The Small Seller
Using Ebid to grow your business
I have been wanting to write about this for about 6 years now, never really finding the time to do so.
A touch about me, I have been selling on and off the online auction circuit since about 1997. I started like everyone else on Ebay, at the time they were free to list and you paid only on sales, imagine if you can an eBay that didn’t charge percentage on postage, stupid unexplained DSR’s and a seller could leave a negative back against a buyer who wanted something for nothing.
They were carefree days, you could look forward to selling on there, and even if things went wrong and sales did not go smoothly, you could accept a neg or a neutral (which is now classed a neg in all but name) and business went on.
Then eBay found new CEO’s, new board people, new investors all wanting more money, and in that time they forgot who their customer base was and went from the online ‘flea market’ to wanting to be amazon or 365 games etc.
What nobody actually explained to these soul suckers was that eBay had been set up for the small seller, the collector, the sole trader and things worked well. There were a few con men out there, but feedback etc. took care of it, then eBay came in and took a shotgun to cure an itchy toe. They forced hundreds of thousands off the site with idiotic rules and regulations that made selling on eBay a stressful experience, and all the time sucking up more money from a disgruntled customer base (and yes eBay the seller are your customers, the buyers are to be looked after by the sellers, if they don’t they wont buy from them again).
Back in 2001/2002 I noticed things change, and felt that 7 days was not enough and i did not want a store on eBay, so began looking for an alternative. There was Ebid.
I joined them early and listed, and listed, unfortunately while sellers were getting tired of the fees and headaches of eBay and the encroachment of Chinese business able to smash sales due to their government paying for shortfalls in profit as long as they had generated sales (also what puzzles me to this day is how someone in Hong Kong can send something for £2 postage, yet it costs me to send £8???) the buyers were few and far between. Also they were free from charging VAT etc. so the goods not only were being offered at cost they were outdoing our own business.
Now what has prompted me to start writing now?
Simply put I went on a ratings site through Ebid and even though the vast majority were 4 to 5 stars there were about 30 1 star reviews, so being a bit of an agony aunt nosey person, I went for a read. Virtually everyone was the same, moaning about paying for the £50 lifetime membership and not making sales. There was no real complaints about the service Ebid supplied, just the £50 for a lifetime membership, but not even that is compulsory to sell there.
I don’t work for ebid, but felt this was wrong, as I have been looking into affiliate marketing etc, and getting websites up and running and for a number of years now looking at e-commerce sites., An e-commerce site costs start at £20-£30 per month all rising the more items you want to list.
I ask where could you get an established site, with security for both buyer and seller, an invoicing package, 5 stores and unlimited items to list all for £50 one off payment, then 2% fees if you happen to want that style of listing.
I ask where could you get an established site, with security for both buyer and seller, an invoicing package, 5 stores and unlimited items to list all for £50 one off payment, then 2% fees if you happen to want that style of listing.
Ebid has faults, it needs to get an advertising fund ready, I have suggested that it go through crowdfunding so it can get good you tube videos made etc. They have the things in place to do this. Buyers are still low on there, but sales are happening all the time, not once every few months like old, some have made ebid work very well for them with ratings in the thousands. However it still has a way to go.
It can be a little more complex than eBay and it’s ninja lister does take some working out, but these are things that can be fixed or dealt with if you give yourself time.
As a small seller you need to treat ebid like you would your own site, you market your products, you build links and look at SEO ratings to get noticed. it takes work on your part, but fortunately ebid has provided links from the listing page direct to Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Google+, also you can make links to Tumblr, all this is time saving if you set up correct in the first place.
You also have a far more varied way of listing on ebid than anywhere else, it is more in your control, if you want 7 day auctions, you can have them want a timer from first bid, want to run until item is sold, they are here. One thing I would suggest is don’t put items on low hoping for bids, ebid still doesn’t have the buyers as yet for that to work, but as an e-commerce store what more do you want?
Should you choose ebid or ebay?
