Alternative to Ebay is needed desperately! Ideal about how to build a site.?

The times are gone when someone could list items on Ebay for a relatively reasonable price and be able to sell the item in most cases. The site seems to have decided to cater to large bulk sellers of mostly new items which are often shipped form China or the same items being sold from within the country for a markup (because there is no international shipping/customs). Thees sellers have large stores where they have a major economic benefit of listing their items (they may have 10 - 10,000 of the same item available for sale) and this reduces the cost of the ad and the ridiculous amount of time it takes to create a posting for a single item (it gets longer every time I try to post an item and I want to tear my hair out).

A recent item I wanted to sell for $70-150 (min bid of $70 reserve of $150 and buy it now for $170). This item is about $1,100 new and my item is basically new and looks as if it was never used. The same items list for $200 buy it now (for a beat up unit) and $299-450 for other sellers for buy it now. These have been listed for about 5-6 months so they are obviously not selling and I want to move mine - hence the price.

The cost for a listing would have been about $12 ($18 if I wanted bold and $23 for a featured item). Those are the fixed costs to post an item. Then there is the fee they charge on the sale which I didn't even check but say 4-10% (mine would be about 6%) and then there is the Paypal fee which was about 3.5-4% last time I checked.

Now if I wanted to make the auction featured and other "special options" I could expect to spend another $4-10 for the listing fee alone. For the base line cost it would be $28.20 (for buy it now $150 price) with add fee - $12, 6% sales fee -$9 and 4% for paypal ($150 + $30 shipping) $7.2 for a total of $28.20 (or about 20%) ! now if I went for bolded, featured, gallery, and other special options, then the total fee would be just under $40 (or 27%)!

So after all of this I can't see where my profit would be had I been purchasing these items for resale vs being very frugal and getting these from extreme bargain hunting.

Am I the only one that thinks this is absolutely ridiculous? Since Ebay & Paypal are owned by same company, they make more for each purchase than when it may seem, especially when you have pull or transfer the $$ within paypal in some situations.

Does anyone know of any other services which have a better sales structure? I don't even like using Ebay as there are often items I search for that are completely missed and the browsing categories can be a nightmare!


I'm wondering what the potential is for a competitive service that does something in a different manner. Maybe eliminate sellers that are bulk sellers of new products, or have them in their own category (which I would suggest). Then list all sellers that aren't US based separately. The main listings would be for the "small sellers" who want to list a few items a month or even run a small business selling used or small amounts of new items ( could be listed with new items). If you find a used item you like, you can click a link to show the sellers that offer the item as new and also those sold overseas. If the seller has a used item within the ad they could also list they have the item as "new" which is a click away.

The sire would basically be built in cooperation of the users and administration. When a new item is added, the customer inputs the data relevant tot he item (as much as possible) from make, model, part number, UPC, SKU, description & much other info. If data is missing, more info can be added by staff if they review the item (maybe it is very popular & want to ensure it is easily found) or by subsequent sellers of that product. Over time the database of items would grow and it would make posting new items MUCH faster as even the previous descriptions (tech data, manufacture descriptions, etc) could be used and then "unqiue notes" could be added per item which would list things about this item that is special such as "missing volume knob" or "modified cooling system", or "overclocked CPU" etc.

Now the buyers & sellers would have their own ID's like ebay. Buyers could have a "watch list" which they could select items they are looking for (pick items for sale or previously sold) and add a "look out for" so they get a notice when that item is posted. For power buyers this could be a service fee per item or some other method. There could be different account levels where a seller could list 10, 25, 50, 100, 150, 250 items at a time and they would pay for each level of access of say $5, 10, 15, 20, 40, 50 per month to be able to list the items. Then possibly a purchase percent based upon the length of time the item was listed with a maximum set amount - this could be paid by one party or split by both.

Payments could be made in a number of ways which could cut out paypal but I'm not going to go into that now and especially with crypto coming into play. I have an excellent way to do this where it could be done with basically no service fee for the payment exchange and possibly a slight fee of say .1-.25% of total cost going to the site to help facilitate the book-keeping.

