Are There Any Good Ebay Alternatives?

Posted by Nick Niesen on November 1st, 2010

When it comes to selling your items at auctions, I?m frequently asked what some good alternatives to eBay are. Usually, the person asking wants an alternative to eBay because they think the fees are too high or there is too much competition eBay.

I too have dabbled in eBay alternatives. The overwhelming problem for the vast majority of these sites is that the traffic to these sites is simply too low or nonexistent to bring in good prices.

According to http://Alexa.com, eBay is the world?s 12th most popular site. That means there are millions of people a day who go to eBay to shop. So just going to a site where the fees are lower doesn?t necessarily make sense if they?re attracting less traffic since the prices you?ll get tend to be lower as well.

That?s not to say there aren?t any viable options to eBay. The key to doing well with eBay alternatives is to find a niche auction site.

You want to find a site that specializes in the items you?re selling. For example, in the past I?ve sold coins on specialty auction sites and got better prices than I would have on eBay. However, the fee was actually higher than it would have been had I used eBay.

There are also sites that specialize in selling jewelry, electronics, art, and even links to websites. These sites may not have near the traffic levels that eBay has, but are able to be successful because they attract a very targeted audience.

So should you use eBay or should you go with the niche sites? It depends. Yes, the fees on eBay may be higher than some of those other auctions sites. However, the fees the eBay charges may be lower than some of the specialized sites. You need to test the prices you get to help you determine which is the best for you. You may even find that both are effective ways to sell your items.

For those of you who sell a lot of different items, then you?ll probably want to stick to eBay since you can build up your feedback for all the different items you sell and can manage everything from one centralized account.