The Peoples Web (Merged)

cosmokramer2004

Bargainbabe wrote:

I have yet to come across any decent competitor for eBay i'm afraid. This one is quite disappointing along with QXL etc...

Thanks OP but no thanks

https://www.ebid.co.uk - far superior to ebay. But far far far inferior in terms of number of users

Might be worth migrating/adding to options in 6-12 months though... :cool:

robowen

The people's web site is working great at the moment.

Nothing on it.......but speed is ok !

They got to start somewhere. Once people get to know about it, it will grow.

Remember.. ebay was rubbish at first, then it grew and became great....now it's rubbish again.

soolin

Other competitiors have come and gone, I started on Freeserve auctions long before I found ebay. There was also a lovely little auction site called Friday auctions or something, the high point of that one was when they almost reached a 1000 auctions running at the same time, nice friendly people though.

I don't think there ever will be a real competitor to ebay, I believe that one day the whole auction fever will just die off and we'll all be off doing other things. Look at Friends reunited, everyone was doing that at one point and now it seems to be less and less in the public eye as users have moved on to the next big thing.

Soo

robowen

I totally agree Soo :T

It does seem that ebay is slowly dying too.

I don't know if you have noticed this either ?

I think that these bid sniper have a lot to do with it as well.

No-one bids anymore till the last minute
There isn't that fever of competing and outbidding.

Imagine an auction where nobody bid until 5 seconds to go, the auctioneer was just about to lower the hammer when everyone in the room put their hand up

BFG_2

robowen wrote:

It does seem that ebay is slowly dying too.

I agree that certain PARTS of ebay are dying - it's those parts selling everyday items where the margins are small; they are also full of tat and rip-off goods so as it becomes more of a pain looking for something, less people will bother.

I believe that the other areas of 'specialist interests/not everyday purchases' will continue as it does genuinely bring buyers and sellers together who could not otherwise meet. The aspect that may reduce these areas is when more scammers are forced into these areas as other areas 'die off'. This is already happening in a very small specialist section where I buy regularly (possibly also targetted because there are high value items and high net worth buyers in that area?).

Party_Animal

There doesn't appear to be anything in most categories?

shrek101

I thinks thats why they need more people to join, buy/sell, we all have to start some where.It would be nice to have some competition to Egay

soolin

robowen wrote:

I totally agree Soo :T

It does seem that ebay is slowly dying too.

I don't know if you have noticed this either ?

I think that these bid sniper have a lot to do with it as well.

No-one bids anymore till the last minute
There isn't that fever of competing and outbidding.

Imagine an auction where nobody bid until 5 seconds to go, the auctioneer was just about to lower the hammer when everyone in the room put their hand up

I think ebay has a long way to go yet, the users are still increasing and the month on month figures for ebay shops still show a slight increase despite the new higher costs.

As for real auctions, they do sort of work like ebay. I don't know if you have been to many 'real' auctions but usually a catalogue is prepared a week or so in advance giving everyone a chance to ask questions or check small print. If buyers cannot be around at the end of the auction they can leave a proxy bid which the auctioneer will action for them.

Then at the the last moment the item is actually offered for bids and everyone jumps in and bids, the proxy bids are taken into account and the auction goes to the highest bidder whether in person or in proxy.

Now treat ebay like that, list something and expect the first 6 days or so to be for viewing, asking questions and putting in proxy (or snipe) bids. Then at the very last moment your buyers will either bid manually or activate their snipe bids to bid on their behalf.

Soo

Bargainbabe_2

Regrettably, many have tried to compete with eBay and not one has suceeded yet.

Oops, I didn't mean to thank you Shrek, I meant to quote you lol...Have a thank you on me !

shrek101

True competition is a good thing though. There is plenty of sites that do auctions but none so far have got any where near as big.