A rival to Ebay?

[Asteeleleith]

Hi all

What would ppl think to a second by even better ebay type of thing. One that allows only Trade to sell, but most ppl can register to buy?

We have established that ebay without doubt has cornered the market here, but it is still flawed and there are a number of disgruntled customers as we have seen, including me.
if a new concept along similar lines could be thought of then could it could be possible to provide a better service to rival Ebay.

i know there are already online shops etc, but what if people could use it to sell goods they want to shift quickly, it would do no harm to advertise in more than one place then?
Last minute hols even. These are just ideas, but i would invite everyones opinion
Does anyone know of anything similar on the interent already?

Al

[stagetec]

Check out http://www.qsell.co.uk/

Andy

[Asteeleleith]

Hi andy

Thanks for that, yes this is kind of the type of thing i guess we were thinking of

Seems a good one to keep an eye on, notice it also says Beta, wonder if this means it is for testing.

Al

[stagetec]

It was something a friend of mine set up a while back as a rival to eBay, but ran into the same problem as detailed elsewhere on this forum, how do you market it when you are competiting with the power of eBay, anyone got any suggestions?

Andy

[Asteeleleith]

Yes, start of lower key, don;t try to sprint before you can walk.

Start off small dealing locally to start with and with a smaller range of popular items. Esp now we are coming close to xmas, now is a time to try to market it.

The press too might be interested, if it gets local interest, local business would be interested to back it. Esp if they have last minute local offer to add. Like a local branch may have excess stock to shift quickly.

Especially if business know that joe bloggs would not be able to sell in ti as well more would be keen to use it.

The key is to test the concept first, see if it can work, keep investment down to limit downside. This way you limit the risk. Set an incentive for business to use it, no sale no fee kind of idea. But do not allow them to re list things that are obviously not going.

Just a few thoughts i have

Al

[Asteeleleith]

ps, you could consider relaunching it i see where the name comes from, but could there e a more catchy name, i thought of etrader but this has gone. Any other ideas, i could be too pinickety here, what does the rest of the forum think?
i have bookmarked the site, will take a closer lookin the morning once i have had some beauty sleep :-)

Speak later

Al

[stagetec]

FYI Qsell is short for QuickSell, but I agree it doesn't have the same ring as eBay, but then if someone had told you they were setting up an on line auction site called eBay 10 years ago, would you have thought the name was catchy??

Andy

[Asteeleleith]

sorry about that, hence i have just edited the thread :oops:

i see where you are coing from with it :-)

Lets see what we can come up with to help.

Al

ps, i like the telescope thats going for sale on it. I wonder if i couuld interest some of my stargazer friends to take a look. :-)

[Eagle]

*
I'd say you don't stand a chance...

http://www.auctionlotwatch.co.uk/auctions.html

[clairemackaness]

Good luck, I'd be happy to be a guinea pig, but you have a huge battle on your hands.

How about Abay (alternative) or Obay (online)?

[Top Hat]

I think Google and Microsoft are the only 2 companies that could seriously take on ebay.

Unless ebay muck up

[Asteeleleith]

To be honest,

The more i hear views saying we stand no chance, the more keen i would be to give it a go, i love proving people wrong you see :-)

As far as i can make out from my experiences plus those of other people in here, ebay are already failing, so many digruntled customers out there :-)

We have people sellling crap and information (dud at that) on ebay. i went through the feedback on some of the items. One person was selling a get rich scheme for over a tenner, just for leaving your computer on. Turns out you might make 50p, which does not even cover the cost of running it!
It is schemers like this that give ebay a bad name, and invites competition to pick up where ebay simply fail.
It is true they dominate the market, but do they have the god gven right to simply monopolise it indefinetly? are we saying there is simply no room for competition?

Has anyone been on there lately and seen how difficult it is to sell anything there, as there are so many other similar items going for the same that urs does not even get a look in?
I would not say a rival stands no chance, if pitched correctly at the right audience, then with word of mouth to carry it anything is possible. I mean look at Loot, this is a similar thing isn;t it? Exhange and mart. They are both doing ok, and they charge a hell of a lot more for listing.

I know on the other hand other organisations like Qsell are already attempting to rival ebay. So the question to ask is where are they going wrong?

One could poach unsatisified customers from ebay by sending them a private messge. Failed to sell your item? Got to pay the listing fee anyway? We are sorry about that, why not come and list it with us for free. Of course we would only do this for trade not for someone selling brickabrack from the loft. Or ok, we could extend it to domestic as well, after careful consideration. only on invitation perhaps.

