Ebid - Does Anyone On MSE Make Any Decent Sales?

Crowqueen

I think in justice to the people who have spent £50-80 on them, though, that those people deserve a better return on their investment than eBid are currently offering them.

Those people have paid for a service which they are not getting - which is the problem with any kind of subscription model, as they are paying regardless of return - rather than paying for a service they actually receive when someone buys something (as on eBay).

In any other case people would be beating down the doors trying to get a refund.

I'd like to see how many out of those 4m listings they trumpet actually translate into sales. We have a few very eager eBid enthusiasts who make it work for them - but I suspect they are doing the same sort of work that eBay do for the people who sell there - therefore at some stage they must wonder why they are paying eBid at all.

TM6

I suppose my beef is that ebay is so greedy and having spent a bit of time playing around on ebid, I prefer the layout to ebay

But

if the sales are not there and I can't drive them in myself, it doesn't matter how much I like ebid!

At least it is a good back up inventory!

(By the way, how do you back up your inventory?)

MiscreantDesigns

eBid. What a laugh.

eBid should be called 'enoBid' or 'Give us yer money, me hearties!'.

After (stupidly!) signing up for the lifetime membership, I've had listings there for years now (and cheaper than on eBay) and still no sales.

Terrible customer service. No advertising. Nobody I know had even heard of the place until I told them about it. You can only seem to find online links to it if you know exactly what you're looking for.

There are many anecdotes about how eBid allow buyers to get ripped off by sellers who list stuff and then run for the hills with the money. There are just as many anecdotal comments by sellers about (non) buyers who win an item and then run away without even bothering to contact the seller. Why would anyone trade somewhere like that?

You can't even really trust feedback since sellers can combine feedback through Repatoo. That means you can have 1000 positives through eBay and none through eBid but make eBid look like it's thriving by combining your feedback ratings so their eBid rating says they've got 1000 positive feedbacks.

Since a lot of the stuff I want to sell is handmade (wargaming stuff) I'm going to give etsy and the wargaming forums a try. In fact, that would be my advice for anyone specifically wanting to avoid eBay. Find forums that specialise in the areas you are selling in and sell there. Most of them have trading sections and don't charge so you can't lose. Take into account the 10% eBay and 3-4% PayPal fees and you can ask a fair price that people are happy to pay.

Someone mentioned that eBid is a 'ghost town'. I have to disagree. Even the ghosts can't be bothered with that place.

kazca

It is a shame about ebid. Having read this thread I had a quick look to see if they listed items that have been removed from ebay UK - air rifles, WW2 grenades, etc. Nothing there so I guess the same restrictive rules apply and someone on ebid is actually checking listings?

The one off fee is quite clever on ebid's part as it compromises sellers into persisting with their listings.

Ebay have seemed to stay at least one step ahead. From my point of view the google listings(googlebase) from ebay are eveywhere now. Ebid should be able to compete here, especially if sellers are listing the same product cheaper, given the FVF and listing fees are cheaper.

soolin

kazca wrote: »

It is a shame about ebid. Having read this thread I had a quick look to see if they listed items that have been removed from ebay UK - air rifles, WW2 grenades, etc. Nothing there so I guess the same restrictive rules apply and someone on ebid is actually checking listings?

The one off fee is quite clever on ebid's part as it compromises sellers into persisting with their listings.

Ebay have seemed to stay at least one step ahead. From my point of view the google listings(googlebase) from ebay are eveywhere now. Ebid should be able to compete here, especially if sellers are listing the same product cheaper, given the FVF and listing fees are cheaper.

I tend to agree that I think ebid shouldn't be doing as badly as it is if they looked at their model and maybe made some changes.

Half the people that post on threads here are looking for a back up or alternative site to run alongside their ebay sales, and that should be ebid. However apart from a few staunch fans no one appears to have any success at all.

I doubt I would leave ebay, if I give up online selling then I'll give it all up. However a second site with maybe different buyers would suit me, and that's why I bought a lifetime membership to ebid about 9 years ago as I thought they were 'going places', the only place they have ever gone though is backwards.

