LiveAuctions

Why are they requiring you to pay to be able to register to bid for DU Sale?

I believe the cost of bandwidth has driven them to this model.  Live video requires a considerable amount of bandwidth. 

I would tend to believe with newer compression formats or possibly just using a free 3rd party provider (ads) for non buyers, that this could be some what mitigated.

I would figure it drove more potential buyers away

You think people that spend $1,000+ on embryos and $7,000/hd are driven away by $50 subscriptions?

Actually yes.  It's the principal of the thing.  Pay to be in the seats to bid?  I have NEVER been charged to walk into a sale and watch (and possibly bid) a sale.  Same thing here.  If I can't watch and bid then I take my money elsewhere. 
I understand that it is a way to keep "college kids" that are on just to watch, but those are potential buyers now or someday in the future.
No one else charges to be "in the seats".

I wonder if it has cost them some sales also? Last yr Griswold's sale was on liveauctions , this yr it was on dvauctions

I know they sure missed out on some bids here

Live Auctions.TV  makes bidders buy some non sense magazine subscription in order to bid.  They went off line for quite a while during Guyers 2013 sale, and was off line most of the time during the Sullivan No Bull sale on Sat night, was off line part of the time on the Sunday No Bull sale.  Suggest not paying money for a product that does not work.  I called customer support once during Denver and got some arrogant dude that tried to convince me I needed 1 more magazine in my mail box.  Thumbs down

Some of the buyers must pay the fee for their sales, as I have bid on MCF's sale, and on Duis's dispersal without paying the fee.  I have been going to watch a couple sales where the fee was in place, however, and I chose not to bid/buy in those sales.  Experienced the same problems during Duis's sale that corn n cows is talking about.  The sound quality was terrible, they frequently went offline, I called support to see what they could do about it, and they said the only way to make the sound quality better was to cut video, which would not have been a big deal since the video feed was just of the front two tables of people in the crowd.  They never actually showed any of the lots or video of the lots on Liveauctions.

I had a poor experience with Live Auctions when they first started charging the $50.  It was the first and last time I ever bought anything through them.  I called Brad several times after, he kept telling me he would take care of it, but never did anything. And their magazine is definitely not worth $50 a year.  I will never buy through them again.

Jeff - Yes, it has cost them bidders and has cost the consigners sales.  I REFUSE to pay for the option of spending MY money.  It reminds me of cattle in motion. They also make you pay (I think it is a credit card number and $1) to bid.  I have often wondered why they need a credit card number and who has access to that information.  They also have issues with service. So, then you are also paying for a service that they are not even getting, let alone paying for the option of spending money.

nkotb- so some people have to pay and others do not? I am not sure I understand that.

I'm saying some of the sellers must pay extra so the buyers don't have to pay.  I also refuse to pay, and would not have participated in these auctions if I had to pay.

Live Auctions .TV broadcast the Simmy & Hereford heifer shows at Kansas City in 2012.  They used a single camera for both rings.  The Simmy show ended an hour before the Hereford show & nothing was going on the Simmy side.  The chat box was a chorus of "please move the camera to show a full ring view of the Hereford show - with no response.  While both shows were going on there was someone attending the camera.  When the Simmy show was over the camera person went MIA.

I am open to suggestions on how to validate a bidder.

The validation needs to take into account 500 new users and 100 new bidder registrations within an hour of a sale starting.

A seller can choose on LiveAuctions how they want to handle bidder approvals.

Some sales have 20 bidders sign up. 

Some sales have 200 bidders sign up to bid within an hour of the sale (80% Weekend Sales).

At the 2013 Donors Unlimited LiveAuctions.tv handled $1,923,125 in bids.

Since you ask for some opinions, thought I might offer a few ideas.
-Most of the complaints are about paying to watch a sale, which has nothing to do with bidding. Require them to register to watch, but do not charge. If they want the option of bidding, then have additional steps for that.
-To validate a bidder, require registration 24 hours prior to the sale. Once you have been validated, have the information updated every 30? days in order to remain an active bidder. Yes, this will decrease the number of impulse bidders, but once you get the bidders trained to register early, all will be fine.  If I go to a live auction and sign up for a bidder number, do they "validate" me before the sale? I don't think so.
-Do not charge to register to bid. That seems logical to me, why should you expect anyone to pay for the option of spending money?
-I am sure you have problems with people buying then not paying, so you get ONE chance, if you screw up once, you are banned for 6? months and have to have a letter of credit from a bank to bid again.
-Have enough staff on hand to handle issues.  If I need to call about a technical issue, it is your responsbility to have someone to deal with it.
-Don't have simple technical issues, especially if you are charging to watch an auction. Numerous people have complained about not being able to see the auction.

I have used Liveauctions several times and I don't mind paying the $50 fee. Your not paying $50 per sale and to me its worth it for me to pay the fee because it would cost a lot more for me to go to the sale in person. First I would have a huge gas bill, then hotel expenses, and food cost since none of the sales are anywhere close to where I live. So to be to be able to do my own bidding and keep up with the sale right from my own living room is worth the $50. I don't like giving someone else my bid and then totally trust one person to bid in my best interest unless its a personal close friend but not someone who works for the farm having the sale. Where do you think their interest are at? I have to say my overall experience with them has been good. There have been times with the audio or video sometimes cuts out but the amount showing up on my computer screen is on target. Plus I have asked questions during the sale and always received a prompt answer. I know it cost a lot for them to offer this service and to me its money well spent. So if it cheaper then $50 to go to the sale then by all means don't pay the fee and go in person but the money I save by staying home equals more money to spend on new calves.

All other online sites that Im registered with I enter credit card info to be validated. I have never paid on any of the other sites to be able to bid.

The only real way to validate a credit card is by putting an authorization (pending charge) on it.

You can validate the #s by using luhn alogorthrim, which is a checksum forumula that all credit card #s are derived from.  However, you can fool these systems being using "test" credit card numbers or simply using an expired credit card and putting a new expiration date for sometime in the future.

How does breeders world and CW cattle sales do it without charging credit card?