I think it would be an insterestng challenge one, if the downside could be limited then it has to be worth giving it a go. At the end of the day no one is saying the organisation would be as big as ebay, but it could still make enough business to survive! and give people a choice of who to use.

Then this is me, a natural born optimist, i never ask "Can it be done" i always ask "how can it be done"

Al

[clairemackaness]

Go for it Al, I'll be your first customer if you can get it to work

[Asteeleleith]

Thank you for that claire.

It wouldn;t happened imediately as i have other things i need to sort out first like getting my present venture up and running.

But if it does go ahead, you will be the first i would invite :-)

Al

[clairemackaness]

Bless you, I need something to sell my stuff. I'm desperate to clear out current stocks so I can roll out my new Autumn/Winter collection.

I think I might do a 30 day clear out sale on my website.

[Asteeleleith]

I have sent you a pm claire

[webit]

I think Google and Microsoft are the only 2 companies that could seriously take on ebay.

Unless ebay muck up

I have to disagree. There is always an angle. I’d start off with a SWOT of eBay in your view. And start thinking about how I could spin those strengths into a weakness.

Top of my head I’d start looking at targeting (locality or sector) and working that idea.

PR would be achievable (local/UK company to target eBay rip off/disgruntled customers etc, big play of UK charities.)

No company is 100% impenetrable and its size might be a weakness that can be leveraged.

With webit.net we are in a tough marketplace. However I know that with 100% customer service and the ability to react quickly to requests (as eBay was in the early days) we are gaining ground (currently 30% growth per month). Too many large companies lose that advantage through scale or having to answer to too many people. Think about your advantage and use that, always give people what they want.

I have this book and it's worth reading:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0749924039/qid=1128948320/sr=1-11/ref=sr_1_2_11/026-9952139-9627640

as is this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0099418371/qid=1128948375/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_11_1/026-9952139-9627640

[Eagle]

By all means go for it!

I wasn't trying to stifle your ambition - just that you need to be realistic. :)

[bidonalot]

since i mentioned my site BIDONLAOT.COM ebay have reduced their listing fees i wonder if thats because i was offering my sellers and buyers a better deal, so this is what i have now done, FREE listings which includes motor vehicles and caravans etc, and a 1% commission fee accross the board for everything sold and with just £1 to register which serves to verify the registration,once registered and verified the £1 is refunded and the seller is given a £5 credit.can ebay better that maybe im a rival but im going to offer a service better than theirs

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

since i mentioned my site BIDONLAOT.COM ebay have reduced their listing fees i wonder if thats because i was offering my sellers and buyers a better deal

It isn't. I can pretty much 100% guarentee that they have never even heard of your project since there are thousands exactly like yours, most will be a lot better.

, so this is what i have now done, FREE listings which includes motor vehicles and caravans etc, and a 1% commission fee accross the board for everything sold and with just £1 to register which serves to verify the registration,once registered and verified the £1 is refunded and the seller is given a £5 credit.can ebay better that maybe im a rival but im going to offer a service better than theirs

The £1 is a bad idea in my opinion. I would not give a website I've never heard of one pound (or my bank details) as soon as I sign-up just to get a free account I might not even use. I don't know about a 'better service' but so far Ebay is hundreds of times better in pretty much every possible way after having a look at your site.

[Jon123]

I think its proberably more to do with them registering there main office in luxembourg and only paying 15% Vat!!

Jon

[garyk]

To be honest,

The more i hear views saying we stand no chance, the more keen i would be to give it a go, i love proving people wrong you see :-)

A great attitide but the question has been asked many many times, could a rival succeed and there are many rivals and none of them successful (yet).

As far as i can make out from my experiences plus those of other people in here, ebay are already failing, so many digruntled customers out there :-)

You are talking about a few hundred or even if you said a few thousand over many millions of items (last stats I saw said something like 16M+ items listed on ebay US at any one time) its a very small proportion of people.

We have people sellling crap and information (dud at that) on ebay. i went through the feedback on some of the items. One person was selling a get rich scheme for over a tenner, just for leaving your computer on. Turns out you might make 50p, which does not even cover the cost of running it!
It is schemers like this that give ebay a bad name, and invites competition to pick up where ebay simply fail.

But if you are selling so many items are you actually going to monitor the details of each and every one? Of course not, if junk is being sold then thats down to the user base not ebay, everyone is trying to earn extra cash from it in any way they can.

