 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Watermelon Seed
Lettuce Seed
Other Seed
Alternate Auction/Listing Sites
It's now the end of 07 and I need to
update to change a few sites to the not-recommended part of the
page. Unfortunately the not-recommended part of this page is getting
rather large and there haven't been any good sites to add. Several
sites have totally dropped the ball for us sellers and I
will no longer be associated with them. I've up-dated my
recommendations / gripes but didn't bother to up-date some logo changes
sites have made.
Frankly, since around the beginning of this year, 07, I've come to the conclusion that most of all the alternative sites aren't worth your time and energy. Blujay and eCrater seem to be the only sites that consistently get ME sales. Get yourself a site/store somewhere where you are your own boss. PSU stores are a good quick option but there are lots of places out there. My own host, Netfirms, has a lot to offer for very reasonable prices. Click Here.
PSU has opened up web store hosting for a very reasonable price. I personally don't have a store there as I already have this site. But other friends of mine do have stores and you should check them out.
Google has started Google Checkout. I am signed up with it and I'm working on getting this site fully set-up with Mal's cart buttons so it will use GC. Unfortunately GC buttons aren't user friendly nor do they work like the PP buttons, so for GC to work on a web site you need to have a cart that works with GC. I'm using Mal's Cart as you just have to put buttons on the pages just like with PP. Really rather easy. Actually since I started with Mal's Cart around the beginning or 07, they have had problems working with Google and are not supporting Google Checkout any more.
New as of the beginning of Nov. 06 is an invoice feature for GC. That way you can use GC for just about any site you want to. You do have to send a GC invoice for each sale, but you have to do that at most of the sites already.
St. Elsewhere is the code word on eBay for any off eBay auction/listing site. With the glitches and fee hikes that seem to pop up with regularity at eBay, many people decided in 05 that it's good not to have all your sales eggs in just the eBay basket. To that end, many of us have spread out to other sites. Not all sites work well for every seller. Some sites do well for some things and not for other stuff.
The big thing about most of these alternate site tho, is you need to give them time. Don't expect to post something today and sell a bunch tomorrow. I would tell you to give most of these sites at least a year. It will also help if you can promote these other sites in all of your sales and any other way you can think of. Include a flier or catalog in every package you send out. Most people do not know that sites other than eBay even exist. We have to tell them.
This is a link list of many of the other sites that I sell on. The logos are all links to my listings or store. My user name is "knappschiles" on all of them. They are somewhat listed in the order that I've had the best results, best at the top. Last year my off-eBay sales were about equal to or maybe a little better than my eBay sales. This web site was the largest contribution, with Blujay being the next best site for me.
Some are better than others. Some are in better functional use than others. I list more stuff at the sites that are working better or that work better for me. Some have bulk-listers that work great for some but not for others. Personally, I can't seem to get the listers that use a CSV import to work on my computer. If it's a direct CSV or Excel file, they work great for me. Check them all out. Perhaps you will find a new favorite place for buying and selling.
At the bottom of the list I put a link to my favorite board. If you want to learn more about other places to sell at besides eBay, that is the place to check out. There are more board links on the board page.
Here is a trick I've been using last year that I don't want to put on the eBay boards so eBay won't catch on too quick and figure out a way to kill it. It will slow down the process, but could up your sales quite a bit too.
If you have an off-eBay site be sure to check out my "friends" page too and contact me about putting your link there.
Right now Blujay and eCrater have been the only sites other than my own site that have been getting ME sales on a consistent basis. I know that others have had good results at other sites, but this has been my experience.
Blujay is a great classified listing site. You can use HTML in your
listing to dress it up and you get a "store". There is no listing fee
and no FVF so it is totally free. They also do Google Products (formerly Froogle) uploads so you
don't have to figure them out yourself. They also have a board where
you can get answers to any questions. Integrated with the new Google Checkout but seems to confuse buyers for some reason.
Frankly, since around the beginning of this year, 07, I've come to the conclusion that most of all the alternative sites aren't worth your time and energy. Blujay and eCrater seem to be the only sites that consistently get ME sales. Get yourself a site/store somewhere where you are your own boss. PSU stores are a good quick option but there are lots of places out there. My own host, Netfirms, has a lot to offer for very reasonable prices. Click Here.
