Idea about fees is ebid to complicated?

[leapingcat]

Are we forgetting that the sellers, and I hope buyers, who are not happy about changes on another site are coming here and not to any of the other alternatives, whose listings have grown very little, especially if you take out one or two large-scale sellers on these sites.
I have moved over here for two reasons, firstly that the fee system is both fair and good value. Free listings no matter what level of seller you are at is a big attraction, and anything that dilutes this message should be avoided. The second reason is that the size of the site in terms of the number of listings is more likely to attract buyers and Ebid is the largest alternative. Over a million listings is great, but that should only be a starting point. I would like to see a million book listings alone, that would make Ebid the default choice for bookbuyers and not Amazon, and I'm sure the same applies to other categories too. I believe that the present fee structure is the one most likely to achieve this.

[TiasTreasures]

I agree, Cat. I buy quite a bit online, I always check eBid first. So far I've only found one item listed here that I wanted (and yes, I bought it). Changing the fee structure will NOT attract more sellers, and that's what we need.

If the products are here, the buyers will come. I've discussed this with friends. They always use Google first when they're looking for something online. eBid listings are on the first page in Google searches quite often . . . but only if the item is listed. People can't buy something that isn't offered.

[raindropsies]

I have only taken part of what you said and my replies.

"I know some may jump on me for this, but you should really delete the “no percentage” listing option. It takes capital to afford to improve a site. EBid needs money for the war chest to take on eBay. "

I think this would be a bad idea, the reason being it's one of eBid's great selling point.

"The fact that eBid doesn’t have insertion fees, and charges such a LOW percentage “only if an item sells” will make sellers drool more then a bull dog would over a steak. I am!!! I beg you on my knees to take 2% or a $1. I know this is way out of the ordinary but TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE!"

eBid does have insertion fees, 5p/5c per platinum for basic sellers, £1/$1 for featured auctions. For them to charge a £1/$1 fee per sale would put up most of my items by 100-300%. I use gallery option as I feel the 2%fvf is fair & reasonable for a site this size. Most of my sales incur a 1p - 4p fvf

"Also items sold at a flat rate shipping price really need quantity discounts, and a way for the buyers to calculate shipping “prior” to committing to buying. EXAMPLE: If someone buys 1 quantity it is $5 for shipping. If they buy additional quantities it is $1, or whatever the total weights and dimension come out to. So if they buy 5 quantities shipping is $9. People don’t really like having to wait for invoices, and WANT to see how much something is going to cost in shipping before they commit to buy."

You could get around this and put clear details in your all about page & or on your listings.

"Is automatically posting a buyer’s questions on listing really prudent? What if they don’t like that and blame the seller, and the seller does sell the item because the buyer was annoyed? "

Good point, but I think the main reason they are on the listing is to prevent off site sales. I do think that buyers should be informed that the question will be shown on the auction. If they do blame the seller, then a simple explanation should resolve the issue.

Now with regards the rest of your post I tend to agree, apart from the points that you have raised about the USA as to be honest I haven't got a clue and therefore could not give an informed answer

Welcome to eBid boards

[TiasTreasures]

We US sellers have what is call “state sales tax”. I know our system is screwy compare to the rest of the world, but it works like this:

An in-state transaction is charged a percentage on the initial price before shipping. I live in the state of Ohio, and by law I have to charge 7.5% sale tax on the price of transaction made in the state Ohio, because I have a state reseller’s license. If they live in another state I don’t have to though. EXAMPLE: If someone in the state of New York purchases an item from me in Ohio they don’t have to pay sales tax, but if they live in the state of Ohio they have to pay sales tax.

This would attract larger sellers and eBid selection would be boosted. Right now even the guy with the warehouse is looking for an alternate site.

If you are required to charge a sales tax, you can state that in your "All About the Seller" section and add it to the invoice for buyers in your state. Most of us are not required to charge sales tax, and forcing us to pay it in order to save work for the commercial sellers would not be fair.

[TiasTreasures]

Your concern that the potential buyer won't read the "All About The Seller" section is a good point.

Another option is to add a statement in all your descriptions regarding the sales tax. The statement could be bold, perhaps a different color to make it stand out, and at the top of the description. For example: "We are required to add sales tax for Ohio residents".

We have special information like this in some of our listings (such as special shipping prices for coins). Since eBid makes it very easy to use an existing listing as a template, it's simple to add a new coin with the appropriate information, and change only the item details.

Also, I do realize not all commercial sellers are large faceless entities. What kind of items do you sell? Do you have anything listed here yet?

[kengillam]

If you're worried about your zero feedback at the moment why not buy a few things