It is true they dominate the market, but do they have the god gven right to simply monopolise it indefinetly? are we saying there is simply no room for competition?

They dont have a god given right to, fact is they are the biggest player by far in their market space and no-one has challenged it.

Has anyone been on there lately and seen how difficult it is to sell anything there, as there are so many other similar items going for the same that urs does not even get a look in?

Thought it was easier to be honest as they have changed the selling screens and condensed it into one. I sold my 2 year old 40GB 4th gen ipod on there a couple of days for £110, was well chuffed since my 5th gen 80gb I have just ordered was only £100 more.

I would not say a rival stands no chance, if pitched correctly at the right audience, then with word of mouth to carry it anything is possible. I mean look at Loot, this is a similar thing isn;t it? Exhange and mart. They are both doing ok, and they charge a hell of a lot more for listing.

E&M has been around 100 years or so hasnt it? And Loot is an established name as well, they do well from print media and the online sales is incidental to their main business. They are doing OK but they dont have market capitalisations in the billions like ebay have.

I know on the other hand other organisations like Qsell are already attempting to rival ebay. So the question to ask is where are they going wrong?

Well I would say its becuase they arent offering anything unique or different from ebay. Sure you can say trade only but you are still running an online auction.

One could poach unsatisified customers from ebay by sending them a private messge. Failed to sell your item? Got to pay the listing fee anyway? We are sorry about that, why not come and list it with us for free. Of course we would only do this for trade not for someone selling brickabrack from the loft. Or ok, we could extend it to domestic as well, after careful consideration. only on invitation perhaps.

That *could* work, you would need automate the process so you could target thousands of people as its basically spam and you would probably get a tiny response and/or hassle from ebay if the number of messages was large.

I think it would be an insterestng challenge one, if the downside could be limited then it has to be worth giving it a go. At the end of the day no one is saying the organisation would be as big as ebay, but it could still make enough business to survive! and give people a choice of who to use.

It could but you are going to have to throw alot of marketing money at it just to create awareness and would have to be patient before you saw any return on investment.

Then this is me, a natural born optimist, i never ask "Can it be done" i always ask "how can it be done"

Well I have often kicked this one around as well. My only thinking is that you create something like ebay but you 'regionalise' it. That way you only charge people to list, and buyer and seller actually conduct the transaction face to face with cash so you get rid of paypal issues and fees and minimise fraud. Would it work? I dont know!, Would I spend money setting up an online auction site? Nope, theres 1001 other avenues you could take to generate income from a business where the other players are not so dominant.

Good luck with it all the same!

Gary

[mconridge]

:mad:If you read through the price changes you will see that the fees have increased not decreased. Although the insertation fees have come down by a few pence, the final valuation fees have increased by 9% :mad: .

The only good point is that these changes only affect a few types of products.

[bidonalot]

Nobody asked about bank details and besides paypal and ebay store your credit card details, thats why i dont ask for any information like this, secondly ebay have over the years updated the site giving more choices but at the end of the day its only an auction site, size does not make a difference, maybe the vigorous advertising like getting ebay in you mail so thats a little too much, anyway my site will improve as i find people to join me who will better the site, at least my site souns like an auction site, bid on a lot is what you do at an auction, you dont ebay it do you, if i bid at an auction for something then im bidding on the lot i want, whats an ebay??. ive been ripped off too many times on ebay anyway and want to share what i have with others and will make sure that sellers too are not there just to make money out of postal charges, in fact some make more money out of the postal charge than they actually make selling the goods, i mean you buy a belly stud for 50p and they charge £3.95 post, the actual postal charge is about 45p,so on my site this will be monitored to prevent that, now thats something new.it will take time to get known but then once they know youre there they will all come, the £1 fee is only to verify, at least you get your money back and you say you dont know me, do you know ebay and paypal then?.or is it because you know of them, if you check around the internet you will see how many people have lost money on ebay and paypal, i should know i was one of them. time will tell but im going to give it a good go and because someone has a big site does not make any difference, do not two supermarkets sell goods next door to each other selling similar goods?. likewise the same here, i have a lot to do but will try anyway. bidonalot not a bay? a bay is where boats are kept that sometime sink when a smaller boat comes along and causes a few ripples that turn into waves that sinks the big ship!

