Will ebay ever have competition?

[llamatron]

I was bored last night and trawling the internet as usual, when I started thinking about some of the companies we use online and how we just take them for granted.

 

The one that stuck out the most was ebay. Whenever I think of buying or selling anything that's the first place I look, and I guess it is for a lot of other people.

 

That led me in to thinking about how well they had done, and how ebay had become a household name. It also got me thinking that as the concept of ebay is fairly simple, why has no one else managed to build an 'ebay 2' if you like. Yes there are other online auction sites around, but nothing has come close to the size and success of ebay.

 

So....could anyone ever rival them, and if so, what would they have to do to get people to use them instead of ebay? What could they do better etc?

 

Just a thought...odd I know!

 

Amazon market place is infinitely better, you can often buy stuff cheaper and immediately from amazon and as a seller its much easier as the picture of the item is already there. The only thing is its slightly more limited as to what you can sell.

 

Also you don't have to use paypal so you only get charged once, you get charged twice for buying and selling on ebay.

[llamatron]

I've used ebay for quite a while and sold stuff on it, and even got a few bargains, but I'm getting hacked off with it. As already said, it's lost interest in the small or occasional private seller, and increased its prices. My principal gripe is that it practically forces one to offer payment, and receipt of payment, through Paypal, which is supposed to have such wonderful qualities...presumably ebay gets a commission or a rakeoff from that, which we as ebay customers pay for. I resent being told how I want to be paid and refuse to have a Paypal account, but have to tell buyers that I prefer payment by cheque or postal order. I've also heard of a lot of problems people have had with Paypal. I had one of my listed items pulled by ebay because "Unfortunately, we had to remove your item because the way it was listed breaches our policy:You stated in your listing "I do not have an account with Paypal." eBay requires all sellers listing on eBay.co.uk to offer payments through PayPal. Sellers must always accept payment from buyers through the payment methods they have selected in their Payment Details section of their listing, including PayPal. They must not act in any way to discourage buyers from paying by one of the methods that they offer." Well, they don't offer one a chance to opt out of Paypal, do they? I think they have grown too big for their boots and it's time some competition came in. If they were a company trading in the High Street they might be investigated as constituting practically a monopoly. I still use it, but much less than I used to, especially when buyers assume they can pay through Paypal and then have to be told to cancel such a payment. If I get fed up with it they will be losing one more customer...

 

Thats why I have deleted my ebay and paypal account. Paypal only offers you protection for goods bought on ebay, anywhere else and you have no cover. Ebay charges you twice for buying and selling because you have to use paypal-ridiculous!

 

Its just a branch of ebay I don't know why anyone puts up with it.

 

Ebay also stopped allowing postage costs on certain items they are scammers!

[swfc4lyf]

ebay stopped you puting a postage as high as you wanted as people where puting the price low and postage really high as they did not get charged on the postage cost hence they would not have to pay as much fees. When I first started on eBay the fees for selling where minimum, I didnt sell for a while and when I can back it had gone up to 10% which I was stunned about, though selling on amazon now charges you 17.5% or something like that, I occasinally by off both but generally only buy from amazon direct as you can guarntee the stock is genuine and of good quality. eBay you have to search around a bit but if you clever you can get a good deal and get a excellent quality item.

[Draggletail]

There are alternatives, Ebid does ok but they just don't have enough of the market. The problem with Ebay is they are now screwing the people who made it sucessful, it's just interested in ebay shops and not the little people. Asd a small seller the charges are so high it's just not worth the effort. What we need is Google auctions, they could have a massive impact on ebay and I don't understand why they don't do it. They have the infrastructure and people know and trust them, offer free buying and selling for a 3 month period and watch everyone desert ebay.

 

Come on google, do it!

 

Find myself agreeing with neeeeeeeeeek, the ebay charges to the seller now are far to expensive.

 

There used to be a U.K Yahoo auction site which I favoured above ebay, but they pulled the plug on it for some reason.

 

I did launch a free auction site for Sheffield and South Yorkshire (called ebygum) two and a half years ago, publicised it reasonably well, but it failed - I would love to see a successful alternative to ebay, just can't see it happening in the short term.

[Sheff Laser]

From a small business point of view and someone who used to sell on eBay as a business I found it frustrating that anyone with a keyboard and access to similar goods could sell the same services but were happy to make 50p profit at the end because if they sold enough, that would pay for their mobile phone bill. As a small business looking to mak a living this was basically a nightmare that eventually cost the business it's life on eBay.

 

It was good for consumers on cost but the support infrastructure didn't come with the knocked down price. However by the time that word got around the businesses in that industry had left eBay thus it was the consumer who lost out.

So while eBay thinks about businesses, it only thinks about bigger businesses (outlets and the like). It would have been smarter to ringfence business sales to legitimate businesses that can prove they're listed with HMRC. That I feel would cut out those who basically destroy industries with unrealistically low costs without the infrastructure to back it up when support is eventually needed.

 

I agree with what others say though about eBay being 'for' businesses and less about the private seller. There are many incentives for power seller businesses with lower fees provided you're selling enough and keeping a high feedback rating.

[DaFoot]

The auction sites haven't got to critical mass to become household name. That's whay ebay remains the main auction site.

 

People know the name so buyers trust it (rightly or wrongly is another discussion ), sellers know the ebay has the traffic so use it to sell.

 

ebid offer no-fee sales, but it doesn't have the number of buyers so items get listed with fixed priced instead of auctions, meaning it isn't so attractive to potential buyers.

 

With ebay taking a bigger and bigger slice of what you sell I'm suprised sellers stick with it, but when the alternative isn't as well known so doesn't have the number of buyers it is quite understandable sellers stick with ebay.

 

What we need is an internet meme whereby everyone checks a different site other than ebay to buy things and only go to ebay when can't find the item they want elsewhere.

 

I'd suggest ebid because of low fees yet still has the feedback system that helps buyers trust sellers on ebay. Also because since the demise of QXL I don't know of any others that could offer a suitable alternative.