A big attraction to IOffer is their bulklister that can 'copy' listings from eBay and Bidville.

Unfortunately, many will become dissatisfied with that site when they become more familiar with it.

No one can completely stop sellers from listing on sites based solely on their bulklister or the # of listings. We can encourage them to do the necessary research for their needs & what they sell....but you can't make them drink.

Perhaps a suggestion to PSU to include verbiage such as what you mentioned at the top of the ASC page would go a long way?

sylvia

angelsolutions wrote (View Post): › A big attraction to IOffer is their bulklister that can 'copy' listings from eBay and Bidville. Unfortunately, many will become dissatisfied with that site when they become more familiar with it. No one can completely stop sellers from listing on sites based solely on their bulklister or the # of listings. We can encourage them to do the necessary research for their needs & what they sell....but you can't make them drink. Perhaps a suggestion to PSU to include verbiage such as what you mentioned at the top of the ASC page would go a long way? sylvia

<grin> A suggestion from me about "verbiage" will go about as far as this poll will go to influencing Admin.

And you are right about a big attraction to iOffer being Mr Grabber but if iOffer hadnt been on the board when people starting discovering PSU, many people would not have known about them or Mr Grabber.

The writing is on the wall in regards to the future of many of us at eBay. PSU has already taken the stance that they will let things play out naturally without any influence on their part and I respect that.

Most people come here looking for new ways to sell and new places to sell from and every now and then the question is asked "Why havent we decided to Unite under a couple of sites already?"

We know that our own needs, preferences and loyalties will not allow that. We could never decide as a group. Only by using the tools at hand would we ever be able to funnel new immigrants from eBay to the sites with the most chance at success which would translate into success for the selling community as a whole.

PSU just added 3 new sites to the ASC List and this is nothing against those sites, but now there are 3 more choices for new members here to choose from and this keeps us from building successful sites. I am not saying that a couple of sellers cant be successful on these sites but based on the reports I see here on these boards, at least 95 percent of sellers are not getting a relevant number of sales on these sites to make it worthwhile to use them. That is pretty much reflected in the poll numbers too.

With all of the sites coming online over the last couple of months the I figure ASC List will grow by at least another 1/2 dozen sites within the next year under the current eligibility requirements for being on the list with maybe 1 dropping off.


I can see internet sales being reduced to almost nothing compared to where they were 3 years ago after eBay self destructs because there will be too many sites out there and no obvious choices for buyers and sellers to migrate to Post-eBay.

Quote: › based on the reports I see here on these boards, at least 95 percent of sellers are not getting a relevant number of sales on these sites to make it worthwhile to use them. That is pretty much reflected in the poll numbers too.

...then perhaps we as their fellow sellers are failing in providing the needed advice in HOW TO CHOOSE an alternative that best suits their needs. Bashing sites isn't the answer. Perhaps teaching sellers could be the answer.
How many are expecting eBay-like traffic? How many know how to even promote their listings or stores well, outside of eBay? How many are crafting well written listings to start with?

I don't expect as many new sites as you do, but I'll bet you more than 3 will fall off.



sylvia

angelsolutions wrote (View Post): › Bashing sites isn't the answer. Perhaps teaching sellers could be the answer. How many are expecting eBay-like traffic? How many know how to even promote their listings or stores well, outside of eBay? How many are crafting well written listings to start with?

Bingo.

*waves at angelsong* hiya!

darn, patch...ya didn't wanna bet me?

shucks....

sylvia

angelsolutions wrote (View Post): › *waves at angelsong* hiya!

Hi Sylvia! Hope your business is booming these days!

I just read the post and bet you what? That 3 sites will fall off? Not at the present pace. The only way a site falls off is if it shuts down (ala Bidville) or experiences 3 months of downtime (McBidz).

Most of the sites are closely monitered enough so that the owners would never let them get below the cut off count.

I agree that sellers should be educated but when pros and cons of sites are pointed out one person will call it "bashing a site" while another will call it "educating" a new seller about a site's strong points as well as the good points.

We would never even agree on that so it becomes a free for all.

What I am saying is that as individuals we are responsible adults but as a community it becomes 3rd grade recess.

However, most people do agree that we can make changes that can reward the better performing sites over the pretenders.

It's all going to be a new ball game now for all auction sites.

Ebay has ruled the roost for a long time and that was fine when it worked well for you, but after all the new rules and policies so far rolled out this year, many sellers are not happy with the way they are being mandated to run their business.

With ebay now telling you that you WILL have PayPal for international payments how long before ebay makes PayPal mandatory for all ebay sellers. It is closer than you think as they want to start with sellers having one and only one payment option for buyers. Gee, wonder what that payment option is going to be. Ebay has been more than successful in brainwashing both sellers and buyers into the hype of PP being safe and secure regardless of how they really are.

