Ebid

soolin

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Cmon guys we all know a rat when we see one.

I know but it still rankles with me that I have lost money on that site..and I keep hoping that maybe one day Ebid might actually do something. However, after 14 years or so I rather fear they are going backwards, not forwards.

SlowCooker

Honestly, I see the £50 lifetime fee as a kind of scam. The concept of selling without any fees looks too good to be true because it is. Ebid represent themselves as a better version of eBay without all the fees, and they forget to tell you that it's also eBay without all the buyers.

Again, I would like Ebid to succeed, but they will have to advertise their website, encourage sellers to offer lower prices, and change their fee system. As long as they are trying to fool people into believing their website can be an alternative for eBay, they will never succeed.

porto_bello

SlowCooker wrote: »

As long as they are trying to fool people into believing their website can be an alternative for eBay, they will never succeed.

There's nothing wrong with competition. And no doubt eBay only offer free listings because listings are free elsewhere and keep sellers on eBay, rather than experimenting with other sites.

If eBid closed down, maybe eBay would relax, stop free listings and start racking up fees again! [So I don't mind eBid or similar being around!;)

Actually, rather than an alternative to eBay, my experience (and I guess, increasing confidence) led me to try selling more difficult items at auctioneers (e.g. large, delicate items) I've had mixed results, but it's certainly less hassle.

SlowCooker

porto_bello wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with competition.

I agree. This is why I would like Ebid to be better.

porto_bello wrote: »

And no doubt eBay only offer free listings because listings are free elsewhere and keep sellers on eBay, rather than experimenting with other sites.

If eBid closed down, maybe eBay would relax, stop free listings and start racking up fees again! [So I don't mind eBid or similar being around!;)

Ebay's real competition is with Amazon; Ebid doesn't do well enough to be competing with these two.

RFW

SlowCooker wrote: »

Ebay's real competition is with Amazon; Ebid doesn't do well enough to be competing with these two.

I agree, I doubt Ebay ever consider Ebid they just aren't big enough to register. They don't have the traffic or the users. Ebid seem to be happy to take their annual fees or lifetime fees and leave it there. They don't advertise in any meaningful way that I've ever seen or heard of.

soolin

RFW wrote: »

I agree, I doubt Ebay ever consider Ebid they just aren't big enough to register. They don't have the traffic or the users. Ebid seem to be happy to take their annual fees or lifetime fees and leave it there. They don't advertise in any meaningful way that I've ever seen or heard of.

The forums are interesting as well. Where they used to be 'welcome to Ebid we are going to be better than eBay so everyone should join us and dump eBay' they are now much more conservative. When people join the newbie thread they are usually advised that they need to keep their account with eBay to run alongside Ebid , there is no longer any attempt to promote themselves as an alternative, merely an add on.

Josef_k

I also sell on Etsy, I don't sell as much as on Ebay, but do sell. The fees are much more reasonable and the whole site's programming superior in every-way. Also they have a custom orders feature, which is superb as there is no fee for a custom sale.

I have also tried CQout, it has a lack of customers too but is free unlike Ebid.

anotheruser

I never even heard of ebid before looking here.
I don't really understand Google Shopping either. I have used it to compare some prices but will always stick to company websites (Burton, Topman, Topshop, Next, BHS) or Amazon.

Unless you have something really quirky then there simply isn't any more room for yet another e-commerce business.
It's a shame that "lowest unique bid" website never got off the ground.

SlowCooker

This is what someone who works at Ebid CS wrote on the company's page on Facebook:

"ha ha ha , all these people saying they cant sell on ebid yet not one is willing to show their listings to prove they even have tried! probably selling at double what they are listing them for elsewhere as usual. been on eBid for over a year now and get consistent sales. i can list them cheaper than ebay and still make more profit!"

AND

"you just need to follow simple guidelines and put a bit of effort in, not just list on run til sold and forget."

Yep, blame it on the sellers.. that should work :wall:

soolin

SlowCooker wrote: »

This is what someone who works at Ebid CS wrote on the company's page on Facebook:

"ha ha ha , all these people saying they cant sell on ebid yet not one is willing to show their listings to prove they even have tried! probably selling at double what they are listing them for elsewhere as usual. been on eBid for over a year now and get consistent sales. i can list them cheaper than ebay and still make more profit!"

AND

"you just need to follow simple guidelines and put a bit of effort in, not just list on run til sold and forget."

Yep, blame it on the sellers.. that should work :wall:

I would not be daft enough to say what my shop name is on Ebid, the abuse I got when they found a 'soolin' selling on there, even if the country was wrong was something I would not want to go through again.

However, I was selling the same stock as I was selling on eBay, the difference was I took off the FVF difference so my Ebid things were cheaper. I still took PayPal and I have feedback there- yet I sold nothing. I even reduced my prices, but after a few months realised that was daft as I could easily sell the stock on eBay and make more money , so I started cancelling my items.

Several years back a seller in the same category as I was then selling made a big publicised move to Ebid. He made the rookie mistake of believing the hype, that his stuff would sell and listed it at below cost to get interest. For about 10 days I bought up everything he listed and relisted it myself on eBay at a large mark up. After about a month he emailed me basically to say 'fair cop, I give up- I'll see you back on eBay where we are on a level playing field ' .

I actually met him in real,life a few years later and introduced myself and we solemnly shook hands.

In the early days I bought loads of stuff on Ebid and resold on eBay, hence my good feedback, but people now realise nothing sells and start off at about the same price as eBay and the profit margin isn't there any more.

Up to the middle of last year I even told my buyers on eBay that if they wanted more or similar items I carried cheaper stock in my Ebid shops, but I didn't get a single sale, but I got lots of repeat buyers on eBay!