Is there a viable alternative to ebay ?

I depended on the trading post for my Melbourne business back then , well that's been Telstra'd . It was also the only paper I ever found in Vic , where by I could sell anything , from anywhere.
So where we live now , ebay is really my only option. Local papers never get much and they cost a bloody fortune these days but crikey , what a crazy stupid manipulative system ebay's turned into .I've had a gutful of the fools.
As if 20 or 30 emails and reminders aren't enough just to sell one thing , you seem to get an ebay mentality now in people , filthy offers , I'll give you a bad feedback - please remember my feedback , no reserves on auctions anymore , you wouldn't believe some of their so called rules as to what you can and can't do with something you wanna sell , what a load of absolute BS , not to mention their fees . I was forced by a computer , to do a stupid bloody test the other day , believe that. Broke one of their idiotic rules and if I didn't do this test, a machine wouldn't let me run another auction. What's the world come to ?
You use to put an ad in the paper , your price , your terms , take calls , people come out, tried a reasonable offer on and that was that .I sold for 14 yrs with my business like that.

But is there an ebay alternative , I know there are plenty of up and coming sites and the Gumtrees and stuff but from what I've found and tried so far nothing really where by you can sell anything from a car to a old kids toys , get heaps of lookers and a sale on almost anything.
I can't take any more of those ebay fools ! Actually , I don't even know if there is actually any fools at ebay - where ever that is . You can't even ring some B''''''''''d up to complain.

Cheers
 
eBay's not so bad...

We don't seem to experience the problems you are having.
Just set a fixed price and let the listings run continously, people will buy when they are ready, you'll get your asking price every time.

We have over 6000 feedback now any have only ever been asked maybe 2 or 3 times for feedback.
I never leave feedback for customers, but it's set to automatic so it leaves feedback for them after we receive a positive.
Only been threatened once or twice for negative feedback in over 5 years, and it never happened.

eBay's kind of a set and forget thing for us, works almost completely passively.
I suppose it all comes down to how you operate it.

I wouldn't bother with the alternatives either, the've got nothing on eBay.
 
what ebay has done is actually miraculous - to revalue a nations junk into valuable goods would have added billions to GDP and saved countless landfill. i often wonder if aus post is aware of just where their revenue is coming from.

ebay is frustrating and their policies can really suck. many idiots miss enormous red bolded print and then leave a negative feedback. and ebay is expensive. despite all this I know of no other sales medium with such broad appeal.

having said that, you have to be selective. Many items are better off at the local swap meet. As a general observation, be it ebay or quokka or swap meet whatever: I am amazed at what people pay for things that were moments from being binned or significantly depreciated. For example we sell most of our baby things at very close or more than what we pay new.

it is a shame tho that such a large slice of revenue is heading off shore (for ebay sales)

and why is it called ebay anyway??
 
and why is it called ebay anyway??

Named after Echo Bay - only the domain was already registered so the owner had to make do with ebay.

It was a good site before they bought Paypal - it kind of became twisted up and inside out after that.

This may be of interest - if you ever go on the instant chat with someone from Ebay to help - it's actually a computer which is reading key words. Pretty amazing and can be very entertaining if you are trying to catch out the non-human.
 
Thanks guys.
Yeah I mean it's got the lot and the thought of going back to answering phones or waiting around isn't all that appealing.
And some of the odds and ends I've offloaded , there's no other way you'd get rid of them and they'd usually be thrown out in the end which is a shame.
And it allows anyone to sell from anywhere, that's huge , which as I say the Trading Post was the only paper I ever found that did that .
But on the other side of the coin. Knowing the best settings like some you guys have pointed out would make a hell of a difference though. Styles of selling, like fixed price ads . I wasn't sure if they'd get anywhere though.
But yeah , big ticket stuff , cars , caravans - which I'm dealing in now part time for example now. I wanna move upto to RV's . Have sold 4 now on ebay but !
You can't put an f'n reserve on a 15 grand caravan auction for example - why, because it doesn't have a bloody motor I mean wtf!
So you get fools offering 700 bucks for it , or if it goes for 4k instead of it's real value of 14 to 15, you get the fool threatening you - you have to sell, that's the rules, bla bla , I'll report you - it's surreal. Well I don't give a damn about the rules there's no way I'm selling a 15k van for 4. Or they have a buy now box right , but that disappears after the very first bid , no one can see what that price is any more. I think your reserve, if they will let you use one, on some things also goes once there's a bid, it's crazy.And as you say , even if you mention it in your write up , they miss it. Hound you and if you don't answer they report ya - to just whom though exactly I'm not sure.

But , if I could still sort out the best way of using ebay for my vans for example and sifting out the scumbags , it really would be the best way for me to go from my area .
I'm trying a set ad this week , runs for 28 days.It has best offer as well , buy now, hoping that system might work out a bit better .
 
So you get fools offering 700 bucks for it , or if it goes for 4k instead of it's real value of 14 to 15, you get the fool threatening you - you have to sell, that's the rules, bla bla , I'll report you - it's surreal. Well I don't give a damn about the rules there's no way I'm selling a 15k van for 4.
I'm sorry about the low bids, but I'm 100% with the buyers on this one - if you get a winning bid of $4K, you are legally bound to sell for $4K. If you weren't willing to sell it for less than, say, $10K, then $10K should have been your starting bid.

Who they'd take it to is eBay - which may result in you being banned - and, more significantly, the police. :eek: An eBay transaction is an enforceable contract and the police can and do investigate eBay fraud and failed transactions.

