I have been using eBay ever since I started auctioning and would really like to try out other venues. I have tried yahoo and epier wich much lower page views and ending prices.
Anyone have a top five list of the other auction site players out there and maybe a word or two on their pros and cons and tricks for selling on them?
Is bidville the good next one? I see lots of post about it here. Also I hear ePier cut a profit last quarter or something. I am a little overwhelmed.
posted on November 10, 2002 01:42:19 PM new
Bidville is the absolute worst low traffic site. The only site that charges $10 merely to sell on their "always free" site.
The others low traffic sites aren't much better.
If you sell specialized items you might want to try the niche or specialty auction sites.
posted on November 11, 2002 01:33:01 PM new
Some people at bidville are quite hostile. I suggest you read their message boards. I agree with tooltimes that Bidville isnt worth the $10.00 membership fee. They do not advertise the site at all.
posted on November 11, 2002 04:43:14 PM new
I would check out Mootropolis.com for more information on different auction sites. AW is good for a general forum, but they are broken down over there, and there is a links database for hundreds of auction sites.
posted on November 11, 2002 05:12:36 PM new
To begin with, he doesn't say how long that fee gives you the right to sell-a year, I think. That's it, and you can list all the auctions you want-they host the photos, no FVF-seems like a pretty good deal compared to Ebay or Yahoo!
Secondly, don't go to Mootropolis and expect to get an unbiased opinion of any auction site, especially Bidville. There are a couple of people there who have a very unhealthy and abnormal obsession with destroying Bidville. They have papered the place with insults, incorrect stats, and outright lies just for the sake of stirring up trouble. Bidville is not the only site they do this to, either. Mootropolis has been ruined by a few vicious gossips with nothing to do with their life other than cause trouble.
If you want an accurate view of an auction site, go to the site, visit with the members-don't come to a place like this and expect an honest answer!
posted on November 11, 2002 06:01:16 PM new
bearmom, it's not BidVille they hate (well maybe dim does) it's the self appointed site reps that go over and post nasty crap.
Those people do SO much harm to BV it's not funny.
posted on November 11, 2002 07:30:00 PM new
I agree with Kodi. That one self appointed site rep even gives all the human race a bad name.
She should be placed in handCUFFs.
posted on November 11, 2002 08:24:30 PM new
Lovely. Well I think I'll just hide and watch the Bidville thing for a while - I posted 10 on ePier and 10 on Yahoo that closed Sunday - and not one nibble. These are items that are pretty darn good sellers on Sunday nights for me on eBay.
I did get a nice lead on some custom work so it was not all in vain.
I think I will post a little all around for a while but stick to eBay to pay the bills.
I know in time there will be another auction site that is a viable venue for sellers - like I read in a tooltime post somehwere - its just a matter of the buyers figuring it out - tomarrow, the next day... the next?
posted on November 11, 2002 10:03:56 PM new
Hello Sandra,
I have bought and sold on a number of smaller sites - some good, some not so good.
Bearmom has a good point but it's not only relevant to Mootropolis - any third-party discussion forum like AW or Mootropolis will have blatant cheerleaders (who often do mroe to detract from the site they are trying so desperately to promote) to the Nay-Sayers who will do everything to badmouth a site often simply because they don't like the people that list there.
What I would wholeheartedly recommend is reading the Message Boards of any auction site you might consider listing at. The behavior of an auction site's community, what is permitted, encouraged and discouraged within their boards, how quickly the CS staff respond to questions or complaints (and equally important, how they address them) will tell you a great deal about a site.
From personal experience, I have had some success at Carnaby (which, truth be told, is my preferred shopping destination after eBay), SYI and Pixie - all of which have friendly, helpful Communities and staff. There are some sites I have visited that the antics on their boards (by Users AND Staff) have repelled me so much, I would never contemplate giving them my registration details.
No matter which avenue you choose, do a little homework first and good luck to you!
posted on November 12, 2002 10:44:47 PM new
Hi whiteowldesigns have you tried out ioffer.com? With a very active community, which is very friendly I believe they definitley have a lot to offer. It isn't exactly an auction but in my opinion is much better. You can search through want ads to see what people want then list your item directly for them (but it is put in the whole pool of items for anyone to buy - very good idea) Come by and say hello at the scoop shop. Take care.
posted on November 13, 2002 12:51:39 PM new
I don't know how long you have been with eBay but I am sure that when you first started your success was not quite as good as it is now. Most of the sites have been around for a while so the people who buy there know who to look for. How many times have you decided not to bid on an item because the feedback of the seller was low or non-excitant? In order for you to start off on a new site and succeed I believe you have to bring your customers from your main site over to buy from you. Once you get established at the site then it is much easier to sell your items for what you want. You just have to work harder in the beginning to get yourself to the level you want. I believe if you do that you can list at any site and do well. You just have to find one with the format you like. If you read someone’s opinion on a site then that is exactly what you will get an opinion. If you noticed at the beginning of the thread that all you got were responses of where not to go. If you work hard at the site you choice I am sure you will be able to generate the sells you are looking for.