I have about 20-30 other ideas to make this work but not going to post them online here. Been working on this since about 2006 but figured someone would come out with something like this.

In addition, it would also have a review system of both the items sold (for each product/model, there would be a unique thread/sub threads where it can be discussed) as well as review of the buyers/sellers.
This site could also be used for services and potentially employment/job postings as well as I have figured a way to work this in as well. Also there could be charity auction sales where proceeds go to an organization and any seller can add their items under the charities banner.

The sales would also be able to be browsed by category (as broad or narrow as you wish) in regional areas such as city names or by zip code and a radius parameter.

Has anyone else had enough with Fleabay and other sites like Craigslist (which is getting filled with people selling new items often times stolen). I've looked at specialty sites that sell things like scientific equipment and they often charge a minimum of 25% of the final sales price and listing fees make ebay look cheap!

I just think there needs to be a place where people can sell items that they have (old items), items that they fix or refurbish, etc without all the profit going to the online company hosting the service!

On a side note, I'm trying to find people who are interested in "municipal" interenet (WIFI up to 2.5-3Gbps , FiOS, ethernet up to 10Gbps but more like 1Gbps) where local municipalities have their own internet service in their community that competes with the big companies like Verizon, Comcast, TimeWarner, Windstream, etc. This service wouldnt' be run by the local government but by a company/coop that would partner with neighboring municipalities offering the same services to help create a better administrative structure (and help/fall back between communities), sharing wifi access between communities, etc. All this would be faster and less expensive than the big companies and most likely there would be no data transfer caps (depending on use). Current cost for internet is too much for some seniors on fixed budgets and this is an alternative!!

How about "NoBay"? The idea is to GIVE away crap You don't want and HOPE someone can use it. Then once they get their USE out of it then they too GIVE it away for FREE. Then the whole idea of NOT consuming sweeps the country...


Now... Just for fun.

You get Your site off the ground and is YUGEly $u¢¢e$$ful (Attaboy!) While You were pulling in the Million$ and real close to getting to a Billion w/a B!! I went ahead and opened up 'NoBay™' and sadly never had a ¢u$tomer

But We both 'expire' at the same time... Who wins?

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

I couldn't agree more!

I am new to ebay , by that I mean i signed up to sell on it for the first time last week.

On the first day my account was banned for no reason. After calling and going through a bunch of bs were I had to describe what I was selling and even tell them were and when I got it. My account was turned back on.
2ed day and my account is band again. This time the reason is security issue. So I have tried to get them on the phone but had to hang up because of my time .

a reply to: JimNasium

Donating is a great thing to do, but I think the basic idea is that some of the "crap" that people want to sell has a market-determined value, and sellers either need the money, or are not fools and can't adopt a policy of categorically donating each and every unneeded item. There are choices for donating...ever heard of Goodwill Industries? Browbeating other people into becoming charities misses the mark IMO.

Sounds like a business opportunity for those with the time, effort, money, and knowledge to pull it off. Good luck!

By the time You're done doing Your "due diligence" (fielding calls out the yahoo; the ever present schemers from those who don't ship the items on time or not at all) You'll have wished You went the NoBay route.
Do the math when You're done, or not.


The most important "asset" You have is Your 'time'...

Do what You want.

"Sounds great Greg.." Peter Brady to older sibling Greg Brady in episode #109 "Wes Parker visits"

I'm sure there are people who would list items that can also be found in the free section of Craigslist, I'm always amazed at how much some people think their junk is worth. On the other hand, some people have some very good items that others would love to have for a reasonable price, things which they coulnd't afford to buy new or even from a large reseller of of refurbished equipment. The item that I was talking about that is $1,100 new sells for $650-800 refurbished from scientific equipment resellers as they are items that have very few parts that can fail (a simple fan which can be replaced with a computer fan of appropriate size instead of the $200 replacement fan from the manufacturer). I wouldn't donate something like this to a charity as they wouldnt' have any idea of what to do with it and might sell it for $5. I'm sure there would be many people who do home experiments and hobby work that would love to have this, but finding them is the problem, hence my trek to Fleabay.

