New seller trying to navigate this site

[SCcoins]

Yeah I agree with all that. eBay got complacent and may be flapping, they are even asking for sellers to write to their local MP to petition for an increase in the trading allowance to £3k.

eBid needs an app and no ad popups. I realise that may not be viable but even for me who is used to the site now, when I open a page my first thought is where is the X or down arrow to get this ad out of the way…

Vinted items go stale quickly and the search is poor but that’s where the followers are so important. Early adopters in these collectible categories are accruing the followers whilst other sellers are holding off… in some ways I imagine it is like eBid was at the start and why legacy users here are still doing well.

[Stnenopmoc]

Yeah I agree with all that. eBay got complacent and may be flapping, they are even asking for sellers to write to their local MP to petition for an increase in the trading allowance to £3k.

eBid needs an app and no ad popups. I realise that may not be viable but even for me who is used to the site now, when I open a page my first thought is where is the X or down arrow to get this ad out of the way…

Vinted items go stale quickly and the search is poor but that’s where the followers are so important. Early adopters in these collectible categories are accruing the followers whilst other sellers are holding off… in some ways I imagine it is like eBid was at the start and why legacy users here are still doing well.

Use adblock+ to get rid of eBid ads, a bonus is that it also removes the ads on Youtube.


As for selling, I have absolutly no problem selling here. If you have unique or near unique stuff that people want, then people will find you and will buy from you. My prices are not cheap!


On the other hand, if you sell cheap Chinese tat and indulge in a race to the bottom in pricing then, eBay is your selling point.


If you are not making sales on the eBid site then you are doing something wrong, either what you sell, the range of things you sell, the way you sell, or understanding your market.


If you are selling on eBay, perhaps that is your best selling point. I have found on eBay things do sell well, but my stuff always does. However, I think the fevered frenzy of eBay buying has long since gone, mainly because of a lack of money and a lack of interest in buying things.


Vinted and etsy have picked up the two current dominant selling areas, leaving eBay a bit frozen out. Also, with the massive collection of rules, payment issues and things you 'must do', coupled to buyer bias; I think that eBay has had its day and eBid is the only site that can pick up the demand across the entire area of eBay selling. Keep the faith.


American postage rules are not helping sales


eBid is what you make of it - do you have eBid stores, no, get some.

[johnwash1]

Use adblock+ to get rid of eBid ads, a bonus is that it also removes the ads on Youtube.


As for selling, I have absolutly no problem selling here. If you have unique or near unique stuff that people want, then people will find you and will buy from you. My prices are not cheap!


...

??? But you don't have anything listed here.

I agree with you about Adblock+. It's so good that I make small donations to the project occasionally. Along with several others that I consider hugely deserving: VLC, Wikipedia, Linux Mint, Form History Control. There really is no excuse to leave it to others, just spare a fiver occasionally and make a difference to your own favourites.

[Stnenopmoc]

not using this ID

[Bittyboy101]

If you are not making sales on the eBid site then you are doing something wrong, either what you sell, the range of things you sell, the way you sell, or understanding your market.

I am doing EXACTLY THE SAME THING as I did on eBay for 18 years and I was selling many items a month until 2021 when they made changes to their seller hub and the way the searches work - Then the many sales I used to get on eBay became a drip with only 1 or 2 sales happening every 5-6 weeks.

Here, apart from only one sale which I only got when I first posted on this board in the beginning of May 2025, I have had NOTHING.

I have done everything right, I have one shop I have even paid for the best eBid membership but no buyers or interest like I used to always get on eBay with the SAME ITEMS.

The only difference between eBay and here (eBid) is eBay do all the promoting and legwork to get buyers to see your items and they have a strong influence over Google Shopping, Something which eBid lacks.

Conclusion;-

If you have experience and means of getting buyers to visit your listings here on eBid you will be successful and sell many items, if like me you don't have any experience in "fending for yourself" and doing self promotion/self advertising then you're wasting your time selling here on eBid as buyers will never know your items exist if you cannot self promote as eBid do not do this for you on your behalf like eBay and Vinted does.

[Stnenopmoc]

Bittyboy101
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Have you considered that your market may have evolved or contracted ?

