New to ebid.... is it worth us starting?

[theElench]

@singlecardsid @mark4740

It's true that Ebid doesn't have the reach of obay but you can raise the odds of a sale here rather than there if follow some/all of the pointers below. Ebid might be much smaller but that means you will likely have less competition but you have to put a bit more into making your ads. stand ou, not just here but on Google Shopping(GS). Those who have been here for years and sell regularly have taken the time to learn how the site works and adapted how they list to suit the site. Not just doing what works on obay.

List and log-in regularly. The first thing I look at if I'm thinking of buying something is the seller's "Recent Activity", if it's more than a week old I often look for another seller. Regular listing over time seems to help GS show some of my ads., perhaps because one of its criteria is by the date ads. are first uploaded?

Ebid's search is very much Key-Word based and without all the manipulation of obay so to get into a buyers search results you must get the words they might use to search with in your titles (preferably near the beginning). Take time to get it right, perhaps look at one of my titles and search for each key word, "Art-Deco Bagley Vintage Green Uranium Glass Vase 'Grantham'" will get into the results of about 10 different searches. Would I search for "3 old comics" or "1990", probably not I'd look for the card or magazine by name or subject first. Experiment by editing and see what works/sells.

If you're listing on two sites make your titles different on each. Google Shopping doesn't allow duplicate listings. If your ad. is the same here and elsewhere it will pick the ad. from the larger site and ignore the one on ebid.

Use ebid as your primary selling site when listing new items and list them here first. If I'm searching for a specific card or mag. or glass item, if it appears here first that's where I'll buy it.

Check regularly to see if any of your ads. are shown on GS. If not it's worth taking note of which ads. are. What words and in what order are shown by GS and changing yours to something similar. GS makes money by selling stuff, it shows what sells or at least has a chance of selling so it's giving you clues to what it knows stand the best chance of selling.

I usually list 1 item a week on ebid and each week I highlight it on the Plug Your Auction forum. It's free, it takes 10 minutes to do, it gets your name known and who knows, it might lead to sales.

One thing is for sure, just dumping listings here and waiting for buyers to find you and buy won't work, simply because those millions of buyers that obay claims to have won't look any further if they don't have to.

I don't spend my life promoting myself on social media. I spend a couple of hours a week on ebid and GS, listing, checking, perhaps editing and keeping my PYA up-to-date. When I listed the same items on ebay I spent roughly the same amount of time. I listed about 50 new items on each in a year. My sales here for the past 3 years were 2022 (17). 2023 (24) 2024 (28) My sales on obay 2022 (13). 2023 (13). 2022 (4). Certainly not record breaking but done with no great effort in a niche area, going in the right direction (up) each year and done on a far more relaxed and pleasant site to work with than obay.

All the best for many future sales.

Edited to add:
A snap-shot of items sold between 21:36 - 21:58 yesterday evening, shown on the Home Page shows that

3 model trains
2 comics
2 postcards
2 stamps
1 Quit Smoking Course
1 Video Game Accessory
1 Pet Supply

All sales were RUS listings

[Stnenopmoc]

Johnwash1 - "most of the stuff I want to declutter is old computer and electronics"

Electronics seems to sell on here, looking at the recent items sold on the front page. I think it depends what you have, never have seen computer parts as a sold item though. Look at new listings as well.

What mostly sells on here appears to be stamps and postcards, that is more because there are a real lot of them for sale, rather than a large trail of migrating buyers from ebay. These sellers often say they have repeat buyers and bulk buyers. By the law of averages if a lot of things that are similar are listed then some of them must sell. See if what you have for sale is listed or something like it and list in that catagory as that grouping may attract more buyers - just a thought

Apart from returning buyers most new sales appear to come from Google and Duck


hope that helps.

[AnnPaul1967]

Thank you all for answers. We had to get ourselves a new account to get the reduced cost of the sign up as we missed the deadline (too busy looking around... oops!)
We have decided to give it a go and while we are not tech savvy we will try to get a shop opened up and get listing.
Once again thank you all.

[theElench]

@stnenopmoc.

I've been looking at the Front Page quite a bit recently and would add comics/magazines to the stamps and postcards you mention. What is shown as Sold appear to be snapshots of batches of 12 items over about half-an-hour or less, no idea if what is shown is all that sold or just a selection. Something else I've found remarkable is that some sellers in various categories are shown as selling often. The model railway items are mostly from 2 sellers and the OTC medical items mostly from 1. Even in stamps, postcards and comics, the same sellers come up again and again.

Just a guess but are these sellers with repeat buyers? Since my sales became more regular I've found that quite a few of my buyers have been making their first purchase on the site. They do return to buy again from me and some (from their FB increasing) go on to buy from other sellers.

I've been trying to work out why I got onto the "Sellers" list on GS and think that in part it's down to regular listing (giving my listings a wide date range) and partly down to using RUS listings in an under-populated category. I always list items as a 40 day auction (none sell), then re-list as RUS.

Most of my listings that GS shows are at least a year old, often more and I wonder if other sellers who constantly re-list as auctions are moving their items to the back of GS's visibility queue by doing so?

I also put most of my sales to new buyers as coming from GS (I've never looked at Duck), although I've never been able to link a sale to an item that's been shown there. My guess is that a buyer searching GS for my type of glass either gets here via the "See Sellers Other Items" button on the listing or directly from the Sellers List where I've been visible as "Ebid - theElench" since (I think) October '23.

