Alternative auction sites to Ebay Discussion Thread (Merged)

StaffsSW

http://www.121bid.com has been around for a few months now - free listing and only 2% FVF.

It's worth sticking a few generic listings to open up a few more possibilities.

Something I have been doing with alternative sites is registering my eBay selling name. I want to prevent any cyber-squatters using my ID, even if I am not planning on doing much with the account for the time being.

ziffius

I think you just have to bite the bullet and use eBay. I still mourn the loss of Yahoo Auctions, it even had free WAP access, SMS and was fully integrated to Yahoo Messenger. Despite Yahoo being free and much better, people still used eBay instead Yahoo. It wasn't due to eBay's brand name, as this was quite a few years ago, so I can only assume it was down to eBay's 'insurance'.

Yahoo used to be most popular search engine then, so i'm not quite so sure that Google could usurp eBay.

While the idea of free auctions are great, with no listing fees you normally end up with lots of spam auctions and auctions started at silly prices.

darbooka

you get what you pay for.

Sybarite

Right we're all a bit tired of Ebay aren't we? It used to be ok, I suspect most people use it to sell a few odds and ends and occasionally a new item if they've managed to pick up a bargain and make a few pounds profit. Everyone was happy & then Ebay started to get greedy.

I'm an occasional seller - there might be a gap of a few weeks inbetween my selling something. I have recently and I've been shocked at the new FVF rate. I've also had a listing pulled (a few sim cards btw) even though I've used the same template over and over again for a couple of years. So what exactly is going on with Ebay? It seems like death by a thousand cuts to it's users; Listing, FVF and Paypal charge, plus the increases in postage means that about 1/3 of what I used to sell is no longer viable and I don't sell it - well done Ebay you've lost some revenue - I hope you've made it up in higher fees.

Ebay seem to have missed the point - we mostly use it because we want something cheaper than it can be had in the shops or online - and we certainly don't associate it with customer service if feedback about Paypal/schill bidding/fraud is anything to go by - the message is clear Ebay don't really give a monkey's as long as they get a percentage. If I wanted to set up an online shop I'd do it, which is now what Ebay seem primarily to be concerned with, but I don't. I now also don't bother looking for certain items in Ebay - books especially - as it's very often cheaper simply to buy new from Amazon. I pity the poor Ebay booksellers btw as I can't see how they make a profit most of the time. So well done again Ebay you've lost revenue once again.

The increasing restrictions on payment method also annoy rather than effect me. I have no affection for Paypants - it serves it's purpose, just, but Ebay have always been disingenuous regarding the Paypal fee they charge. The fact that you're not allowed to specify a surcharge for accepting their payment method even though you are charged for it has always inhibited transparency and given an unfair preference to a heavily promoted inhouse payment system. Gradually giving the boot to all other payment methods is just protectionism, it's up to me how I pay for an item if the seller is prepared to accept that form of payment - how dare Ebay dictate terms, they have their percentage from the sale, yet still seek to restrict access to lower cost forms of payment.

So what are the alternatives? I'm open to suggestions. Ebay desperately needs some competition - it has a monopoly and it's abusing it's dominance. I've used Amazon Marketplace with few problems, I accept the high fee as it's upfront, free to list and in my experience, has a swift customer services response if there's a problem. It's not ideal - I can't list the odd or obscure and the P&P rates are a bit of a blunt instrument.

QXL, ebid, these seem to be in their infancy & I'm going to give an alternate site a trial for a few items to test the water.

There are a lot of subscribers to MSE now. My feeling it that if we can come to a consensus regarding an a genuine money saving contender as an Ebay alternative that is recommended via this site it'll be a big boost to the competition.

Any MSE thoughts, recommendations - it would be nice if we could use collective power to help an alternate marketplace to establish.

soolin

There is a longish thread about ebay alterntives running, I'll go and bump it if I can find it.

It does seem though that at the moment there is no real alternative to ebay, so it may be that if people are unhappy that they need to look not for just a different auction site, but a different selling method altogether. However I have no bright ideas about that one at all.

Soo

Sybarite

Thanks for the ref and replies - glad I'm not the only one actively seeking an alternative. Please please please Google start something - it needs a big boy to challenge the hegemony of Ebay.

soolin

Sybarite wrote: »

Thanks for the ref and replies - glad I'm not the only one actively seeking an alternative. Please please please Google start something - it needs a big boy to challenge the hegemony of Ebay.

There have been big auction sites but they all went down once ebay took hold.

I started my selling on freeserve auctions, they were big and at the time almost better known that ebay, but they offered free listings and so attracted pages and pages of junk so all the buyers went to ebay, and we sellers followed them.

pennylane99

soolin wrote: »

There have been big auction sites but they all went down once ebay took hold.

I started my selling on freeserve auctions, they were big and at the time almost better known that ebay, but they offered free listings and so attracted pages and pages of junk so all the buyers went to ebay, and we sellers followed them.

thats a big problem..

if sites are going to offer free or cheap selling it will also attract all the junk listings, and that will put buyers off.

As a buyer I have no problems with using ebay at all....

John_T_5

I've been using Tazbar with some success, the good thing is it is free to list, and the final valuation fees are very cheap.

Unlike many of the other alternatives to Ebay Tazbar has grown a lot more rapidly in a shorter period of time, probably due to them investing in Television advertising.

Sybarite

Reputation seems to be the biggest stumbling block. Ebay gives feedback, Amazon is limited as it doesn't really inform sellers what their buyers are like (I've had someone try it on but am familiar enough with the postal service that I could establish it was a fraudulent claim).

It's been suggested I list through Google Base and then accept Paypal, but the only trouble is that I'm a very low volume seller so I need a reputation scoring system, if I'm defrauded I'd really feel the loss.

One way round this I'm toying with is to have a potential buyer send a secure message through Ebay verifying their details. This isn't technically offering off-site selling as no item would be listed on Ebay - I'm just using their feedback system (even though I'm sure Ebay wouldn't view it this way).

Any thoughts?