Posted on 01/18/2005 4:03:20 PM PST by LowOiL
Hey JimRob, thinking of going into the auction business anytime soon let me know.
Opps, it posted before I got to spell check it... Ouch...that is going to hurt.
Oh this is a good idea. Ebay is just getting too expensive.
I noticed there was a petition going on with about 17,000 names on it already.
Have you checked out ubid.com? I know nothing about its costs, however.
Never heard of Ubid . Perhaps someone will chime in on it's ups and downs.
Yahoo has a site.
I looked over Yahoo a while back and it has some "iffy" sellers on it. I get the feeling those thrown off Ebay defected to Yahoo. Perhaps things have changed, I hope so.
I certainly hope someone comes up with an alternative to ebay. I have tried yahoo auctions as a buyer and I wasn't real impressed either. It took a long time for me to get my items. If you find something, let us know. I, for one will check it out. I buy alot through ebay but I would be more than glad to switch if they could come up with a good alternative.
I will leave Ebay with over 300 all positive feedback (and one nuetral from an idiot). I loved Ebay, but there is no need to put more food on their table while mine is bare. Their rates are foolish IMHO...
Overstock.com is doing auctions now. I registered with them, but I havent auctioned anything there yet.
My inventory is very specific, and my ebay niche works so well for me that I hesitate to switch.
I know. My daughter is an ebay seller. She said they are killing the goose that was laying the golden egg.
I just checked it out. Doesn't look too promising. I clicked on an item that looked interesting and the shipping was outrageous.
Heck, I use priority mail and they provide the boxes and tape, it is not like I can't produce some newspaper to wrap the items in (if they need it). Some sellers take advantage of new buyers IMHO with small details on shipping/handling costs. That is a shame.
how much are they raising rates? I heard it was ridiculous (and the rates already were high....I thought about listing some stuff, but since they were cheap items, I didn't find the listing cost worth it).
I wish ebay included the shipping in the total price, so when you are browsing through all the items, you don't click on one that looks low only to be deceived by how expensive it really is with shipping added.
For a typical item selling on Ebay for $100.00, Ebay will collect 8 percent of the first $25.00 of the sell price and 5 percent of the remaining $75.00 of the sell price, or a total of $5.75 of the $100.00 purchase price. In addition, Ebay also derives a fee of anywhere from $0.40 to $1.00 per listing depending on the selling features the buyer selects.
Should that $100.00 purchase also be paid for using Ebay's PayPal service, Ebay will the earn another $3.50 on that transaction, bringing Ebay's total commission on the sale to $10.25 of an item selling for $100.00.
Some eBay sellers lash out over fee increase
eBay shares slip after word of fee increase
I wouldn't buy from UBid if it were the last auction site on earth. They allow bids after the auction closes, giving the seller an opportunity to buy their own stuff if the price is unexpectedly low.
When an auction closes it should stay closed. There is a significant cost in one's time to buy through auction rather than retail. If there is no hope of getting a bargain, there's no point in participating. If you can't tell when the last bid has been placed, there's no point in trying.
I'm not sure what it costs for your sellers, but I shop ebay regularly, like every week. I have noticed that some sellers are charging huge bills for shipping items these days, presumably to make up for the selling commission. I nearly bid on a set of poker chips the other night and noticed at the very last moment a shipping charge of something like $50 in the fine print at the bottom of the page. That's the first thing I check now.
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