New LOU Auction Block Launches

[BlueEye]

Good evening fellow anglers,

Recently, I have received several emails/PMs about LOU users wanting a store or to buy some merchandise and thus was born the LOU store. So far we have had a great response to the store and we continue to add products as they become available to us. Today we added "Plus Size" women’s wear. Hopefully the plus size men’s wear will be soon to follow. Here is a $5 dollar off coupon valid on purchases over $35 dollars: SRV149

Now while we love the response we have got thus far with respect to the LOU store, the bottom line is that it doesn't necessarily help you catch more fish (except for the hat, which is PACKED FULL of good luck fishing magic). And again the emails came in requesting a "fishing" store that sold more than just LOU merchandise. This was tough and I thought about it for a long time and have decided that we will not have a fishing store on LOU for a couple reasons. This would require SSL certificates, inventory management, shipping personal and a whole bunch of other stuff that I don't need to explain required to run a store. I also didn't want to take away (distract) from the community with something that was overly complex like this.

Instead what I looked into was the one place where I (and many of you) buy all your fishing stuff. It is infact the cheapest place you can buy fishing stuff anywhere on the web (with the exception of our Classifieds forum that recently has seen a set of 4 downriggers be given away for FREE!). Care to take a guess? EBAY of course! I had a chance to talk with some people over at Ebay about an API they wrote that would allow us to target very specific EBAY searches (i.e., "salmon fishing", "trolling rods", etc.). Using this API, we could then host live fishing related EBAY auctions directly from LOU website.

This benefits the LOU community in that they are always going be kept up-to-date with the latest fishing merchandise at the cheapest prices. It also doesn't distract from the rest of the site, as we will only be showing one product at a time. It benefits the site owners because they won't have to deal with the inventory, shipping and all that other hassle associated with trying to run a secure online store. Ebay is a trusted source that many of you already have accounts with. LOU Auctions just makes it easier for you to find the fishing items of interest.

The fishing items on the LOU Action block update themselves and change as you navigate the pages. The latest prices and a brief description along with a thumbnail image are displayed. Simply click on the item to view the real Ebay auction directly. What you can be assured of is that it is going to be hard to EVER beat the prices you see on LOU Auctions/Ebay. I can promise you that.

Happy bidding

[nyforests]

It's clearly been a long day for me. I read the topic and wondered "Why would LOU want to Block the launches with and Auction?" Never mind, Im just going to load the stove and go to bed.