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Post your comments for Skeptical Shopper: Tired of eBay? Consider These Alternatives here

[FayeBrogi]

Just an FYI ~ as of Sept. 21, 2010, Bonanzle.com changed its name to Bonanza.com. At the same time, Bonanza bought out 1000Markets.com, an artisan marketplace much like the culture of Etsy and ArtFire. http://www.auctionby...y10/m09/i21/s01

Faye aka BookBrowZers

[Tedster]

The simple fact is ebay is the big gorilla in the room. Nobody will ever beat them. Most other sites are fly-by-night. I've looked at a few and most were way too small and offered little of interest. Ebay's feeback system does indeed suck - especially for sellers dealing with problem buyers. I have been ebaying for years both as a buyer and a seller. Recently I was once again bitten by a deadbeat bidder and I couldn't leave negative feedback unlike the past when ebay allowed it.

[GregSmithdrj7]

There are a lot of gross inaccuracies in this article. It only mentions Ebay listing fees, there is no mention of the exhorbitant final value fees. Bonanza's final value fees are NOT higher than Ebay's. They have ALWAYS been much lower. The discrepancy in final value fees is even built into Bonanza's Ebay import tool. The biggest problem with Ebay feedback has nothing to do with the number of characters allowed for buyers and everything to do with the fact sellers can't leave negative or neutral feedback but instead can only leave positive, making the feedback system useless and making things easier for scamming buyers who are actually shady re-sellers themselves. More sellers have fled Ebay for Amazon than all other marketplaces combined yet Amazon is not even mentioned in this article. Neither is Etsy which has been Ebay's 2nd most successful challenger besides Amazon and is now one of the 80 most visited websites among Americans. And to the person who commented that Ebay is the "800 pound gorilla in the room", I say get out of 2004 and into 2010. Amazon is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, Etsy has taken an enormous amount of business in the room, and while none of the others indivually are a threat to Ebay, Bonanza, Ecrater, Ioffer, Ebid, Blujay, Atomic Mall are gradually taking Ebay's sellers of quality items while they are replaced with Chinese junk dealers. Ebay's heyday is LONG over. That's why a stock that was worth $58/share at one time has struggled for years just to get back above $25. The search is broken, the U.S. core marketplace situation is a mess so bad even John Donahoe admits it's a mess. If not for Paypal, this company would already be dead - Ebay marketplaces are now a joke and the company is one of the least trusted on earth due to management's consistent lack of integrity and consistent lack of focus.....possibly on a criminal level. Finally, Ebay has more lawsuits (including class action lawsuits) being filed against it than all other e-commerce companies combined. The company is living on past glories but internally is a complete mess. Companies like Amazon that aren't a mess aren't changing their rules and policies every other week. Ebay is that kind of hopelessly micromanaged trainwreck of a mess.

[Goofpod]

Well stated, GregSmithdrj7. FEEBAY just doesn't get it. They keep claiming they would be nowhere without their buyers- and blatantly neglect the sellers. Prior to their feedback policy change when they eliminated the ability for sellers to leave negative feedback for bad buyers, we maintained 100% positive ratings for many years through thousands of transactions. Within six months of the change we'd received 5 negatives that were entirely unwarranted and EBay refused to correct due to their flawed feedback "forum" policies. Debating with their customer service cronies is fruitless; they're taught the spiel so well they cannot deviate nor have the authority to truly solve issues. What good is a so-called "forum" is it's entirely one-sided? Couple that farce with their constant fee charges and the place has become a no-win situation for us- long term sellers who had great success in the past. If they don't wake up and smell the coffee soon they will be left in Amazon's wake as simply a cheap Made-in-China outlet (and scam target) that's recognized for what it is- and only what it USED to be. These days, FeeBay really sucks...

[FramkSimmons]

Even if you are happy with Ebay there is an another site that should be considered.
Ealtbay.com is another Ebay alternative that has the niche of allowing the selling of items that are perfectly legal to own and sell, but are banned on Ebay. Such as grandma's antique ivory bangles -that are too small for you to wear, so you want to sell them. Ebay will not allow them on their site. Ealtbay will, you can list them for free, they have very low final value fees, do not require paypal, and are international in scope.