One thing I definitely do think is that any seller on ebid with a decent number of listings should be paying plenty of attention to GS and making sure that their listings fulfil the criteria to be up-loaded there.

[johnwash1]

Johnwash1 - "most of the stuff I want to declutter is old computer and electronics"

Electronics seems to sell on here, looking at the recent items sold on the front page. I think it depends what you have, never have seen computer parts as a sold item though. Look at new listings as well.

What mostly sells on here appears to be stamps and postcards, that is more because there are a real lot of them for sale, rather than a large trail of migrating buyers from ebay. These sellers often say they have repeat buyers and bulk buyers. By the law of averages if a lot of things that are similar are listed then some of them must sell. See if what you have for sale is listed or something like it and list in that catagory as that grouping may attract more buyers - just a thought

Apart from returning buyers most new sales appear to come from Google and Duck


hope that helps.

@Stnenopmoc Thanks for that. I think I'll try starting here again, maybe in a couple of months. Certainly I have a lot of stamps, even Victorian penny reds, from my collection in the 1960s (how I wish I'd focussed more on collecting useful stuff like Meccano back then!). But stamps don't occupy much space, so they're not a priority. Perhaps I'll have a chat with Bill when the time comes, to see if they have any value. Most likely I'll try old magazines and books, seeing the advice above.

Many thanks to everyone helpful. This has always been such a friendly site.

[JanetB]

Thank you all for answers. We had to get ourselves a new account to get the reduced cost of the sign up as we missed the deadline (too busy looking around... oops!)
We have decided to give it a go and while we are not tech savvy we will try to get a shop opened up and get listing.
Once again thank you all.

That was a very smart move to start again and open a new account to take advantage of the reduced lifetime/platinum - now all you need to worry about (financially) is paying 2%FVF when your items sell. Good luck with sales!

[theElench]

Yes, good luck with your shop and sales.

For anyone in the same position who doesn't want to start again or doesn't want to change their name.

The Help FAQs say that there is a way to re-set the clock. "... within 24 hours of registration OR any other upgrade".

When I run out of items to list I plan to upgrade from Silver to Platinum Seller. I'll upgrade to Gold Level first and Platinum within 24 hours, it cost a little extra but is still worth it.

[CillaTheTortoise]

Hello all
We are new to this site and have been looking around for a couple of days now. the forums seem very quiet with little activity. ( could be wrong still looking)
We are also disgruntled sellers from ebay. We were mostly sellers of vinyl records dealing in low cost singles that would sell for around £1. As yet we have not made our mind up if it is worth carrying on. We would love to hear from anybody about what this site has to offer. We have several ebay customers who are keen to know if we are going to sell, and we would love some input before we part with money to start selling again.
We also posted this in the music, cds, tapes and vinyl section. Hopefully we are in the right place somewhere.
Best wishes
Ann & Paul

I have been with Ebay for 20 years and know that it's over for sellers with low value items. I have bought the Platinum and hope that it works for me. Not just holding our money but forcing us to use a carrier like Evri is ridiculous i can't get anywhere as no transport and Royal Mail collect from me so Simple Delivery is out of the question. Forums aren't really important i've only gone on to the Ebay one recently for the first time ever and there's a lot of nasty people on there tbh, i doubt they sell much too busy having a go at Private sellers like us, i think i saw you there actually in the forum. So i'm gradually taking my listings off Ebay and will probably have time away around the 4th until i can see what's happening. I should be able to bring my listings here when i find out how to do it or else it's start all over again. They have built up to silly amounts over the years, all the best Angie

[toolbug]

I have been with Ebay for 20 years and know that it's over for sellers with low value items. I have bought the Platinum and hope that it works for me. Not just holding our money but forcing us to use a carrier like Evri is ridiculous i can't get anywhere as no transport and Royal Mail collect from me so Simple Delivery is out of the question. Forums aren't really important i've only gone on to the Ebay one recently for the first time ever and there's a lot of nasty people on there tbh, i doubt they sell much too busy having a go at Private sellers like us, i think i saw you there actually in the forum. So i'm gradually taking my listings off Ebay and will probably have time away around the 4th until i can see what's happening. I should be able to bring my listings here when i find out how to do it or else it's start all over again. They have built up to silly amounts over the years, all the best Angie

Nice Angelfish

[JanetB]

I have been with Ebay for 20 years and know that it's over for sellers with low value items. I have bought the Platinum and hope that it works for me. Not just holding our money but forcing us to use a carrier like Evri is ridiculous i can't get anywhere as no transport and Royal Mail collect from me so Simple Delivery is out of the question. Forums aren't really important i've only gone on to the Ebay one recently for the first time ever and there's a lot of nasty people on there tbh, i doubt they sell much too busy having a go at Private sellers like us, i think i saw you there actually in the forum. So i'm gradually taking my listings off Ebay and will probably have time away around the 4th until i can see what's happening. I should be able to bring my listings here when i find out how to do it or else it's start all over again. They have built up to silly amounts over the years, all the best Angie

Welcome aboard Cilla The Tortoise. You will find the eBid forums very friendly and helpful, not sugar coated, but honest, genuine people here wishing us all good sales.