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Online Auction Websites Offer Sellers Another Option to Ebay’s High Fees

Alternative to Ebay, Auction Selling

Sellers on ebay have been frustrated by the website’s recent actions, including a sharp rise in fees and a steady decline in customer service. Add to that a rash of fraud and non-paying bidders, and you have a large group of disgruntled sellers looking for an alternative – any alternative – to making some extra cash.

While there are some a number of auction websites, very few have offered a true challenge to ebay’s supremacy. Still other websites have begun offering auctions specifically for particular items (like sports cards). With the demise of Yahoo Auctions, a handful of sites are now fighting for your attention. Some prove to be a worthy alternative and should garner the consideration of sellers looking for a new home. With enough support, one may emerge as a true challenger to ebay’s title of “King of the Online Auctions.”

Amazon Auctions (auctions.amazon.com)

Amazon Auctions is probably the biggest auction website you don’t know about. Despite being a part of one of the web’s most popular sites, Amazon Auctions is terribly marketed and you have to really look for the auction home page (if you try from the main Amazon home page). Part of the problem with Amazon Auctions is the fact that buyers come to the site looking for immediate buys, and auctions work against that, so the site treats it as an afterthought. If you search for a particular item, auctions for that item will show up as part of the results. There are listing fees, and additional fees are fairly high. If you want to sell on Amazon, you actually stand a better chance to make money by registering as a seller and sell your items, new and used, through Amazon Marketplace. This allows you to sell your item on the same page Amazon uses to sell their item. For example, if Amazon is listing a particular model of Sony digital camera, you can also sell the same item. It will be listed as a purchase alternative along with other identical models sold by other sellers. Be aware that Amazon fees for this service are high.

Auction Addict (www.auctionaddict.com)

Auction Addict looks like a great place to buy, but it may not be the best place to sell – yet. It does have one great thing going for it: it has no listing or commission fees. Fees for additional services (like featured listings) are available. Of course, this is a great thing for sellers, but there is a drawback. At first glance, the home page lists over a million items for auction. Unfortunately, many of the items listed are not from a large group of sellers. They are actually links to items on “partner” websites like Overstock.com. While that may build a nice buyer base, if Auction Addict doesn’t eventually phases those out as their seller list grows, the site will never become a top auction site. With the lack of fees, however, it is a nice alternative.

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Auction Saloon (www.auctionsaloon.com)

If you’d like to auction your items and help a great cause at the same time, Auction Saloon may be your answer. Auction Saloon is owned by the Blount County Animal Rescue in Tennessee, and the profits from the site go to help save local stray animals. There are no listing fees, and the final value fee is only 3%, lower than most sites. There aren’t many bidders or sellers there since the Blount County Animal Rescue took over the site, but with some support, it could do well. It just needs traffic and support.

Auction-Warehouse (www.auction-warehouse.com)

Buyer and seller friendly, Auction-Warehouse is appealing to sellers because they offer free auctions, no listing or final sale fees. There are fees for extras, like bold listings. While it is a nice site, there are few bidders and sellers, and the lack of traffic may discourage some. As an ebay alternative, it is worth looking at.

Bidville (www.bidville.com)

Bidville is owned by the company that owns uBid, but unlike them, it is open to just about any seller (uBid sellers must qualify to sell). Registration is simple and fast. While it is not the slickest looking website, it is easy to navigate, with a number of categories to browse through. Bidville doesn’t have many sellers and therefore not many buyers, but the affiliation with uBid might help traffic in the future. There are no listing fees, which is a big plus. Final sale fees are a little high but about what you see anywhere else. If you are a Featured Merchant (which requires a monthly fee) you pay no final fees on anything you sell.

BuyNSellIt (www.buynsellit.com)

If you are looking to auction off antiques and collectibles, especially in large quantities on a regular basis, you might find BuyNSellIt.com a nice ebay alternative. There seems to be a number of sellers listing a wide array of items, although bidding did not seem as active as one would hope. Considering the number of items listed, it may indicate more traffic than we witnessed.