PSU has opened up web store hosting for a very reasonable price. I personally don't have a store there as I already have this site. But other friends of mine do have stores and you should check them out.
Google has started Google Checkout. I am signed up with it and I'm working on getting this site fully set-up with Mal's cart buttons so it will use GC. Unfortunately GC buttons aren't user friendly nor do they work like the PP buttons, so for GC to work on a web site you need to have a cart that works with GC. I'm using Mal's Cart as you just have to put buttons on the pages just like with PP. Really rather easy. Actually since I started with Mal's Cart around the beginning or 07, they have had problems working with Google and are not supporting Google Checkout any more.
New as of the beginning of Nov. 06 is an invoice feature for GC. That way you can use GC for just about any site you want to. You do have to send a GC invoice for each sale, but you have to do that at most of the sites already.
St. Elsewhere is the code word on eBay for any off eBay auction/listing site. With the glitches and fee hikes that seem to pop up with regularity at eBay, many people decided in 05 that it's good not to have all your sales eggs in just the eBay basket. To that end, many of us have spread out to other sites. Not all sites work well for every seller. Some sites do well for some things and not for other stuff.
The big thing about most of these alternate site tho, is you need to give them time. Don't expect to post something today and sell a bunch tomorrow. I would tell you to give most of these sites at least a year. It will also help if you can promote these other sites in all of your sales and any other way you can think of. Include a flier or catalog in every package you send out. Most people do not know that sites other than eBay even exist. We have to tell them.
This is a link list of many of the other sites that I sell on. The logos are all links to my listings or store. My user name is "knappschiles" on all of them. They are somewhat listed in the order that I've had the best results, best at the top. Last year my off-eBay sales were about equal to or maybe a little better than my eBay sales. This web site was the largest contribution, with Blujay being the next best site for me.
Some are better than others. Some are in better functional use than others. I list more stuff at the sites that are working better or that work better for me. Some have bulk-listers that work great for some but not for others. Personally, I can't seem to get the listers that use a CSV import to work on my computer. If it's a direct CSV or Excel file, they work great for me. Check them all out. Perhaps you will find a new favorite place for buying and selling.
At the bottom of the list I put a link to my favorite board. If you want to learn more about other places to sell at besides eBay, that is the place to check out. There are more board links on the board page.
Here is a trick I've been using last year that I don't want to put on the eBay boards so eBay won't catch on too quick and figure out a way to kill it. It will slow down the process, but could up your sales quite a bit too.
If you have an off-eBay site be sure to check out my "friends" page too and contact me about putting your link there.
Right now Blujay and eCrater have been the only sites other than my own site that have been getting ME sales on a consistent basis. I know that others have had good results at other sites, but this has been my experience.
eCrater
is a storefront/listing
type site that is quite popular with new refugees from eBay. I
personally don't like the fact that you can't use HTML in your listings
to dress them up. I actually just opened my store 1/29/06 and uploaded
a
file of my listings on 1/30.
They have a simple Excel file for a bulk loader. The bulk loader
can take a long time to get things up-loaded as it's done "by hand" by
the owner. One of the few bad things about the site. If your file has
HTML
it will need editing as I found out. Not too bad of a process, but
could use a little tweaking. I have actually gotten a fair amount of
sales from here. It kind of surprised me. Also integrated with Google
Checkout. The eCrater integration with GC seems to be a bit better than
that at Blujay for some reason I don't know. It seems that not having
the HTML in the listings actually helps with getting good placement at
Google Products ( new name for Froogle).
eBid
is part of the largest competitor of eBay in the UK. They have one of
the larger alternative sites.
It's a bit different, especially on their boards where the majority of
the users are British. They do have a bulk lister that I like.
It's
an Excel spreadsheet that you send to them by email. Works great for
me. Depending on how you list and what kind of membership you have, the
site can be totally free. Watch for sales on the "lifetime Gold" or now
"platinum" for
the best deals on selling. There is yet another new name for the
highest rank of membership. I think it's "seller+" but I'm not sure.
They have had a couple of "face lifts" in the last year and did pick up
quite a few members when a couple of other UK sites faltered.
Loudfrog
is a nice listing site. Free to list, very low FVF. Not a whole lot of
sales so far, but I have had a few sales thru being found on Google. I
need to get more thing up there myself. Actually an under rated, under
utilized site but worth checking into.