[kentallpines]

Hi everyone;
I agree with most of what I have read on here, but you all have left out a major no-no from greedbay.
They are clearly in violation of anti-trust law!! The Australian government has told them so. They further said that if greedbay didn't drop that policy in Australia, they would be blocked from access there.
Go to ebay.com.au and do a search of sellers and you can see for yourself. Sellers there can offer to accept PayPal, money orders, personal checks, and even cash. Yeah cash, how about that!!
It is time to put a stop to their BS and start a grass roots movement, to petition Washington to slap them with a anti-trust suit.
Even if we win and stop their BS, most of us will still never go back there. But a least we will have the satisfaction that we helper those that are still over there, and also screwed greedbay.
Ken Tall Pines

[JonasJoseph]

Your complaining about ebay is bad and your end up have ioffer on the list. Ioffer.com is one of the wort marketplace on the site. Safe heaven for Chinese counterfeit good, scammer, fraud you name it. Ioffer staff removed all negatives feedbacks from scam sellers and replace with fake positive feedback.

[DominicPantalleresco0eu1]

Dear Sir,
I would not recommend ioffer they are the biggest scammers and frauds in all the internet
Dominic

[tomgar41]

GregSmithdrj7, on 27 October 2010 - 06:12 PM, said:

There are a lot of gross inaccuracies in this article. It only mentions Ebay listing fees, there is no mention of the exhorbitant final value fees. Bonanza's final value fees are NOT higher than Ebay's. They have ALWAYS been much lower. The discrepancy in final value fees is even built into Bonanza's Ebay import tool. The biggest problem with Ebay feedback has nothing to do with the number of characters allowed for buyers and everything to do with the fact sellers can't leave negative or neutral feedback but instead can only leave positive, making the feedback system useless and making things easier for scamming buyers who are actually shady re-sellers themselves. More sellers have fled Ebay for Amazon than all other marketplaces combined yet Amazon is not even mentioned in this article. Neither is Etsy which has been Ebay's 2nd most successful challenger besides Amazon and is now one of the 80 most visited websites among Americans. And to the person who commented that Ebay is the "800 pound gorilla in the room", I say get out of 2004 and into 2010. Amazon is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, Etsy has taken an enormous amount of business in the room, and while none of the others indivually are a threat to Ebay, Bonanza, Ecrater, Ioffer, Ebid, Blujay, Atomic Mall are gradually taking Ebay's sellers of quality items while they are replaced with Chinese junk dealers. Ebay's heyday is LONG over. That's why a stock that was worth $58/share at one time has struggled for years just to get back above $25. The search is broken, the U.S. core marketplace situation is a mess so bad even John Donahoe admits it's a mess. If not for Paypal, this company would already be dead - Ebay marketplaces are now a joke and the company is one of the least trusted on earth due to management's consistent lack of integrity and consistent lack of focus.....possibly on a criminal level. Finally, Ebay has more lawsuits (including class action lawsuits) being filed against it than all other e-commerce companies combined. The company is living on past glories but internally is a complete mess. Companies like Amazon that aren't a mess aren't changing their rules and policies every other week. Ebay is that kind of hopelessly micromanaged trainwreck of a mess.

[tomgar41]

BONANZA WILL NOT SUPPLY EMAIL ADDRESSES OF SELLERS AND WON'T ALLOW ANY SELLER CONTACT INFORMATION IN LISTINGS AND INTERFERES WITH ALL TRANSACTIONS WHICH MAKE THIS FROM ABOVE NOT TRUE-the site encourages a sense of community and individuality among shoppers and sellers. IF THERE IS NO SELLER/BUYER COMMUNICATION ALLOWED. THIS CERTAINLY DOESN'T ENCOURAGE A COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT.

WHAT EBAY AND PAYPAL DO IS STRICTLY ILLEGAL AND IT'S A WONDER THEY ARE STILL ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH IT. FORTUNATELY, THERE ARE BETTER SITES FOR WHAT WE SELL.

GARY
TOMGAR CORP
TOMGAR.COM