Why hasn't anyone set up a credible alternative

[Coco H]

To Ebay?

So many complaints about the system especially now the whole onus is on the seller. Any old buyer can falsely claim their item didnt' arrive and get stuff for free. Or if sent recorded - just give them a 1 star rating on the detailed ratings - will soon have the seller limited and on higher fees.

I know about Ebid but it just doesn't seem to be attracting enough buyers.

Surely someone could throw some money at advertising and set up a site where sellers can leave negative feedback and get the private sellers flooding in.

[Jasandjules]

There are a few other online auction sites.

The fact that very few people know about them is telling..........

[Plotloss]

www.tedvertiser.com

Not auctions but a different take on the selling of unwanted things.

[Coco H]

I have attempted to joinj Tedvertiser - not a good time for me as being on mat leave I only have a free address. I did put my work one in to but I hope I can get back onto my work laptop.

[rudecherub]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/seller/sell-your-stuff....

Not used it myself, but... I've bought more from Amazon than ebay

[frosted]

rudecherub said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/seller/sell-your-stuff....

Not used it myself, but... I've bought more from Amazon than ebay

Probably till you start using it, if ebay was cash on collection only, 99% of its problems would solved

[PetrolTed]

Coco H said:

I have attempted to joinj Tedvertiser - not a good time for me as being on mat leave I only have a free address. I did put my work one in to but I hope I can get back onto my work laptop.

Thanks for joining. The free/trusted email address is proving a bit of a barrier to use (although effective at keeping out scammers). I'm just working on integrating with Facebook so you can just login immediately using your Facebook account.

[Magog]

frosted said:

rudecherub said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/seller/sell-your-stuff....

Not used it myself, but... I've bought more from Amazon than ebay

Probably till you start using it, if ebay was cash on collection only, 99% of its problems would solved

I always thought the post office missed a trick in not getting in on offering some sort of cash on collection, clearing house type service at their counters. It would probably be more hassle than it was worth though.

Another massive problem with ebay is shill bidding and sniping, I can foresee an easy route round the latter, but not the former.

[Odie]

Magog said:

frosted said:

rudecherub said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/seller/sell-your-stuff....

Not used it myself, but... I've bought more from Amazon than ebay

Probably till you start using it, if ebay was cash on collection only, 99% of its problems would solved

I always thought the post office missed a trick in not getting in on offering some sort of cash on collection, clearing house type service at their counters. It would probably be more hassle than it was worth though.

Another massive problem with ebay is shill bidding and sniping, I can foresee an easy route round the latter, but not the former.

The former - Ip and Mac address logging

[davido140]

Odie said:

Magog said:

frosted said:

rudecherub said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/seller/sell-your-stuff....

Not used it myself, but... I've bought more from Amazon than ebay

Probably till you start using it, if ebay was cash on collection only, 99% of its problems would solved

I always thought the post office missed a trick in not getting in on offering some sort of cash on collection, clearing house type service at their counters. It would probably be more hassle than it was worth though.

Another massive problem with ebay is shill bidding and sniping, I can foresee an easy route round the latter, but not the former.

The former - Ip and Mac address logging

IP addresses for home users are on the whole dynamic. MAC addresses work on the local ethernet segment only (i.e the home or corporate LAN) no way for ebay to even see them, let alone log them.

So basically, neither will work.

[emicen]

Magog said:

frosted said:

rudecherub said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/seller/sell-your-stuff....

Not used it myself, but... I've bought more from Amazon than ebay

Probably till you start using it, if ebay was cash on collection only, 99% of its problems would solved

I always thought the post office missed a trick in not getting in on offering some sort of cash on collection, clearing house type service at their counters. It would probably be more hassle than it was worth though.

Another massive problem with ebay is shill bidding and sniping, I can foresee an easy route round the latter, but not the former.

The amount of mail that gets thieved by Royal Mail employees and you reckon people would trust them to act as an intermediary with their money? Not a chance.

[12gauge]

Craiglist is pretty big in the US i think.

I guess moderating these things costs money. Hasnt craiglist descended into hookers/stalkers/kiddyfiddlers central?

Dont use any of them, so maybe not.

[paulrockliffe]

What's wrong with sniping? Everyone puts in their maximum bid and the winner is the person with the highest maximum bid. If you lose to a sniper it's only because you didn't put in your maximum bid, why would you not do that?

