Wigix Hopes to Give EBay a Run for Its Money

A new company on the horizon has its sights set on ousting eBay from the position of the Internet's premiere auction site. Oakland-based Wigix opened its virtual auction house doors in the Spring and now boasts one million items in its online catalog.

Wigix differs from eBay in that it uses a price matching platform of sorts, that allows buyers to post their wants along with the price they are willing to pay for the items. Sellers respond to the offers that appease them and shipping is arranged privately between the buyer and the seller. Additionally, sellers can opt to post a laundry list of items they have available for purchase and interested parties can browse those lists and make offers to the seller. This feature is called passive selling.

Another way that Wigix differs from eBay is on the fees they charge for selling on the site. Wigix does not charge an insertion fee and only charges sellers a transaction fee if the item sells for a price about $25. For items that sell between $25 and $100, Wigix accesses a fee of $1.50. For items that sell at a price between $100 and $1,000 a charge of $1.50 plus two percent of the amount over $1,000 is accessed. For items that sell for over $1,000, a flat-rate fee of $21 is accessed in addition to one percent of the amount over $1,000.

Wigix incorporates content writing into its site as well. The company offers revenue incentives to people who can create a page in their catalog for specific items and become experts on those items. Once the said items are sold, the experts are compensated for their efforts by sharing in a percentage of the revenues form the sale. The process to become an expert on the site is rather lengthy and there is an application to complete as well as other credentials to meet. Wigix hopes to expand its catalog, which currently lists about one million items, exponentially with this process.

The launch of Wigix comes at a time when some eBay sellers are not happy with the company's recent decision to incorporate items from Buy.com into their listings. In turn, some of eBay's former Power Sellers may be looking to peddle their wares elsewhere. Wigix's founders James Chong and Bob Lee hope to draw from eBay's bad experiences and offer sellers what they think is a better online platform for auction selling. For more information about Wigix, you can log on to their website located at www.wigix.com .