[Gavin Harris]

Just to add... www.kellel.com (http://www.kellel.com) have been advertising very heavily on the local radio station in Slough, so they've spent thousands on advertising, yet there still doesn't seem to be any interest in the site.

So if that's an eBay alternative that has spent lots of money on advertising, I can't see how you can improve on that...

[bidonalot]

OK but remember this ebay had a site like that once where it was empty and over time it grew, it did not grow overnight, in my opinion ebay are too aggressive in the advertising they do, i mean you cant open you mail without seeing the name ebay, ebay, ebay, why dont you ever see yahoo,qxl, ebid etc, i mean even when you search for something the search engines say ebay and nobody else, thats all advertising. the name kellel does that sound like bid or auction or lot, its as bad as a bay or harbour..what about if someone starts an auction siter called harbour.com does it sound like an auction site or a seaside resort. no ebay only think they are the best and only site but thats not true, its what they want you all to think that ebay is the only site that lets people sell and buy, ITS NOT. and if i can do anything about it will give people a better option, it will take time but at least im going to hang around a while and upgrade my site, for one thing i will be offering MORE selling catagories than ebay does, at present i have things on my site ebay does not have. what about the scrolling pages, my fees for selling cars is FREE, thats better isnt it.

[An Oasis]

The only way anyone could possibly succeed against ebay would by stealth tactics. E.g. You would need to start with a niche and build, build, build. I doubt wether anyone would get any V.C. funding for the project… Ebay spend unbelievably stupid amounts on ghost bidding (that’s my term it means ad sense or equivalent even when they have no product in). They are in things for the long haul; it would be a very committed company and backers who take them on. The project would take huge balls or ebay to stuff up on a monumental basis. I guess put the process in place and wait for ebay to get to the point where it’s loyal base start to fall away… You would need some serious business brains & funding in place, I give up.

[bidonalot]

you dont have to have millions of pounds to take on ebay you just do it and thats exactly what im doing, after all its only a name isnt it and an online auction site with lots of members, if people want to try and see on my site thats fine, maybe i will ask microsoft or google to back me up but at the end of the day size has nothing to do with it, its only that everyone is being told there is only one auction place, ebay, again thats not true, I AM A RIVAL TO EBAY and proud of it, i know i used to sell on yahoo uk auctions and that was a lot better but since selling on ebay have lost lots of money due to the amout of stuff these which decreases the price you should get although buyers get a better deal. anyway i challenge ebay im not afraid im only a competitor like the others but who knows who the challanging winner will be, time will tell

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

you dont have to have millions of pounds to take on ebay

Yes you do.


you just do it and thats exactly what im doing, after all its only a name isnt it and an online auction site with lots of members, if people want to try and see on my site thats fine,

Theres a difference between how you're using words. Yes you're taking on Ebay and becoming a 'rival' like the thousands of other auction websites. However you will never compete.


maybe i will ask microsoft or google to back me up

This just made me laugh.


but at the end of the day size has nothing to do with it

Size has everything to do with it.

I'm normally not this blunt but you're looking at this so unrealistically and ignoring what everyone says. I'm sure you can see yourself that your auction website has no members. Say in a situation where you did some marketing and managed to get a person to visit the website. What do you think they are going to do when they see your website without ANY members with nothing to buy and no one to sell their stuff to? Then to top it off the website looks unprofessional and you're asking for a refunded pound and their back details to sign-up?

You don't seem to be making a decent point so at least try and answer me this.

[bidonalot]

Thats correct no memebers YET but again size has nothing to do with it a mini can go faster than a rolls royce im sure, is size anything to do with it, ebay are afraid of the competition thats why they advertise so much as they say the bigger they are the harder they fall and the small ones take over, lets just see how it goes,there are lots on ebay ive spoken too who are unhappy so im directing them to my site to show them there is life outside of the bay

[Carl-CSNM]

Remember... size isn't everything ;)

[Comspec]

Although I always think it is those with small ones who say that ;)

Kind of like the old 'Money doesn't make you happy' argument - invented by the rich man to keep the poor man feeling satisfied and in his place.

If you think it is worthwhile mate, you go for it. If nothing else, you will learn some stuff along the way which will be useful for you in the longer term. At worst, you will be out a few quid and some time-based effort.
At best, you are the next ebay.

Good luck
Mark.

