[biz123]

Hi guys. I am really sick of seeing my ebay invoices amount to $400. People buy things from us, of course, but I would rather not have to pay ebay so much money.

I have heard of websites such as http://www.blujay.com/ which are free to sell and buy. So why not just direct potential customers to sites like this while offering a discount of 5-10% on the product?

My questions are...

1. Have any of you ever tried something like this and did anything sell?
2. Anyone know of similar fee-less sites like blujay which can transfer your current ebay feedback to your new fee-less store?
3. What are the different ways I can promote the fee-less online store other than simply e-mailing the customers with the link to the store? I heard that it is best not to use "my messages" under "my ebay" but to send it directly from your own e-mail address.

[SlideRiceFC]

Basically, Ebay will nail you if you attempt to conduct any transactions outside of Ebay using their system. Other than supporting another auction site from your website to drive traffic there and sending info to current customers whose email addresses and mailing addresses you already have...I couldn't say. I wish I knew. I'm in the process of setting up my own auction site (not fee-less but MUCH cheaper) and feedback from Yahoo, Ebay, and Amazon will be transferrable to my site. But like you, I have no idea how to contact sellers or buyers to tell them to give my site a try when it goes live in September.

[Large Professor]

honestly eBay's market-share is huge, it would be extremely difficult to drive quality traffic to a smaller site. Sellers sell on eBay because they know they'll get more exposure for their item, which will result in more sells. Unfortunately eBay is a monopoly and they can set their fees to whatever they want because they virtually have no competitors.

On a side note, I have a feeling that eBay will be significantly lowering fees because of the dramatic drop in listings posted in the past few months. people don't want to pay $3 per listing (ridiculous)

[SlideRiceFC]

Yeah, I honestly don't think any auction site is capable of stealing Ebay's market...especially free ones. There's little to know chance they could market themselves effectively enough to gain a strong foothold. The site I'm creating is aimed at a niche market and I hope to have some success by marketing my services to those in that niche. But I don't anticipate ever being competitive or even fully replacing Ebay for my sellers.

[mercy]

Personally I feel Ebay is best man, even though some times, you may feel that they behave harsh towars you, but thats a lime lite, thats it. Just go with them, Thats a great endeavour with them with u.

[SlideRiceFC]

I guess I'm more curious as to what is being sold and why you cannot market your product directly to the public via your own website? But mercy is right, no matter how much direction towards another auction site you are never going to have as big of a potential customer base as the one that is sitting in front of their puters shopping on Ebay. Unless, like I said...it's a niche market. Then it may be cheaper to set up a site and play the search engine game or go with another site proven to house the customers you are aiming at.

[amesibub]

eBay Australia just raised their fees again... Store fees and such.

Ridiculous!!

It has driven more people to my side on the up-side though

I have been busy working on a new venture that Lot123 has fallen down a fair bit...

Cheers,
Amie

[NeeJam]

Originally Posted by biz123

Hi guys. I am really sick of seeing my ebay invoices amount to $400. People buy things from us, of course, but I would rather not have to pay ebay so much money.

I have heard of websites such as http://www.blujay.com/ which are free to sell and buy. So why not just direct potential customers to sites like this while offering a discount of 5-10% on the product?

My questions are...

1. Have any of you ever tried something like this and did anything sell?
2. Anyone know of similar fee-less sites like blujay which can transfer your current ebay feedback to your new fee-less store?
3. What are the different ways I can promote the fee-less online store other than simply e-mailing the customers with the link to the store? I heard that it is best not to use "my messages" under "my ebay" but to send it directly from your own e-mail address.

I know a person off namepros very well now who owns the auction site goflish www.goflish.com and for the first 500 people sales fees are free, i think even with the sales fees they are lower then ebay anyways and its getting quite big too, not really big but its growing and theres lots of activity for a new auction website.