Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Is There An ebay Alternative?

eBay is the biggest online store for buying things. It has a user count of over 99 million! There are approximately 48 million active users. This success is due to its good policies. But of lately many active sellers are leaving eBay and finding alternatives. Is there an eBay alternative? Is is as stable and as reliable as eBay is? Here we will discuss a few such alternatives and also dig into the problem as to why eBay is loosing its sellers.

At eBay a seller is allowed to give only positive feedback about their buyers. This is done in order to get more sales resulting in higher fees. A major chunk is cut from their commission. Especially if international products are shipped, you are in for a major fee cut. This fee becomes a disincentive for any new comer. Why is a seller on eBay? To make money, to have fair dealings and to get popularity. eBay doesn’t allow the sellers to include their website links. (There goes your popularity). There are many other sites that allow Affiliate trading, but eBay beats them due to its shear traffic.

Sellers feel at a loss and are now looking for eBay alternatives. Some alternative are Amazon, eBid, My auction planet, Online auction.com, BiddersnSellers and Cozybug amongst others. Amazon is giving good competition to eBay and is emerging out to be more popular. There is an extra advantage in selling books or CDs on Amazon. Along with the regular listings, your items will also appear. Moreover Amazon also gives a part of the postage price. This can help you in gaining some more commission, howsoever small it may be.

eBid is having a number of websites around the world and it is very easy to join it.
Although sellers are finding alternatives but sometimes they have to wait longer (while dust is collecting on their inventory). On eBay your product is sold quickly because there are millions of users who are seeking it. So even in case as a seller you are tired of eBay’s policies and fees, do not quit it altogether. Wait patiently and surely a solution will come up fast. May be the people at eBay change some rules and give more leverage to the sellers.
Even if you are listed with other small online stores, eventually you may be sitting on most of the inventory while only a fraction of it is getting sold.

2 comments:

  1. Hey MK,
    Have you checked out Bonanzle? After you have visited the other alternatives, please stop on by. We are days away from welcoming our 100,000th registered user, quite the accomplishemnt for a site that launched out of beta one year ago.

    Here is the link: http://www.bonanzle.com

    Cheers,
    Mark

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  2. I totally agree with your article, ebay is still the place to move your items quickly, But if your looking for an ebay alternative online auction site.
    We have an excellent ebay alternative online auction site with the following formats auctions, buy it nows, and best offers.
    Efleaa has been called the ebay of the 90s or the new old ebay, once you visit the site you will see why we have garnered those nick names. Listing is free and very low final value fees.
    Feel free to visit us at http://www.efleaa.com Thanks Jerry.
    Hope you will check efleaa out.

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