Selling your stuff on EBID. advice for new sellers

soolin

ShaunParker wrote: »

Their issue is marketing - they dont know how to do it and so people have no idea they exist, Ebay for example run low bids in Google Adwords for hundreds of thousands of topics. If you check out the Ebid forum some major categories have not had proper interaction for well over a year. They need to change this approach rather than relying on recommendation because people will not be recommending to use it from a seller perspective.

They don't wish to change though- if you read their forums they are very interesting now.

At least now the forum regulars are being more open and honest about ebid, they are quite clear it is not something you can use instead of ebay- it is basically a site you use alongside your own advertising and run alongside ebay. To see posts from regular forum sellers warning enthusiastic new sellers that they may have to wait months for a sale, if at all , is refreshing.

I fear that ebid are no longer even 'holding on' but are fast disappearing against open and good competition from the myriad of facebook selling pages. I know we still do get the occaisonal ebid seller here, but try actually asking them to show any category at all with good sales - some of the categories I watch have no sales at all any more, nothing, zero for months

Mayday

A bit of light relief as it's YDC time again on eBid:



http://uk.ebid.net/buy/charity-auctions/ydc-your-donation-counts/

YDC = Your Donation Counts. This month's featured charity is Janet's Trust who is raising funds towards the purchase of another Defibrillator - this time for Mearns Academy, Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire.

http://www.laurencekirkab30.co.uk/charity-auctions-will-raise-money-for-mearns-academy-defibrillator/

To date we have have raised almost £1000 to help towards the purchase of defibrillators for 2 schools in Plymouth and Newtown.

Please come and join us with YDC131; everyone is welcome

delkman

Hello,
I have only been on Ebid for about a week. I am getting a little tired of Ebay's ever changing charges and looking for something new. The problem is I sell sports cards, mostly inexpensive ones. I have looked at a bunch of auctions on Ebid and do not see any bids on any cards and I have scoured a lot. My shipping cost is calculated (approx. 2.54 domestic), That comes in a bubble mailer with tracking. I was wondering if I should lower the cost and ship in a white envelope. The issue there is the cards do not have much protection (or tracking) as they have to be able to go through the sorting machines at the post office. Anyway, does anyone have experience selling cards or comics on Ebid and have any suggestions at all, especially shipping? I get views and I would love to make sales on this site, unfortunately I haven't found anything viable enough to quit ebay. Thanks much for any responses Greg

soolin

delkman wrote: »

Hello,
I have only been on Ebid for about a week. I am getting a little tired of Ebay's ever changing charges and looking for something new. The problem is I sell sports cards, mostly inexpensive ones. I have looked at a bunch of auctions on Ebid and do not see any bids on any cards and I have scoured a lot. My shipping cost is calculated (approx. 2.54 domestic), That comes in a bubble mailer with tracking. I was wondering if I should lower the cost and ship in a white envelope. The issue there is the cards do not have much protection (or tracking) as they have to be able to go through the sorting machines at the post office. Anyway, does anyone have experience selling cards or comics on Ebid and have any suggestions at all, especially shipping? I get views and I would love to make sales on this site, unfortunately I haven't found anything viable enough to quit ebay. Thanks much for any responses Greg

I'm not sure exactly what your cards are like, but could you use a simple card backed envelope instead as that would go as a standard letter? Also is the value high enough to require signed for?

Having said all that, there are no buyers on ebid so even with lower postage costs you may be lucky to sell anything. If you look at their forums they even now are upfront about the slowness and suggest ebid is best used alongside eBay or other sites, and not as a standalone sales platform. You are also expected to market your own items, so will need to somehow drive traffic to your ebid store.

Lastly, from experience, think very carefully about taking out their lifetime membership. It is always half price so don't be worried that it will go up, it won't. If you ask for help there you will be told that upgrading will give you benefits like free gallery photos and list till sold, but if you never sell anything that £49.99 is going to make it a very expensive site for you.

mrcol1000

delkman wrote: »

Hello,
I have only been on Ebid for about a week. I am getting a little tired of Ebay's ever changing charges and looking for something new. The problem is I sell sports cards, mostly inexpensive ones. I have looked at a bunch of auctions on Ebid and do not see any bids on any cards and I have scoured a lot. My shipping cost is calculated (approx. 2.54 domestic), That comes in a bubble mailer with tracking. I was wondering if I should lower the cost and ship in a white envelope. The issue there is the cards do not have much protection (or tracking) as they have to be able to go through the sorting machines at the post office. Anyway, does anyone have experience selling cards or comics on Ebid and have any suggestions at all, especially shipping? I get views and I would love to make sales on this site, unfortunately I haven't found anything viable enough to quit ebay. Thanks much for any responses Greg

Personally I'd not waste your time with Ebid. Ebay isn't perfect but its the only real way to access a large potential market.

Can't you send these in do not bend envelopes? Even if you wrapped them in some cardboard as well. They should then go as large letter

delkman

Hello,
What I am trying to sell on there is mostly all low cost items that isn't worth the charges on Ebay. I have an Ebay store that does ok, but I was looking for a way to move the inexpensive cards. Still star players, but worth 2.00 and under. The post office has this new thickness chart so if it won't fit through the slot it can't go as a letter, some sellers on there already sell this way, what scares me is damage to the customers items. I may be able to get cereal box thickness in there. So far the reviews I have read about Ebid all say the same thing, if you are ok waiting a long time to sell items then you are ok and even then the sales volumes are low. Thank you for your quick reply, much appreciated, Greg

delkman

Yeah unfortunately, the envelope has to fit through this small slot so using the carboard would still ending up costing me the same as the bubble mailer. When I think about this from a consumer standpoint I would prefer to pay the shipping and know that my items were protected. I run into the same problem on Ebay with people not wanting to pay the shipping. With that said my Ebay store does fine, I was hoping this was a viable option, but its not looking that way. Thanks much for your response, Greg

delkman

Thanks again for your reply, my reply back to you was titled, Postage. That's scary if they are telling people to use them as a back up. Do you know anything about Bonanza?

Thanks,
Greg

soolin

delkman wrote: »

Thanks again for your reply, my reply back to you was titled, Postage. That's scary if they are telling people to use them as a back up. Do you know anything about Bonanza?

Thanks,
Greg

I've never heard of Bonanza , if you are selling slow moving items then the last thing you want is a site that no one has heard of. It is a false economy to spend valuable business time listing on places no one will buy from. Realistically some things no longer have enough of a value to bother listing online - have you considered doing job lots on ebay instead?

Also, depending on the thickness of your items, and you do call them cards, a card backed envelope should be good enough to go as a standard letter.
These ones for instance:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125x-STRONG-C4-A4-ENVELOPES-BOARD-BACK-HARD-CARD-BACKED-/130426397275?hash=item1e5e04e25b:m:mZq9SfQlWxOpf7GWoLYR7pA

can easily take a couple of postcards and still go through the slot.

I would also question the need for signed for at an additional £1.10 on sub £2 items- I can't imagine you selling naything at those P and P costs. Have a look at the sticky postage thread here on MSE.

forgotmyname

You wont find anywhere with the same traffic as ebay, too many assume ebay is the cheapest and dont bother looking elsewhere.

I looked on ebid once last year and didnt buy anything. If you do sell something you should be eligible for a prize.

Sites will come and go, unless they throw mega money into advertising then its going to be the same as the others and just another dead site.