Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Is eBid Too Good To Be True?

This is the way the internet works. I get an e-mail from WebProNews.com about how eBay is forcing our friends in Austrailia to use PayPal as the only method of payment. Obviously, the predictible righteous indignation ensues - and I agree that it is a tough tactic move by eBay - but it got me to thinking about alternatives to eBay. There are a bunch of them out there but they all seem...well.... not too professional, not enough items, etc., etc., etc.

I even looked at some of the comic book auction sites like Heritage Auctions and ComicLink and they are good but you can't brand your logo, establish your identity - i.e. everything runs through them and your only contact with the buyer is when you ship your product.

But I looked at one that really got my eye and that is eBid. You can sign up for a lifetime membership as a seller+ for only $49.99 and that is it! No more listing fees and no more final value fees. Now think about that for a moment. You pay a one time fee and you can sell as much stuff as you want. By the way, this is not some shameless plug because a) I have not signed up yet and b) eBid doesn't have an affiliate program (yet...) and so there is no kickback for ol' Willie. Believe me, I am trying to figure out what the catch is but I haven't found one yet.

What eBid reminds me of is eBay back in 1997 or so when it was pretty much undiscovered. You could get instant help on the forums from the eBay folks and it was not a public company so it was a LOT more user friendly.

Thing is, I will always have an eBay store of some sort - just too daggone many eyeballs BUT if eBid and my own website start taking off, I will severely limit my participation on eBay. I'm getting ahead of myself here... I will try eBid and see how it goes. I will post back in a month or two and describe my experience.

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Update: eBid does indeed have an affiliate program - that's a good thing....

As usual, comments and questions are welcome and solicited.

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