Selling your stuff on EBID. advice for new sellers

Stephen_Brooks

I wonder if the listing fees etc. mean that all Ebay prices have to be inflated by about 15%, but that doesn't matter because people tend to compare Ebay items to *other* Ebay items?

If Ebid market their stuff via Google Shopping - I recall seeing a post in this thread where someone said "Does anyone use that?" Well, I do! But I appear to be a minority. In fact I've got a browser shortcut so when I type "p <product name here>" into the address bar, it gives me that product in Google Shopping UK, sorted by least price. Quite handy.

Perhaps this large Ebay profit margin is actually going to them marketing like mad so they end up being hits in all sorts of consumer search engines?

soolin

Stephen_Brooks wrote: »

I wonder if the listing fees etc. mean that all Ebay prices have to be inflated by about 15%, but that doesn't matter because people tend to compare Ebay items to *other* Ebay items?

If Ebid market their stuff via Google Shopping - I recall seeing a post in this thread where someone said "Does anyone use that?" Well, I do! But I appear to be a minority. In fact I've got a browser shortcut so when I type "p <product name here>" into the address bar, it gives me that product in Google Shopping UK, sorted by least price. Quite handy.

Perhaps this large Ebay profit margin is actually going to them marketing like mad so they end up being hits in all sorts of consumer search engines?

None of that matters at all if no one buyers anything on ebid. Pound for pound I make thousands percent more on my ebay sales than on ebid as all I do on ebid is populate my shops, tart up the logos and change the photos every now and then. I also list there cheaper than i do on ebay, and send a link to my ebid shops when I sell items on ebay.

My total sales in 7 years on ebid..7 and 5 of those were to the same person in the same transaction. In terms of time and effort those 7 transactions have cost me an arm and a leg, it is much cheaper to sell on ebay.

After 11 years of trying if ebid having got it right yet they might as well give up.

Stephen_Brooks

Well the 10% margin on Ebay suggests there's a gap in the market for a less-gouging alternative, and I'm going to keep having a look around.

Generally I got back what I payed for on the couple of things I just sold on Ebay. So it's great for getting rid of household junk and reclaiming some of the value; doubt I'd ever be able to be significantly "profitable" on there.

Mayday

All BIN listings are uploaded by eBid to Google Shopping and to TheFind.com & co.uk.

plus I've had 7 sales today on eBid.

soolin

Mayday wrote: »

All BIN listings are uploaded by eBid to Google Shopping and to TheFind.com & co.uk.

plus I've had 7 sales today on eBid.

What today? You mean there is a buyer there (Soolin hurries off to waste more time tarting up her ebid auctions)

mobile48

soolin wrote: »

What today? You mean there is a buyer there (Soolin hurries off to waste more time tarting up her ebid auctions)

Perhaps someone read this thread and went for a look.:)

I think in the UK's on estimated traffic ebay is ranked 7th and ebid 778th

http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/GB

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ebid.net

Mayday

soolin wrote: »

What today? You mean there is a buyer there (Soolin hurries off to waste more time tarting up her ebid auctions)

Yep - today!

Maxine123_2

eBid doesn't work for me. Of course I have recently joined and you might want to call me impatient. But I figured there are pros and cons to selling on eBid. Something I don't get, why do I have to market my products? eBid has to market them as far as I am concerned, I paid my 90-day fee, prob the last, and let them do the marketing part.

First off, eBid advertises FREE to list & FREE to sell but in fact it isn't free. I paid my 90-day fee which I found out now was voluntary, but in addition to that, I ended up with signing up for the 3% commissions or else my pics won't show up in the search - you call this free? In addition, eBid uses BB Code - not HTML - so when I used a good old HTML, my page froze solid & I have no idea how to unfreeze it. I'm enjoying the frozen page while have already paid my due.

I tried to advertise on Craigslist - wrote what I thought was a link to my store - that doesn't work. Apparently my store name represents what I would call a subdomain - then why isn't it searchable?

The good thing is that most of the posters on their Forums are friendly and helpful. Some have a bit of an attitude, but no biggie.

I have started out with 0 feedbacks, so in an attempt to bring them up, I've listed a few small items for an auction starting at $0.01 with free shipping - no luck. One of the posters goes, you only recently started, do you want your items sold this fast? I am like, yes (but didn't say it). Another one goes, I wouldn't buy this item as you priced it at 1p. Oh well. So I moved them to eBay where I need to raise my fb as well - had a few bids already.

Go figure.

soolin

The forum users will tell you that you are being impatient, they would not expect to sell a thing in 90 days and can't see why anyone would expect to sell that quickly.

I've been on ebid now fo around 8 years, sold about 3 things, so yes, I am impatient as well.

Ebid is not ebay, every sale on ebid seems to result in shocked and excited posts even from the regulars , if you want a hobby use ebid, if you actually want to sell anything then you are stuck with ebay.

Frugaldom

Just my tuppence worth - I still think eBid is a fantastic bolt on for your own website in preference to paying out for a secure server and merchant account. I did list on eBay last weekend during their free listing period - sadly, I didn't even get a watcher, let alone a bid.

Most of our sales are still coming through links from our own sites and into eBay or eBid, but I'm another one who is guilty of neglecting my own listings. Other downside is that I also favour cashback and eBay's linked to the big cashback sites. I always shop around for the best buy, so the winner gets my money on that score, but it isn't often eBid.

In this economic climate, I can't believe more people aren't setting up shop for themselves but that's always puzzled me.