Dubious

[FunkiFolk]

Hi all,

Am a newbie on here so bear with me if I miss any areas of protocol ;o)

Ok, we are all clear on Feebay's obvious mass exodus and the various reasons and causes and we ourselves have pulled away from them to invest our online spend on our own web site, which we are about to launch.

Now, we transferred a small sample stock over to ebid to see how it went and to some extent to test ebid in terms of usability etc. Our findings so far are mixed but one area that really is failing badly is the spending buyers.

We have read loads of great posts on here and used most of the tips and advice, our pricing is equal if not slightly lower than pheebay listings, postage is normal, 200 items listed with bn and relists, decent photo's (room for improvement), set up shops, decent items on there......plenty of views, no bids......

Now, we are a little dubious about these "views" as it is pretty unlikely that 80% of the items would have the exact same number of viewers, so my question here would be, do ebid have an automated listing check tool that could also be being included as a "view", if not then I worry about the views and if yes then they should not be included as a view.

We are also interested if there is a way of looking at historical sales like we can on pheebay. This at least would give me a guide on what is shifting on here, what price levels and at what rate, which in turn would then help me to perfect a trading model on here that will start to deliver sales.

At the moment, we are watching this very definate space with interest and we are firmly committed to move away from pheebay, but we are in doubt at this stage as to whether the traffic is on here and how much is being spent on the "correct" advertising and publicity rather than what could be blind reliance on well wishers and anit-pheebay folk spreading the word by way of posts and news groups...after all pheebay is a big goliath to slay and that kind of battle takes virtually bottomless pockets and no end of determination.

Really interested in other views and even more intersted in any more tips on how we can improve our our offerings

[Juliebabe25]

At least ebid shows the number of views easily. (But not watchers ?)
Feebay shows watchers and bids but you have to work hard to find the views.
For my product I get more views on here than on feebay (due to their search methods) and the millions of items on there.
I see a lot of feebay sellers, say they are sick of feebay and are trying to list a few items on other sites.
The only thing that will really shake things up is a true mass exodus where thousands of those people actually put all of their listings on say ebid and don't relist them on feebay.
If the number of items on there dropped drastically buyers would get the message and look for other sites.
Julie

[raindropsies]

4 bits of advice for consideration.

a) think about importing your e*ay feedback, it has it's pro's & con's I decided not to import it
b) fill in your all about page with some information
c) offer other choices for payment other than just paypal, yes paypal is well known and popular but some buyers prefer to pay by cheque, PO, GC and cash/stamps for low cost items
d) I've only looked at a couple of auctions and you only offer 2nd class recorded, maybe offer 1st class or other methods as well like normal 2nd class

I've not posted with the intention to "rip apart" your way of doing things here, and keep in mind eBid is not as big as e*ay so things can be slower than over there

[bykimbo]

I've long since dismissed the views here as meaningless. I don't know if they can be relied upon to be accurate - there is a history of wildly improbable numbers and random resets - and I have suspicions that for the higher views few of the statistics represent real people.

It is possible to do a search of closed items, but at the moment the icon that shows whether or not the item sold is broken. There's a report in requesting that's fixed.

[Pink_Panther]

I just love the link to Google on ebid via B.I.N. sales.
Ebid scores big time over ebay! I can list forever virtually for no fee . . . then pay 2% (cos I use gallery) on any sales!

You can't get a better deal than that ANYWHERE!

[banrigh]

I would view, but you don't ship to the US

[lejoueurdepipeau]

I would view, but you don't ship to the US

Or France.....