Now as far as people listing stuff that some would consider junk, that wouldn't really be an issue unless you are browsing all of the person's listings (if they list all junk). Otherwise you could browse similarly to ebay in catagories.

Another idea is having a cross reference of similar items, so if someone is looking for a Kitchen Aid Blender they could select something like "comperable items" and be taken to a selection of items that are of similar quality, purpose, price, etc (choose which apply) and see what else is available.

A while ago I was repeatedly chastised by a parent about why I hadn't made an effort to sell some things on Ebay and I explained at least 5 times (probably more like 8) about the long process of posting and the high cost even with no sale which makes it economically unfeasible especially when there were about 300 other listings of the same item. Well this made no difference, the question was repeated and I was told how easy it was to do this, oh and he KNEW how easy it was - even though he had never sold one item on Ebay since it started (I started in 98 the month it started, so i've watched the process grow and become cumbersome).

originally posted by: JimNasium

How about "NoBay"? The idea is to GIVE away crap You don't want and HOPE someone can use it. Then once they get their USE out of it then they too GIVE it away for FREE. Then the whole idea of NOT consuming sweeps the country...


Now... Just for fun.

You get Your site off the ground and is YUGEly $u¢¢e$$ful (Attaboy!) While You were pulling in the Million$ and real close to getting to a Billion w/a B!! I went ahead and opened up 'NoBay™' and sadly never had a ¢u$tomer

But We both 'expire' at the same time... Who wins?

The goal of this site is more for the benefit of the seller and buyer if to at least turn enough profit to pay for operating expenses and salaries. The goal is for the seller to be able to list items more efficiently and reach a wider audience and not have to worry about loosing 5-10% of the items value every time it is listed until it sells (3-4 listings could be up to 40% of the sale price being paid to Ebay for the listing fees alone, not to mention the ebay sales commission and paypal fees. Also IDK if in ebay a buyer can search for items within a certain distance so they can pick up items (no shipping) or pick up immediately if the item is urgent.

I'm a big fan and supporter of charity thrift stores like Good Will, salvation army and others. A local charity started about 4-6 years ago taking donations and selling everything. Some prices are good some are outrageous like $7 for a used plain long sleeve tee shirt (a 2 pack of new ones of same brand was $16.99 and you could choose from 15 colors and about 12 sizes - skinny - regular - wide on top of S, M, L, XL, XXL) I thought this had to be a misprint b/c it seemed like an irregular as the back of the shirt was extremely short so lower back could be seen when wearing. I asked and showed them the normal price advertising at Kohls for the same brand and they wouldn't budge on price.

Another time, same store, picked up some very unique and expensive ceramic coated stainless steel kitchen containers that had a lid which was the same as the body, the top hinged back and then latched to close. These are for things like sugar, brown sugar, flour, coffee, oats, etc. These were some brand name and were probably close to $150-250+ new for the 8 units. I saw these items listed for free to a "needing family who would make good use of these, they were moving overseas & no longer needed them. Probably could have sold them but needed them gone in 5-6 days. I saw pics of them and then 2 days after posting I saw them in this local store that had them priced from $25-45 each and they had gotten them for free. Now I have a problem with that if they got them for free then selling for such a markup. It would be different if they sold them at reasonable prices (like 1/4-1/3 of the stores price) or possibly offer them in a sale for loyal customers (invitation only - for people who spend $500+ a year or whatever).

I just get miffed when a charity gets items donated for free and they don't even clean them to like new condition (still have greasy finger marks & sometimes food on the items like blenders, mixers, stick blenders, or hair dryers full of lint/dust 7 caked with hair selling for 70% of the current price of the item in the store) and then won't work with the customer on price even when they are reasonable.

When items are donated for free with the intention of the items going to families in need, I don't think the people donating are expecting for the items to sell for near retail or open box prices. Now there are some amazing deals at this place as well but you have to really look out for these and know when to wait or when to pull the trigger.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

EBay has become an corporate pos compared to its original iteration.