BiddersnSellers
(BnS) is about 2 years old and has gone thru several changes. Things
are in a change cycle again and I'm not sure if I will continue with
this site as it hasn't been much of a sale getter for me. Uses Rscript
and Boostlister. The site HAS
been getting sales for
some of my friends recently and I do like the script they use.
PlunderHere
is another newer site since summer 06, with not much time for a track
record yet. In Oct/Nov 06 they changed from being a Php site to an
Rscript site with the Boostlister bulk system. Their CS is
pretty good. PlunderHere was sold last summer to the person that used
to be the main CS at Bid-alot. So far this site has had the most
improvement of all the sites this year.
Sometimes there has been a bit of tension between supporters of Hibidder and PlunderHere on the PSU forums, as people have gotten very loyal to the sites they like. I try to keep that stuff out of my opinions as long as the sites work OK for me. As of April/May things have gotten worse and as a result, I'm not too happy recommending either site if you are going to be on the boards too. If you list at PlunderHere and/or HiBidder, you are best to 'keep to yourself' at PSU unless you are actually having a problem. Posting about site problems would be best at either of the site's own boards.
Sometimes there has been a bit of tension between supporters of Hibidder and PlunderHere on the PSU forums, as people have gotten very loyal to the sites they like. I try to keep that stuff out of my opinions as long as the sites work OK for me. As of April/May things have gotten worse and as a result, I'm not too happy recommending either site if you are going to be on the boards too. If you list at PlunderHere and/or HiBidder, you are best to 'keep to yourself' at PSU unless you are actually having a problem. Posting about site problems would be best at either of the site's own boards.
This site was sold last summer and the new
owners changed it from Rscript to Php. Not my favorite program, but the
site may be worth checking out. Since the change I haven't used it as I
haven't had time to list "by hand".
Bidzig
is a site that was around spring of 06 and then suddenly closed due to the owner being overworked.
He has re-ordered the site and his work and re-opened the site in 07. It
seemed to have promise last year so we'll see how it does now. I had
things up here until an upgrade lost listings. I haven't had a chance
to re-do things here since then.
Closed since June of 07
Yes Yahoo had auctions, until June 07 that is. Since June 05 they have been free too, no listing or FVF. The auctions are being discontinued as of June 16, 07. The biggest knock against the site is that they haven't made much of any improvements to the site in years. They have a CSV lister that has worked great for me. Some of the recent upgrades have had the side effect of having quite a few glitches. Right now Yahoo is a bit "trying" at best. If you have the patience for the bugs, go for it, but don't waste a whole lot of time on Yahoo right now. Part of the issue with Yahoo is that their CS is if anything, worse than eBay's.
Bid-alot is a site that was doing pretty well for me. They also send to Froogle and Google Base. No listing fee but a small FVF. Their bulk-lister is one that gives me fits. They are another Php-Probid site. Bid-alot was sold to a new group just recently (around 12/20/06). Things are not working out with the new owner. The site is 'for sale' again and I currently can't even get into my account and haven't gotten any answers to requests for help.
The
Auction Man (TAM). Also uses Boostlister. The site has been
virtually abandoned by the
owner and the boards are being used by porn spammers. I took down all
my items as I don't want to be at a site like that. Recently posted
that they were 'hacked', but didn't post reasons why their security
cert has been expired since March 07. Others wonder how much personal
info might have been lost in the 'hack'. Not a good situation right now.
Not Recommended Sites
This is a site I used to have high hopes
for. The community was very active for about a year and despite some
glitches, things seemed to be moving forward. But since about spring of
07 a fair amount of negatives kept coming up. One of the worst is that
some members were suspended for no apparent reason or for just asking a
question that someone didn't want to answer.
They have a bulk loader that doesn't work for me for importing my listings. But that's a PhP-Probid issue and is the same on all sites that use that program.
BidVille has been around for quite a while, tho I'm rather new there. The management there has been cleaning up the site and I know some other sellers that really love the place. I just got my items listed 1/26/06 so I have no track record yet. Their bulk loader was a problem for me. Recently bought out by uBid (summer 06). So far nothing positive seems to have come from the sale to uBid. Last summer they closed the boards and glitches seem to be the order of the day.
They have a bulk loader that doesn't work for me for importing my listings. But that's a PhP-Probid issue and is the same on all sites that use that program.