Thanks Davey
posted on November 13, 2002 05:04:55 PM new
whiteowldesigns
I sell costume jewellery and books- so I am not much help. But good sites are often dependant on what you are sellig.
Instead of asking generally --maybe there is someone out there a who is a crafter that has had luck somewhere besides eBay? Or have you tried asking at some of the craft email list groups on something like Yahoo Groups? I think I can mention them because they are not competing forums.
I agree you can't put all of your eggs into one basket.My new thoughts have been toward my own web site.Good luck!!!
posted on November 13, 2002 06:09:32 PM new
It has been done. I have made 3 sites profitable for me. I guess you can call it optimistic I just call it hard work. Even at the top tier sites you have to work a little. You may have more traffic but that does not always translate into bids. I know that I have passed on a product because of the rating of the individual. I also had trouble with sales on my first site until I built my customer base. Now it takes me about 2 months to make a site profitable for me. I don't want anyone to think you can just sit there and make it. You can't even do that on EBay. I am just saying that if you go about it the right way then you will be able to make it on any site.
Thanks Davey
Maybe you should call it very, very pessimistic that someone would think you could not accomplish this.
Just a thought.
posted on November 13, 2002 07:33:21 PM new
I think that selling on ebay is much harder than the low/no traffic sites. Most sellers warehouse their wares at those sites but some spring for the premium memberships like those available at Bidville and try to get their wares noticed above the warehoused items.
At ebay the listing fees are the real fees that seperate the men from the boys. To lose a minimum of 30 cents a whack because your auction item is either overpriced or underdescribed is a costly price to pay. The competition at ebay is fierce and plentiful.
The sellers that can not competite in the big city ( ebay ) retire to the lonely country towns ( Bidville ).
posted on November 13, 2002 08:42:35 PM new
Preach on brother,
I believe that Sandra was looking for a second site to list on. She already sells in the city and wants to expand to the country. You can make it in a country site as long as you are willing to work at it. I don't think she every asked to give just the cons of other sites. Is Bidville that much of a thorn in everyone's side. In fact if she wanted to list a Bidville they do have something that would help someone trying to start. They let you import your feedback from other sites so that others can see you are not new to the auction world just new to the site. Another pro to Bidville is that a lot of people know about it. The biggest con is you can not complain about anything with out being admonished by some of the patrons. I do real well on Yahoo but if you don't have the feedback it takes a while to get people to take a chance on you. When I listed on Epier I found that you can have something listed on there for a year without a bid then all of a sudden you will get 2 or three bids. It is a good site to put slow items on and forget about them. Now there are over 100 auction sites out there. If you sell a certain item you may want to find a niche site to list on. You are not just limited to EBay but some find it hard to stray away from something comfortable. If you want comfort stay at EBay if you want to expand the options are numerous. Good luck and don't let me or anyone else make up your mind about something.
Thanks Davey
posted on November 13, 2002 09:16:19 PM new
Here's a rare pro remark about BV. You can use it as your own store and totally ignore the rest of the site and perhaps even make a sale from the few bidders there once in a while. BV is one of the few auctions that never mentions offering a store because it's already a warehouse of sorts and a BV store would make no sense at all. But for $5 for 6 months you can create your own quasi-store and then invite your regular buyers from other sources to the site to see all of your inventory. A perfect example is Hap that was the King of BV with his 30 day auctions starting at a $1 each with no reserve. He had 30 days to tell old customers from other sites ( Yahoo, etc ) about his glassware up for auction on BV. He also used the premium membership to gallery-ize all his stuff and feature many items to get some new local citizens/buyers of BV as bidders. Played his cards very well, aided largely by the fact that BV is the only site perhaps that offers 30 day duration auctions.
As for relaxing at ebay that's hard to do with a large listing fee and stiff competition as well as 9 million auction items to siphon the bidders wallets dry. The BIG SHOW is not for the feint of heart.
