5th of October will be extended for 1 hour. 
For example, an item that was due to end at 2.20am will end at 3.20am. 

 
Kind regards, 
 
OZtion Team  

We are looking for two .Net Web Developers to join our team in Melbourne.

• Permanent full time positions
• 38 hours/week - 9.30am to 5.30pm

• Exciting opportunity to work in a fast growing company
• Innovation - being involved in new ideas
• Knowledge - working in a team with mixed skill sets

Click here to apply for this position

Regards,

OZtion Team

Car Care Non-Fiction Books Belts Wallets Ties Clothing After Shave Skin Care Portable Audio Gadgets PC & Video Games Outdoor Living Gardening Equipment Wine Jewellery Watches DVDs Blu-ray CDs Fishing Golf Sports Memorabilia Tools

OZtion Team

OZtion Team

OZtion received a fax a couple of days ago from a lawyer at Sensis asking OZtion to 'immediately cease making the Statement...' that it is 'Free to List items' in our advertising material and on oztion.com.au.

Click here to read the fax (pdf)

Some Facts:

(1) OZtion will continue to offer free auction listings.

(2) We have extended our free classifieds to June 30th 2009, which are designed purely for items like cars, motorcycles, boats etc.

As we all know Sensis owns Trading Post so does this mean that they are worried about OZtion.com.au?

We noticed that Trading Post changed their web site today, adding fine print behind their marketing claims. They should have done this prior to sending the letter. See the screenshot below taken on the 12th August 2008 after we received the letter.

   

Cheers to all our members!

Phil Druce - Co-Founder OZtion

OZtion Team

An unexpected technical problem occurred this morning at our Data Centre between 11:00am and 2:30pm.

All auctions due to end during this period have been extended by 24 hours. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.
 
Regards,
 
OZtion Team

We reached our 300,000 registered member milestone today.

Our 300,000th member joined today at 10.47 pm AEST.

A big thank you goes out to everyone for your continued support!

Kind Regards,

OZtion Team

The following amendments have been introduced to further enhance the online listing and selling process.

When listing a new item online, Payment and Postage details will now automatically be filled with the previously set defaults entered by sellers through their Selling Preferences. Sellers are no longer required to click the button 'Load my default details' on the Sell page.

Sellers can conveniently update their default Payment and Postage details and apply any necessary amendments to their selling items, from the Selling Preferences page.

Note: Payment and Postage details can no longer be updated on sold items.

Kind Regards,

OZtion Team

Big Brother's strongest personality Dixie, is auctioning off the shoes Big Brother gave her to help raise awareness for beyondblue.

beyondblue is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to address issues associated with depression, anxiety and related substance misuse disorders, in Australia.

Click the link below to view the auction.
Dixie from Big Brother - Nike shoes charity auction

This is a fantastic cause! Not only will you be contributing to the support of this much needed organisation, but you will have the chance to win a pair of celebrity joggers! Just imagine how envious your family and friends will be!

Happy bidding!

Create a FREE Classified Ad

Scheduled site maintenance will be carried out on Saturday the 28th of June 2008 between 12:00am and 1:00am AEST.
 
All auctions that are due to end between these times will be extended by 24 hours.

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.
 
Regards,
 
OZtion Team

OZtion Team

OZtion Team

OZtion has achieved a 50% increase in sales for the month of May compared to the month of March. The significant increase in sales has occurred since eBay Australia announced in April that all items must be paid for using PayPal.

We are pleased to announce the launch of Adget, a free advertising tool which allows you to easily display your OZtion listings on your own website or other online site.

For more information go to My OZtion > My Selling > Selling and click the Create Adget link at the bottom of your selling items list.

Kind Regards,

Collect points when you win or purchase items this Easter, be in the top 5 and WIN!

Starts Good Friday 21 March. Find out more

Good luck!

The following changes have been made to the Unpaid Item Process.

• The Unreliable Buyer List has been discontinued; automatic buying restrictions have been introduced instead.

• Members will be restricted from bidding or buying if they have 3 or more Unpaid item marks (unresolved 'Unpaid Item' reports) from 3 or more unique sellers.

• Sellers can view an 'Unpaid Item' report that was previously closed as 'Payment not received', and mark it as PAID. The system will automatically remove the Unpaid item mark from the buyer's account and charge the seller the sale fee again. Previously, sellers needed to contact customer service to have the entry removed and recharge the sale fee, in cases where the buyer had paid or ended up paying.

Learn more about the unpaid item process

Regards,

We've changed the way the Wanted forum works. The wanted forum was provided to assist OZtion members with finding an item or selling an item on OZtion.

Since its release many members have been referring people to places other than OZtion and many OZtion sellers have missed out on a sale as a result.

The new wanted forum format allows an OZtion member to post what they want, and for any member to reply with an OZtion item number; this will help ensure OZtion sellers benefit from "wanted" item sales.

Regards,

OZtion Team

Between the 24th and 28th Jan 2008 we will be offering 50% OFF featured listings.

Attract more buyers by upgrading your listing to a featured listing.

