Selling your stuff on EBID. advice for new sellers

numberthree

Well it is over 6 months since I made a sale on Ebid, yet books I have on there do sell elsewhere - I just seem to spend my time listing new stuff and then deleting ones that have sold on other sites

I haven't made enough to pay for my lifetime membership yet, but will keep my listings going as I now have nothing else to lose!

Am disappointed that there does not seem to have been an increase in buyers since the site was revamped

Frugaldom

Just for experimental purposes, can someone give me a random title of something that's listed on eBid so I can see how easily I'd find it if that's what I was wanting to buy. Many people are using price comparison sites nowadays and eBay listings get picked up in them, but eBid listings don't appear, so this could be a major contributing factor to slow trading. I just Googled 'sell stuff online' and eBid shows up in the first page of results, whereas eBay doesn't, but anyone seeking to sell online will, undoubtedly, have already heard of eBay.

I did a search in 'Google Shopping' for a specific title of a book that I know we have listed on eBid, it came up number 1 in the search! HOWEVER - I have been online for over 15 years, don't know how long Google has had their shopping search facility and this is the first time I have ever used it - I ALWAYS seach the traditional way.

Name a commonly bought item, please, so I'm not biased or influenced in any way. I'm determined to find the cheapest online selling method that works and if it means including an extra sentence in every listing, then so be it - let's get our items noticed and sold.

soolin

I have an email from someone about a Coronation mug they want to sell, is that a random enough word to look for somethting to buy?

(Their one is not listed so I am not advertising in any way)

soolin

Eek, I just looked at the search results myself, my colleague is not going to be pleased, she just bought one at nearly £25 from a bricks and mortar auction thinking she can turn a profit, and they go for half that on ebay.

Frugaldom

Hi Soolin, I reopened an old thread I had about this on eBid to update the information and I've put my results there. Not sure how pertinent it would be to put a version of them here but they were very interesting! I used King George VI sixpence 1951 as my example after clicking on someone's user details and seeing they had that listed. I'm just about to try a magazine title that I know is listed to see how it fairs. Having taken the decision to give eBid a bit more attention for my Spring cleaning declutter, I want to make sure I get my new listing right before I do anything else. Got to be frugal

I also asked a second person in same room to search for identical item and their results were slightly different to mine as G00gle does not throw up identical result on all searches - interesting! We tried G00gle, Yah00, A0L and a couple of the price comparison websites. The OP, who runs our online bookshop on eBid, no less, had never even heard of G00gle shopping search. Where's the rolleyes smiley when we need him? :rotfl:

Frugaldom

Oops, meant to say, which monarch's Coronation mug are we talking about? I'll assume QEII for my search, as I know there are some on eBid after doing the search there.

My exact search term was 'QUEEN ELIZABETH II CORONATION MUG'

Results for eBid

Standard G00gle - 0 on page 1
Yah00 - 0 on page 1
A0L - 0 on page 1
D0gpile - 0 on page 1
A$k - 0 on page 1
A1tavi$ta - 0 on page 1
B1ng - 0 on page 1
G00gle shopping - 7th, 8th & 10th on page 1

I'm rather disappointed by these results, to say the least. It looks like selling there is still a case of promoting your own items in whatever way you can. My original idea of linking items from a page you have full control over with regards to search engine optimisation looks like it remans the best way to go. Back to the drawing board in search of that illusive fortune-making product.

soolin

Frugaldom wrote: »

Oops, meant to say, which monarch's Coronation mug are we talking about? I'll assume QEII for my search, as I know there are some on eBid after doing the search there.

Yes it was a QE2 and i did check out ebid as my result on google didn't show anything at al. Despite Google not bringing up the ebid items, there are some listed but they are even cheaper than the ebay ones and I daren't tell my friend as she feels gutted enough already :eek:

Frugaldom

Oh noooo.... just think how much your friend could have saved if they had managed to find said item on eBid! That's the part that makes me mad - there are bargains to be had there but nobody, apart from other eBidders, seems to be finding these unless the sellers are doing self-promotion elsewhere. (Or buyers really do use G00gle Shopping and we're just backward in our searching methods.)

soolin

Frugaldom wrote: »

Oh noooo.... just think how much your friend could have saved if they had managed to find said item on eBid! That's the part that makes me mad - there are bargains to be had there but nobody, apart from other eBidders, seems to be finding these unless the sellers are doing self-promotion elsewhere. (Or buyers really do use G00gle Shopping and we're just backward in our searching methods.)

Unfortunately she is trying to make some money by low level trading , she got hooked with one of those TV programmes that showed people buying at auction and reselling online and making lots of money. I did try and warn her and even sent her a photo of the two boxes of china that I have in storage that I was utterly convinced were going to make me my fortune (I can't even give the stuff away) but I think the thrill of bidding got to her and i can't see anyway at all of her making her money back here.

I have bought on ebid and listed the items straight away on ebay and made a profit (there was a thread about me on ebid at the time as one person thought it was immoral of me to be making a profit on the poor sellers struggling to sell on ebid). However th ebuyers selling the stuff i knew about have all gone back to ebay now, one even sent me a really polite message thanking me for my sales and congratulating me on my bargains and promising me a fair run for my money competition wise once they set back up on ebay.

Frugaldom

Soolin, I'll need to find that thread! Posting in some forums is like releasing a fox amongst hounds. In my book, trading is trading, I have no problem with folks earning a few pounds wherever they can, if it's legal. It's just business where there are no real friends.

I think our book sales are ticking along nicely because there are more people out there looking to put their hard earned cash into something more interesting than a bank account. I have a few books and sports related memorabilia that I've been offered a fair amount of money for but won't sell but similarly, I spotted an old Grand National racecard at a book fair, paid £10 for it and got £147 for it through the online auctions - was it immoral to profiteer from another trader? I think not - they probably got it in some bulk lot of clearance goods and were delighted to get a tenner for it on the day.

Going to give it a bit more effort on eBid again and see how it goes this summer. If it wasn't for my account being a business account, I'd have taken advantage of the eBay free listing days.

Hope your friend has learned a valuable, and not too costly, lesson in why not to get carried away in a bidding war.