So make sure you've read the tutorials on eBay and know the rules before you make this mistake again; if the buyer hasn't taken it up with the police you've had a lucky escape.
 
Not sure about vehicles and/or vans but I have used ebay classified adverts. You set the price and there is NO listing fee but the final value fee is higher.

I have used this for my art, which is so hit and miss that I don't list on "normal" listings any more.

Maybe check out the classifieds. I had to open a second ebay account as I am classed as a "power seller" even though I don't sell other than bits and pieces. I had no idea I was a power seller, and tried to remove my "power seller" classification, but could not do that, so I opened a new account and ebay told me I can refer to my original username in my listings to show I have a track record of 100% feedback, rather than trying to sell with no "history" on my new username.
 
Named after Echo Bay - only the domain was already registered so the owner had to make do with ebay.

It was a good site before they bought Paypal - it kind of became twisted up and inside out after that.

This may be of interest - if you ever go on the instant chat with someone from Ebay to help - it's actually a computer which is reading key words. Pretty amazing and can be very entertaining if you are trying to catch out the non-human.


Your joking , that's a machine too :eek: I spent an hr with one of those the other morning because ebay chopped one of my auctions and it was a biggie. So here I am at 6am doing what , typing in crap to yet another machine . It was at that point I began thinking I can't make this work , I can't deal with this garbage you'd have to be joking.

He wasn't a bad bloke either , Hayden but what he was a machine ?
 
I'm sorry about the low bids, but I'm 100% with the buyers on this one - if you get a winning bid of $4K, you are legally bound to sell for $4K. If you weren't willing to sell it for less than, say, $10K, then $10K should have been your starting bid.

Who they'd take it to is eBay - which may result in you being banned - and, more significantly, the police. :eek: An eBay transaction is an enforceable contract and the police can and do investigate eBay fraud and failed transactions.

So make sure you've read the tutorials on eBay and know the rules before you make this mistake again; if the buyer hasn't taken it up with the police you've had a lucky escape.


And see , here we are again , yet more threats . It's one crazy bloody system compared to life 15 yrs ago let me tell you.
And why did it happen , because the fools won't let you put a reserve on it and why is that , because it doesn't have a motor - what !!!!! More like that way more people are forced to sell and ebay make more fees .
I rest my case .
But on the high starting bid thing. It seems to be the going opinion and I have tried it and also watched other auctions , if your start bid offers too high , they don't seem to get any action. So where's the line there ?
I am a believer in price sifting out the scumbags , even RE's say that and I've always noticed it even with my own property dealings . But as yet I haven't found the combo on this one.
 
And see , here we are again , yet more threats .
Not threats, just telling you what your legal position is.
random said:
But on the high starting bid thing. It seems to be the going opinion and I have tried it and also watched other auctions , if your start bid offers too high , they don't seem to get any action.
Your starting price is effectively your reserve, and if you list a low starting price, you have to be willing to sell at that price. If you can't get any bids at the price you'd be willing to sell at, then there simply isn't a market for your product on eBay.

If you had a house for sale at auction, and weren't willing to accept a cent below $400K, would you give the auctioneer a reserve of $1,000 just to attract bids? :confused: There's absolutely no point in attracting bids if they're not at a price that you're willing to accept.
 
Your joking , that's a machine too :eek: I spent an hr with one of those the other morning because ebay chopped one of my auctions and it was a biggie. So here I am at 6am doing what , typing in crap to yet another machine . It was at that point I began thinking I can't make this work , I can't deal with this garbage you'd have to be joking.

He wasn't a bad bloke either , Hayden but what he was a machine ?

Yes, Hayden was a machine! I'm sure he came across as most helpful and sympathetic. You will notice that they all have white American middle class names to fit in with the general vibe.

The sophistication is mindblowing. It's not only ebay which uses artificial intelligence in live chat - the technology is so good now that it's creeping into many large companies which have pesky consumers to deal with.

We have a techie friend in San Jose who pulls the puppet strings. His job title has something like "artificial intelligence chat solutions" in it. If you google upsellit dot com you will see the kind of companies which work at this.
 
I live eBay but have noticed that if u talk to eBay live they r very badly trained and don't kno the answer to questions and just tell u any wrong rubbish answers . They also take forever to answer nothing . There are also some issues that have not been properly addressedeg if a new seller doesn't answer critical questions before the auction so u don't kno if to bid or not . eBay should contact such new sellers but they don't .

Also their resolutions seem to take too long to solve immediate issues and seem to make silly decisions .

Nevertheless eBay has saved me alot of money and been alit if fun for my family /

they do have a phone number to ask for help these days .
 
Not threats, just telling you what your legal position is.

Your starting price is effectively your reserve, and if you list a low starting price, you have to be willing to sell at that price. If you can't get any bids at the price you'd be willing to sell at, then there simply isn't a market for your product on eBay.

If you had a house for sale at auction, and weren't willing to accept a cent below $400K, would you give the auctioneer a reserve of $1,000 just to attract bids? :confused: There's absolutely no point in attracting bids if they're not at a price that you're willing to accept.

Yep , exactly the reply I expected. You sound just like 1/2 those ebay people I was on about . BS , OK , the house , you set a reserve , it might start 100k below that, even more - but it's passed in if it doesn't reach your reserve.
You have the right to set a reserve . A house never starts at it's reserve , they might try it on but it will then back back 100 or 2 - why ???????? Like all that really needed to be pointed out .
Of course there's a point , bids build up - it's a strategic selling fact.

Must we really waste bloody time pointing out the obvious just for the sake of ping ponging a couple of pointless posts !
 
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