Simply list an item between 24/01/08 12.01 am AEDT and 28/01/08 11.59 pm AEDT with a Promotional Feature and receive 50% OFF the normal price.

Kind Regards,

OZtion Team

We've just launched OZtion Mobile. Now you can access OZtion's mobile platform on any web-enabled mobile device to perform a search, track your items, read your emails and more - all whilst on the go.

Simply go to m.oztion.com.au on your mobile device to see how easy it is.

We are pleased to announce that OZtion's new postage calculator and additional postage options are now available.

The postage calculator will assist sellers with displaying accurate Australia Post domestic postage costs in their listings, based on the buyer's location. Additional postage options are also now available.

What's new?

• There are now 6 postage options when listing an item:
  • Free postage
  • Flat postage - all buyers see the same cost (this is the same as the previous postage field in OZtion)
  • Flat postage by location (allows different postage rates for different AU States)
  • Calculated postage - cost will vary by buyer postcode (Regular and Express services available)
  • See item description / postage instructions
  • No postage - local pickup only

• Items with calculated postage will display the accurate Australia Post domestic postage cost in the listing, based on the buyer's postcode (the cost is retrieved from Australia Post in real time).
• Regular and Express services can be selected when using calculated postage.
• Items with 'Flat postage by location' will show postage to different locations (per state in Australia).
• The OZtion Postage Calculator can be used an independent tool to research Australia Post domestic and international postage costs.

Sellers will still be able to select one or more 'Post to location' when listing an item.
Note: Sellers that offer 'Worldwide' postage can provide details in the 'Postage instructions' field as normal. Listings with calculated postage will not show the calculated postage if the buyer is located outside of Australia, however, the buyer can click a link to enter their country and postcode to see what the Australia Post international postage cost would be.

Additional postage services and options including international functions will be available at a later date.

A new version of Express Lister with the new postage option changes will be available to download on the 15th of January.

Kind regards,

OZtion Team

We have recently added RSS support to selling items, allowing users to track OZtion items via their RSS reader. Sellers can also use it to display their live items on other sites. By subscribing to an RSS Feed on OZtion, you will receive new updates for the feed in real time.

 What is RSS? - (RSS) or Really Simple Syndication provides a convenient way for you to receive regular content "feeds" from different sources.

To subscribe to an RSS Feed, you will need an RSS reader. Readers can be standalone applications that run on your desktop or Plug-in readers that work with programs such as Firefox or Internet Explorer.

RSS Feeds will be available in numerous areas of OZtion, currently anyone can subscribe to search results, and sellers can subscribe to their own selling items. Other areas will be available soon.

Regards,

OZtion Team

We have added the following Christmas categories.

Sellers can now list in these categories; however, they are not available to buyers yet. We will add a link to the Christmas categories on the home page and category lists shortly (after some items have been listed).

• Gift Ideas
  • Christmas
    • Cards
    • Clothing, Dress-Up
    • Decorations
    • Gift Certificates
    • Gift Wrapping Supplies
    • Hampers
    • Ornaments
    • Trees
    • Other

These will be available until the end of the festive season.

Kind regards,

We are pleased to announce that sellers can now offer items to their underbidders (non-winning bidders).

What's changed?
Previously an Underbidder Offer could only be sent to the underbidder if the winning bidder did not pay. The new changes will now allow the seller to send an offer to any or all underbidder(s) providing they have sufficient stock available. The offer will be for a BuyNow price equal to the underbidder's maximum bid amount.

Please see the following help page for more info:
Underbidder Offer

Regards,

OZtion Team

As from the 15th November, items listed by sellers set to 'Away' will no longer show in category listings and search results. Sellers can still set their status to 'Away' and back again without having to remove or relist their items. This change is necessary to prevent items showing that cannot accept bids or be purchased and improve the user experience.

Regards,

How would you like an amazing 20% cashback on your shopping?

Click here to find out more.

Regards,

The full version of Express Lister 2 is now available for all sellers to download and use. Thank you to all the users that tested our beta version of Express Lister 2 and helped get it to where it is today! Currently it is free to upload items from Express Lister to OZtion.

The full version comes with the following features:

• Import items from Turbo Lister including pictures.
• Automatic eBay to OZtion category matching.
• Synchronise listings between OZtion and Express Lister.
• vShop integration - Add/Edit/Delete vShop categories from within Express Lister and assign vShop categories to your items before uploading.
• Edit multiple items simultaneously.
• Preview your listing in a web browser.
• Create professional looking descriptions using the built-in HTML editor.
• Select and upload pictures from your computer or external sites.
• Save listing templates.
• Duplicate listings.
• Schedule auction start times.
• Upload single or multiple items at once.
• Keep track of items uploaded.

Click here to find out more and download Express Lister.

Regards,

Many of our members have said they'd like to see OZtion advertise more, especially on TV. Well, we have listened to you and put together a TV commercial to air on Channel 9 in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane during the last week of October and first week of November.

All items due to end between 2.00am and 3.00am on the 28th of October will be extended for 1 hour. For example, an item that was due to end at 2.20am will end at 3.20am.

