Successful eBid sellers might want to reply to this woman.

[APTShopper]

i have been here about 2months and not made a sale yet - however listing same products on ebay is expensive and quiet to (i could not afford to list on fee bay all products what i do on here). i sold low value products more so than the higher value products
if you average it out over all products,i made a loss due to their fees

im building a web site to promote my shops on here (still building shops and juggling them around) and i think others advise that this is the case to make ebid work -

[Teddyrose54]

Fully agree with you Frank

Excellant thread BTW

Steve and Robert on there do have some excellant points.

Well worth reading.

[realnowhereman]

I read the article when it was first posted, found it very interesting and hard to fault!

[yorkiesauctions]

I think the real lesson to be learned from the discussion on there is how non-eBidders see this site. The guys are getting it wrong somewhere along the line and need to address the problem, non-eBidders see this site as a non-starter, that is bad news. It doesn't look good when no eBidder who has made a success of selling on here has come forward either, it kind of adds weight to their view that eBid is only any good for selling the odd item every month rather making a living from it as many do on eBay.

[bykimbo]

Every single ebidder was a non-ebidder before they joined. So you can't generalise about how non-ebidders see the site. And surely the point is you *can't* make a living here? At least, it does not happen with sufficient regularity to be considered the norm.* That much is fair comment. Can you still make a living on ebay? Probably. Can you do so as easily as a couple of years ago? No way.

*And perhaps those few who are making a living at it are too busy doing so to ponce about wasting time on the forum! :-))

[yorkiesauctions]

Every single ebidder was a non-ebidder before they joined. So you can't generalise about how non-ebidders see the site. And surely the point is you *can't* make a living here? At least, it does not happen with sufficient regularity to be considered the norm.* That much is fair comment. Can you still make a living on ebay? Probably. Can you do so as easily as a couple of years ago? No way.

*And perhaps those few who are making a living at it are too busy doing so to ponce about wasting time on the forum! :-))

Obviously I'm not saying that every single non-eBider see's eBid in that way but most of the serious sellers (folk looking to make a living from it) definitely do appear see eBid like that. Whenever I see eBid mentioned anywhere online the same comments are posted again and again, much as they are on the site linked in the OP.

I'm not trying to knock eBid, I'm just trying to point out that there is a serious image problem which doesn't appear to be being addressed by eBid management. I've no idea how they should address the problem but address it they must, otherwise the site will continue to plod along for another nine or ten years without making much progress.

lol, yeah I never thought of that, they're probably too busy packing their sold items to come and see what we are babbling on about.

[somersethedge]

*And perhaps those few who are making a living at it are too busy doing so to ponce about wasting time on the forum! :-))

that is very true.... I know of one (postcard (of cause)) dealer who does make a living there but... he has to work 12 hours a day and can not take "time off" for holidays or to attend fairs... he has to live, breath and eat the bay.... but dispite being told by many others, he is a die (dye) in the wool 'bayer and will not move anywhere else.

[deltadelta48]

I've just been reading the replies and I have to say that reply 22 (Steve) does make a lot of sense.

I have said many times that eBid needs to concentrate of getting buyers here and not just concentrate on attracting sellers. Sellers may come and sign up with eBid but then go elsewhere when they aren't selling enough. Steve's (reply 22) comment about the affiliate progeammes makes perfect sense to me too.

It appears to me that eBid is failing to learn from other sites successes and are concentrating on learning from other sites failures when it should really be doing both.

I do like eBid and I've always wanted it to succeed but I do find it frustrating sometimes.

I don't agree but then I am a seller so I see things from a different perspective than you do. I think ebid is smart in concentrating on the new selling, via search engines rather than use the old feebay model of advertising for feebay. ebid is actually advertising my specific items every time they download them to google and other search engines. That is where all my new buyers comes from.

With other sites the features are hit and miss, not so here. Give ebid credit for building a solid site that is now attracting lots of attention and growing. Its ebid's business to watch other sites and learn from what they did wrong. I believe they are already doing that. Do you see a uneven feedback system (sellers can't issue negs), or policies against taking checks (only PP is accepted), or allowing multiple accounts to sellers could pull tricks on each other (shilling, negging competition)? Nope.

Thank you for bringing this website to our attention. Many of the comments are way off the mark, based on no knowledge of ebid or selling here. We need to go and clarify that for the sellers who are afraid to make the move. Same old chestnuts there "we don't see bids" etc. "no one has ebid feedback, all imported". Time to set that stuff straight

Like it or not, ebid is now in the big league and we are going to be exposed to more and more of this stuff. Best to answer this misinformation when we see it.

[deltadelta48]

that is very true.... I know of one (postcard (of cause)) dealer who does make a living there but... he has to work 12 hours a day and can not take "time off" for holidays or to attend fairs... he has to live, breath and eat the bay.... but dispite being told by many others, he is a die (dye) in the wool 'bayer and will not move anywhere else.

And I have friends just like that too. Its great, its the best, it watches out for my interests, etc. Those I know who say that never really had problems there and faced all the nonsense that does on when feebay decides to cut what you can list, or puts you on bottom of category based on the star system, or will not allow you to do such and such. Its fine with them. They don't see any changes there over last few years, etc. But if your friend has his accounts frozen tomorrow, and the money stops cold, he might be more open to changes and trying alternatives.

Seems that the biggest supporters of feebay are those who sell smaller amounts, maybe a few items a week, and are satisfied with the fee system etc. They have few problems with buyers, have a clean record, again, no need to change anything. Or the really large sellers who get discounts so end up paying less fees. Life is good for them too.

[yorkiesauctions]

Thank you for bringing this website to our attention. Many of the comments are way off the mark, based on no knowledge of ebid or selling here. We need to go and clarify that for the sellers who are afraid to make the move. Same old chestnuts there "we don't see bids" etc. "no one has ebid feedback, all imported". Time to set that stuff straight

Like it or not, ebid is now in the big league and we are going to be exposed to more and more of this stuff. Best to answer this misinformation when we see it.

That's one of my main points, they may be way off the mark but it is how many see eBid, unfortunately. Like I said earlier, eBid has an image problem.

Most folk here would be over the moon to see eBid become a bigger success, but we've been saying the same for several years now and with eBay announcing that the number of their members who exceed a million pounds a year turnover has almost doubled to 127 sellers from 66 in the last 12 months and with eBay set for a advertising blitz next month on TV, the side of buses, on billboards, as well as other places it is going to make things even more difficult for other sites.

I know that I sound like I am eBid bashing, I don't mean to, I'm just trying to point out what I see as problems which need addressing. It's all well and good us all supporting each other and patting each other on the back for the odd sale or two but looking at the site through rose tinted glasses will not help it succeed, folk need to be realistic and point out anything that they think is a problem and holding the site back. It's up to the management if they take any notice or not or what they do about it, but at least we're doing our bit by pointing things out and discussing them.