I agree with this article ...

[astro941]

I agree with the article re marketing, I also think that the contest Amazon v Ebay is no contest - Amazon is winning hands down if you compare stock quotes over the last year against say the Dow Jones index.

[JerseyDevil]

I agree with you Savage. This is a business. NOT strictly a social gathering.
Opportunities are never lost. They are always found by someone else and used.

[SalusLibrorum]

Well I guess you'd all better club together and nudge Google then, if you want things to go faster. I'm sure the eBid management are getting tired of all the whining, they offer a product and this is it, it's really a case of take it or leave it, isn't it? As I said on another thread, it's the best we've got right now, we have to promote our own auctions because no one else is going to do it for us.

At least things are selling on here, albeit slowly. I've got books listed in other places and the only one that is selling more, is Amazon, actually the only one other than eBid that is selling anything at all is Amazon.

You're right about Amazon Vs eB*y, if the eB*y management think they're going to take any of the Amazon market, then they're suffering from a collective delusion. It doesn't matter how they tinker with it, eB*y has a reputation as a venue to buy cheap, foreign, tat, that is more than likely fake.

The buying (and selling) experience on Amazon is so far superior, especially in the marketplace, that there is no comparison.

[kedo]

If you look at it carefully you will see that it is not a moan it is a plea for ebid to make serious moves.

Sorry, but it is a moan and a very familiar one at that. It's exactly the sort of thing that people say that have very little experience of actually selling on eBid. Search the forums and you will find exactly the same type of arguments going back years.

Why not listen to the people who are making sales?

[dbdog73]

That article seems to suggest that feebay is for the big boys whilst sites like ebid (as it is now) works better for the hobby sellers. This is certainly true following feebay's recent pricing re-structuring announcement. ebid seems like a much better bet for me right now even if I don't sell as much as what I did on feebay.

Let's not also forget that feebay was once a small auction site much like how ebid is now. I think feebay was able to grow very large without much marketing in the early days. It was all word of mouth back then. The article is talking about getting a 'branson like figure' on board to really turn things around for ebid. That's okay if ebid were seeking to compete with feebay but I'm not sure that's what they are about.

I'm hoping to migrate my shop soon from feebay to ebid. I'll do so with the current offer of lifetime membership for £49.99. With feebay's new pricing that would only get me 3 months on the site! So it's a no brainer for me to give up my feebay shop & look ellshwere for an alternative. But it will be up to me to promote & market the shop myself. I did the same thing with my ebay shop & it generated a lot of sales. Doing the same thing for an ebid shop will hopefully do the same with the added bonus that it will also make more people aware of ebid, which will be good for everyone on here

So while ebid might never compete with ebay as a household & well known name I think we can all make this work for us in our own way, which in turn will be good news for ebid as it's profile will slowly & surely be raised.

[JudesNiceThings]

It all boils down to money, doesn't it?

If eBid's advertising budget were bigger, people would still be arguning about how best to spend it!

I notice OP and others who ar being critical are not advertising their stuff on here anyway!

You have to make an INDIVIDUAL effort on here!

[JudesNiceThings]

(and before I get jumped on - OP has a nice SPECIALIST store - banner doesn't say so though!)

[heatemyfather]

You know straight away that if some figure head walked in, the first thing they would probably do is end free listings for everyone. To pay for advertising and promotion would require capital, and I don't think the current fee structure allows for that. Total anarchy would probably follow, many people may just give up selling online altogether, having escaped fees from fleeBay in the first place.

I think the main thing that's hurting sales at the moment is not eBid's lack of marketing, but a general down-turn in buying right across the board - it's happening on the high street, housing market, and other sectors. I noticed when walking through town today how many empty shops there were, which were occupied by long-standing businesses only a couple of months ago. Things are a changing, let's just hope they change for the better soon.

[Gothicina]

If a Branson type of figure were to get involved at eBid you would very quickly see the pricing structure overhauled and people would see a hell of a lot more of eBid's name (or perhaps Virgin's) almost instantly. He knows you don't succeed in business by being the cheapest option. Of course the existing eBidders would bitch like hell but that can be overcome with the right pitch and some accomodation.

The problem with the this idea put forward in the article is.
it goes agains EVERYTHING Gazza & Mark have stood for over the years.

Everytime the guys have upgraded the site/membership they have always made sure that their existing membership is looked after. For example, when they added the Platinum (now Seller +) membership, all the existing Gold Lifetime members had the opportunity to get the upgrade for free, (subscription level ones got it at a MUCH reduced rate, in fact many of them got lifetime free as well,) that was when the cost was much higher £149.99 for lifetime.
Even now there are some Gold members who have not yet upgraded, yet STILL have the same opportunity.

Contrast that with T** when they introduced fees. I'm sure most of their existing members understood the reason fees needed to be charged, But they didn't do anything to recognise the loyalty of their existing members by offering a free/minimal priced upgrade to them, & in consequence lost out.

[JerseyDevil]

Gothicina makes good points. Especially for we new members. Ebid is far and away NOT ebay. At this time I don't believe many of us will pay our major bills through our activity on this site. But I'm beginning to see a tremendous value in supporting this site for the long haul. As an American I am used to fast results. We will either hit a home run or strike out.....and wait for the next at bat. But since this is a Brit site and the great majority of Sellers here are Brits I will play Cricket with patience.
As I've posted more briefly elsewhere 'patience' is the key word for us newbies. There is opportunity for great change in the activity in ebid due to the discontent elsewhere.
So I will learn the 'Pitch', check out the 'Wickets', note where the 'Creases' are and re-shape my Louisville Slugger.