EBay or other?

mobile48

Crowqueen wrote: »

* 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.

I was unclear I was not talking about under cutting on-line auction fees I was talking about low fees compared to other sites that have much higher fees than ebay (for the public) or do not allow the public to use them at all.

Crowqueen wrote: »

And I don't think eBay is outdated at all.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.

I only think the concept is outdated - any concept on the Internet that has been around for 15 years in my own view is outdated.


On-Line Off-Line

Crowqueen wrote: »

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

There are many more ways to generate income and this does not necessary follow - one simple example they could make money on postage. Also people will pay for a better service as for example Ebay trading assistants do.

Crowqueen

I only think the concept is outdated - any concept on the Internet that has been around for 15 years in my own view is outdated.

So, MMO games are outdated, bit-torrents are outdated, downloading music is outdated, forums are outdated, email is outdated...goodness gracious, why on earth are people still using them?! Successful concepts like those thrive, surely, and become reasonably evergreen. By that logic, e-commerce itself is outdated.

There are many more ways to generate income and this does not necessary follow - one simple example they could make money on postage. Also people will pay for a better service as for example Ebay trading assistants do.

It does as you would have to charge a reasonable fee to get all the necessary experts in one place to appraise goods, pay their salaries, pay for storage, pay for collection and dispatch of the items and so on. eBay trading assistants take commission on the sales they assist people with, so you're right, it's no different to that, but that kind of defeats your logic. At the end of the day you are going to need a lot of revenue to be able to implement this, and that revenue won't come from sticking a few pence on postage - it will come from charging the user a reasonable fee.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

mobile48

Crowqueen wrote: »

[/I]So, MMO games are outdated, bit-torrents are outdated, downloading music is outdated, forums are outdated, email is outdated...goodness gracious, why on earth are people still using them?! Successful concepts like those thrive, surely, and become reasonably evergreen.

People only wake up to the fact something was outdated when something new comes along - see my previous examples.

Crowqueen wrote: »

By that logic, e-commerce itself is outdated.

Yes it is very out-dated - e-commerce always gives a third party money for payment PayPal, Visa etc etc.

When is a country going to issue an electronic version of its currency?

jasmineswhiskers

Go to a traditional auction house and they take approximately 15% commission, take your clothes to a dress agency and they will take 45-50% for themselves - so although the fees have gone up they are still fairly low compared these. Use it to your benefit ie: list your more expensive items on a free listing day or start your items at 99p - that's the listing fees saved.

mobile48

It is interesting to note that the traditional bookmaker market was challenged by spread betting when on-line betting took off. Is it possible the same could happen to on-line auctions with a new trading model? It is possible to move away from traditional auctions to other ways of bringing sellers and buyers together to trade in a similar environment. A buyer or seller walks onto a virtual trading floor completes a trade and walks off with a contract to buy or sell.

KChildheart

Depending on what you have do a little market research, see what sells best where. If you're unhappy paying the fee's, try listing it in the free papers of Diamond Free'ads. They're much cheaper.

You are responsible for your own advertisement, Ebay hands that to you on a silver platter, but if you don't want to pay then you're going to have to put the work in.