What sellers want is the traffic that ebay generated but NO other auction site has that traffic. What buyers want is a variety of items to choose from and a payment system that allows them to pay immediately.

I have decided that I am going to invest my time by trying a new auction site, owned by a former powerseller, who has no listing fees, free pic's and what I consider fair FVF's. I want a site owner who offers a free exchange of ideas and the balls to roll with those ideas that will work for the good of everyone.

I sell vintage collectibles and could probably make money on ebay but choose not to list or sell there after all the new rules and policies that came down the pike. There will be many more new rules and policies coming from ebay and I doubt they will be better for the sellers.

I know that where I sell, I don't want counterfeit items, canned responses to pertinent questions and forums where the owner takes part in. The site owner needs to take care of his customers (sellers) and I will take care of my customers (buyers).

Heck, I'll even throw in some money if the site owner needs some funds for advertising and getting items into search.

If you want to get the word out quickly for buyers and sellers to leave ebay and build an underdog site instead, I recommend a chain letter. This is a letter with instructions for its own replication. Don't underestimate something as simple as replication; it is the basis of evolution. For example, send out 10 or maybe 100 snail mail letters that say 'bla bla bla, ebay = monopoly, buyers = sellers so this affects everyone, e-commerce can be free, will take time but will work if we all cooperate, meg supports mccain, bla bla bla. Please copy this letter and send it to 10 other people' (only word it in some inspiring way to make them eager to replicate it to make them feel like they're doing a positive thing). 10 people becomes 100 becomes 1000 etc. Its 'viral marketing'. Snail mail doesn't have to be the only medium; also email. And also videos maybe (just look at the popularity of alex jones videos, or how gmail successfully used viral marketing of 'invites').

One odd thing I don't understand... when we do our stupid taxes, we can deduct our ebay and paypal fees. On a free site we would not have this deduction. Assuming you do your taxes as normal wouldn't free vs fee both be the same price from your point of view after deductions?

I wonder if the gnu copyleft license or open source can somehow be applied to an auction site (similar to how linux fought microsoft); might prevent any possibility of ebay buying it out or something.

One idea, auction sites that sell stuff that ebay does not sell might have an advantage. example: gunbroker.com.. online buyers of guns HAVE to go there without ebay as a choice. So that site will be likely to have dedicated buyers already there and thus perhaps more advantage to expand into a sell-everything site. Kinda similarly the non-ebay auction site that is the most Laissez-faire might ironically have an advantage if criminals sell counterfeits on their site. Because ebay definitely used to be filled with counterfits (more fees for them) but are enforcing a lot more and therefore they're much harder to find on ebay, giving other sites that 'market' of buyers so to speak but its obviously illegal. Its been said buyers have little incentive to use a site besides ebay but getting a 500 dollar item for 50 could be one incentive, despite the legality, not that I condone the priciple of such behavior.

As far as the 'mother of all searches' or whatever (a big search connecting all the small auction sites), I would prefer if the user only had to log in (username/password) and enter confidential info at THAT search site ONLY, all on a secure encrypted connection. Because one road block might be that people don't want half a dozen sites with their confidential information. Note that is also half a dozen instances they could be vulnerable to having their password hacked instead of just one single password to worry about.

Been seeing lots of questions about the viability of the existing sites these past few days and posts about people getting discouraged and going back to eBay completely or even getting out of e-commerce.

I have also seen 3 brand new auction sites come online and get advertised here thewithin last 24 hours. Just what we need, right?

Figured it was time to give this a bump for those who are getting discouraged.

One thing I have noticed since I made this post is that although there are many sites being exposed as being pretenders (and not very good ones at that) there are sites that have made great strides in listing counts and are growing daily.

The top 3 sites that have emerged.

iOffer: Big numbers but even bigger headaches and issues. This site is attracting official attention and it wont be long before they get shut down or they are forced to burn it down and rebuild since it might be easier than to try to remove a couple million knock offs and illegal items. I stay away from this site, not because of any moral qualms, but because my business sense tells me that there is no future here.

eCrater:
Plus: Global Marketplace. Rapid steady growth. Big rewards to those who promote their storefront. Active and engaged Admin. Very professional sellers. Free unless you want items headlined. The best Google feeds out of all of the alternative sites.

Minus: Not very community oriented (it's debatable whether this is a good of bad thing but if you are looking for friends, this aint the place for you). Hard to use format and navigation.

eBid:
Plus: Rapid Growth. Easy to use format. Community Oriented. Active and engaged Admin.