What are the demographics of people that buy locks? Young or Old people

I would have though more likly older people as, in general, younger people are not that practical or understand the world outside of their phone - please prove me wrong on this, I need encouragement about Millenials, onwards

in 2021 Covid was on its tail end

Who mainly died of covid - older people. Older people tend to die sooner than younger people, so if old people are your market it is diminishing more quickly than younger people, are the older people being replaced by a lock buying generation?


When people buy your locks what are they used for?

I don't know, but I would have thought either to replace something missing on furniture, so furniture restorers, (ie mainly older people) or rairly, household locks (Builders) ? - I tend to buy new from a specilist supplier, for these.

Locks are not my area, so I am willing to be educated.


I was selling regularly on eBay in one particular product area and over six months the entire selling area collapsed, not just for me. The product had run it's course. I have watched this happen with other lines of items on eBay and if you talk to people about what they sell they seem to conform this story. I tried selling the same product area on eBid - not a nibble, ever, over two years of trying. The market had vanished.

My thoughts are that your items are specilist, not a bad thing, but these days less likly to get casual sales. Put stuff in your store by all means, but directly canvas people who are likly to use the things you have for sale such as furnature restorers, sorry can't think of anybody else - that tells me something . . . .

if you are able to offer related products then that may help bring in and enlarge your business, such as specilist key cutting, large drums of furnature wax, stuff the people you consider as competition are not doing but should be.


I know this does not make great reading. It really helps to understand your position in the market; if you take an interst in what is currently selling, in quantity and price, because the markets selling are dynamic and, I would suggest, are often age related. Young, Early Family, Late family, Old, Pensioner.

So consider who has money, the need and if it is collectables does it fit in the 30 year cycle. Collectables appear to become collectable because people buy things that they could not afford in their youth. If you think that their youth might be age 15 or so, many people will have disposble income around the age of 45; hence the 30 year cycle.


From what I can see clothing and accessories, of a good brand and quality, appears to be the big market area at the moment. Hence the suces of Vinted. Be interest to hear from people here about how they are doing.



For me I scrapped the entire product line that was not selling and moved on to something else, that is becoming sucessfull, built from nothing, on eBid.


.

[Bittyboy101]

Hi Stnenopmoc,

Interesting post - Really appreciate your time and trouble to write that reply to my post.

Thanks very much for your advice and suggestions.

Much appreciated.

[johnwash1]

"I would have though more likly older people as, in general, younger people are not that practical or understand the world outside of their phone - please prove me wrong on this, I need encouragement about Millenials, onwards..."

I hope that's not true of all. Maker spaces and 3d printing have become very popular. Not everyone is doom scrolling.

I've no idea why people would buy BittyBoy's locks. As you say, perhaps furniture restorers. Or, I think, perhaps people who simply collect locks as an interesting hobby, as I did myself when a teenager. In those days I was into all sorts of things, watch repair, locks, radio repair. Experimenting with lock picking, though of course one doesn't need nice shiny collectable ones for that.

BittyBoy, where did you get your locks from? Have you had them for many years?

[Bittyboy101]

Hi John,

I've collected many locks over the years when I was a kid... I would go to car boot sales with my uncle and look for old locks to buy cheap... I also used to spot them on old doors laying there in the skips when people were doing home renovation and I would knock on their door and ask if I could have them ?... the answer was always yes ! and many contractors even helped me out by getting their pump action Stanley screwdrivers and unscrewing them for me !... the rest of the time I would have to do the dirty work myself when the women and old men said OK, this involved using my double ended Stainley screwdriver to chip away many years of thick hard gloss paint where the screws were and then unscrew the locks... Oh the teenage memories of the early 1990's were priceless lol

I now have too many locks and am selling some of them to de-clutter my small workshop... I have enjoyed owning them and restoring them proudly to a very high standard (well most of them !)... Now at 48 it's time to let them go to good homes where they can be appreciated and put back into service... Sadly I've been let down by eBay and this eBid self service of promotion is not working well for me.

I did join Facebook and try to post ads and links to my eBid shop but unfortunately some nasty piece of work reported me and got me suspended for spanning facebook when I only posted 2 posts in 2 different groups