New User Asking Opinion

[1945KingGeorge]

I'm a new user to eBid and have been using Ebay in the past. I mainly sell toys and dolls such as barbies, disney collectibles, stuffed animals, beanies, ect. I just want to know the local users opinions about how well the website is. In specific how well do things (especially the ones I sell) sell and those of you with additional websites, how many hits do you get through the site? I do this as a business and want to really know what I'm getting into before I move my items to this site, as I am weary with eBay.

Thanks in advance.

[hush77hush]

hi king
the site is getting bigger and bigger all the time.
it is very dif from ebay as you have to promote yourself all the time.
if you are lively in chat rooms and fourms for the items you sell then promoting should be easy.
the first thing you need to do is let all you ebay customers know that you have moved to here or run both here and ebay for abit telling your ebay customers about your ebid store.
sales are slow at the min but the more you drive traffic here the more likely you are to succide and hey what have you got to lose there are no listing fee's on here and only 2% fvf where as ebay you have to remorgage your house to list anything then ebay takes a big slice if it sells and that is a rare thing as customers cant find your stuff as there search engine is that bad.
ebid is like ebay used to be at the begining fun a blank canvas for you to stamp you brand on.

[mrsandman]

Absolutely Agree. The other site doesn't let you promote anything ... If you put your real username in the forums over there you run the risk of someone trying to destroy you Auction... Welcome and stay here

[deltadelta48]

Absolutely Absolutely agree. And you will be working away and look up and there is your store is getting advertised on the right margin, with a click button so buyers can check you out. And you look up again and there you are under "HOT SELLERS" this time in other margin. Absolutely free, the stores and seller bios just scroll thru all day and night!

As someone mentioned, things are a bit slower here until the economic situation gets better, but I have a feeling that with the income tax refunds upcoming, things will loosen up a bit in next month or so.

My only advice at this time is to get started setting up auctions and stores on ebid now and give it time to get going again. Tell all your ebay customers you are moving, send emails or even postcards to them, I brought at least 4 of my best customers over and it has made a big difference.

There are differences I noticed: buyers on ebid do not engage in lively bidding as often. They seem to spend less time on the site, and seem to like to buy outright or just be the only one bidding on an item. Ebay trick of starting an item low to generate interest is not working here at the moment, they simply do not bid (and will actually wait until you list it in your store at a buy it now price and then buy it!!) or someone snatches it low and no one does much about it. You might want to start with a more reasonable opening bid just in case, until the economy improves.

Also I started off with an assortment of items at a variety of prices, low, medium and a few highs. Got people familiar with me, got my feedback score going, and gave my old ebay customers time to come over and see what I had. I also put a note on my website steering people to ebid so they can bid on my items there and here.

I also offer free shipping on second items (always did it on ebay too). It gets people buying more than one item, always nice, and with Barbie things and smaller items like you sell, it is very easy to pop two in same envelope. Most of my sales are multiples which is really nice.

What do I really appreciate on ebid? My emails are now friendly and low key again. I can open them without breaking out in a sweat. Because of how ebay ran, there were always nasty announcements, buyer problems, etc, and I got to hate opening what was a daily can of worms.

I also very much appreciate that all things are equal again between sellers and buyers. Each can give any feedback, there is more respect here, and the only threats I get come from the new ebayers who think I will forget to mail the item unless they yell at me. Buyers are now accountable, a pleasant change.

That would probably sum it up for me, ebid is a pleasant change AND you will see that many of your customers are ex-ebayers. My last 12 customers, were all ex-ebayers)!

Welcome to ebid, you will like it here.

[1945KingGeorge]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll probably put half a dozen items or so on and see how they do and play with the items on here and ebay. I really appreciate all the feedback.

[banrigh]

Toys seem to sell, even with the economy being what it is. Just don't overprice and keep your shipping reasonable. That's the key.

[omigoditsme]

i was just wondering what would happen if you put a link to ebid in an ebay listing?????

[deltadelta48]

i was just wondering what would happen if you put a link to ebid in an ebay listing?????

Or you could include a little note in each package for the buyer to check out your better prices on ebid! That way the message would never be shut down.