Cheaper eBay alternatives?

basmic

Just sold an item for £20+£5 P&P - that's cost me £3.17! :eek::eek::mad::mad:

£0.12 Insert listing
£2.00 Final Value Fee
£1.05 Paypal

Any cheaper alternatives?

Between Paypal and eBay, both seem determined to minimise any profits the seller might make. Not to mention putting people off using eBay, because it is far too expensive for what it is!

DaveAshton

basmic wrote: »

because it is far too expensive for what it is!

I'd like to see you get worldwide coverage, an easy buyer interface, free (and easy to upload) photos, and millions of unique visits to the site a day, for less than you pay now. Look at Amazon's fees if you think ebay's expensive...

Try ebid if you want to see how well things sell when you don't pay to list stuff (and you have to pay a yearly subscription to list their equivilent of a Buy it Now)

steviebabes

You need to ask yourself if you would have got £20 for the item selling it any other way such as car boot or small ads. Ebay charge these fees as you get the exposure giving you a higher price.

StaffsSW

In terms of alternatives to ebay, and there are LOADS of them, but you get what you pay for.

Pay nothing to list or lower FVF's do not expect to get the same sales rates or revenue as ebay.

If you want to get the full value for yourself, set up a website and solicit cahs of cheques in the post - see how long that takes to sell!

cyberbob

As others have said you wont find anything else with that sort of coverage any cheaper

basmic

I take all points onboard, and what it essentially boils down to is that eBay is more popular.

But all too often recently, I have seen occasional sellers, like myself who are just try to cash in on their unwanted sellables, complain of eBay's seemingly sky high prices.

I don't remember their prices being so high, and I get the distinct impression eBay are using their brand as an excuse for high fees.

soolin

basmic wrote: »

.

I don't remember their prices being so high, and I get the distinct impression eBay are using their brand as an excuse for high fees.

I think you are probably right. They have seen off most of the competition so no doubt think they should make the most of the fact that they are the only ones out there..and take what they can until the whole internet auction sales fad is over.

Seemore_2

There is ioffer which offers free listings, although they are not an auction site, you can only buy sell or trade, and they are not very well known outside the US.

I have only ever bought a few things there but never had any probs.


http://www.ioffer.com/

RFW

basmic wrote: »

I take all points onboard, and what it essentially boils down to is that eBay is more popular.

But all too often recently, I have seen occasional sellers, like myself who are just try to cash in on their unwanted sellables, complain of eBay's seemingly sky high prices.

I don't remember their prices being so high, and I get the distinct impression eBay are using their brand as an excuse for high fees.

Compared to offline auction houses the fees are more than reasonable with a far better catchment area. A lot of the bigger salerooms will end up with around 50% of the sales price with their fees on buyers and sellers.

Ebay are bigger than their competitors and presumably have higher running costs. Their fees are structured different to Amazon but as others have said they work out less when selling something on either venue. There really is only Amazon to compare Ebay to as a like for like company, volume of customers, sales revenue, etc.

You may sell well on a smaller auction site but its much more hit and miss. If you're an occasional seller a website probably wouldn't be an option, but for larger sellers it can be a way forward, even paying for Google specific advertising could work out cheaper than using Ebay or Amazon.

cyberbob

basmic wrote: »

I don't remember their prices being so high, and I get the distinct impression eBay are using their brand as an excuse for high fees.

The problem is everyone wants something for nothing. To get the sort of coverage that ebay can give is going to cost. As others have said its still cheaper thasn normal auctions and the customer base is far bigger than other online auction sites.

Everybody seems to forget that ebay is a business not a charity. They dont do it for the love of it