Ebid V Ebay

bargainsniffer1

Hi can anyone tell me their experience with ebid? As it seems a lot
cheaper then ebay to sell!
Has ebay had its day in auction format now that it is tied to big sellers?

timekeeper_2

bargainsniffer1 wrote: »

Hi can anyone tell me their experience with ebid? As it seems a lot
cheaper then ebay to sell!
Has ebay had its day in auction format now that it is tied to big sellers?

hi i apologise for hijacking this thread but do not know how to open my own thread about this
(maybe a guide can help)

i don't know anything about selling on either one of these but having read loads of success stories on here, i thought i might look at enrolling with ebay and maybe use paypal
i had both many years ago but the accounts closed when i moved from UK
so my question is, whats needed to enrol with these two these days?

good luck with your enquiry by the way
thanks

porto_bello

bargainsniffer1 wrote: »

Hi can anyone tell me their experience with ebid? As it seems a lot
cheaper then ebay to sell!
Has ebay had its day in auction format now that it is tied to big sellers?

You're right, eBid is cheaper to sell, and if all other things were equal, it would be the attractive option...

However, there are many times more buyers on well established eBay than newcomer eBid, which means you'll attract more bidders, higher prices and more sales on eBay - some successful eBay sellers have tried eBid and found it impossible to sell a single item!

There are alternatives to selling eBay, such as Amazon, but eBay is still the dominant auction site, so I think there is still opportunity to be had by smaller sellers.

theonlywayisup

As Porto says.

The price of selling is immaterial if you don't sell anything.

Crowqueen

bargainsniffer1 wrote: »

Hi can anyone tell me their experience with ebid? As it seems a lot
cheaper then ebay to sell!
Has ebay had its day in auction format now that it is tied to big sellers?

No, certainly not. What the bigger sellers sell does better at fixed price anyway from a buyer's point of view (if I'm buying a new pair of shoes and want them now, I'm happier to pay for them right up front than wait for an auction). There are private sellers who use fixed price; I buy a lot of DVDs and books and I can honestly say I look on Amazon first because I know I won't be waiting too long to read the book or watch the TV series by having to bid. There are a lot of items that simply need fixed prices to sell, and big sellers know how their buyers want to buy them, that's all.

In the collectables market etc. there are still plenty of auctions.

The big sellers also importantly subsidise the private sellers. I don't list a huge amount and having to rely on the fees I pay eBay would be in trouble - but that's essentially all eBid has to manage on, the fees of small sellers. Arguably, the big sellers piggybacked on eBay's name to help get their items sold, and in exchange bankroll eBay to make sure fees can be kept down to levels which private sellers can afford (they're lower than Amazon's for a start). From that perspective it's around the middle of the market, not at the high end.

Meanwhile eBid has been going ten years but has never achieved the same amount of exposure as the cheap fees do not cover the sort of advertising coverage eBay managed to achieve. By keeping things attractive mainly to sellers in terms of protection policies, it doesn't inspire people to buy there unless their money is guaranteed - at the moment eBid's own payment provider PPPay does not have a dispute system so you would effectively have to go to court to get your money back. Paypal gives you this security and I wouldn't shop online unless the site could protect these purchases for me - Amazon and Play also give the buyer recourse to dispute mechanisms. I would only use Paypal to buy on eBid and then only because they extended buyer protection to eBay levels a few years ago.

If eBay was private sellers only or tried to slash fees to eBid's level, it would be a non-starter. They wouldn't have the kitty to attract buyers or protect them and to me there would be little point shopping online if I could lose my money easily. I don't buy much on eBid...and I tried the other day to go to CQout but gave up because the site is not user-friendly for me wanting to spend money there.

milfhunter

bargainsniffer1 wrote: »

Hi can anyone tell me their experience with ebid? As it seems a lot
cheaper then ebay to sell!
Has ebay had its day in auction format now that it is tied to big sellers?

You seem to be mistaking listing for selling. Enid is a stock storage site rather than a selling site. This is from my own experience and also from the enid forums. If their own users can not sing the praises, then who can?

Captain_Serenity

I (and many others) sell very successfully on eBid.

If you have good products, good prices, good service and are prepared to do a bit of work yourself then you can make sales on eBid.

If you need everything handed to you on a plate then you should stick to eBay but be prepared to pay heavily for the plate.

Oliver14

Captain_Serenity wrote: »

I
If you need everything handed to you on a plate then you should stick to eBay but be prepared to pay heavily for the plate.

Don't be silly all you need to do is look at the amount of items listed in comparison to ebay to see that the best place for the majority of customers is ebay.

I'm not saying you cant make ebid work for certain nicbes but tha fact that ebid have been around for as long as ebay but you ask the majority of people to name an online selling / buying platform and ebay will be top probably followed by Amazon. Most people wont have heard of ebay.