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

Thats correct no memebers YET but again size has nothing to do with it a mini can go faster than a rolls royce im sure, is size anything to do with it, ebay are afraid of the competition thats why they advertise so much as they say the bigger they are the harder they fall and the small ones take over, lets just see how it goes,there are lots on ebay ive spoken too who are unhappy so im directing them to my site to show them there is life outside of the bay

You just didn't answer my question whatsoever.

Size has everything to do with it, auction websites are not cars. EVERY business is afraid of competition and every business advertises to win, thats how business works in every sector across the globe. However in this case I don't think Ebay has anything to worry about with their current regular userbase, they just want to make more money.

You don't seem to realise the size involved. You may have spoke to a few people who are unhappy out of a few thousand unhappy people worldwide. However theres MILLIONS of perfectly happy customers (like me) who do not care about the fee's much (sure we would all prefer them cheaper) and who get a good service.

[Comspec]

Another point I thought of & i dunno how it fits in - I repair a heck of a lot of Pc's in peoples homes. They do not understand that 'ebay' is an autcion site and there are others - they think 'ebay' is THE auction site.
Kind of like people calling vacuum cleaners 'hoovers'.

I just dunno how you ever get this changed.

[bidonalot]

the only reason youre on ebay is because you are under the impression its the only place and because its where everyone else has followed the crowd and love paying fees to be on ebay, its like paying a high price to be seen in a particular club because its the thing to do so when they say online auction they say ebay because they dont think there are others, see they are under the impression thats the only place and dont mind paying the high fees associated with the bay club, size is not everything and an auction site can be as good or bad as a car, you carry on paying the fees thats fine.....

[bidonalot]

Welcome to Bidonalot
Its free to join with no listing fees for any item including cars and caravans we charge just a 1% interest fee for all end of auction fees and thats all,
There is no registration fee that is payable
£5 free credit when you register the only fees to pay are
of just 1% on everything sold
We want all who buy and sell on here to treat each other with respect and if problems arise we will do our best to help resolve them.
Thanks from the Bidonalot Team

[garyk]

Just checked out your site, its got the following for sale-

Collectables(-2)
Computing(-1)
DVD Video(1)

So you actually -2 items for sale in total on your site???? Think you need to get the basics right before you even have the tiniest chance in the world of even getting anywhere.

The reason everyone is on ebay is simple;
If I'm a seller I want maximum exposure to give me the best chance of getting the highest price
If I'm a buyer I wanted the widest choice and be able to compare prices of the same item to get the best price.


This is the icing on the cake on your About us page
This online auction was started by me to after too many times ive been abused and conned on a certain auction site so to avoid this stress have decided to do my own site
NO MORE STRESS AND NO MORE BEING CONNED AND ABUSED

:D:D

Really inspires people doesn't it? Even with the basic grammatical errors, you my friend are in dreamland!

[bidonalot]

WE WILL SEE
as i said im not high and mighty and make errors that shows im not proud, do you make mistakes, bet you dont
ebay does not get maximum response at all its what you have been told, you stay on ebay and carry on paying, remember my site has a long way to go, or maybe a short time before they start leaving ebay, time will tell

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

the only reason youre on ebay is because you are under the impression its the only place and because its where everyone else has followed the crowd and love paying fees to be on ebay, its like paying a high price to be seen in a particular club because its the thing to do so when they say online auction they say ebay because they dont think there are others, see they are under the impression thats the only place and dont mind paying the high fees associated with the bay club, size is not everything and an auction site can be as good or bad as a car, you carry on paying the fees thats fine.....

Thats a complete load of crap, sorry.

Like I've said about 5 or 6 times already, if there was a better auction site with all (or most of) the following:

-A better service
-Cheaper fee's
-Lots of buyers and auctioneers (millions)
-Better security
-Better website

Then I'd most definately switch to them. However there is no one out there which even comes close to Ebay in that respect and thats why me and millions of others would not leave Ebay when we find nothing wrong with it.

I'm not sure if you can grasp that not many people are that bothered about the fee's (enough to find another auction website). I would not switch to an empty, unsecure and pretty unprofessional looking website just to save a couple of quid on fee's because I wouldn't be able to sell or buy anything. Also if anyone is bothered enough to switch then they are going to most probably go to the next most successful auction websites, above the many other thousands like yours.

Bidonalot do you mind saying how old you are? I'm just very curious.

[abiz]

How about www.abid.tv (http://www.abid.tv) (currently available), and joint-venture with a someone like bid-up TV, as you would (perhaps) compliment each other's services, and hence advertise for each other.

Just an idea...