"Step right up and place your bets!"
posted on November 14, 2002 04:10:17 PM new
Watching this thread, and thinking that if I could just get you sellers to realize that there are sites out there that do offer so much more than bidville and ebay, and if they just used their time to help promote these sites, rather than complain about them. You might finally get a good alternative site to use, here is what we offer
1> Free auctions listings with 1 image unlimted text including HTML and always will be, 10 images free in an easy to submit listing form, much easier than the big site. All listings options will be totally free till January 31st, 2003. And no credit cards required and never will be, I don't want the bother of hackers trying to get that info, let them go onto the next site.
2>Auctions that run from 1 hour to 21 days with you setting the start and closing times.
3>Free auto relist indefinetly till the items sell.
Who should care if the site is run from Canada or the US so check out both @ http://www.u-1.ca/u-1americahome.shtml or http://www.u-1.ca/u-1homepage.shtml and yes this is blantant advertising. WE are not some small hosted site but have our own gigabit server cluster on our own dedicated 100 meg fibre optic line and are capable of millions of listings, I know the site looks simple but it offers way more than first impressions imply, so give it a try it will cost you nothing and if you use our affilites program which is extremely simple to tell your clients we will credit your account $5.00 for each unique referral who resister and put an entry for each refer into our prize barrel for our monthly prizes which can be seen here http://www.u-1.ca/prizes.html So give it a try.
posted on November 14, 2002 08:42:46 PM new
You oughtta bunk with the Canadian that started AuctionPie. Sure that would all come true but you totally throw out the basic human nature factor. Nobody is going to invest time and effort in a pipedream that only sounds good in theory.
Let's all destroy our guns and nukes and have a regular Uptopia. Sounds good until you realize that we are the planet that let's 2 million people starve to death every year.
posted on November 14, 2002 09:05:01 PM new
Well don't know anything about auction pie, but this I do know, if you don't put the effort into its not going to come, and we are not just another ebay wanna be, if you take a look we offer much more and this is just the start, the reason I say official launch January 1st, is their is much more to come, but we already offer much more than ebay or bidville or any other site, and I guess the difference is that why this site will succeed is I won't listen to pessimists.
Also this site is just a bee in my bonnet, I am quite well off and if it takes time so be it, but eventually after you have all been totally ripped off by the corporate greed, and want to come back to a site that goes back to good old fashioned values, a fun place that isn't just after all your hard earned dollars, we will be here. Plus once the site is finished and we are confident all the bugs are out we do have the advertising budget to promote it not like most of the hosted sites that unfortuantely can't handle heavy traffic. Plus Canadians
are just starting to take to the online auction format, and this site has been built to cater to both the auction and classifieds
end of their needs. So we are not trying to take on just the big boys but all local forms of classifieds and if you took the time to read my guide to buyers and seller which is herehttp://www.u-1.ca/buyersguide.html you should be able to see that. This site was built intentionally simple for the 80 percent of online users that are really not all that computer literate, sort of like a Craigs List on steriods, had to keep it that way to be spidered by the search engines, and to keep page load times realistic for the 50 percent that are still on dial up. Regards
posted on November 14, 2002 09:49:56 PM new
You know tooltimes after your last post I
took the time to go through the entire forum and read all your posts, I have a feeling and probably a good one that your employer is looking for new digs ehh ehh. You wander around this board without anyting but sarcastic comments, nothing ever constructive, your input appears to all slant to a very obvious bias and nothing ever constructive. I appreciated your help with regard to the board postings but think
that it is obvious to all that your input has an ulterior motive.
posted on November 16, 2002 09:40:18 AM new
whiteowldesigns--
Sandra, I keep a list of auction sites but don't try to "rank" them in any way. If you're interested, then feel free to check out: http://www.kenzy.com/auctions.htm
posted on November 17, 2002 12:21:05 AM new
Well personally ...
You know , this is what we've discovered and this will save you a lot of time and frustration !
We have been sellers at ebay since the beginning , meaning since that company hit the net years ago .
We also have seen other auction sites come and go some go much much faster than others .
Some linger and linger before they die !
We also have had our fair share of complaints in the past and some recent about ebay , including their fees etc etc ...
BuT , one thing is for sure and this is fact and the bottom line ...
If you are a seller looking to SELL your stuff , the bottom line is there aint no where else no matter how pretty the interface , no matter how free things seem to be, no matter how good things appear at the onset, that has the NUMBERS that ebay has and when you are a SELLER its the numbers that matter ! , not anything else .
Now, let me say this also ... we also are not ebay lovers , ebay guru's , or ones who toot the horn for ebay , we actually as already stated have had our compalints and still do with ebay ...
