AuctionCut

Does anyone know if there are any other auction sites which are trying to compete with ebay? I thought there may be some trying to break into this area and perhaps a little competition would drive the charges down for sellers?

Tazbar

Ebid

121bid

QXL

Amazon

Specialist Auctions

To name but a few... Have a look at Auctionlotwatch - full of affiliate links, but useful none-the-less.

Auction site scripts are readily available almost as a turnkey product, so more and more small sites are cropping up, however none have even so much as dented eBay.

I've used 121bid a few times, and have a few items parked there for a bit of extra exposure, but so far the customer service I have received through the site has been second to none. Scam auctions (yes! even the little sites get them!) are pulled within minutes, any techincal queries are answered by a human, and fees are fixed at 2% of final sale price. Given the marketing budget (or lack of it!) it seems to be fairing very well.

I have had some limited success on ePier, and Ioffer, as well as the old Bidville site, which I'm not certain is still around. You could also try the Blujay site.

My old friend Tom also runs a great auction site, Romahawk Auctions.

www.romahawk.com and some sellers are having success on that site.

Good luck!

Jim

I didn't realise there were so many larger auction sites out there and am even more amzed that it sounds like I could purchase software to start my own! Perhaps I could be a successfull as ebay?

in new zealand there is an auction site called "trademe" and that is quite popular. maybe even more popular than ebay

I am glad to hear finally there is a site that can beat eBay in popularity...

I checked the site, final value fee, or they call it success fee is not cheap though. But listing fee is cheaper than eBay.

Is the sell through rate high? How's traffic? They accept international sellers?

Debbie wrote: even more amzed that it sounds like I could purchase software to start my own! Perhaps I could be a successfull as ebay?

I would caution you on that idea. There are a good number of us that have gone that route, to no avail. There have been a number of really good sites come and go over the years. It is just about impossible to dislodge eBay. I doubt any of the smaller sites are making a lot of money, and unless you can secure serious ad revenue, it would be almost impossible to make adequate income from sales. People seem to complain loudly about eBay, but on the other hand, they almost always fail to support anyone else. Been that way for years.

Jim

The only way I could see an independant auction site really gaining a foothold is to offer listing services that eBay does not - maybe not to everyones taste, but I'm sure an Adult products, or more topically a site for auctioning re-usable nappies may have a better chance at sustaining an active membership.

eBay is not without (numerous) faults, but you can not ignore the fact it has millions of members world wide, something that very few sites or even retail chains can compete with.

It is still the best site, but I am beginning to think it is the best for all the wrong reasons...

I would caution you on that idea.

I use to set up these auction scripts for clients. I must have done between 10 - 20 auction sites between 2005 - 2006. Not one of these lasted more than a year, because once the sites were live and active the owners simply couldn't market them & compete with eBay.

I think the only way for eBay to have a major competitor is for some of the other auction sites to merge.

do you think google, msn or yahoo will ever venture into the auction arena?

There was a lot of hype a few years ago when Google started Froogle that the company would start an online auction site. Then the whole Google payment system comes out. Makes one wonder if they aren't setting the table.

I think it is going to take a company with the resources, financially speaking, of Google to get it done. There are some fantastic sites out there, but they just don't have the revenue for advertising. Amazon is about the best alternative I guess, although I've yet to make a sale there, I have not been trying that hard either, I mostly buy things.

i have tried doing some affiliate advertisements for amazon and never made a cent! it seemed like the whole thing was a cleverly disguised scam to me! but maybe i was just unlucky. i am just a little suspicious of being scammed these days!

jumble wrote:do you think google, msn or yahoo will ever venture into the auction arena?

oh yea! Let's not forget Craigslist...

jumble wrote:i have tried doing some affiliate advertisements for amazon and never made a cent! it seemed like the whole thing was a cleverly disguised scam to me! but maybe i was just unlucky. i am just a little suspicious of being scammed these days!

Like you, I tried it for a while. Never made a dime. I think you need a really high volume site in order to get any click thrus that result in revenue.

Like you, I tried it for a while. Never made a dime. I think you need a really high volume site in order to get any click thrus that result in revenue.

Yeah you are probably right. And I guess if you sell the big ticket items like plasma TVs then I guess you could survive on just a small number of sales. I was tempted to setup a website specifically for that purpose but in the end I could not be bothered writing about something that was of little interest to me