Simply put, no! use both.
Why pay for eBay and if you are why are you still doing so. We all hear oh put that on eBay it will get loads of bids, unfortunately those days have all but disappeared and sales on eBay have dwindled badly. It is quite rare for items to get loads of bids these days. Saying that, eBay still is a great advertising tool for you as a small seller.
Most of the time you have 20 free listings a month (WOW), but I think and this is just an observation, that the free listing weekends and months now are coming more frequent and this may be due to eBay realising it has milked people for too long. Use them, put your items there, use a combination of auctions and buy it now listings.
However remember you are limited to maybe 100 listings a month to start, and if your exceed the 20 or agreement limit you then pay a listing fee as well as every other fee.
I may seem down on eBay as In the past have fallen foul of their maddening policies on sellers who don’t give them tons of money. I have been there when eBay have closed all my auctions stating having 3 negative feedbacks off 1 person when I had 890 positive ones was a problem. I asked them what company would consider a 99.9% positive rating as poor, still waiting for an answer on that, only 10 years and counting. They also tried to charge me for listing that they ended without warning, but i fought that and won, and at that time I was almost at power seller status without being a drop shipper or limited company that can have hundreds of negatives.
Initially I was going to call this blog ‘How to use eBay, don’t let eBay use you!’ But I have branched out into other areas and will in future posts talk about using social media.
How I do use eBay is slowly and not have too much on there, I hold 2 accounts, one for Subbuteo and one for comics and game pieces, so if problems develop again most of my items stay on ebid.
I tend to put my comics on for 7 days, if doesn’t sell then I put on for 30 days with BIN or best offer. if it doesn’t sell then it goes onto my ebid store.
I have also got prepared invoice pages with links to my various stores which I email and post with an item, as well as all my advertising material, flyers, business cards, social media posts and sticky labels all show ebid.
You as a seller have to work, drag those buyers over, explain that the deal you offer is so much better as well. This works far better too with buy it nows as ebay are trying to stop combining postage on these sales too.
I have also got prepared invoice pages with links to my various stores which I email and post with an item, as well as all my advertising material, flyers, business cards, social media posts and sticky labels all show ebid.
You as a seller have to work, drag those buyers over, explain that the deal you offer is so much better as well. This works far better too with buy it nows as ebay are trying to stop combining postage on these sales too.
Sales on eBay is still a bit better than ebid, but not by too much these days, however items that you feel could get bids on, or an item you feel the market will drive the price is still worth putting on but check out these fees to see that even selling on eBay even with free listings is not cheap.
Here is an example of the fee structure, remember you have to pay 10% on postage as well as your item on eBay all to make you offer free postage, yet postage let alone packaging is not free.
Item sells £20 plus £4 postage & package
Ebay fees £2.40 plus paypal £1.01
Ebid 40p and you can choose payment method.
To use eBay as well you have to offer paypal, on ebid all payments can be accepted even cash.
You may ask that I am almost expecting to have my account stopped, unfortunately check out most comments about eBay from small traders, private sellers etc and you will see there has been a 10 year drive to force them off, and with the complicated DSR’s which mark a 4 star as a fail and you find that you suddenly have a suspension for no real reason. In fact the only way to stay on ebay's good side is to lose money, so all you are doing in fact is putting money in their pockets with your hard work.
It may seem all doom and gloom, but with a bit of work and using other sites you can beat the eBay beast. I use ebid as have checked out sites like Etsy, Amazon, 365 games etc and they charge a heck of a lot more and are just as restrictive as eBay. But explore those options too, they may suit your business model.
To join ebid you can click here, it is free and no obligation, I don't get any money but I do get buddy points.
p.s. one last thing, your listings appear on all Ebid sites, there is no ebid UK, ebid USA, so you have access to every member all the time.
Websites
Maxies Subbuteo
My Remote Hobby
Websites
Maxies Subbuteo
My Remote Hobby
My Ebid stores
My eBay links
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