BUT , the bottom line is , again , they got the traffic , they got the numbers and chances are if you list your stuff .... IT WILL SELL !!!
We have spent months at a time mad at ebay for one reason or another and venturing out to other places and we have to admit ALWAYS come back there because those other places out there free listing or not , dont have the traffic or the numbers and most likely your stuff will sit there for months and NEVER get sold .
Example :
7 months ago we got a liitle pissed with ebay once again and ventured out and over to :
Bidville ... BIG MISTAKE
Epier .... Even Bigger Mistake
and
SYI , Sell Your Item .com , oh god awful dreadful mistake and all a pure waste of time and energy !
We left bidville all together and will NEVER go back there again in life !
We decided to give epier and SYI a chance and to date have had over 100 items continuosly running at those sites and if we are lucky , i mean really lucky will get a viewer or 2 in a months time .
We have NEVER got a sale at epier and after a whopping 6 months finally a month ago got 2 sales at SYI , but nothing since .
And to be honest , we really think those sales that we did finally get at SYI came from SYI people ????
We are at a point now , after years of venturing out where no matter where we venture to our stuff will remain at ebay .
Because a SELLER , a real SELLER CANNOT pay the bills SELLING anywhere else than at ebay .
Oh yeah , and we have been SELLERS over at Boo Hoo , Oh,... I mean Yahoo too !
Save your self some time , where ever else you go , before you spend dollars or time liting your stuff look at the NUMBERS and TRAFFIC FIRST !
posted on November 17, 2002 06:10:02 AM new
I've had stuff sitting at SYI for over year.
In the past 2 weeks I've had 20 bids on 160 items. If you have the patience and don't have to sell to make ends meet, it seems SYI has the most traffic of the smaller sites.
Seems each of the smaller sites has their own unintentional niche.
What works for one seller might not work for another.
posted on November 17, 2002 07:58:12 AM new
I agree totally with auctiongroup2000's post. There is only one real chance to sell stuff and that's ebay. The other sites are merely warehouses of items that could no longer compete at ebay.
I suppose in any town there are people that refuse to shop at Walmart or the really steep discount stores and outlets. They chant 'I hate Walmart or Costco' and go to their little stores and get charged 25% more. There will always be those types of people that do not care about the big savings available at the major outlets or Walmart. The reverse is true for sellers at the warehouse auction sites. They don't mind making a few sales a month. They are all semi-retired sellers that only tinker in selling online. Ebay has the real players that have the right stuff to compete.
posted on November 20, 2002 08:37:02 PM new
Well Tooltimes it becomes more obvious all the time where your bananas are coming from. You know you guys(tooltimes aside-I mean why bite the hand that feeds you) should be thanking all these guys that are trying to give you an alternative market. But instead you berate and laugh at them - give it some thought if ebay felt they had a open reign just imagine what the fees would be, they are no longer a site for the little guy, the mom and pops that built them, no they are an agent of corporate greed that continually flaunts in your face how much money they are making, why because they want to drive their share prices up to dump stock. All changes that they make are strictly for the bottom line. They have no sense of community as they once did, nor do they care as long as your credit card clears every month. I know I used to trade on them, had immaculate feedback all for high end items, then I got screwed three times in one month for about $3,000.00 Us not a big deal but more a matter of pride, I spent over a month trying to get some kind of response or at least acknowledgment of the problem, nothing but form email that basically said buyer beware etc etc etc. Couldn't collect the pitiful insurance with the $25.00 deductible because I didn't do everything according to their impossible time schedule. So I made the classic mistake of posting in the forum, well I got their attention all right, pulled my post and banned me from the site, meanwhile the clowns that took me are still trading. Something definitely wrong with that picture. But think about this they claim 40 million users, well I don't believe it I have 4 accounts, I know guys with a half dozen or more I think 10 million would be closer to the truth. They launch an advertising campaign geared more to attract sellers, get those posting fees. Do they do anything to improve the site for you mom and pop sellers or the people who made them, no they are trying to cater to the Madison ave crowd. You all complain about falling prices and less views well if you got more sellers you got more competition and why more sellers not more buyers:
Heres the facts:
1)The site is not user friendly, its all flash and heavy on advertising, is pitiful for those on dialup( which by the way still makes up 50% of online users - Its like saying if your a man don't shop here) Where as in my case my site may look simple doesn't have the flash but is quick to open and offers so many more features than ebay its amazing. No flash adds or pop-ups but hey I am trying to work for my sellers, get their product the exposure in a user friendly interface that even the dumbest surfer can figure out.
