Selling your stuff on EBID. advice for new sellers

Zolabrecht

Saw this and being a platinum ebid member, thought i would reply:)

What can i say about ebid, its a strange auction site, one of those places where thiings constantly surprise you like my 99p auctions this week, a bad surprise though..........

I started on ebid last year, bravely paid and upgraded my account to gold and then platinum on a special promotional free platinum offer for gold subscribers.

has it been worth it? I wish i could say hell yeah......but sadly it hasnt when i actually sit down and think carefully about it

The site is great, it has such a huge potential, and whilst there are bargain to be had and re-sold elsewhere, this obviously comes tdown to the misfortune of the sellers.

Although there are sellers on there making 40, 60, 100 sales a month which is fantastic!, mind you most of these sellers have a 1500 or more items listed, now a sale of 60 items, out of listed 1500, well thats not even 10% of selling your items. Not great really

Everything i have sold on ebid, i could of sold elsewhere and made a better profit, but i didnt ive tried to stick with it and watched the site grow to over 570000 listings, which sounds more impressive than i think really is.

Remember those sellers selling A 1000 or more listings? well it only takes a handful of them to make up a high percentage of those overall site listings.

Im trying to end of a high note a positive for the site, but it needs dedication to the site, and whislt the ebid team are due to upgrade the site again tommoworw or the weekend, i feel their hearts really lie elswehre, afterall they do run a number of other online businesses.

A year to this month i have been on ebid, this week as a push, a belief that this site is brilliant, i listed many items at 99p No reserve, Big name film Dvds and ps2 games, different items to what i normally list (as these werent selling) and what happened

99p no sale
99p no sale
99p no sale
50p no sale
99p a sale !

etc

and oh yeah £3.50 a sale on a 9ct gold hallmarked ring



The site has the potential to grow, but i think there is a slight stubborness within the ebid team to allow others to come in and help fufil that potential, it could be bigger than ebay, but i feel it never will even be close due to this.

Another problem for me is the aspect of FREE which is advertised cosntantly for the site, a very bad marketing idea in my view as it has much more things going for it.

Basically, it is free to list, but not to sell.

Silver members can list for free, but make a sale and meet a FVF of 3%
Upgrade to platinum, which is a hefty payment considering lack of sales, and you can then choose a basic auction with no FVF or listing fees.

just a little fact which needs pointing out to avoid dissapointment:)

Ebid, try it, love it, but never expect to live from it.

bettybosh

Just thought I would put up a post re eBid's latest site updates (implemented 9th Aug) which include:

Integrated Google Checkout, with a new icon added to auction listings showing where it is available as a payment option

A new Platinum Auction available to Silver eBidders

Single page listing

A new bulk upload system


Further info can be found here>>>>>http://helpdesk.ebid.net/showthread.php?t=96182


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kensitt

I have been selling on Ebid for a while now and have high hopes for it, I mainly sell CD's and Ebay has recently put the final value fee up to 9% in music and books category, so by the time people pay by Paypal and you have paid all the fees you are paying nearly a £1.00 on a £3.50 CD if you sell in a store.
Ebay has announced today it is making the Paypal option compulsory on games and other categories to follow.
They seem to change something every day.
These are my reasons for moving to Ebid.
I have a shop that I have sold over 11 thousand items on, so it is a slow process to move but I will get there. I am able to offer many ways of payment and from many countries.
I would like a good listing tool but Ebid say that they are working on the bulk uploads.
With costs so much lower on Ebid, I can sell items cheaper than those on Ebay.
I do have a store or shop on Ebid and have hopes all will go well in time, it is taking time.
Good luck to everyone who gives it a go!
If you are going to sell on Ebid, remember to buy there as well!

gromituk

I understand the frustration of sellers not getting anywhere on eBid (and it's easy for me to say that as a casual observer!) but you do need to understand that a monopoly is not good for anyone, and if you can persevere, to nurture the site, then eBay will no longer be able to get away with policies such as forbidding Google Checkout, or sellers asking buyers to pay PayPal fees if they choose that option of payment.

As regards to the idea of promoting the site by mentioning it to your buyers on eBay, well I am just waiting for eBay to modify its T&Cs to make it a capital offence to mention any other auction site to customers!

Val, I'm also susprised that you needed to express your gratitude to the board guides for letting you start this thread. It is as acceptable to talk about any auction site here as it is to talk about eBay.

gromituk

val4xx wrote: »

The bulk uploader is an excel based spreadsheet which users complete with auction titles etc.

