EBay or other?

jake2010

I have been selling the odd bit here and there on ebay, old baby clothes, unwanted gifts, kitchen appliances, and other things that don't get much use around the house.
I have been using Ebay for this over the years, i have had no real problems but i am thinking the fees that they take for listing, final sale and then PP fees is high.
I know ebay is the market leader but is there any good alternatives? i have been looking at ebid, CQOut etc.. but would like to hear other peoples experiences with them?

Girlpantsx

I've thought the same, but the only other things I use to sell things is the local paper or gumtree. Ebay has a lot of traffic so more people have access to your items.

Myyrrddyn

I list exactly the same items as I sell on ebay and get possibly if I am lucky one sale a month from CQOut and Ebid together. So my advice is to stick with ebay, in the long run it works out better.

StaffsSW

I have had 60 listings on eBid for about 2 years now, offered cheaper than I have them on ebay, and I'm up to 7 sales so far. Not sure I can cope with the pace, so may scale back the operation....
CQOut - same again, except I've not had a single sale yet.

Amazon have just opened the marketplace category in which I tend to focus on, so I'm going to see about a few test items on there in the run up to christmas.

There are more online classifieds services developing though, one to watch being Oodle who power the online classifieds for a lot of local newspapers. May well be worth looking into these, but as above, you tend to get what you pay for.

LeonP_2

Do you know anything about amazon.com?

jake2010

Thanks for all the quick replies, i was thinking the best bet would be to stay with ebay due to the size really, just wanted to hear some other peoples reviews.
maybe one day there will be a competitor to the ebay.

Myyrrddyn

stevew8975 wrote: »

I have had 60 listings on eBid for about 2 years now, offered cheaper than I have them on ebay, and I'm up to 7 sales so far. Not sure I can cope with the pace, so may scale back the operation....
CQOut - same again, except I've not had a single sale yet.

Amazon have just opened the marketplace category in which I tend to focus on, so I'm going to see about a few test items on there in the run up to christmas.

There are more online classifieds services developing though, one to watch being Oodle who power the online classifieds for a lot of local newspapers. May well be worth looking into these, but as above, you tend to get what you pay for.

Oodle also are linked into facebook so you can get it out to a large amount of people.

Crowqueen

maybe one day there will be a competitor to the ebay.

Until people stop thinking "how can I go against eBay" and start thinking "how can I make a new site that develops the theme" then I don't think there will be a huge number of generalist competitors. If I had a pound for every time I see eBay hate mail on other sites - both on forums and in the rubric where the site tries to compare themselves favourably to eBay and fail because they are lacking in some detail, whether it be poor legal compliance or lack of advertising revenue - I'd have a nice steady income with which to spend more money online in general.

The competition now is largely in developing niche sites like Folksy (for craftspeople and crafts suppliers) rather than going for a general market. Also the competition has finally woken up to the idea that eBay gives its buyers satisfaction, rather than makes life easy for its sellers. That may change things, as the first generation of eBay clones just tried to make it attractive for sellers to sell there without a clue as to how free listings were going to drive revenue generation or buyer protection.

Myyrrddyn

Crowqueen wrote: »

maybe one day there will be a competitor to the ebay.

Until people stop thinking "how can I go against eBay" and start thinking "how can I make a new site that develops the theme" then I don't think there will be a huge number of generalist competitors. If I had a pound for every time I see eBay hate mail on other sites - both on forums and in the rubric where the site tries to compare themselves favourably to eBay and fail because they are lacking in some detail, whether it be poor legal compliance or lack of advertising revenue - I'd have a nice steady income with which to spend more money online in general.

The competition now is largely in developing niche sites like Folksy (for craftspeople and crafts suppliers) rather than going for a general market. Also the competition has finally woken up to the idea that eBay gives its buyers satisfaction, rather than makes life easy for its sellers. That may change things, as the first generation of eBay clones just tried to make it attractive for sellers to sell there without a clue as to how free listings were going to drive revenue generation or buyer protection.

Well said:T

mobile48

Crowqueen wrote: »

maybe one day there will be a competitor to the ebay.

The competition now is largely in developing niche sites l

I my own view of Internet Evolution on-line auctions look out-dated. Think what happen to other search engines when Google came along or sites like Friends Re-united when My Space etc appeared on the scene.

There are a number of possible ways for things can go:

Permanent Catalogue with Buy and Sell Prices

Take a site with a large permanent catalogue of items now add to it:

* Low fees
* In addition to sellers stating their sell price allow users to add a buy price.

This allows anyone to immediately buy or sell an item at low cost and no work.

Umbrella Company for Niche sites

A Niche sites stand a chance of winning market share in its niche if it adds value by controlling the quality and prices of items of its site and numerous other ways to improve the experience for both buyers and sellers in the niche.

An umbrella company for a uniform look and feel and tools etc that sold off finances into niche markets.

On-line off-Line Experience

A on-line site that had places to send and collect items from - search items in-store - would value authentic or sell your items for you etc.

EDIT Shopping Mall/Car Boot Model

For buy it now items charge a fix fee for space to sell and not take a commission on what is sold.

Another totally new concept

Crowqueen

* Low selling fees

The whole problem with marketplace competitors is that fees are too low. The site needs revenue to promote itself and undercutting hasn't proved itself to be a viable alternative strategy. The biggest marketplaces are still the ones that charge sellers the most.

And I don't think eBay is outdated at all. It still does what it does very well, better than anyone else in its league. It has the money to promote itself properly and maintain its site well, or at least good enough to cater to vast legions of buyers.

A on-line site that had places to send and collect items from - search items in-store - would value authentic or sell your items for you etc.

That would be expensive to operate and necessitate more money to be charged to the seller, not less.