An Auction Site Like Ebay?

by kaazoom

I Love Ebay. I've both bought and sold on Ebay for a number of years. The problem is Ebay keeps putting up its fees, making it difficult for new sellers to make a profit...

If you are anything like me, you love Ebay. It's a great place to shop and I regularly shop there because there is just so much choice. But Ebay has changed. At one time it was geared for the average individual to sell their unwanted items, a bit like an online garage sale or flee market. It was also great place for collectors to buy and sell their items too. As it became more successful, people started to use it to sell new goods as well . Soon small businesses were profitting from the huge traffic it generated. But over the years it seems to have become less interested in small sellers and more interested in big sellers. It is now much harder for the average person to make money selling on Ebay.

The biggest problem is it's high fees. Ebay's fees seem to always be going up. This would be okay if it only charged you when an item sold, but that isn't the case. I recently tried to sell a number of items on Ebay, however, all of the money I made on the things I sold was eaten up on paying Ebay's fees! It is quite possible to sell on Ebay and make a loss. So is there an alternative to Ebay?


Do You Think Ebay's Fees Are Too High?

Introducing Ebid - An Alternative To Ebay?

 Firstly I need to be honest with you. You are unlikely at this time to find an auction site that has anywhere near the same traffic that Ebay gets. Unfortunately Ebay dominates the online auction market. It's this lack of competition that has enabled it to do what it likes with little consideration for it's sellers. That needs to change! Ebay will only change if it has to, and it will only have to change if there is a viable competitor.

 

 I want to introduce you to a website called Ebid. Ebid is not a new website, it has been around since 1999. It does get quite a lot of traffic and is currently ranked by Alexa at 13,281 (2/23/2012). Although this is no where near as much traffic as Ebay gets, it is still quite a considerable amount and well worth tapping into it, even if it's just as an extra source of sales. So what is it about Ebid that makes it different from Ebay?

  • Ebid doesn't charge an insertion fee. You only ever have to pay Ebid when your item sells. This means you can list as many items you want to list. There are extra payments for gallery photos, if you only have their basic account, but you are only charged once your item sells. You can pay a one off life-time fee and become a Seller+ and not have to pay anything for gallery pictures. 
  • Become a Seller+ ($49.49) and you can have up to 5 free  customizable stores. A basic store on Ebay.com costs $15.95 a month, plus 20¢ a month for every item listed, plus 7.7% of the final price. List your items at Ebid and you only ever pay 3% on the final sale!
  • Items in you Ebid store show up in the general Ebid search results; items in a basic Ebay store do not show up in general Ebay searches.
  • You can post your item for up to 10 days and set it to automatically relist up to 10 times.
  • You can set the time you want your listing to start on Ebid and not get charged, whereas Ebay charge for this service.
  • Ebid accepts Paypal and Google Checkout
  •  All listings on Ebid are uploaded to Google Shopping, which is the main source of traffic for Ebid.

As you can see Ebid costs less than Ebay and has many free features that Ebay charges extra for. This means you can sell your items for a more competitive price than you can on Ebay. You may not, at the moment, make as many sales as you can on Ebay, but when you do sell something you get keep more of the money. You can list as many items as you want to list on Ebid and never get charged an insertion fee. I think this makes Ebid very attractive to online sellers.

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Listing Your Items On Ebid

If you are already selling on Ebay and use Turbolister, listing your items on Ebid is easy. They have their own version of Turbolister called Ninja Lister. Nija lister will accept Turbolister files. So all you need to do is download your Turbolister files, upload them to Ninja lister, make any change you want to make and upload them to Ebid! It's simple!

 Ebid is not the same as Ebay. It has some feature Ebay does not have, so it is worth taking your time getting to know the website before listing anything. The people on Ebid's forum are extremely helpful and knowledgeble, so spend some time learning from them. Also consult Ebid's help section, where you will find links to video tutorials.

 At the moment it is best to treat Ebid as an extra source of sales rather than as an alterntive to Ebay. Ebid's traffic is growing, and you will find people on the forum who are making regular sales. Perhaps one day Ebid will be big enough to rival Ebay.

 

Updated: 02/24/2012, kaazoom
 
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Comments

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teddletonmr on 03/06/2012

Thanks for the heads up, I hadn't heard of Ebid before reading this wizz.
Be well, Mike

katiem2 on 02/26/2012

Finally eBay has competition, I'll take a look at Ebid and see whats going on with their online bidding site. Thanks for the heads up.

Sam on 02/23/2012

I will certainly look at it! I never had much luck with selling stuff on Ebay, any idea what sells well, and what doesn't sell well, on Ebid?

kaazoom on 02/23/2012

Thank you Teresa. I have found Ebid to be worthwhile, even though it can take time to make your first sale. They do provide a way of importing your Ebay feedback to your ebid account. Ths can be very useful.

MamaTeresa on 02/23/2012

My friends were just complaining about e-bay, glad there is another option to check out.
Thanks,
Teresa


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