If you put the same items on ebay and ebid in all liklihood the ebay ones will sell quicker and for higher prices than ebay. At present i have some items that i buy off ebid and sell on ebay for 3 times the price.

Its funny captain that you only appear on these boards on these threads. If ebid was as good as you always claim why do you need to leap to its defense so much. People constantly slag ebay off and it goes from strength to sttength. That says a lot.

I go where the money and the customers are you can big ebid up all you like but the money and customers are still on ebay. I've just had my highest grossing 3 months in 10 years.

Captain_Serenity

Oliver14 wrote: »

Don't be silly all you need to do is look at the amount of items listed in comparison to ebay to see that the best place for the majority of customers is ebay.

How is pointing out that if you want to make sales on eBid you'll have put in more work than you would on eBay silly?

I'm not saying you cant make ebid work for certain nicbes but tha fact that ebid have been around for as long as ebay but you ask the majority of people to name an online selling / buying platform and ebay will be top probably followed by Amazon. Most people wont have heard of ebay.

Sorry, I don't sell in a *niche* market. You can make eBid work in any market if you have the right product at the right price and put the work in.

If you put the same items on ebay and ebid in all liklihood the ebay ones will sell quicker and for higher prices than ebay.

It's likely but not a certainty. There's a TRS on eBay who specialises in one of my categories. We use the same supplier and have around the same amount of items listed. My prices are slightly cheaper but not as much as the difference in fees. I've outsold the eBay seller every month this year. I can't track other categories because I've not found another seller so closely matched.

At present i have some items that i buy off ebid and sell on ebay for 3 times the price.

Not quite sure what your point is here. At present I have some items that I buy off eBay and sell on eBid for 2-10 times the price. There are bargains (and resale opportunities) to be had on both sites.

Its funny captain that you only appear on these boards on these threads.

It's not funny at all. I answer posts I have knowledge about. I'm one of the few people on these boards who regularly use eBid so my comments are at least as valid as anyone else's.

If ebid was as good as you always claim why do you need to leap to its defense so much. People constantly slag ebay off and it goes from strength to sttength. That says a lot.

I didn't realise that telling someone not to expect a free ride was jumping to the defence but, since you ask, why do feel the need to attack anyone who posts anything positive about eBid?

I go where the money and the customers are you can big ebid up all you like but the money and customers are still on ebay. I've just had my highest grossing 3 months in 10 years.

Congratulations. It does seem that people are starting to spend again. Last month was my busiest yet on eBid and this month is looking to beat that.

lovinituk

I've been involved in the ebay vs ebid dicussions in the past and have never seen ebid as a viable alternative. I decided to put my money where my mouth is and gave ebid a go.

I listed several of my best selling items on ebid with good looking listings, added all the extra info to my profile and did everything else as recommended on the ebid forums, even listing my prices cheaper than on ebay. Over what was roughly a 2-3 month period I had just 3 sales on ebid and one of those resulted in a non-paying bidder (I got the fees back ok). In the same period on ebay I was selling 10 - 20 of the same items every day!

I also have my own website running. This is a very basic website utilising Paypal buttons and has had virtually no SEO done. Even my website was acheiving 5 - 10 sales a week over the same period I had the ebid listings running.

I appreciate what Captain Serentity is saying about if you put more work in you get more out but to be honest I don't see the point when I can make 100x more sales on ebay for virtually no work (once the BIN listings are set up they just run and run with) and 10x more sales on my website, also for virtually no work bar the initial set up.

I have also since started selling on Amazon and am very pleasantly surprised how many sales I am already getting on there and am only in month 2.

Ebid has its place for a few people, particulalry those that don't like ebay, but for any serious business sellers, I truly believe time can be better spent on the other platforms where greater rewards can be more easily achieved.

Good luck to those that have the patience to keep plugging away with ebid - its just not for me.

This is of course my opininon - but at least now it is an opininon based on real experience.

Crowqueen

I kind of think that eBid sellers say that it requires more work to generate more sales because they are trying to rationalise why eBid aren't doing that work for them.

If eBid had a better business model - charged more fees, essentially - they would be able to afford better advertising, better buyer protection and be a bigger and better competitor to eBay. Sites that are starting up now tend to either charge realistic fees or concentrate on a USP - for example I recently investigated Delcampe and they run a very healthy site dedicated to postcards and other similar collectables; they have been going for years and have a great many listings - but they also charge enough fees to keep them going.

Fair dos to anyone who manages to make eBid etc. work but they need to radically change their whole business model if they want to compete with eBay and Amazon. This would mean ultimately making the site more attractive to consumers and finding some way of subsidising the small sellers by taking on some form of money-spinner, whether it's large outlet sellers like eBay or their own catalogue of merchandise such as Amazon and Play.

I think they've got to answer that $64,000 question: what are we doing to generate the revenue we need to fund the site to the same level as eBay? Until they answer that they will languish a very, very poor second in their target market, while other similar sites around them implode completely.