[Matt1959]

I'd hazard a guess, most of the people who moan about Ebays fees are unrealistic in their expectations when selling on Ebay. Too many people expecting to sit on their arses in front of their PC and watch the money roll in. Set ups like Ebay can attract the worst type of person - part time traders who don't pay tax, don't have insurance, don't want to work for a living and expect everything to come to them. Funnily enough, these sort of people have all had dreadful buying and selling experiences on Ebay as well - funny that:rolleyes: I sell and buy on Ebay and am very happy with the fees. I wouldn't complain if they went up as I only sell stuff that makes a decent profit - if theres not enough profit in the sale to pay for some cheap worldwide advertising whats the point in doing it? - exactly! theres no point so why do people do it and then moan about fees when they lose money?

And as for this threads rival to Ebay, I still reckon its a wind up:D

[abiz]

...everyone else has followed the crowd and love paying fees to be on ebay, ...you carry on paying the fees thats fine.....

I've had a bit of a look at the site, and to be honest I like it. I do have a few comments about the content:

I think the logo at the top of the screen (probidlogo.gif) looks unprofessionally designed. Ebay has a simple logo, but the graphics are clean and well presented. Yours looks like it's been knocked up in powerpoint or paint. I'm rubbish at graphics myself, and have found it's worth paying a professional to do the job if you can't yourself (some may remember I ran a £10 competition to get someone to design mine!)
Despite being able to see there are products for sale, without knowing what they are I couldn't actually get to the listings very easily, since clicking on a category just expanded it into sub-categories. I felt a bit lost and I ended up searching for "a" just to cheat the system and find anything!
Might be nice to be able to view everything in a major category.
Site fees : if this is going to be your major win over eBay, then I would suggest removal of the "End of Auction Fee", as that's the first thing that would put me off using the site. Basically I'd like to buy & sell for free 90% of the time, but am willing to pay for things like gallery images, supersize images, extra highlighting, etc where there is a lot of a similar item being listed.
£2 joining fee, which is then refunded? Why not make it 2p then?
To the fee related points above, you should concentrate on making the site great and getting hits in the first instance, and NOT about making money, otherwise I guarantee you will fail
I agree with previous points about numbers of items listed, and especially the fact that they show as (-1), and (-2) at the moment. This has to be a basic coding error and easy to fix quickly
Privacy policy - this section is empty. If you have nothing in the section, remove the link for now
About us - same as privacy policy
FAQ:
Q: Can I use HTML when listing an item
(A) Yes you can, however we recomend you use basic tags as complex HTML descriptions may not display correctly
Either allow it or don't. This reads like it's a bug ridden siteI like the site, and think it definitely has potential. You have some stiff competition from eBay, and you will have to do things better and cheaper than them, and then work on drumming up lots and lots of publicity for yourself.
You could start by getting family and friends to register and use the site so it looks more popular to start with, and/or employ a small testing team to thoroughly test the site, and to supply more feedback about the look/feel/use of it.

Good luck and keep me updated with your progress!

PS. if you need any PHP help, feel free to ask too. :)

[Gavin Harris]

the only reason youre on ebay is because you are under the impression its the only place and because its where everyone else has followed the crowd...

Seems like you have followed the other "wannabe" auction sites, and simply installed an auction template site. So, how much do you know about the coding behind the site, and should you need to add extra functionality to the site, would this be possible?

Look at: http://www.bidonalot.com/ and then compare to: http://www.kellel.com/. Seems very similar. I would guess that all you've added to your site is your logo, which judging by the quality of it, doesn't send out the right impression.

I'm sorry, but you've got a huge, huge mountain to climb.

Yes, eBay might charge more, but with hundreds of thousands of visitors to their website, at least there's a better chance of getting a bid on my items. I fear if my item was on your site, then it might only get one bid, at the reserve price, so I'd lose out.

The higher fees are easily offset by the higher selling price I'd achieve on eBay.

[Gavin Harris]

Ah ha... found it... http://www.phpprobid.com/pricing.php

Obviously couldn't afford the £75 for logo design ;)

[alan888]

I think a rival has already started, a couple of people working for ebay started a company called Tazbar.co.uk - A very low fee auction website.

so far they doing pretty well and have even advertised on Tv. I had alook at it and generally its lacking buyers but they are doing well in promoting buyers to come in.

[Hedgehog Toys]

Tazbar is pretty good but it is lacking in users at the moment. I registered and put some things on their but had no response.
Time will tell I guess.