Alternate sites

[rosscd57]

I was just taking a look at the eBay site - it has changed drastically since I looked at it a couple of years ago. I asked a few questions on their forums and people seem quite happy and are apparently selling. I think I may put a few items on and see what happens. It is no eBay but it is cheap enough.

Anyone have any recent experience?

[rosscd57]

I should really proof read my posts - I meant the eBid site.

[inuk_the_polar_bear]

Dream the impossible dream. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Better still, start your own dedicated web site with dedicated payment system.

I do believe eBid, odd how the name is so similar, has been around as long as eBay. Why are they not as big or bigger? Hum? Ponder ponder ponder.

You go searching for the Holy Grail Sir Robin, I will stay here and keep the home fires burning.

[i*m-still-here]

There are other sites, but eBid is over-the-top boring!!!

[skysteed]

I've been on "ebid" for a few years now. They have not been around as long as eBay but they offer a lot of less expensive options. Free listing, what ever type of payment type YOU wish to take, 3% Final value fees NOT 9% +. Final value fees are on item, NOT item and shipping costs.

Many ebay people have moved over there and are doing OK. not as well as ebay BUT more profit because of the lower fees, better support, they actually email you back with real answers NOT one answer fit all.

[brandeentertainment]

I honestly think if enough people went there and did cross promoting you would see ebid take off ...

Ebid has everything it needs to be a huge hit except for sellers and buyers and who can help with that ... US..

look at it this way we all have all our buyers emails so when you change over to ebid simply email buyers bulk letting them know where to find you for an even better deal..

Lots of people hate ebid because slow sales etc but i have listed on there i have sold on there and it has EVERYTHING it needs to be a huge success  except for the 2 things mentioned above and that would be up to us ....

I will be reopening a scaled down version of my ebay store on ebid within the next month and this time I will leave it open and hope other slowly start trying it out...

I mean 49.99 and you list for free and can sell for 0 fees so really whats $50

[i*m-still-here]

Sites like Ebid will have a hard time because as far as I can see they compete directly with eBay.

Sites which specialize are doing very well.

Most of the posters here are sort of stuck with eBay as far as I can see, or at least this is where the money is........

but ross isn't one of them.

He has choices.

I doubt very much that eBay give a D----arn about those sites.

They pick and pull a few sellers away, but the masses do better here.

For now sales are slower on those sites, but man, they are really gaining momentum.

Betsy used to strike as a true blue Dippy Hippie home made crap type of site....

Not any more.

Now that site is truly a contender........... but only for restricted items.

[inuk_the_polar_bear]

eBid started in 1998. Yeah, they are taking over the world. Clever payment system PPPay. They have copied everything about eBay except success.

[brandeentertainment]

Ebid started in 98 ... Ebid went know where from 98 to 2010 and from 2010 to now they are on the rise and I expect momentum will keep going but iof people have the attitude it is a flop and will not succeed they will not contribute to it's success and it will take even longer for it to be successful..

As for doing what ebay is doing I mean HELLO why not .. Ebay is Very successfull and in my opinion it is good to be like ebay but have lowers fees..

What site are millions use to using ...EBAY ... What site would be easiest for ebay sellers to transition to because of how familiar they are with ebay ... EBID...

I think they have a game plan that is going to work just pretty slow because let's face it competing with ebay is no easy task but I think could be a very smart move...

It took me a whole whopping 15 minutes to figure out ebid because it is so much like ebay and I loved that

Yes but in the last 2 years they have over tripled the business going on ebid ...

I truly think ebid will eventually be a good place for people to sell might take abother 3 or 4 years but that doesn't bother me none...

You'll know when they are doing really good though because the fees will go up LOL ..

[brandeentertainment]

Also because ebid is a UK site I think if they could be out a commercial or 2 in Canada and the US this will help them ..

They really lack Advertisement but I mean come on .. if you know ebay you know ebid and ebid uses paypal so I mean they already using a payment system that millions are familiar with and knmow there protected... .

My opinion is It will work but maybe not for awhile or maybe once it does go ebay will squash it like a bug .. Never know

[bb_cool_stuff]

eBay is a monolith, we know it, they know it, but there is also some erosion with monoliths.

This is where secondary sites can come into play. Of course thay will never slay the giant, i don't think anyone will.

Secondary sites can offer another alternative to selling online while still keeping our listings on eBay.

Maybe we will do well, maybe not, but nothing wrong with having another venue to sell our items.

