Alternatives to ebay

Garethgrew

Why is Ebid a con, why have you only sold 4 things.?

surely if you advertised hundreds of things you would sell hundreds of things?

soolin

Garethgrew wrote: »

Why is Ebid a con, why have you only sold 4 things.?

surely if you advertised hundreds of things you would sell hundreds of things?

Alas, if only it were that simple. At one time I had 4 unique storefronts on there and the Only time I went on there was to pull stock as it was needed on eBay where it was selling. How many things have you bought on ebid compared to sites like ebay or Amazon? The con part referred to the fact that they advertise half price life membership but never actually have it full price. My life membership cost me more than the total value of the goods I sold , SO ebid actually cost me money to use.

sites like ebay and Amazon advertise and as sellers we benefit as the more buyers that use a site the higher the chances are that we sell something. Obviously on these bigger sites we still have to make sure we list well, use the correct keywords and are priced competitively, but there are buyers.

Ebid doesn't advertise, how aware were you of it before we mentioned it here? So they say you have to advertise it yourself, they even now suggest you run it alongside an ebay account as ebay will get you buyers and then you can push your ebid shops instead. They work on the basis that you can charge less on ebid so can pass those savings onto the buyers. However buyers seem to prefer what they know so ebay and Amazon continue to get the lion share of the market.

I have an etsy shop as well but only for a few things that they allow to be sold , I've had a couple of sales on there in the past 2 or 3 years since ive been registered but the costs again are high.

I use ebay carefully, I watch my fees and take advantage of promotions and offers and although my business is tiny compared to others on here it is very successful.

KxMx

E bid is dead for buyers and has been in at least the last decade IMO.

They seem to make their money flogging the memberships to sellers.

RFW

KxMx wrote: »

E bid is dead for buyers and has been in at least the last decade IMO.

They seem to make their money flogging the memberships to sellers.

Yup. It's disgruntled Ebayers who pay them their fee, list their items, spend a few months promoting and picking up an odd sale then head back to Ebay.
It's easy to think Ebid is new as they are mostly unknown. They've been going for just a few months less than Ebay in the UK.
If Ebid was any good Ebay would have bought them up years ago.

soolin

RFW wrote: »

Yup. It's disgruntled Ebayers who pay them their fee, list their items, spend a few months promoting and picking up an odd sale then head back to Ebay.
It's easy to think Ebid is new as they are mostly unknown. They've been going for just a few months less than Ebay in the UK.
If Ebid was any good Ebay would have bought them up years ago.

That's a good point. Ebay always used to have a reputation for buying up anything that looked like it had any potential, that's actually how I got onto ebay at first- I was selling on freeserve auctions and they were bought out by ebay .com so I merely registered there instead.

Amazon also used to have an auction format sale platform but they closed it in favour of the shop style format where everything has a fixed price.

Garethgrew

So there is no real competition to eBay and Amazon?

The best idea is have your own website, advertise on eBay or Amazon and smart buyers will look to buy cheaper direct from you discounting all the greedy fees.

Hedgehog99

If you have the time to do them, I much prefer car boot sales - one pitch fee, then you can sell as much as you can fit on your table(s). Buyers can see what they're buying and they pay you there and then. No postage, no strangers turning up at your address.

Flyonthewall

Garethgrew wrote: »

So there is no real competition to eBay and Amazon?

The best idea is have your own website, advertise on eBay or Amazon and smart buyers will look to buy cheaper direct from you discounting all the greedy fees.

The best idea is to use the major platforms along with your own website and drive traffic to your site.

Only if you're a business seller though. Not worth it if you're a private seller.

RHemmings

I used ebid a bit, as a buyer. It was really hard work to find anything to buy. Bought a couple of items, but then gave up.

Just did a search on "bass guitar". I found one (!) bass guitar, and one that is a kit. I'm sure that's worse than it was some time ago. There used to be people that would come here and talk up ebid in all sorts of threads. Does that still happen?

soolin

RHemmings wrote: »

I used ebid a bit, as a buyer. It was really hard work to find anything to buy. Bought a couple of items, but then gave up.

Just did a search on "bass guitar". I found one (!) bass guitar, and one that is a kit. I'm sure that's worse than it was some time ago. There used to be people that would come here and talk up ebid in all sorts of threads. Does that still happen?

I think at least one of the regulars is still around as we do get occasional notifications about the monthly ebid charity auctions. The rest don't seem to be either here or on the ebid forums any more.