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How hard would it be for us to set up our own ebay?
 

I meen how hard would it be?

There are enough members here and if everyone of us worked together it could become a success. I know it would take time but all it takes is effort and creativity.

Having sellers isn't a problem. There has to be buyers.

This topic has been talked about a few times in the forums.

Long story short it would take too much money to get a go at eBay.

I thought the same, getting buyers would be the problem. I think it would all be about advertisment and making it known. Also gaining trust.

How much would you say it would take to set up?

Not much money to set up a site. Thats the easy part but youd have to spend millions advertising to rival ebay. Unless your already have an edge such as google , google are probably the only people who would/could rival ebay.

Yea, I was thinking the same thing, as there are a lot of intelligent individuals on this forum. Why not start our own auction site, but competing with ebay would be a task! Its all about advertisement, esp. commercials that will attract people to it.

i know it wouldnt be enough, but there's a bunch of access to free marketing these days:

myspace
facebook
youtube
your own personal websites (for those who have)
if you are members of other websites, you can post the link in your signatures
and of course the good old word of mouth

Although these sites are not generally related the business nature of ebay, its a link to millions upon millions of internet users

I just heard the other day that eBay has only 2% of market. Can anyone back this up?

Youd need tv advertising to really rival ebay.

No thats ridiculous.

True, but just like many other internet sensations, news channels and talk shows usually take interest and usually have a segment on them. By no means am i saying that the new auctioning site will be guaranteed to get on tv this way, but with enough internet support there'd be a strong chance.

i think we should give it ago to be honest if you got a lot of shareholders and large sellers involved and just provided a better service than ebay and every one here knows whats wrong with ebay so we could make our own but better

I agree with papajohn but as others are saying it would be kinda hard to compete with ebay. I wish Google would start up a auction site because they could shut ebay down if they started out like ebay did when ebay first started.

And if Google set one up, it would still be pretty strict.

why do you think that?

I think all auction sites will end up like ebay sooner or later with increase in business.

i guess with enough money anything is possible, investers would be a good start

well if anyone was actually serious about this and a lot of people getting together and maybe putting something together . please contact me as i would be extremely interested in taking on ebay.

i'm always interested, there would be a lot of money in that if someone could get it right

No one with a budget under 7 figures remotely stands a chance of getting anywhere near in competition with eBay.

I am interested too. You don't really need 7 figure amount. Just people with great ideas and some money.

its hard to compete with ebays 57 million users it aready has

and just like any other business competitor, one of the goals of the new site would be to sway those users away from eBay. With a promise of and guarantee of a plethora of diverse products like ebay, along with better fee prices, and that same promise of financial security, i think the site would have a chance. I strongly doubt you need millions of dollars .. just millions of viewers, and you dont need millions of dollars to do that

Let's put it this way; Overstock.com almost went bankrupt trying to get people to use their old auction site (which I don't think regular sellers can even use anymore lol). They spent millions and millions. People who sell on auctions have a hate love relationship with eBay meaning most people hate eBay, but they know thats where they can get a decent bid war on their items, and get people looking at them. This the creation of these forums. I have personally tried other sites, and some of my most popular items don't even get bid on!!! I had an item back in 2004 that I was selling 80+ per day on eBay. I listed it on three other sites and didn't get a single sell!!!

eBay has a monopoly on auction-based sites and it will be that way until the Supreme Court orders them to be more friendly (like they did to Microsoft). This won't be happening for awhile though so learn how to make eBay accounts or a web site! ;)

-HeG

i've noticed not any other auction site compares to the traffic of ebay

There are plenty of other auction sites out there, I list on blujay and ioffer., over two months and I have not received one sale! other sites available are as follow:

Here are some of the list :

1. sell.com
2. froogle.com - Free no listing fee... plus you can use goolge check out
3. Yahoo auction now is FREE no listing nor final value fee
4. UBid - you have to have your own inventory - no dropshipping allowed.
5. shopgoodwill.com -
6. Overstock.com - Lower fee than ebay
7. stuffpals.com
8. tazbar.com - FREE Listing. low FVF
9. OnlineAuction.com $8 monthly fee, NO FVF
10. MightyBids.com FREE listing, low FVF
11. ePier.com FREE Listing, low FVF
12. CQout.com Free Listing
13. ebid.com FREE
14. Bidville.com Free Listing
15. Amazon.com $0.10/listing
16. Ioffer.com

There seems to be plenty of competition but buyers are not going to these other sites. They need to promote more.

I've tried alot as well.....total bust. I have made new friends on Etsy.com but that's for handmade items from artists which I claim to be. In the beginning of ebay I was making 900.00+ a week with my handpainted art. Then everyone copied me and it all went sour even though my designs were copyrighted. I had no protection and sueing was too expensive. So I just gave up and sold my art locally. It doesn't matter what site it is....if it ain't on ebay you might as well throw in the towel. As I said before nothing compares....nothing compares TO EBAY! Unless it's Google. There time will come. Googlebay where are you????????

You might want to update your list:
2. froogle.com - Free no listing fee... plus you can use goolge check out
A few of the items recently found with Google Product Search:

3. Yahoo auction now is FREE no listing nor final value fee
Yahoo! US Auction sites are retired!
As of June 3, 2007 listings are no longer accepted As of June 16, 2007 bid/buy are no longer accepted

One of the only other options to increase your sales, and I've said this for over two years now is to have your own website and to bring your own traffic with advertising. Modee knows what I'm talking about, he makes tons of sales off his website using Google Adwords. He's not reliant on eBay for all his sales. It's not that hard, but it does take work to get going.

It is such an enormous task, that the only beast capable of completing it, would be ultimately as greedy or greedier than eBay themselves...

It is the whole chicken and the egg scenario. You need a large number of sellers to get the buyers and you need a large number of buyers to get the sellers. In the beginning, Ebay was one of the first to get a large number of sellers and eventually stomped Yahoo auction into the ground, in Japan Yahoo got them first and stomped Ebay into the ground.
Ebay is not going anywhere as the #1 auction site, but they are more vulnerable then they have every been. Probably only Google or Amazon could realistically take them on, with their huge user base and secured payment options, but they have not indicated they want to yet.
For now the 2 best alternatives sites for non-specialized goods are ioffer.com and ecrater.com with it fast froogle/google sales integration and large number of items for sale. Neither, of them will give you Ebay numbers, but if properly used should give you 20-30% monthly sales.