New seller trying to navigate this site

[Bittyboy101]

@ Johnwash1

Thanks for that.

To be honest I'm not surprised that you or anyone else hadn't sold much on here. For some unknown reason this place lacks a lot of buyers for practical items such as tools, electrical appliances and other practical stuff.... but stuff like old magazines and old poker cards seem to sell well on here along with postcards, books and stamps !

The impression I'm getting is this place is for people of 75+, The laid back older retired generation who like staying at home reading and collecting stuff like old books, cards and coins/old medals.

Not meaning to offend anyone, just telling it from my point of view as a 48 year old man who's come from a lively selling platform due to being forced to leave there due to the unacceptable changes they suddenly made.

Maybe if more younger folks started taking eBid more seriously as an good substitute solution for eBay we would have a better selling place here on eBid and more stuff would sell to a variety of buyers and not just the older folks who don't always buy much here other than a few cards and the odd vintage book every now and again.

[johnwash1]

@ Johnwash1

Thanks for that.

To be honest I'm not surprised that you or anyone else hadn't sold much on here. For some unknown reason this place lacks a lot of buyers for practical items such as tools, electrical appliances and other practical stuff.... but stuff like old magazines and old poker cards seem to sell well on here along with postcards, books and stamps !

The impression I'm getting is this place is for people of 75+, The laid back older retired generation who like staying at home reading and collecting stuff like old books, cards and coins/old medals.

Not meaning to offend anyone, just telling it from my point of view as a 48 year old man who's come from a lively selling platform due to being forced to leave there due to the unacceptable changes they suddenly made.

Maybe if more younger folks started taking eBid more seriously as an good substitute solution for eBay we would have a better selling place here on eBid and more stuff would sell to a variety of buyers and not just the older folks who don't always buy much here other than a few cards and the odd vintage book every now and again.

I think your impression is probably because the people who have a bit of time to post in forums are indeed skewed towards the older generation. My impression is that the *bay community forum is skewed in the same way. People who have a phone that does texts but doesn't run apps.

Look around either site. There's zillions of sellers who don't post in forums.

And you have to keep in mind that most people under 40 can't spell or string 3 words together to make a sentence, so of course you won't see them in forums! They're far too busy making vids for Tiktok as they jump off a bridge and miraculously miss offing themselves on a rock! (I guess the ones that don't miss, are in no state to upload afterwards).

OK, I've probably offended a few people. I try to do that every day, it keeps my brain agile and helps delay dementia. Remember folks, life is no fun if it's bland. Buy my e-book on how to stay young in mind... I've not written it yet, but I promise if I ever do I'll sell it first on ebid!

[Bittyboy101]

I think your impression is probably because the people who have a bit of time to post in forums are indeed skewed towards the older generation. My impression is that the *bay community forum is skewed in the same way. People who have a phone that does texts but doesn't run apps.

Look around either site. There's zillions of sellers who don't post in forums.

And you have to keep in mind that most people under 40 can't spell or string 3 words together to make a sentence, so of course you won't see them in forums! They're far too busy making vids for Tiktok as they jump off a bridge and miraculously miss offing themselves on a rock! (I guess the ones that don't miss, are in no state to upload afterwards).

OK, I've probably offended a few people. I try to do that every day, it keeps my brain agile and helps delay dementia. Remember folks, life is no fun if it's bland. Buy my e-book on how to stay young in mind... I've not written it yet, but I promise if I ever do I'll sell it first on ebid!

That's a cool explanation John ! - I reckon you're 100% right ! haha

Seriously It would be so great if this place could catch on with more people (both young and old) and we could have more buyers here, as this would then be like the old school eBay before they ruined everything with such irrational changes with no real thought or consideration for all members using that place.

[selkab]

I'm starting to wonder is this site good for just selling postcards and stamps ?... as no one on here seems to want to buy anything else !

I've been here for months now and not a dickybird !

Starting to think it's more of an "old boys club" than a marketplace... Sorry eBid but only one sale in 9 weeks is not really working well for me... I was hoping it would have been better than this.... Where's all the buyers ?... do they not buy other stuff other than postcards and stamps ??? *confused*

I sold 2 PS2 games last week and a sewing pattern yesterday. So yes stuff besides postcards and stamps do sell.

[Bittyboy101]

Hi selkab,

Thanks for your encouraging post !

Well, that's great to hear that you've sold stuff here on eBid other than books, postcards and stamps !

What's the strategy to get people to your eBid listings ? Do you run auctions with a low starting bid to tempt people to bid on your stuff ?... or do you sell via buy it now ?

Sorry for all the questions as I am also a new seller on here now trying hard to learn the setup here and make some much needed sales on some of my good items !

[Mandart]

I sold 2 PS2 games last week and a sewing pattern yesterday. So yes stuff besides postcards and stamps do sell.

And my most recent sale on here was for a mug

[tonnesofstuff]

Hi selkab,

Thanks for your encouraging post !

Well, that's great to hear that you've sold stuff here on eBid other than books, postcards and stamps !

What's the strategy to get people to your eBid listings ? Do you run auctions with a low starting bid to tempt people to bid on your stuff ?... or do you sell via buy it now ?

Sorry for all the questions as I am also a new seller on here now trying hard to learn the setup here and make some much needed sales on some of my good items !

