Question for eBay sellers - do you sell on other sites?

[Mindy]

Hi everyone!

I have a question for "serious" eBay sellers. Do you use other ways of selling online, such as a Yahoo Store, Amazon.com marketplace, your own website, etc.? What has been most successful for you?

I noticed that The Frenchy Bee, winner of the 2004 Best in eBay Stores award, sells on Amazon.com as well as her own website (she has some really cool stuff for lovers of all things French!). I am planning to expand our offerings from art glass to an eclectic mix of Italian imports, and would like to also expand our selling venues (eBay is great, but diversification is good too! ).

Thanks for your input!

--Mindy

[Mike]

Hi Mindy,

I have not been selling a ton and our side operation works strictly off eBay. I do personally have some items on half.com (which I guess is eBay). You will definately get a lot of input from the Auction Ethics crew on this topic. I know many of them use websites and some use stores as well.

[scarlet]

[Lynn Terry]

[fast-pack.com]

We sell on our website, and currently tried the new Overstock auctions. Have sold 8 items in the week or so we have been there, going to try it out for a little while.

Lynn, the haggle site, was it related to ewanted, or ioffer.com? I think ioffer was called something else, then changed its name to ioffer?

[Lynn Terry]

[HowardH]

eBay is larger than the next 10 or 15 largest auction sites put together. I'd love to see them get some meaningful competition, but I just don't see it happening.

Every once in a while, I hear disgruntled murmurings from various eBayers that I correspond with who go off to use different auction sites because they object to some change or other that eBay has made (eBay is constantly screwing around with the rules in order to maximize the amount of money they can extract from the users). They always come back (even while grumbling about it) because eBay is where the buyers are.

I took a look at some of the sites mentioned in this thread, and just out of curiousity, I looked up sellers of violins. It was interesting to see violins that list on eBay for around $30 being listed on other sites for $200 or more (and yes, they are the same violins). I will have to follow these sites for a while to see if any of those overpriced fiddles are actually selling. But I'm guessing that they aren't.

Unless there is something that I'm just not understanding...

[Vera]

I've been a seller on eBay since 97 and find that the main thing is to have a unique product that is hot, and then have lots of it.

I personally have sold on Yahoo, and eBay but I prefer eBay only because of you know what.... buyers. In my opinion, find your niche on eBay and then duplicate your success into your website, and other auction sites. But don't spend tons of time on the other sites because time is money. And if you have a good thing going at eBay, stick with it.

eBay has made alot of changes over the years, alot for the better, however alot have quite annoyed me too. But I can't change eBay's rules, I can only change what I'm doing.

Check out Overstock.com, I've been listing a little there and you develop networks of friends (which I feel is lacking on eBay).

Just find what works, and go with that.

[eBookWriter]

eBay seems to be best for me, too, but I have sold my hot pepper recipe eBook on Yahoo, Bidville and Overstock, as well as other things. Those three are less expensive to list at, so I'll keep listing on them. But, the big ticket items, I'll probably always sell on eBay.

What is frustrating is getting people to leave feedback whether as a buyer or seller. My feedback count should be showing 75, but shows 66 at the moment. The buyers and sellers on Yahoo have been good in giving feedback. I did have a non paying buyer there, though. No one at Bidville or Overstock has given feedback. I generally leave it as soon as I'm paid, if the seller, and as soon as I've gotten my items and am happy with them, if the buyer. So it's discouraging when it's not done in return.

Anita

[LuckyMommy]

[HowardH]

The current disgruntlement with eBay has given rise to a number of eBay-wannabes. I have taken a look at several, and I don't really see any credible competition looming for eBay, with the possible exception of WagglePop and Overstock. BidCents and AuctionFlair appear to be kitchen-table enterprises that have essentially no chance of ever becoming credible competitors.

Overstock appears to be struggling along, but I don't think they will overtake eBay unless eBay does something monumentally stupid. I don't think the current fee changes are in that category (yet).

WagglePop is a strange case. It hasn't even launched yet, but eBay is already reacting with great paranoia. I'd love to know what it is that WagglePop did that got it "over the radar". Whether it will be credible competition remains to be seen. They claim to have several thousand people waiting to open up WagglePop stores.

I signed up for one, and I will probably list some auctions on WagglePop. But if they can't deliver buyers, then I, along with everyone else, will be back on eBay. Actually, I won't even be leaving eBay until I have better results elsewhere.

Personally, I think eBay needs some credible threats to its current domination of that part of the internet. Or maybe that is better phrased that eBay users would benefit from some competition.

[Vera]

I agree, my husband laughed at me when I suggested checking out Overstock. We are both very comfortable with eBay and will also stay there too. I know alot of people are upset about the recent price increases, but in the back of my mind I still compare it to what I was paying for staff (I had , leases, fixturing, etc. It's just nothing compared to all of that. You just have to be careful what you're spending on each listing. If you keep in mind when you're listing the item, what the maximum expense is then it's easier. I calculate in all my fees, paypal, eBay, shipping, etc. Then I decide what I will list the item for.

[HowardH]

[Vera]

No kidding, you know it reminds me of my retail business that I had. Everyone wants a piece and sure that's business, but I also found that they had too much input in how I run my business.

There was one point where the mall kindly suggested that it's been too long that I needed to change my window..... (it was a BIG window display and there was 3 separate parts to it) and then they gladly gave me a card of a woman who would charge me 400.00 to "professionally" do it.

Give me a break. It's my business, I'll change it when I'm good and ready to.

It's just like Overstock and eBay not wanting you to own your own business. That's why it's so important to develop your own website and your own traffic. But I also realize that eBay does bring me tons of biz and I'd rather stick with what's proven to work for me.

[jbbrwcky]

Yeah I sell on stormpay's auction site, and on bid-alot.com, also on epier.com (although there's not much action there).

Jbbrwcky