Talking of monopolies... when you say "excel" do you really mean that it only works with the expensive proprietary Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program, or that it sticks to true standards and is therefore compatible with the many free alternatives running on many more platforms, such as OpenOffice? If it only works with Excel, it seems ironic that a company trying to bust one monopoly is inadvertently furthering another.

blue_monkey_2

The thing here is that eBay is HUGE because of the HUGE amount of fees it charges and also with paypal alongside it they have the money to market the products so everyone will buy it. If you go into the supermarket and there are 2 products on the shelf and you have not heard of the 2nd one then you buy the one you have heard of because you know it works.

If more of us started using eBid then they would get the money in and could them start advertising and improving the site - you can't build a business with no money coming in.anyone with a business can tell you that.

I am registered with eBid but, for now, I don't have the time to list on there. There are just not enough hours in my day, but once the kids are off to school I'll give it a go. The thing is, if you want to buy something the first place you look is eBay - they have the uploads to the websites so if you browse via Google (or whatever) the eBay stuff comes in - this again comes down to money and the amount of money eBay can put into making sure their products get onto the higher list of Google - and the more we sell the more money eBay earns.

I myself am tired of eBa - I am selling through what i have and certainly will not be selling in the same volumes. I am selling more on my website these days than on eBay and for me, this is the way forward for sure but I'll list a few things in my eBay store to keep my name out there but certainly not to the extremes I am now.

Just a thought for you all really.

moneysaver100_2

Its easy to moan about Ebay Fees - but Ebid charge you as well - in fact twice - once as a joining fee and then again in the form of Final Value Fees. And on some item costings EBIDS FVFs may work out to be even HIGHER than EBAY

Even after paying £100 if you join as a platinum member you are still expected to pay FVF's - So how is that FREE !

OK its "FREE" to list - in the most basic form as I have discovered - no BIN price no Gallery picture - why bother I can get these features on Tazbar for nothing - although to be fair from what I have heard stuff doent sell there either.

The sad fact is EBAY is a monopoly ! True. And the fees are quite high ESPECIALLY the paypal fees which are crazy.

BUT - and its a big BUT - if you list there then yor item will probably sell..... whereas elsewhere they will just sit about gathering dust.

Sad but True.

Other online auction sites just cannot compete - Ebid has been trying for the last EIGHT years and is still a tiddling insignificant minnow to Ebids Great White Shark ! And Tazbar although less than a year old has made no significant headway at all in the last 6 months as far as I can see.

bettybosh

moneysaver100 wrote: »

Its easy to moan about Ebay Fees - but Ebid charge you as well - in fact twice - once as a joining fee

There is NO joining fee ... it's FREE!

moneysaver100 wrote: »

and then again in the form of Final Value Fees. And on some item costings EBIDS FVFs may work out to be even HIGHER than EBAY

How do you work that out? The maximum FVF on eBid is 3%. As far as I am aware the minimum FVF on eBay is 5.25%

moneysaver100 wrote: »

Even after paying £100 if you join as a platinum member you are still expected to pay FVF's - So how is that FREE !

The only FVF fee incurred as a Platinum Member is for listings with a gallery pic (2%)


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bettybosh

gromituk wrote: »

Talking of monopolies... when you say "excel" do you really mean that it only works with the expensive proprietary Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program, or that it sticks to true standards and is therefore compatible with the many free alternatives running on many more platforms, such as OpenOffice? If it only works with Excel, it seems ironic that a company trying to bust one monopoly is inadvertently furthering another.

Hi, there is an excel spreadsheet to download but users without Microsoft Office or Excel can download and use "Calc", part of the Open Office suite.

Mimijo_2

Skippy2roo wrote: »

if an item dosn't sell on the biggest online marketplace in the world yet sells on Ebid you have to question it's target audience for the larger appeal.

I think you misunderstand - with eBid I can display my cards for 24 hours a day 365 days a year without listing costs,and my listing is always on the first couple of pages as I choose a 3 day listing.

With eBay I couldn't afford to list, as if I listed - say 10 cards and only 4 sold - I would still have to pay the 15p listing for all the others that didn't sell, so it would wipe out the small profit I had made on other sales.

They sell my cards fine in local shops here - it was just with Ebay there was so much competition on the pages - my listing would only show for a few hours on the first page at a cost of 15p!:(