[brandeentertainment]

Officially logging back on to ebid ... I think I want to run on Ebay and ebid instead of ebay and amazon ..

Due to amazons price match and how it shows all buyers when there price is no longer the cheapest I don't want to sell on there anymore as I do not have time to change my prices ever 5 minutes to make a sale nor do I care to knock down my prices all the time and sale sense the new year on amazon have been very grim so why not go to ebid .....

70% of my sales now are ebay 15% wholesale and retail and 5% amazon... so I think I can deal with losing my 5% amazon for a 0-1% ebid LOL

I want to hammer down on ebid again and see what happens last time it took me about 6 months to make 2 sales so the bar is not too high LOL

[pierrelebel]

"I want to hammer down on ebid again and see what happens"

It is none of my business, I know, but if I were your grandfather, I would suggest you forget it and stick to eBay and your wholesale business for now, dropping everything else.

Let's be honest.  You are already overextended. You are tired, there are not enough hours in a week to do everything well. A young family to take care of, long shift hours to support them and a mail order business on the side which is becoming more and more time consuming and stressful.

In the old days we called that "burning the candle from both ends".

Priority must be the family. Activities to earn extra income and build a strong financial base are important but must not take away time from your spouse and children.  Kids grow much faster than we think. Now is the time to enjoy them. Take pictures of them and be in the picture.

Taking an extra year or two to pay off the mortgage is not the end of the world. You are more important to your family than being the man feeding the piggy bank. They need you, daily.

Think about it.

[bb_cool_stuff]

I was the same at your age Barnde, always working, doing things on the side, always concerned there was never enough money. Funny thing there was always enough money in savings.

Family was never neglected, but i drove myself to exhaustion as i was not sleeping enough.

Problem was i had nothing to guage it it against. All my friends were still single, party animals & i had two kids by the time i was twenty four.

Funny thing, i mentioned to my wife on the weekend that maybe i should get a part time job. She squelched that idea immediately, her reasoning being you are still working the same amount of hours but over three days now instead of five.

Pierre is right, i can use the extra time to hopefully expand the eBay business.

At this age i don't bounce back as quickly as i did thirty years ago.

[rosscd57]

I think I am going to leave FeePay for a while.

I have again looked at Etsy and eBid. I even made a purchase on eBid. I think Etsy fits my items a little better - but I am going to try both sites.

There is really nothing to lose and any sales will put darn near the whole amount in my pocket.

I wonder if it is possible to list the same item on all three sites - if a sale was made one would have to pull the others off right away. A bit dangerous perhaps - anyone out there ever tried it?

[rose-dee]

I wonder if it is possible to list the same item on all three sites - if a sale was made one would have to pull the others off right away. A bit dangerous perhaps - anyone out there ever tried it? 

I've thought a lot about Etsy too - it would suit me to a "T", but I'm not sure that it has the same broad exposure as eBay.

I believe it's against eBay policy to list precisely the same item on eBay and on another site, probably for the very reason you mention.  I was caught once by this as a buyer -- a French eBay seller sold "my" item from another site on the day I purchased it from him on eBay.  I gave him the benefit of the doubt and agreed to cancel the transaction, but I wasn't too happy. 

I considered selling the same items on both Etsy and my own website, but thought better of it -- you're right, it could be a customer relations disaster.

[pierrelebel]

"A bit dangerous perhaps - anyone out there ever tried it?"

Yes.  About fourteen years ago I ran the same listings on eBay. Yahoo and Amazon, the three major auction sites at the time.  For a while I also ran auctions on the Microsoft auction site - that one did not last long.

Got lucky as I managed to cancel the other listings as soon as the first one sold.  In those days, we had auctions only, no fixed price although most of these items were also available from my price lists on my website.

Today, I am a bit older, hopefully wiser, and I would never bother.  Not worth the risks of something going wrong.

Murphy's law is always around the corner.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Nothing wrong in exploring options which will hopefully increase sales.

I don't its wrong to list the same item on other sites, but one must be cognizant to remove the item from the other sites should it sell.

Though the chances would be slim it could be a little hairy should the same item sell on eBay & another site.

 It still has the potential to happen since we are not always at the computer 24/7.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Pierre beat me to it.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Good old Yahoo Auctions. Haven't heard that name in a few years.

Tried it at one time as a Newbie when i was just running auctions. Did not sell a dime but i was probably too green to know the ropes.

At least i knew i could sell two dimes on eBay auctions at the time.

Got burned a few times starting eBay auctions at .99 & selling them at .99.

Boy i made a lot of mistakes back then.