• To increase the number of sales
• To reduce referral fraud
• To avoid the confusion of different payout amounts between email, web and word of mouth referrals
• To reward members that refer active members

• Now works with Windows Vista
• Now works with other browsers (not just Internet Explorer)
• Faster upload times
• No File size limit

We are pleased to announce the introduction of classified ads on OZtion.

Classified ads provide a way for sellers to list items such as pets, vehicles or real estate for sale to multiple potential buyers. It's similar to advertising in your local paper, except you can reach more potential buyers. Buyers of items in these categories generally prefer to discuss the item in more detail and often will only purchase the item after inspection (transaction does not take place online).

• Classified ads include the sellers asking price (no Auction or BuyNow).
• The ad will run for 45 days. Seller can end ad at any time.
• Potential buyers can send the seller an enquiry to express their interest and then arrange to complete the transaction offline.
• A flat rate $3.99 upfront listing fee applies, no sale fee applies.

More information

Regards,

We understand there have been some concerns raised by our valued sellers regarding the upcoming 'Spring Clean' recently announced, expected to be launched on the 1st September 2007.  Please be aware, we are acknowledging your concerns,  particularly due to the fact that Express Lister 2.0 has not yet been released. The exact release day is not known as it is still undergoing testing.

For your convenience we hereby advise that we will be postponing the 'Spring Clean' until one week after the launch of Express Lister 2.0. This allows members to be adequately prepared as well as being assured they will have access to the innovative new version.

As of the 27th August 2007 members located outside of Australia and New Zealand will no longer be able to create a seller's account.

Who does this change affect?
This change will only affect members from the UK and USA who do not already have a seller's account.

What happens to the currently registered international sellers?
International members that already have a seller's account will not be affected. Below is a list of changes regarding international sellers in the past so you can easily see which international sellers can sell on OZtion.

Before the 3rd September 2006 - No restrictions on international sellers.
Between 4th September 2006 and 22nd October 2006 - Sellers from Australia and New Zealand only.
Between 19th February 2007 and 26th August 2007 - Sellers from Australia, New Zealand, UK and USA only.
After the 27th August 2007 - Only members from Australia and New Zealand can create a seller's account.

Why are we changing this again?
After some careful analysis of data collected from transactions we have decided that a change is necessary to:
1. improve the buying experience for the majority of buyers.
2. to support and improve the sales rate for local sellers.

Regards,

OZtion Team

Dear valued members

Due to an influx of member emails received, we feel we must clarify any member confusion regarding the upcoming amendments to our current fee structure including the proposed 'Spring Clean' due on the 1st September 2007:

Why have we introduced Relist fees?

Since the launch of OZtion in January 2005, OZtion have not had a fee increase. We have healthily progressed to become the site we are today and it is now time to take that next step. Although listings are still FREE to list, costs must be recouped for those items which are clearly not selling (after 60 days) and are being relisted on a regular basis (every 60 days). Buyer feedback received has revealed they do not wish to see the same old listings within our search engines. These listings can prove to be quite costly to our site, not to mention adversely affect the buyer experience. We require our sellers to adequately assess this stock both to improve the quality of listings and also to possibly increase their sales. Also important, Relist fees will also increase OZtion revenue so as to allow us to concentrate on the further building of our site.
The relist fee will only apply to those items that have been listed for 60 days or longer, for example, to relist 50 items that have been listed for 60 days or longer, a fee of $1.00 would apply.

Why have we introduced the sale fee increase?

Member feedback has revealed that OZtion must progress in terms of offering buyer safety and the development of innovative marketing strategies. Our fee structure requires revision in order to better facilitate our members and the natural progression of our site. Business expenses must be met and improvement programs implemented (such as a Buyer Protection Program) in order for us to remain competitive within the online auction market.

What about all the low value item sellers, such as those selling Craft items, what can they do?

We have noted that most sellers selling such items, often sell multiple items to the one buyer. Perhaps a revision of the item titles and descriptions may be in order. Example: Instead of listing single items, consider listing multiple items where the buyer may have a choice in selecting the specific items they wish to purchase; such as a choice of three or more different items rolled into the one listing (a list of the relative items available may be included within the description).

Why has the 'Sell Similar' option been removed for items which have been listed for 60 days or longer?

It is imperative that Sellers assess their items which have not sold within the 60 day or longer period. The removal of the 'Sell Similar' function (items listed for 60 days or longer) will encourage sellers to assess their items prior to automatically relisting them or using the 'Sell Similar' option. Many sellers are comfortable with this practise and are not making any necessary adjustments so as to assist the sale of that item. As mentioned, it will also improve the quality of our listings thus raising the level of the buyer experience altogether.

What is the difference between the 60 day Auto-Relist and the upcoming Spring Clean?

Auto-Relist is turned off after an item has been listed for 60 days however, sellers have been able to continue to list items using manual 'Relist' or 'Sell Similar'. Spring Clean moves items that have been listed for more than 90 days to your "Unsold" area regardless of manual or automatic relists.

More information can be found at the Spring Clean FAQ.

Regards,

OZtion Team