[Chris_w666]

Ebay is just too big to be competed with as the format is tried and tested and its name is pretty much a part of daily language in the way google and coke are, the Tedvertiser is a fab idea and I hope it is sucessful as the TVR website was, Amazon isn't a bad place to sell rare or new stuff but anything in between isn't worth the hassle, there are other places like play trade and lots of site you can list books/dvds/cds that are similar to Amazon. Ebid, QXL, and any other auction sites simply do not attract anything like the traffic ebay does.

Ebay has also bought Gumtree now so its probably a matter of time before they either charge to list on there or close it down for stealing sales from ebay.

[onomatopoeia]

Coco H said:

I have attempted to joinj Tedvertiser - not a good time for me as being on mat leave I only have a free address. I did put my work one in to but I hope I can get back onto my work laptop.

Does your ISP not provide email with the connection? I've never heard of an ISP that doesn't. Even the really rubbish ones generally provide email.

[PetrolTed]

brickwall said:

Why is Ebay so dominant? Because it's a natural monopoly
The more of a monopoly on online auctioning it has the more people will list their product on that site rather than others, and the more consumers will go to that site to look for products.

That is of course very true, but there is significant discontent with ebay these days. Trying to marshall discontented people into an alternative venue is the challenge.

[PetrolTed]

Chris_w666 said:

Ebay has also bought Gumtree now so its probably a matter of time before they either charge to list on there or close it down for stealing sales from ebay.

This is an interesting set up now. ebay want to become more of a discount stock outlet for manufacturers and resellers. There was an interview with the CEO recently in which he actively encouraged disillusioned private punters to use gumtree instead of ebay. The downside of this is that gumtree has none of the protection that ebay offers buyers and sellers (despite its flaws it's better than nothing).

So ebay moves into a more corporate space and private punters are left with a much inferior solution in Gumtree (google it and it's scary how much it comes up in crime stories).

[PetrolTed]

onomatopoeia said:

Coco H said:

I have attempted to joinj Tedvertiser - not a good time for me as being on mat leave I only have a free address. I did put my work one in to but I hope I can get back onto my work laptop.

Does your ISP not provide email with the connection? I've never heard of an ISP that doesn't. Even the really rubbish ones generally provide email.

I think the trouble is that unless people have kept a note of their ISP email or actively use it then it's not as a viable alternative as I'd hoped. Work addresses are the best alternative but it can still be a barrier if you don't have immediate access to your work address from your home system.

Full access to freebie email addresses is a scammers paradise, so it can't be opened up completely but using Facebook should give a reasonable alternative that will also provide a 'social context' to the person.

[Chris_w666]

PetrolTed said:

Chris_w666 said:

Ebay has also bought Gumtree now so its probably a matter of time before they either charge to list on there or close it down for stealing sales from ebay.

This is an interesting set up now. ebay want to become more of a discount stock outlet for manufacturers and resellers. There was an interview with the CEO recently in which he actively encouraged disillusioned private punters to use gumtree instead of ebay. The downside of this is that gumtree has none of the protection that ebay offers buyers and sellers (despite its flaws it's better than nothing).

So ebay moves into a more corporate space and private punters are left with a much inferior solution in Gumtree (google it and it's scary how much it comes up in crime stories).

I sell in reasonable volumes on and off on ebay (usually seasonal) and find that only Amazon has came close to competing and in terms of ease of use it was much better but there was a lot of price squeezing and its fairly easy to underestimate how big their fees can be. Gumtree just looks like freecycle with pricelists and has no where near the functionality of ebay, and the local aspect of its listings put it into the realms of the smaller auction sites in terms of traffic for your item.

It is getting any competitor into peoples thoughts that is the issue, but ebay does look more and more like a factory outlet store these days. It also has a ratings system based on %ages and average points scores. So anyone selling a low volume cannot afford more than 2 or 3 bad sales before a ban comes along, and a bad sale can be because the buyer is an idiot, where the guys selling 100's of items a week can easily absorb a slip or two in their ratings. Oh and as I found last week it is quite easy to accidentally leave a 1 or 2 star rating if you are trying to do it in a hurry.

[mrmr96]

davido140 said:

So basically, neither will work.

Not only that, but I can't be the only person with internet access via a work PC and a home PC. Completely separate hardware and connections.