First step toward ditching Ebay permanently

Andy69 · Apr 8, 2013

We're just getting tired of Ebay's antics with its manipulation of search and browse functions to favor large sellers, high fees, BS seller ratings (Ebay requires sellers to maintain a 98% customer service satisfaction rate, while Ebay as a company can only manage about 70%), arbitrary and capricious policies that are constantly changing, and so forth.

Last week I started looking seriously for alternatives, and decided to open stores with both Webstore and eCrater. Both are free to post and charge no commissions, and have a fair amount of exposure. Webstore scored 2nd of 15 in a 2012 survey of online sellers by ecommercebytes, while Ebay finished 13th. Ebay is universally hated among small sellers. While both eCrater and Webstore are small, they have enough market traffic that stores do fairly well and are growing. I think this is a good move for us. We'll keep the Ebay store open until if/when the sales drop off.

It would be awesome to wash our hands of Screwbay once and for all.

BillsCamino · Apr 8, 2013

Although I do purchase often from Ebay, I very rarely sell anything thru it.
I use Craigslist to sell larger items locally (sold a Miata seat yesterday, in fact) and other stuff mostly Chevelle related goes on sale in here.

Blownchevelle68 · Apr 8, 2013

I stopped selling on there as well years ago, got tired of the format. I only sell on Craigslist now and run advertising for my small business on there, with good success.

quikss · Apr 8, 2013

I can honestly say I have never heard of either of these two alternative sites. Of course I am not much of an internet purchaser anyways, so that may be why. I dig get real lucky with eBay recently. My girlfriend really likes wearing Harley boots for work. Harley has changed their line to all boots having zippers on them now, which she hates. So I went on eBay and found a brand new pair of her size boot she likes for half the price she paid for her last new pair. Hopefully I can find another new pair in her size to last her awhile again.

Jeff

71'bu · Apr 8, 2013

never new about those sites. Just went to ecrater and its not to bad

Andy69 · Apr 8, 2013

ecommercebytes has reviews of online shopping sites, and Ebay has a 2 star rating with 132 reviews. They have 1-star in customer service. Pretty sad. Mostly negative comments, too.

droptop396 · Apr 8, 2013

I would love to ditch ebay. craigslist isn't that great for the car related stuff that I sell. Hard to find that person locally that needs or is willing to pay a good price for NOS date coded parts. ebay is the only way to get good exposure. They know they got you by the balls, their fees are RIDICULOUS!!
They are thieves. Same with paypal.
Hard to be profitable when they take so much $$$ in fees.
You have to have very little invested in the item your selling, otherwise you might end up losing money by the time all the fees are taken.

Andy69 · Apr 8, 2013

fees a little high but not egregious when you consider that auction houses typically take a 20% commission.

turbodave · Apr 8, 2013

I know what you mean about EBay. I got out when they upped fees in include a mandatory fee for business accounts for PayPal regardless if you used it or not. I did check out your options has I have never hear of them before. Already signed up and have 1 ad running on "Webstore". Although I don't like competitors ads running on my ad page,that is suppose to go away once my account gets verified in a few days. Which is a $10.00 fee. Will see what happens. Keep you posted on it.

Stokerboats · Apr 9, 2013

One of my friends sell's alot of stuff,on ebay. He recently told me they make more on him than he does, shipping etc considered.

dyno jonn · Apr 9, 2013

And how much does he net selling in other markets?

turbodave · Apr 9, 2013

Stokerboats said:
One of my friends sell's alot of stuff,on ebay. He recently told me they make more on him than he does, shipping etc considered.

When I quit about a year ago i was being charged $74.10 in fees to sell a $629.99 Turbo. If I offered free shipping I was losing money on average. Had to walk away from that. To bad because I sold a ton turbo's through them.

Chris R · Apr 9, 2013

The reason they get away with these outrageous and often times absurd fees is because they are the only real game in town when it comes to getting national exposure for your item and can (almost) name thier price for listing it. Ive said for years it would be intresting to see someone like a Mark Zuckerberg type which would have the means, know-how and capital start up a competing auction network to go up against ebay.

I remember a few years ago there was a member here on TC that was part of a group of investors that were intending to launch a network to do just that very thing. Ebay had already threatened lawsuits claiming they stole this or that and the auction wasnt close to launching yet so appearently it was a big enough effort to get thier attention. But the economy crashed and they pulled the plug.

Elcoman · Apr 9, 2013

Chris R said:
The reason they get away with these outrageous and often times absurd fees is because they are the only real game in town when it comes to getting national exposure for your item and can (almost) name thier price for listing it. Ive said for years it would be intresting to see someone like a Mark Zuckerberg type which would have the means, know-how and capital start up a competing auction network to go up against ebay.

I remember a few years ago there was a member here on TC that was part of a group of investors that were intending to launch a network to do just that very thing. Ebay had already threatened lawsuits claiming they stole this or that and the auction wasnt close to launching yet so appearently it was a big enough effort to get thier attention. But the economy crashed and they pulled the plug.

The lawsuits were just to deplete the funds of the start-up. They did not care if they won or lost, they just were creating a barrier to entry for the start-up.:sad:

barrrf · Apr 9, 2013

Whats amazing to me is that Ebay and Paypal are the same company. As a seller, youre royally screwed if you use both systems. Ebay takes a fee for listing and selling and paypal takes a fee for their service. Double dipping.

Like a couple of other posters, I rarely sell through ebay.

Andy's Auto Repair · Apr 9, 2013

eBay in the last couple of years are trying to turn themselves into a bunch of drop shipping computer dorks, leaving little for the actual brick and mortar buisness owner. I'll admit, if I have something uberly cool to sell, it has to go to eBay to get top dollar, but craigslist has worked welll too.

Andy69 · Apr 9, 2013

I'm not entirely sold on Webstore yet. Im trying to get some of my ebay listings up and it's turning into a major PITA. All I can say is I'd better get some sales with the amount of time I'm spending trying to get the bulk upload file in the right format

66 chevelle 496BBC · Apr 9, 2013

i used to sell alot of john deere vintage snowmobile parts on evilbay. it became such a pain and not as profitable with the fees that i dumped all the remaining stuff in the trash and never looked back. less stress is always better for you.

Jim

First step toward ditching Ebay permanently

Andy69

BillsCamino

Blownchevelle68

quikss

71'bu

Andy69

droptop396

Andy69

turbodave

Stokerboats

dyno jonn

turbodave

Chris R

Elcoman

barrrf

Andy's Auto Repair

Andy69

66 chevelle 496BBC

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