When ebay began its service I joined immediately. I was making more money delivering collectible items and hard goods (tools, engines, rare parts) to people who had no other available option for finding such goods.

Now ebay caters to high volume sellers with terrible service. Charging exorbitant fees for the low volume merchants to make up for being the middle man in disputes.

The complexity of the site continues to grow. Why you ask?

EBay hired crews of coders to keep up with the influx of new users; To add features that would make the site easier to use and entice new or current up users to sell sell sell.

They then employed the Same coders to keep records and store user data to resell and target adds.

After the goal is complete, what do the coders have left to do.....nothing.

Not wanting to be looking for a job, or ebay not willing to reduce their work force they had to find something to justify their continued existence and cost.

That is the only way I can figure how ebay became so cumbersome to navigate.

Coders with a good complete code, when left without a project will only complicate that which already works.

last I used was turbo lister in the past ( tool released by ebay) to upload and template my items. If it's still accessible it makes the job easier.

That being said. I don't ebay any thing any more. Ever. The market is ripe for a good alternative. The success of Facebook swap groups prove this.

originally posted by: DigginFoTroof
Since Ebay & Paypal are owned by same company...

They haven't been owned by the same company since 2015 and after 2020 will not process card payments on eBay.

a reply to: JimNasium

NoBay You win

well, they already have software that is much similar to that of ebay's, some of it is even free.. and well, if you know a little about programming and web design you can take some of the public domain software and make it you own. the problem is how do you get the traffic that ebay has, which isn't an easy task.
personally, I would go with something designed to cater to your local community and maybe have it aimed at a niche that you think would be popular in your area... like antiques, or cars, or whatever. bigger items would probably be better for a locally themes auction than the smaller since they would pose more of a shipping nightmare. and, well, you'd probably get better traffic, or at least the same amount of traffic at start up as you would if you were catering a larger area anyways.

what I wanted to do, and when I first got this idea I really think it would of worked well, was start with a local crafter's group website, offering everything for free, free place to learn about various crafts and how tos, free place to advartise your talents, ect. then once I got a following start the auction site and branch out to include homegrown produce and such. still think it would work, but now, you might find someone already doing it. or something similar.

Ill make it short and sweet:

I use eBay to do a version of "cripple picking" (ha!). I use it extensively to buy stuff, but never to sell. Selling is reserved for other avenues.

Some sites, like Reverb, have been able to edge in because of eBay's policies.. but its not like they are much better. I do think there is an opportunity there, for someone(s).

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

I miss the old days of Ebay, now it is full of cheap crap from China and sellers who lie about location!

I don't even bother with Ebay anymore.

I use Etsy but it's a bit different from Ebay. An item needs to be handmade, used for supplies for crafts or something similar or 20 years+ older in age to be listed. HOWEVER CHINA is once again taking over by labeling items "vintage" when they are not. It really irks me to no end.

China and their cheap crap need to take a hike!

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: DigginFoTroof
Since Ebay & Paypal are owned by same company...

They haven't been owned by the same company since 2015 and after 2020 will not process card payments on eBay.

No card payments? How will they take payments?

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight


That was when I wore My hair longer...

*******


I forgot to add:


***

In this thread I'll be playing the role of "Devil's Advocate" evidently He is over in the Far East as there was a bunch of non-positive energy disguised as positive energy...


So in My bestest Devil voice "Do whatcha want..."

originally posted by: mblahnikluver
No card payments? How will they take payments?

PayPal will not be handling any of the finances, you can still use your cards through eBay directly.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: mblahnikluver
No card payments? How will they take payments?

PayPal will not be handling any of the finances, you can still use your cards through eBay directly.

AHHH ok. Well that sucks! I will only buy from sellers who use paypal because of the fraud. Anytime I ever had an issue they have reimbursed me and dealt with it on their own.

I just ordered a bobble head of Flo from Progressive Insurance on Ebay haha. I wanted her for my desk. She was $5. It will make me laugh daily so it's worth it.

a reply to: mblahnikluver


eBay should still take care of you, I only use my CC and the few issues that popped up were all handled in my favor.