Alternatives to Ebay?

[T16GEM]

I have been selling quite a bit on Ebay recently, and have just sat down to work out my fees and costs of P&P to work out what actual profit I have made. I was quite shocked to see that my sales of about £300 for October I only actually made about £125 profit after taking out the costs of Paypal, Listing fees, Final Value fees and P&P!

I must say that I am a bit disheartened that it came down to that much when it takes quite a lot of effort to actually take pictures, write descriptions and list the items for sale. I know it's £125 that I wouldn't have had ordinarily but I think the fees on Ebay are getting rather out of hand. I just looked into opening a shop on there and the Final value fee on each sale is now 9.9% pus a monthly subscription of £15! That's before you get into the listing fees and paypal charges (which they more or less force you to use these days)

I was looking to get some advice on other auction sites or selling forums that may be available? Your experiences and whether you would ever use anything other than ebay?

Thanks guys Gems

 

[les2425]

hi Gems.
i no what you mean they get you every single way they can to get money out of you.
at the moment i think ebay is so big and a sutch a big name i dont really no anyother sites, i am looking forward to hear from anyone else myself.
i am ruffly paying £80 in fees a month and my P&P covers all my postage and packing costs, allways add extra on to postage for jiffy bags, bubble wrap, boxes and mailing bags.

but to me its a big game some i win some i loose not mutch of the loose at the moment.

plus selling the right item at the right time helps. allways look in advanced search to see what sold for what at what date, and the telly can also give you problems to, I dont selling anything on a sunday as x factory is on.


les

 

[Laurafoster]

I used to love ebay, buying and selling on it quite a lot. However with all the changes over the last year or so i dont sell on there anymore.

I wanted to sell a few bits a month or so ago, went on to list it only to find that they had put a maximum postage cost on to several items. The item i sold ended up costing much more than their maximum postage cost and i had packaging fees ontop of that.

The only other sites i know that friends use is Gumtree - but i havent used it myself so i dont know how it works?!

 

[~Piglet~]

My sister and I were saying the same thing about ebay only this week! They are taking a larger percentage than they used to, whether this is because they know they are the biggest or best known selling place on the internet I don't know, but it's certainly the first place I look when I want to buy something hard to find or retro. It's a pity because eventually sellers won't list their smaller / cheaper items because it isn't worth their while.

It's only a little thing but now I always wait until they have free listing days etc before I sell anything.

 

[saraheeyore]

have a look and see if you have a local site to sell stuff on. i have a local facebook site i use to sell stuff and local paper free listing site. means you get a smaller amount of people looking but i sell stuff locally and get them to pick it up

 

[darthtatty]

I know you can sell on Amazon too. sure theres loads of auction sites if you search for them.
Many people i know use Facebook to advertise these days.

 

[MazdaUK]

One of my colleagues was using e-ba quite a lot for small glass/collectables but worked out he was only making 30-50p an item and would be better off at a boot fair! We're getting out of the season now (though you can still find table fairs - sort of indoor boot fairs - in some places) so unless you need the money urgently I'd wait for the spring and take a carload

Both amazon and play.com do list second-hand items, but they're not auction sites i.e. you have to set the price up front.

 

[paulh]

haven't used but came across http://uk.ebid.net/
Paul

 

[Tammy Stringer]

I use ebay but I have also used Friday ads for set price items and have been quite successful.

Tammy