Every time ebay make a significant change I expect ebid to react, but nothing happens. Even the regulars on the forum there seem despondent, talking down the possibility of sales on the new members thread, warning people not to expect to sell things quickly.

I do think it is a real shame that it is being allowed to stagnate, maybe it is time to raise a bit of cash and do a little advertising.

porto_bello

MiscreantDesigns wrote: »

eBid. What a laugh.

...I've had listings there for years now (and cheaper than on eBay) and still no sales.

I dodn't realise it could be that bad! How does eBid survive? Presumably on lifetime membership sales?

StaffsSW

porto_bello wrote: »

I dodn't realise it could be that bad! How does eBid survive? Presumably on lifetime membership sales?

Exactly that. There are a LOT of disgruntled ebay sellers out there who are happy to pay eBid to advertise their goods. Not sell, just advertise...

As alluded to above, Ebid do not advertise themselves to buyers, and it's all very well having items for sale, but if you don't tell people about it then you can't expect them to come to you. It's very easy to recruit sellers, but try getting buyers to try something new to them. eBay, for all it's faults, is incredibly well known to internet shoppers. Can the same be said about eBid? Have you ever seen a TV advert for eBid? When wasthe last time you saw an online advert for products on ebid, rather than an advert to sign up new sellers?

The other major failing of Ebid is that they do not have an affiliate programme that rewards for purchases, just the sign up of new sellers. As far as affiliate marketers are concerned, you want a long-tail stream rather than a one hit deal. I earn £1 for every new seller I get to sign up to eBid via a few of my sites, but there is no further earning potential from that sign-up, and no potential earning for me from any sales that are generated.

The affiliate market effectively runs online shopping now - just look at this very site we are on now, MSE is one of the biggest affiliate sites in the UK after Gocompare & moneysupermarket etc. Martin Lewis is earning multiple millions of revenue from this site, but I bet not a single penny of that comes via Ebid.

Crowqueen

The tagline is 'the Online Auction House without the fees' - well, the problem is, those fees are what keep eBay, Amazon, Etsy, etc. going.

eBid have no money to advertise or run any affiliate programme.

They charge sellers a once-off fee - they should be charging per listing, and at a rate where they can afford to promote themselves properly.

I agree with Soolin - but all the other sites seem to want to do is to undercut eBay and make themselves more seller-friendly - whereas the sites that have prospered, such as Amazon and Play, have been buyer friendly, charged reasonable fees to allow themselves to advertise properly, and kept a stream of revenue coming in that means they make money from every sale rather than just £50 every so often and then nothing much more for years afterwards.

Unfortunately the only way for eBid to beat eBay is to join them. I am buying books for my dissertation, I am buying from eBay and Amazon in equal amounts - but I haven't even looked at eBid. If I did, I don't think I'd find half as much of interest there, and although I've been lucky that stuff I've bought there (all 12 items!) has arrived, I've read countless posts on the forums where a buyer is saying 'hey, my seller never responded' and others have had to say 'give them a while, they may not realise they have a sale' - which is just not the way for a successful online marketplace to operate.

It's sad - the more the merrier - but in raw terms, they just need the proper, professional atmosphere, the buyer traffic, and the money to attract it. At some point that means wising up and realising the sites with the money and the power charge a premium for their services.

RFW

After all this time, I think it's a fair assumption that Ebid are happy where they are, it's actually not a bad business (for the company), it just doesn't stand up to comparisons with Ebay. I think it suits Ebay that Ebid exist, and Ebid are hanging around waiting for Ebay to make them an offer.

StaffsSW

A bit of an insight to the current Ebid affiliate situation - they have now upped the payout for new seller registrations from £1 per sign up, to £37.50 for new sellers taking the £50 lifetime package...!! If that doesn't sound like desperation, I don't know what does!

They have also started paying out £2.50 for new buyer registrations, but as yet there is still no rev-share programme for sold items.