2)When I started to build my site which by the way is now 2 years ago, I took several people I knew that were intelligent, did surf the net but not fanatics(your average person) and asked them to find various items on Ebay, they all after a short period of time except one gave up, then I asked them to post an item with my account, well that was the end of it, not one got it right. I have kept in touch with all of them and of the ten I tried only two have ever bothered to go back.
3)The site cannot be spidered by the search engines, and I am told this is intentional, to stop server load, plus they try and push short auctions that never get spidered any ways. Where I have spent an incredible amount of time to make sure my site gets spidered, but only featured item heres a examplehttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=auction++gone+with+the+wind+kerosine+lamp&btnG=Google+Search and another http://www.google.com/search?q=+auction+cadillac+eldorado+mags plus I have set up my auctions so you can control the length from 1 hour to 21 days, plus by clicking auto re list which is totally FREE the item will continually re list for the same amount of days as you first set it. Plus you can set your closing time to get the optimum closing time.
The reason I only allow the featured gallery to be spidered is simple, if an item closes without selling that page is lost, but by going to the galley of that item, it is shown. Hey not everybody goes to Ebay but 90 percent of net users use the search engines if you got a product and don't have to sell it immediately, why not give it the opportunity of being displayed to the world.
For you multi item sellers, do they give you a good venue, no they give you Dutch auctions that are at best a gamble. Why??- well your items are usually item that people buy on impulse or need now they don't want to wait 3-5-7 days to see if they were successful, especially this time of year(looking for christmas presents), almost all of the higher end dutchs get pulled close to the end because it was a waste of time and the sellers got cold feet. Waste of time for both seller and buyer, but hey ebay still gets its listing fees and now the seller goes back and re lists individually - more listing fees. Where we offer a fixed price multi-item listing at your fixed price(you know what you need for the item)
with auto reducing inventory that sends the contact info to both buyer and seller when a purchase is made and adjusts the amount available in the listing. And if the items don't all sell then the remaining items re list automatically for free until all sold, so you only have to place the item once and remember its free to list with 1 image we host and unlimited text and HTML or ten images if you have them hosted all in a simple posting form.
I can go on and on but what's the point,what were hoping is eventually you guys will finally get hosed enough, that maybe rather than just laughing our sites off you will start to expend some of you energy to promoting alternative site to you friends and clients, in the mean time I am going after all the dialup and frustrated surfers and buyers that are fed up with being sniped by another re seller at the end of the auction.
Firstly, referencing " why bite the hand that feeds you " , .... that's just the thing nobody elseis feeding but ebay ifwe relied on the others we'd starve .
Second , referencing "But instead you berate and laugh at them ", ... NO , not laughing at them , actually applaude them ,and applaudes anyone who starts a new venture and wish them well also , however, the reality is what it is and that's whats being stressed here ., and that's the point !
Third , " give it some thought if ebay felt they had a open reign just imagine what the fees would be, they are no longer a site for the little guy, the mom and pops that built them, etc "., ..... Now, we are in sync , there to there, eye to eye ... I agree 100 % and this is one of the things that pisses us off about ebay ...Good Point !
Now to sum everything else up with one simple statement ... which is ...
With all you just said and as I stated you have some very valid and intersting points ...
The bottom line once again is MONEY , MOOLA , DINERO , CASH , DUCKETTES !!!!
This is what I and others need to survive and pay bills , vacation etc ... and yes I like my 4 times a year barbados trips and the trip once a year to RIO ...
WeLLL , I cannot come close to supporting my lifestyle or just putting food on the table depending on these other sites and and i must not forget the 700.00 a month BMW payment , and 1100.00 a month Porche payment , not to mention the house .... gosh !
I would be catching the bus ( public transportation ... dreadful experience ) and living back in a one room flat and eatin bad week old hot dogs from the market waitin for one of them other sites to pay off .
So ya see, the over all point is YES and we hold heartedly agree , eBay has probs and many faults ... BUT ... as a REAL SELLER ... one who depends on internet for basic survival and lifestyle and bill paying ... ebay is the only way compared to the others and that's fact .
Nowwwww ...
You weigh the difference ...
Spend hours posting / listing and warehousing stuff at the 00.00 sites and starving or EBAY ????
posted on November 22, 2002 07:12:33 PM new
auctiongroup2002 that was a good post. I use ebay as the main site, and yahoo second. Since me and several others are setting up at a mall ebay will become my only site. 3rd tier sites come a dime a dozen, and like you said cant pay the bills.
