Online Auction.com CEO Chris Fain, during a live Internet Radio show presented by ECMRN (e-commerce Marketing Radio Network) , detailed a plan to charge buyers $8.00 a month subscription for access to buy from the auction venue in the future. (He did clearly state this plan would not be implemented anytime soon, but from the excitement in his voice when describing the subscription based buyer access, it sounds like more than a passing idea).

Chris compared the plan to purchasing a membership in Sam's Club or Costco, where buyers will join the venue to gain access to goods and services.  Additionally, Chris Fain envisions a day when OnlineAuction.com becomes a venue which surpasses eBay in volume of listed items and even exceeds eBay's revenue model.

Interesting vision of the future, I will say that before buyers would pay for access to listings on any online marketplace, I think some sort of extraordinary value proposition will have to be developed. What can OLA offer buyers, beyond a place to hunt for bargains, which will inspire them to pay a monthly subscription fee?  Possibly bulk access to other services?  Discounts on web hosting?  A Buying service much like a professional gift buying service, available to those buyers who do not want to search listings for the best price/value? No indication from Chris Fain, but the possibilities are certainly interesting to ponder.

What would inspire you to pay a subscription fee for access to OnlineAuction.com?

In other news from OLA

• Sellers will soon be given access to Reliabid protection. (Follow the link to learn more about the Reliabid service.
• Also The World Lingo Translation Service is now offered to sellers for a small fee. The service automatically translates listings into multiple languages.

• In less than 10 days time, OnlineAuction.com will offer sellers a fixed price listing option. This should help sellers get more search engine traffic to the items listed on OLA.  Additional plans include OLA Ad buys from Google and other Search Engine marketing efforts.

It seems like OLA has a plan for the future based upon providing sellers value for the low fees OLA charges for access to the venue. Valuing the sellers as a resource to build upon the initial success at OLA is a nice approach.

Stay tuned for more updates on OnlineAuction.com