[rossco1]

With eBay the 'powerhouse' of online trading, i believe they have seller's by the throats. The amount these blokes are charging is becoming quite a turn off so to speak. I then began to think... why eBay have no real competitiors (particularly in Australia) and i realised; eBay have enough sellers to not worry about the odd one that decides to discontinue use of their service. Buyers pay no fees; meaning eBay will continue to have no problems with potential buyers.

From my two years experience with eBay i have noticed they really do put their 'fees' first, in front of their customers.

I am wondering if anyone else who sells on eBay feels the same about both of these theories?

Also, can anyone inform me of a good auction trading site that may have a chance at competing against eBay?

Cheers,

Ross

[ianternet]

I feel the same way about their fees - their fees are very strict - I mean I try to sell on yahoo auctions as well - but very little traffic on there and other auction sites. I think the reason they increase fees is because of their affiliate program they have with CJ - not too sure but to me that is what it looks like

[DaveAPN]

eBay's fees are directly proportional to the value of having so much traffic. Like Ian said - he's tried another service from one of the biggest players on the web and not gotten very far.

Craigslist is really the closest "competitor" to eBay, since they've got a boatload of traffic, no auctions though.

Basically, eBay has established a clear market-dominating position that would require an obscene amount of marketing / capital to topple. Google, Yahoo, Myspace, Overstock, Amazon, nobody in the top 100 web properties could hope to overtake eBay faster than eBay could respond to them.

Also, I don't think CJ's fees make much of a difference to eBay's auctions. I think its more a question of what the market will bear.

Cheers,

[sicnarftea]

If you are interested, my friend owns an auction website

http://www.oztion.com.au

The are the 2nd largest auction website in Australia and are doing the same amount of traffic as www.tradingpost.com.au as well as ranked top10 websites in Australia by Hitwise as well as "Netguide" magazine

They have no listing fee, etc etc, you can check it out

[The Stealthy One]

I don't feel that eBay's fees are too high. They're offering you a service (a large field of buyers) that no one else can provide. It costs them money to provide this service to you.

[mary anne]

I think that eBay's fees are reasonable. I mean, think about it. They're already doing the best they can trying to make online trading secure and guaranteed for both the buyers and sellers. And this is not such a simple thing to do.

[sicnarftea]

they increase the fees every 3 months or so in Australia, I don't think that is resonable

They provide poor service to sellers, just because they know they are practically a monopoly, that is not resonable

They remove sellers without reason and without compensation. Sellers who solely depend on ebay and gets removed for no reason, gets a big knock back and may put them out of business. That is not resonable

Ebay somehow allows fraudulent sellers into their system and people get ripped of everyday. Yet the perfectly good sellers gets deleted without a second change. That is not resonable

[ics]

^^AMEN

Google will compete with ebay and actually compete, not like yahoo. It's just a matter of time really.

[fin212]

another site is www.bidsell.com.au
they don't charge any listing or eStore fees.

[avadyne]

Originally Posted by ics

^^AMEN

Google will compete with ebay and actually compete, not like yahoo. It's just a matter of time really.

Actually your right. Google sent 400 employees to a new center in phoenix which will be the center for their new action site. You don't send 400 of your workers somewhere and buy a big office to half ass something. However personaly i think instead of buying you tube for 1.6 Billion, they should have made a Gbay or GoogleAuction.com (ga.com?) and marketed it like hell for $1.6 billion.

[cube3]

lol i am still waiting to see what google can come out with to compete with ebay. That would be interesting.