Alternatives to Selling on Ebay

If you're fed up with ebay, you're in good company. Lately, longtime sellers have been searching for ebay alternatives in droves. Here is a list of some ebay alternatives.

Your Own Web Site:

You might not think of your own web site as being an alternative to ebay, especially if you haven't even started a web site yet. In my opinion, if you are serious about selling products or services online, you should seriously consider starting your own web site. Let me explain the thought process behind this advice.

First of all, there are plenty of alternatives to ebay, but as far as I know, none of them have the same level of traffic that ebay does. Therefore, if you want to enjoy the same amount of sales that you used to enjoy during the "good old days of ebay", you are going to have to promote your own listings on the alternative web site. So, with that in mind, if you are going to do a lot of marketing and promoting of a web site, why not put that effort into a site that is one you own? Why put your own effort into promoting someone else's business? Why pay fees to another site if you are going be the one to bring them the buyer and close the sale? It doesn't make sense.

Most of the sellers who first set up shop on ebay during the early days put significant amounts of effort into promoting ebay. In hindsight, that effort would likely have served them better if it had been put into promoting their own web sites.

Here are some more things to consider. Web sites can change their user agreements at their owners' whim (same as ebay does.) They can close down completely. Just ask former Yahoo auction users and former Bidville users. The alternative web sites could also be acquired by publicly traded corporations that resemble ebay. For that matter, ebay itself could even acquire the alternative web site.

I've seen quite a few success stories where sellers started their own web sites and enjoyed tremendous success. One of my friends sells through both ebay and his own web site, and his web site sales now far outperform his ebay sales. There are other sellers I know of who were able to completely leave ebay because their own web sites were so successful.

So with that in mind, I definitely encourage you to start your own web site as an alternative to ebay. You can do it!

Bidtopia.com

Bidtopia.com is owned by Bargainland, one of ebay's largest former powersellers. Bargainland is a liquidator, and they had a significant following on ebay before they left. Bargainland brought quite a few of their regular customers over to the Bidtopia web site when they started their own auction site; therefore, the Bidtopia.com web site has lots of bidders, lots of traffic, and lots of successful auctions. (Source: ecommerce-guide.com.)

Bidtopia.com has an impressive Alexa ranking, and it is even more impressive when you stop to consider that the traffic to the Bidtopia web site is mostly from buyers. Most ebay alternatives have some traffic, but it is mostly other sellers visiting the site. So Bidtopia is not your typical dead ebay alternative auction site.

Another advantage to using Bidtopia is that the site has policies that are extremely seller-friendly. The typical seller would agree that Bidtopia's policies are generally a pleasure to work with compared to ebay's.

The Bidtopia web site is not for everyone, though. The web site is set up so that the auctions are all in two possible formats. Both are risky for sellers, and attractive to buyers. The most popular auction format on Bidtopia is the 99 cents, no reserve format. There is also a falling auction format as well. Sellers are able to list store items for sale on Bidtopia, but the vast majority of listings seem to be 99 cents no reserve listings. So if you are not willing to list your items for 99 cents with no reserve, this site is not recommended for you.

You do have to apply (and be accepted to sell) at Bidtopia.com. They want to deal with reliable sellers who have a track record of selling online.

Bidtopia's customer base is made up of bargain shoppers. Many Bidtopia customers buy items for resale, so they are looking for things that can be purchased inexpensively and sold for more money. If you don't sell this type of item, Bidtopia might be a frustrating experience for you. The liquidation model is apparently the one that works best for selling on this site.

I have sold quite a few things on Bidtopia. I only ever had one non paying bidder. Bidtopia is active with verifying buyers and attempting to keep deadbeat bidders off their web site, and in my opinion, they do a great job.

My auctions' ending prices on Bidtopia were hit or miss. For some items I sold, the ending prices were better than they would have been on ebay. Plenty of others ended at 99 cents, even though they were worth more. Overall I was satisfied with my sales, but I should also note that I typically ran 99 cents no reserve auctions on ebay when I used to sell there, with similar results.

Bidtopia's fees are very reasonable. Currently, they only charge a listing fee for items that don't sell, and a final value fee. This might change in the future, so please check their site for the most current information.

Overall, I was satisfied with my experience using the Bidtopia web site. The site does have some quirks and imperfections, but overall it's a great site, and for sellers who can work within their model, it's a really fantastic alternative to ebay.

Bonanzle.com

Bonanzle is, in my opinion, is the ebay alternative with the broadest potential. Bonanzle is part social network and part marketplace. I haven't spent all that much time on the Bonanzle web site yet, but I did spend enough time there to see that it's the site where quite a few of my favorite sellers have migrated.

So far, I've listed 2 items for sale on Bonanzle and made one sale- without doing any promoting or marketing for their site.

I think that ebay sellers who specialize in antiques, collectibles, or used items will find that this site could be a viable place to sell. I'd still recommend starting your own web site first, but after you get that going, you'll probably want to give Bonanzle a try to see how it works for you.

Etsy.com:

Etsy.com is a possible alternative to ebay if you sell handcrafted items, art, art supplies, craft supplies, or vintage items. If you do not sell those types of products, etsy.com is not going to be an ebay alternative that meets your needs.

Etsy's fees are currently more reasonable than ebay's are, but I suspect that Etsy's fees will not always remain so low. Etsy has plans to become a publicly traded company. (Source: Etsy Storque.) For that reason, I haven't put much effort into selling on Etsy. I have found that I have to promote my Etsy items in order to make sales there. In my opinion, it's not worth it for me to do that. There is no way I will put time into promoting someone else's business when there are IPO plans in the future. Etsy's a pretty good site now, but, who knows what changes Etsy will make after the IPO? Personally, I'd rather work on my own web sites.

I have sold items on Etsy in the past, and Etsy is a viable marketplace for some sellers. It might be a viable site for you, so if you think it might work for you, give it a try.

Amazon Marketplace:

Amazon Marketplace is a fantastic venue for third-party sellers. It's especially good for booksellers, but there are plenty of other categories where you can sell successfully in Amazon Marketplace. I recently sold some scrapbooking supplies on Amazon Marketplace.

Overstock.com:

I tried selling at Overstock.com's auction site when it was new. That was years ago. At the time, I decided that it was not the site for me. The site seems to have changed quite a bit since then, so my experiences are probably irrelevant at this point. If the site looks like a good fit for what you sell, you might want to give it a chance as a potential ebay alternative.

Other Ebay Alternatives:

I've heard of lots of other ebay alternatives, but I haven't used any of the others. I can't really comment on them one way or the other. Here are some of them:

cqout.com
ioffer.com
onlineauction.com
ebid.net
ecrater.com
atomicmall.com
epier.com
blujay.com