Strategies would be handy both for sales and visibility. I've put all my on long auctions, maybe 30 days or so each and to auto-renew for 10 times as I didn't really know what would be the best option (but they would at least remain on there for a few months without worrying about them ending soon). I suppose there's no one-size-fits-all method but it'd be good to hear.

[theElench]

The 10 x auto-renew long auction has been the "received wisdom" here since I started selling, but I now have some doubts about it. It is worth taking into account that many of the regulars here have been here for years selling stamps and postcards. They've kept the site alive and I think it's valid when talking about Ebid categories such as stamps, postcards and others that are crowded. Auctions enable anyone's listings to move up the pages as their time runs down and gain visibility. But I don't think the advice applies to sparsely populated categories nearly as much.

In my Art Deco Glass niche there are less than 300 items for sale, about 250 are my items so there's less need to compete for visibility. (I do use long auctions, once for each new item listed, mainly to liven-up the small auction section on P.1 rather than have it look stagnant. There must be many other categories where the same applies?

I THINK that if it's applied to uncrowded categories it could be detrimental to sales because of the effect on GS. Does the item have to be re-indexed every time an auction ends and renews? I don't know, but going by the time it takes GS to get around to showing some of my listings, indexing takes a while, so is an item going to the back of the queue with every re-list?

Also, looking at the "Recently Sold" items on the HP, it surprised me that with the received wisdom about auctions and the accompanying advice that in crowded categories RUS listings are effectively buried and unlikely to sell, just how many of the sold items were/are RUS listings (in some snapshots of twelve most are RUS, even stamps and postcards.

It can be quite surprising what does sell on Ebid. The last two days looking at early morning snap-shots stamps and postcards have done predictably well (because there are so many of them and ebid is known as a place to look for them) with 21 sold between them. But also eye-drops sold on both days. Dog food, Model railway carriages (3). Disney World (2). Film clips 2 on each day. A magazine advert clipping. A model car. A fire service radio and an £1500 camera. Other unusual items I remember are an opera score, a valve tester and various OTC pharmaceuticals.

I'm not saying the 10x auction re-list is wrong. Just that it should be looked at in conjunction with the competition for visibility both on-site and on GS.

[Bittyboy101]

Elench,

Thanks for posting this.

That's very interesting info indeed.

[goldenwonders]

If you are selling anything other than stamps and postcards, or old books or coins, Please tell us what it is you're selling on here ? and how well is your stuff is selling on eBid ??

I sell hard to find old antique locks in good order and I'm not having much luck getting anything to sell on here... despite being a seller here since March 2025 and selling my stuff at a variety of different items and different prices. I was on eBay for 18 years and did very well there with many sales until they started changing everything recently

Any info and help appreciated as I really like eBid (when stuff sells ! ) but cannot work out how to get buyers over to my listings as this site does not seem to advertise anywhere and Google Shopping don't show many sellers from here either which is a great shame.

Hello BB, I come here most days but don't often post. I'm extremely critical of this sites lack of promotion and have said so many times in the past. My reason for being so critical is that I spent my career in advertising and made a healthy living from doing so. So I do have some experience in knowing a little about why advertising works! I have crossed swords with a few here who mistakenly think this site will work without it... but it won't, it will eventually shrink and cease to exist. I said earlier this year that I actually think the owners don't have the funds or inclination to try and take it to another level - but that's another issue for another day.

The comments about only stamps and postcards selling are partially true, while I have noticed a few other items creeping in such as model trains.
Your items are somewhat specialist and I do question if a buyer will search here for such items?
I have been on here on and off since 2005, having spent longer on obey (2003) which I left when SD came in. I have tried (without success) to get some interest in my Hard Rock Cafe Pin collection selling here! It's something that I have spent some time pursuing and quite frankly it was not worth it. This site is sad and antiquated - it has had the opportunity to take advantage of obeys errors and has ignored it more than once.

I keep my listings here but don't hold out any hope of things changing - sorry to be despondent and not give you reasons to be cheerful.

I saw on here recently someone being equally as disparaging of Vinted - can't remember where I read it, but do think I know who it was. HOWEVER my experience there has been quite good, with less than 10% of the amount I have listed here.
6 or 7 months ago I put up two shirts - both new and asked what I thought was a sensible (not cheap) price. My daughter had convinced me to try it and I then did nothing, they got watchers, but no takers. Then (middle of May) obey started getting my back up and ebid was not giving me any reason to waste more effort here. So I threw some time at Vinted. I did some searches and found to my surprise how Vinted had changed - an abundance of new items, collectibles and vintage items, die cast, stamps and Hard Rock Cafe pins (these had always been there, but the numbers had really grown!) It was no longer just clothes!!
So I gave it a whirl and started with some die cast cars - surprise, they started selling, then one of my shirts got sold after I reduced the price to a new watcher. So far, I've sold stamps, Hard Rock pins, die cast and of course a shirt.
The system there is far from perfect, similar to obey, certainly not set up to deal with this new influx of items/sellers - but there is less hassle when selling. I've been away for 2 weeks, so put everything on hold, returned put them all back up Monday and already made another sale. I have to say I'm quite hopeful and can see the site changing with better categories to accommodate these new non-clothes items. The difference of Vinted is that it gets a much higher footfall than here, everyone has heard of it (advertising!!) but at the moment most think it clothing only - but that will change, its already stealing obeys business and it's resulted this week - obey reducing some of its buyer protection fees for lower priced items. Obey is haemorrhaging sellers as was only to be expected. Pity ebid did not take note!