Minus: Limited to certain countries. Not free (need to pay for membership to sell and if you want to use photos you pay a 2% FVF).

The 2 best alternative sites which have emerged (in my opinion) are eCrater and eBid.

Other sites have grown as well but are falling by the wayside in comparison.

Cheerleaders for other sites will try to discredit eBid and eCrater's accomplishments and talk (often and loudly) about how thier site has more sales than any other site and use other non-verifiable formulas to tell everyone why they should sell at their site. I dont care about fairy tales or feel good bedtime stories. I care about where my sales are going to come from next year and will support the site that holds the most promise. I will go by what the numbers say and not by what some site groupie tells me.

If you care about your business more than you do about your online social life you will take long, hard looks at eCrater and eBid as your main options outside of eBay. If you already use either of these sites but continue to list in other, less relevant sites in hopes of diversifying or letting your inventory sit in case lightning strikes and you make a sale, then it might actually work to your benefit to close down those listings at the less relevant sites and focus on the contenders. Leaving listings at other sites just inflates their numbers and (along with site cheerleaders) may trick newcomers into thinking a site is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

More importantly, buyers will be drawn to the bigger sites with more choices. Right now a buyer will see 20 sites to go shopping at with very little for sale on those sites compared to what they are used to. If a buyer only sees 2 super sites besides eBay, they may be more willing to shop outside of eBay as well.

As always, use eBay for your purposes as they do provide the most income from auction items but let your buyers know where you sell outside of eBay. While eBid is technically an auction site they are really not a viable alternative in an auction format but you can list on there in a fixed priced format just like you would in a storefront format.

PatchDog wrote (View Post): › Do I want to see eBay disappear? Nope. But I do want to see them bouncing between number 1 and number 5 on the ACS list within 3 years. They have a monopoly that is bad for the rest of e-commerce. With 3-4 sites on par with eBay, they will lose the leverage they have over use now because we will have legitimate alternatives out there. If eBay had some real competition in the last 5 years there would never never been a need for a site like PSU to begin with. Ebay only acts the way it does because o fthe lack of serious competition. Ken

Perfectly said. I agree 100%. eBay has been screwing sellers for too long with NO consequences. Is there a single eBay seller here who doesn't think the new eBay item page layout is complete crap? And of course eBay doesn't have any reason to change or listen to us because they have no competition.

Someone needs to TALK TO MANAGEMENT in the TOP THREE competitors to leavebay and TELL THEM TO MAKE A BOLD MOVE AND MERGE!

I'm not kidding. Can anyone be bold enough? Free media about the merger, stocks would SHOOT UP and you ALL WOULD MAKE MORE MONEY! The new listings first off should go to TV ads and infrastructure.


The approval ratings are at an all time low. This is such a small website and only a few people are reading this post. CONTACT YOUR COMPETITORS! Yes, I talk to all my competitors because we all hate ebay. ebay just closed over 100 sellers n the antiques and antiquities categories over the past 3 days. I watched the listing count in some categories go from 1384 to just 16 over night.

No one is doing anything...ONE BIG MERGER IS FREE ADVERTISING. Will one just one auction company make a bold move and merge? Please? Whoever does the first merger I think people will flock to because it will be a promising alternative. Come on!

Voting with our feet...it was this company 2 years ago then that company 3 years ago...bonanzle is still feeble and hardly a real player with joke closing prices....WHERE IS THE MERGER? I am begging Bonanzle to merge with eBid and that will be it! come one make a bold move! Listen to the public...we're crying for it! Doesn't anyone have the guts to merge? Your jobs will be secure and we'll all make more money!

Are those big 3 off ebay sites traded on the stock market? if not, wouln't matter if stock shot up or not, there ain't no stock to shoot up!

Also consider, that the merger would require new member registration to the new merged site. Oh is ebid back up yet? They did a server move a few days ago and members were having trouble accessing.

AND mergers take time to negotiate and iron out everyone's positions. This isn't something that would happen overnight anyway. All the legalities would have to be ironed out before it could be a done deal.

This thread is almost from a year ago - and there are a few more around where we discuss uniting and 'the end' of ebaY.

In reality, the ebaY we knew is 'gone' and the future is yet to be seen. If it works for some - so be it - if it doesn't work for others, so be it.

Happy sales ... no matter the site!

2BOYSandTOYS wrote (View Post): › This thread is almost from a year ago - and there are a few more around where we discuss uniting and 'the end' of ebaY. In reality, the ebaY we knew is 'gone' and the future is yet to be seen. If it works for some - so be it - if it doesn't work for others, so be it. Happy sales ... no matter the site!

Hey Erin... Nice to see you!

Happy sales to you, and enjoy the holiday weekend.