BidVille has been around for quite a while, tho I'm rather new there. The management there has been cleaning up the site and I know some other sellers that really love the place. I just got my items listed 1/26/06 so I have no track record yet. Their bulk loader was a problem for me. Recently bought out by uBid (summer 06). So far nothing positive seems to have come from the sale to uBid. Last summer they closed the boards and glitches seem to be the order of the day.
Closed since June of 07
Yes Yahoo had auctions, until June 07 that is. Since June 05 they have been free too, no listing or FVF. The auctions are being discontinued as of June 16, 07. The biggest knock against the site is that they haven't made much of any improvements to the site in years. They have a CSV lister that has worked great for me. Some of the recent upgrades have had the side effect of having quite a few glitches. Right now Yahoo is a bit "trying" at best. If you have the patience for the bugs, go for it, but don't waste a whole lot of time on Yahoo right now. Part of the issue with Yahoo is that their CS is if anything, worse than eBay's.
Bid-alot is a site that was doing pretty well for me. They also send to Froogle and Google Base. No listing fee but a small FVF. Their bulk-lister is one that gives me fits. They are another Php-Probid site. Bid-alot was sold to a new group just recently (around 12/20/06). Things are not working out with the new owner. The site is 'for sale' again and I currently can't even get into my account and haven't gotten any answers to requests for help.
BidChaser
is a site that we all had high hopes for making a splash in the market
world as they seem to have some money behind them. But it's been over
2 years now (spring of 07) and the site is still glitchy as all get out. Most of us
are
leaving whatever we have listed up if we can, but don't know if the
site will ever make a turn-around. Of all the sites I have listed here,
this is one I'm not all that comfortable recommending you try
out at this time. Hopefully some day that will change. Actually it is
changing names to QshopNow. I still don't trust that Leo will ever
finish it right tho. Actually maybe the site has finally died as
getting to it is a really iffy thing since Feb. But I don't count
on it not showing up under yet another name. If you ever see the name
Leo Cunha as part of a site, RUN !!! Pixie Toys is one of the old names
also connected with Leo.
NEW as of 11/21/06, no longer recommended. They have totally revamped the site and it's a total mess. If you can even get into the site, chances are you won't be able to get in contact with buyers. Listings missing, old listings long deleted are back. Lots of ads for replicas right in the middle of your listings. Be careful if you use this site. I have totally pulled my listings and if I could figure out HOW, I would close my account there.
The old iOffer was another "listing" type site but with a difference - if you want you can list "make offer". Some times the site seems to be very good and at other times not so great. If you have an outgoing nature and like chatting in "clubs" iOffer could be for you. But beware of ticking off any of the members that seem to be running the asylum. It can get you suspended or kicked out totally. They have a bulk lister that I haven't tried yet. iOffer has been having some issues recently and if you don't like "replicas" this is not the site for you.
NEW as of 11/21/06, no longer recommended. They have totally revamped the site and it's a total mess. If you can even get into the site, chances are you won't be able to get in contact with buyers. Listings missing, old listings long deleted are back. Lots of ads for replicas right in the middle of your listings. Be careful if you use this site. I have totally pulled my listings and if I could figure out HOW, I would close my account there.
The old iOffer was another "listing" type site but with a difference - if you want you can list "make offer". Some times the site seems to be very good and at other times not so great. If you have an outgoing nature and like chatting in "clubs" iOffer could be for you. But beware of ticking off any of the members that seem to be running the asylum. It can get you suspended or kicked out totally. They have a bulk lister that I haven't tried yet. iOffer has been having some issues recently and if you don't like "replicas" this is not the site for you.
WagglePop
Epier
I'm also a member at several other auction/listing sites but haven't had time to use them yet. As I get things up, I will add them to this list.
A great place to learn all about all these alternate sites and many more is PowerSellersUnite (PSU) It's a board that isn't affiliated with any site, so you can talk about ALL of the sites without fear of being censored or "pink-slapped" like on the eBay boards. You don't have to be a Power Seller to be a member there either. In fact most of us there are not power sellers and never were. Come join PSU and learn about life after eBay. A great place to keep up on the latest scams too, so you don't become one of the scammed. Over 7000 members and counting.
Last edited 12/2/07
I'm having a bit of a problem right now with my main email account. If you get a "bounced" email message from my contact links, here is an alternate email that should get thru to me.