There are no listing fees, and final value fees are low, but the site requires a monthly charge, which varies from $5.99 and up. It seems to encourage sellers to build stores and websites which seems unnecessary and just a way to line their pockets. It is a well designed site, however, so if you have the volume of product to move, it is worth a look.

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ePier (www.epier.com)

ePier is a nice auction site, well designed and easy to use. The ease of listing and posting photos makes selling attractive, but like many sites, it doesn’t have a large number of bidders. The product selection is actually very good considering it doesn’t have as many sellers as you would like. There are no listing fees, and no fee for image hosting. Best of all, final sales fees are among the lowest around. It makes ePier an inexpensive and first-rate alternative to ebay.

The Free Auction (www.thefreeauction.com)

As the name implies, auction selling on this site is free. There are small fees for extras like bold listings. While the lack of fees is nice, the website is not the easiest to go through. Rather than offer quick links to auction listings, it takes at least three clicks to actually get to auction listings. You are forced to browse very specific categories, like sports item collectibles, and not a general listing of all collectibles. The poor site design is not helped by the “link exchange” banners at the top of each page, which are often annoying: I don’t need a Bulgarian bride, thank you. There are also a distinct lack of auctions, so the light traffic is likely to yield poor selling results. Until the site gets it together, it won’t get much of a following.

HiBidder (www.hibidder.com)

HiBidder has a great site, a nice number of sellers and bidders, and low, low fees. Some decent promotion has brought in a number of sellers, mostly ebay refugees. With a decent product selection, traffic should continue to grow and this site could be a force to be reckoned with in the online auction community soon.

Listing auctions on HiBidder is free, and the final value fee can be as low as 10 cents for a $100 sale and no more than $1.50 for a sale of $10,000. It’s the lowest fee structure anywhere. With auctions presented in an easy to read format, bidders should have no problem. It is definitely worth a look.

uBid (www.ubid.com)

uBid is a very popular site, but if you want to sell, you need to be serious. Unlike most auction sites, uBid has certified merchants. That means you must go through an application process and meet certain requirements to sell on uBid, including being an actual established business, have trade references, and provide a tax i.d. number or social security number. There are no listing fees and final sales fees are fair. uBid handles he credit card processing once a purchase is made, so sellers don’t have to worry about buyer fraud. uBid also has aggressive seller tools and marketing. For a more conventional ebay-type of site, uBid has Bidville.

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uTrove (www.uTrove.com)

UTrove could be a nice auction site and a good alternative to ebay, but it has several strikes against it. It isn’t the busiest site, with a low number of sellers and bidders. It appears to be a free site, but the fee structure is not clear. It says it is free, but mentions a listing fee that may be charged. It lists takes several clicks to get to auctions from the home page, and discourages widespread browsing by limiting it to specific categories. With some upgrading, traffic could increase.

Vendea (www.vendea.com

The jury is still out on Vendea as an ebay alternative. At the time this article was written, it was being beta-tested, no auctions were posted, and no fees were being charged.

Ziing (www.ziing.com)

Could Ziing be the ebay alternative people have been waiting for? Time will tell, but the would-be ebay killer is off to a good start. It has done some promotion, which helps, mostly that they are the best alternative for people sick of ebay. They have a nice-looking site, registration is easy, and they have some decent traffic. They tell you on their home page how many auctions are running and how many people are on the site at the time. THAT takes confidence.

It isn’t a perfect site, however. Like other sites, you can only browse listings in very specific sub-categories. From the home page, you must first click on Movies and DVDs, then on standard DVDs, and then you must click on a genre like action or romance to finally see listings. Allowing browsing of all items under movies (which would include VHS) may be too broad, but it would be nice to see listings of all DVDs. What if a movie is listed under a wrong category? It’s a minor flaw, but it could affect sales.

Listing auctions on Ziing is free, with minor charges for extras like bold or featured listings. The final sales fee is only 2%, much lower than ebay’s 5% plus. With so much going for it, Ziing should do well despite some flaws. )