Selling your stuff on EBID. advice for new sellers

Frugaldom

soolin wrote: »

...Our regular ebid users have also stopped posting which is a shame, and the general discussion forums on ebid are also slower than I've ever seen them before, but I don't know why.

I haven't stopped posting, but I did stop using the eBid forums for various reasons. Regulars there will know why and certain others are lucky they didn't end up sued for libel. Fortunately, I'm a placid person even when provoked. (Most of the time)

I have been buying a lot, but can't usually find what I need on eBid at the right price. Like everyone else, I end up going via cashback sites and buying from eBay, more so when they send me 10% OFF codes!

I have been a member of eBid for many years, as have many others, and I will continue to support it in any way I can. It's a great concept, it deserves far more recognition than it gets but, sadly, eBay is still the big fish in the sea and has long since become THE household name for online trading. In my opinion, many of the people taking a serious interest in eBid are those who have had problems associated with eBay. Their 99p free listings stunt has to hurt eBid and I'm surprised there's been no retaliatory offers, like a free lifetime membership opportunity for next 1000 sign ups or whatever, just to get new people listing. I even suggested (directly to eBid) that they take advantage of the appropriate MSE forum to offer members an exclusive deal - it is a money saving exercise, afterall, being able to open an online store free of charge.

As for selling on eBid - sales are steady and some of the items are not particularly cheap. We stopped listing on eBay a long while ago. eBid sales are doing well considering the current financial situation. We sell mainly to racing enthusiasts with quite a few repeat customers, but it's a niche market. I'm convinced that our buyers are looking for longterm investments rather than bargains.

There, that's me had my say - I'm flying the flag for eBid. The buyers are out there, IF you have what they want, when they want it, at a price they are prepared to pay.

Me? I'm the tightest spender there is, but show me a bargain in something I really want and I'd empty my bank account to get it. :rotfl:

numberthree

Well I'd like to be flying the flag for Ebid and have 200+ listings on there.

However, I still cannot access the site and eventually managed to email support to be basically told I needed to upgrade my browser to IE7.

So, I told them that as I was not having any problems with any other site on the world wide wait perhaps the problem was theirs and not mine. So I am unable to do anything at all and may have to resort to a trip to the library to put my store offline - not impressed at all

mira666

patman99 wrote: »

CyberBob, did you find the link to the other Ebid forum on MSE?.

can someone post the actual link to this forum, as am interested in reading it

soolin

mira666 wrote: »

can someone post the actual link to this forum, as am interested in reading it

This should get you there:

http://helpdesk.ebid.net/

If not (and I'm not noted for my ability to post sensible links!) just go to ebid and one of the tabs on the top is for forums.

Advertising your ebid store to other forum members is allowed and positively encouraged on there, although personally I find the nonsense they post sometimes about ebay just irritates me as does the silly names they give to other sites. I think if ebid users were slightly more professional, understood ebay rather than post nonsensical posts about how they are making huge losses (yep, that one was a short while ago), they would encourage more new users.

mira666

ahh okies, i thought it was on MSE, I can't look at ebid stuff whilst I'm at work as the firm have seen fit to block both that and ebay, thankfully I can still look at MSE

soolin

mira666 wrote: »

ahh okies, i thought it was on MSE, I can't look at ebid stuff whilst I'm at work as the firm have seen fit to block both that and ebay, thankfully I can still look at MSE

Sorry, sorry that was my fault I was talking to someone else and read the wrong request on the wrong forum.

The thread referred to above was here but I think it only had about 15 posts, I will find it and post it.

soolin

OK, here it is :

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1626163&highlight=ebid

mira666

thank you soolin, it makes good reading

mira666

am just trying to think of ways to boost sales, all of my current auctions are listed as buy it nows at a reasonable price but am wondering if i would have better luck simply listing things as auctions proper as am not totally fussed about how much they sell for.

any ideas?

soolin

mira666 wrote: »

am just trying to think of ways to boost sales, all of my current auctions are listed as buy it nows at a reasonable price but am wondering if i would have better luck simply listing things as auctions proper as am not totally fussed about how much they sell for.

any ideas?

You might as well leave them as BINs on Ebid as there are so few buyers that even if you do get any interest your item won't attract any bidding war so will go at starting bid.

For a while I had a nice little business going buying from two ex ebay sellers (I later found out they were a husband and wife team) who had moved across entirely to ebid but still listed with 99p starts. I bought up stock left right and centre from them and resold at a profit on ebay. Eventually the husband side of the business emailed me and basically said 'fair game, you win..we're going back to ebay see you there'.