Ebay. A step closer to Paypal only payments

[andrew-the-tortoise]

http://uk.ebid.net/

This is an alternative auction site, browsed a few times, but never used.

 

[snapper_37]

Ebay starting going sh*t when they stopped allowing negative feedback imo. Also by allowing all the 'private' bids - a very simple way for the seller to bid up with false users and not be obvious. More bucks for ebay.

I can't be arsed with it anymore which is a shame because it used to be decent. Now it's nothing more than a profit-greedy establishment that doesn't give 2 hoots for its members.

 

[Dan B]

Crush PayPal OK - ebay might take a bit longer!

Erm, yes. Post corrected, thanks

 

[trustysteed]

I just put some small stuff up for sale on ebay and the fees to do so were a lot more than they were a few months ago. Pretty much halved any profit I would make. Almost not worth bothering anymore.

 

[Mr Pig]

I just put some small stuff up for sale on ebay and the fees to do so were a lot more than they were a few months ago.

I agree. I sold a couple of things for my sonand was very surprised to the amount on my 'invoice'. What was more annoying was that I couldn't find out exactly what it was all for. I scoured my account for some kind of breakdown listing what the charges were for but could not find one. I assume there is one somewhere but it's well hidden.

From now on selling on eBay will be the last resort.

 

[peanut]

http://uk.ebid.net/

This is an alternative auction site, browsed a few times, but never used.

unfortunately it is all penny/dime store stuff and mostly from USA and China by the lkook of it. Out of 750 items only 250 proport to be seeling from the UK and some of those are bound to be fronts.

We do need something like this in the UK though. Maybe Cash Generator or Wilkinsons could sponsor one

 

[peanut]

I couldn't find out exactly what it was all for. I scoured my account for some kind of breakdown listing what the charges were for but could not find one.

From now on selling on eBay will be the last resort.

I worked it out a while back that if you use paypal and include the exchange fee and transfer fee etc it works out to just over 20% or more or less in line with the Auction houses. So for every £1.00 you sell for you pay £0.20 for the sale

 

[hackbike 666]

The P+P is well bumped up sometimes that it becomes ridiculous.

 

[barq]

I had a nice little ebay business which brought in about a third of my annual income for several years. Their changes made it harder for small companies and sole traders to make a profit because they fundamentally tilted the playing field towards bigger sellers. Ok, fine that's their choice. But it seems to me that the unique thing about ebay was the smaller sellers. Once it becomes just another portal to find shops selling fixed price goods... well there's no point, you may as well use Google to search for the best price.

Bad strategy Ebay. They are eroding their unique selling point.

Sadly the ebay alternatives don't have the necessary traffic to make them worthwhile to (ex-) sellers like me. These days Amazon marketplace might be worth a punt. But otherwise you are into setting up your own store and buying the clicks from Google.

^^^^ Cash seems popular as well if collecting.

Obvious it reduces fees, but also avoids nasty scams where a buyer pays with PayPal and then collects, after which claiming the item wasn't received. Without a courier tracking number you can't prove to PayPal the goods were received. Getting the buyer to sign a receipt note makes no difference to PayPal who just charge it back at your expense. Yay for PayPal protection!

 

[Davidc]

This has now appeared:

never pay for items with cash or instant money transfer services, such as Western Union or MoneyGram. In the past some sellers have exploited these payment methods in order to defraud buyers, so eBay has banned them from the site.

I think they may be shooting themselves in the foot! How do they think I pay in local shops, for items from the local paper, etc?