Ebid vs Ebay

poppit wrote: »

i too am sick to the teeth of ebays chargres but untill another alternative is advalible like ebid becoming popular then i have to stick with ebay altho my sellers fees are so high sometimes i dont make much profit at all and i wonder why i bother but in the past have made a few pennys

That's the spirit, Poppit... let everybody else do all the hard work without you, and then you'll step in when it's a roaring success.

Well here's the rub. In most countries, eBay is currently the only game in town... it's effectively a monopoly; and that means it can and will raise its fees, raise its profits, reduce choice for its seller customers and buyer customers, except where it sees itself making extra profit.

No company will prep itself to roll-out from Day 1 a service as complete as e-bay, unless perhaps it's a company that's already the lead player in other countries, and wants to "steal" e-bay's market one country at a time. But that's exceptionally unlikely, because Yahoo tried it an failed.

Here's why on-line auctions are a special case:

It really is convenient for customers to have one arena for all their customers. It costs to advertise in more than one place; to manage sales in more than one place; and it's difficult, because one item can only be sold in one auction so sellers have to make their choice.

But e-bays position will only ever get stronger unless you, Poppit, and a million other people, shift the power balance. (In fact since you wrote your mail, you've seen it happen!) That absolutely means you make a sacrifice of convenience in exchange for the free listings and no final value fees and whatever else. But at least you shouldn't whinge about e-bay while supporting their monopoly.

Be abused by e-bay and smile about it; or have the courage and determination to vote with your feet an walk!