In a recent newsletter to users eBid highlighted these raw stats along with news of upgrades to the site which included a shipping calculator and the ability for sellers to offer discounts in system generated invoices on multiple purchases.

The newsletter began with a testimonial by eBid seller 'inversions' which caught my eye. It said:

"I finally managed to get my eBid listing to 1000 a couple of weeks ago. Then several people bought stuff and they went back below 1000. I managed to get them back above 1000 with some effort and have managed to keep them above this level but people keep buying stuff. How very annoying. This eBid thing is really frustrating. Here I am trying to list more and more stuff and watch my total auctions grow and grow and customers keep buying things!!"

Light hearted maybe but take a look around the eBay forums to try and find such a positive comment from a seller there right now!

There is a definate feel of optimism among eBid users now and this has also been reflected in our forums where several eBidders have also reported numerous sales taking place. There's no doubt that eBid have attracted a significant number of sellers away from eBay due to concerns with increased demands which many believe make trading more difficult and less profitable there now.

At Pheebay we are hearing from sellers that are finding the new default eBay search confusing and in fact reduces the competition for items in the key final stages of an auction. The question begs; When would you see a true, professional auctioneer introduce procedures likely to reduce bidding and the eventual price realised for a client's item? At eBid, not only do they maintain a fair "ending first" queue for auctions they go a lot further to help their clients.

Instead of milking more fees for scheduled listings, eBid allow sellers to list auctions where the clock only starts ticking when the first bid is made. This means eBid sellers can list at quiet times, knowing it is the potential buyers that will determine when the auction actually starts. In addition, eBid allow sellers to actively combat last minute "bottom feeders" and their low-ball snipe bids. A seller can choose to "auto extend" an auction which means any bid entered in the last 60 seconds will automatically extend the auction by 60 seconds. Use of these facilities is discretionary and neither attracts additional seller fees. To my eyes, these kind of features show that eBid is working like a professional auctioneer by helping their client to attract bids and will not drop the hammer until all the bids possible have been made.

But perhaps the real advantage of selling on eBid compared to eBay is the time and cost savings you can achieve. A lot of cash is made by eBay from failed sales being relisted. Because eBid offer free listing and allow you to automatically relist auctions several times if they fail to sell, there is a considerable time and cost benefit to be gained. In addition, by taking advantage of the seller+ subscription - where you can list and sell using basic auction facilities completely free for life - there are considerable cash savings to be made on successful sales too.

Now I am not pretending that eBid can rival eBay yet in terms of successful sales percentages, choice of items and numbers of users. However, whereas eBay has become rather flat in terms of growth now and listings are becoming far less eclectic as small sellers get replaced with big corporates, eBid looks to be the site where the "moms and pops" are gravitating toward. If current trends continue it wont be long before eBid becomes the website that can transform a kitchen table hobby to a fully fledged business.

I expect a good number of die hard eBay users will shrug these observations off in the belief that eBay will last forever and cannot fail. They may be right - who knows? But what I do know from personal experience is a lot of eBay sellers are now working for ludicrously small margins. Many may not realise it but if they calculated their true cost of sales each month they may find less sales in a lower cost environment can actually be more profitable. Reading around forums you will often see people who like to talk about the level of eBay sales they make as some kind of status claim. Personally I'm a little too old to strut around with my chest puffed out for very long, but I will say this; TURNOVER IS VANITY. PROFIT IS SANITY.

At eBay it is nigh on impossible now to structure your sales and keep sufficient control on the future cost of those sales. You don't know how many times an item will need to be relisted at your expense. You don't know if you will become disadvantaged in search and receive lower prices and less profit on sales in future. You will almost certainly have to pay Paypal fees on the vast majority of your sales now. You have to pay even more for international exposure now. You have to pay for scheduled listings.

Of course there are answers to some of these problems. Increase the listing price to make sure things don't sell too cheap. It will cost you more to list items and you can expect to have a higher relisting cost too in future as more items wont sell. You can increase your shipping and handling to absorb some of the Paypal costs and other new fees such as international visibility. But then you can expect your shipping cost DSR to fall and risk being disadvantaged in search. Frankly, whichever way you look at it, if eBay is your primary sales channel, you no longer have sufficient control to claim you are running your own business now. You are working for eBay their way.

So I'm pleased to see eBid moving forward at a considerable pace now. They are one of the few alternatives that has stood the test of time, has planned its steady international growth, regularly updates and improves the site for the users benefit and demonstrates a desire to see their sellers succeed. They realise that sellers being successful will make eBid succesful and they don't constantly fight or inhibit them from getting on and doing their thing.

You may not be ready to burn your past bridges at eBay yet - which is understandable - but I strongly urge you to start building some future bridges at eBid today. It's free to sign up and start testing!

For more information visit:

eBid
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