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Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

I'm the kind of person that only sold on eBay or Amazon if I had something around my house that I no longer have any use for. Occasionally I'll go to a garage/estate sale or a going out of business sale but that's pretty rare. It wasn't even close to a full time income though.

Since I got suspended on eBay I tried iOffer and Craigslist. I got 2 offers for the same item on iOffer and both times they cancelled after I accepted. I've sold nothing since and the only thing I ever bought on there were rare movies I couldn't find anywhere else.

With Craigslist I've only sold a few things and they were big items that I was selling dirt cheap. I've gotten more offers to pay way less than I was asking on Craigslist. I expected offers to pay less but $5 for something I'm asking $40 for is a bit ridiculous. They don't want to negotiate either because when I send a counteroffer they don't get back to me. I live in a town of about 100k people and people from big cities close by have contacted me so it's not like it's reaching no one. But now I'm trying to get rid of an exercise bike for about 60% less than what I paid and it's just sitting there.

I'm in the process of creating my first stealth account (mainly for Paypal) and that should be done in about a week and in a month or so it should be ready to sell on eBay if I choose to. I really don't want to go back to eBay because the reason I got suspended left me very bitter. But I could use the money and have plenty of stuff here to sell.

So am I just wasting my time trying other eBay alternatives? It seems like I am.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Some people make money on Craigslist just by sending lowball offers for items and seeing if the sellers accept them. The few that do provide them with items to sell on eBay.

Etsy is a good option for handmade and vintage items.

Bonanza can be a good marketplace if you specialize in a specific category and are willing to go above and beyond for your customers. It works well for some people and not at all for others. All you can do is try it and see.

Most marketplaces are not worth the hassle. But there are a few others worth noting. They can be good IF you can get approval to sell on them, because they do NOT take everybody!

Newegg, Sears and Rakuten fall into this category.

Some people DO make good money selling on Craigslist. That is better for local stuff- appliances, cars, whatever.

Were there any SPECIFIC marketplaces that you are interested in?

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Bonanza was the only one that I had seriously considered.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

I do decent on Etsy. They are definitely not as strict on their regulations. And it's also nice that you aren't forced to use pp, but having a pp linked to your Etsy account will draw in more business.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Why don't you just try. Because some people failed on other market places and some didn't. I guess it depends on the niche as well.

I only sell 2-3 items (electronics for around $200) and 2 usb sticks for below market price (because I am over stock). I started on most other market places 2-3 month ago. Now I am at 2 sales on eCrater, 3 sales on iOffer, 1 sale on craigslist, 0 sales on bidorbuy, unisquare, bonanza and hood.de. Tried some other classifieds too with no success.

On craigslist, I get a lot of questions and inquiries (more than all other market places together including ebay and amazon), about the items I sell. I guess a lot of people on craigslist are a bit older or do not understand my product.

Next will be Newegg, Sears, Rakuten and Ricardo when I have time :)

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Some small nitch platforms rock!
They can be almost like running your own website but being supported and fed by someone else. YOUR effort and promotion will determine if these work or not and of course if your items are in demand.

Facebook can be exceptional at times too IF you are social.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Unless you are selling within a very specialized niche ebay and amazon are (unfortunately) the biggest players in the field without any sign of other competition.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

It really depends on your items as others have mentioned, sites like Craigslist & Facebook can be just as good as ebay for some items, but it also depends on your location a lot too.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Just sell the exercise bike to fat spiderman (MM78). Spidey could use a ride or two :lol:

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

I listed some items on Bonanza recently. I wasn't expecting much based on comments that I read here. The one thing that bothers me is that I'm paying the higher commission if I sell an item because I chose to have it advertised on Google Shopping and only 1 out of 20 items is being advertised.

I get more traffic on iOffer than Bonanza which is kind of sad.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

anyone from uk use other sites?

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

dawanda is ok if you are in europe

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

you cant sell an excercize bike on ebay anyway... the shipping will kill you. craigslist is the only way.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Let's make a bid to switch our buying to more seller friendly markets, one by one we can do it. I will shop more on Bonanza and iOffer, will also personally encourage my friends to do so as well.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Ecrater has been quite good for me and it is almost free

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

but not many other sites have people who seriously spend time looking at there products to get enough sales to make it worthwhile

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Some cities and towns have yard sale pages on Facebook. Like the one near me is called ++++ County virtual yard sale. Believe it or not, I've sometimes done better on that site. Especially for something huge and heavy like work out equipment. Type in your city and sale, and hopefully something will come up, or you could even start your group :)

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

I know some guys who made a lot by selling on Craigslist. Also you don't need to face with Paypal issues...

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Has anyone tried craigslist + PayPal route? I would like to hear your experiences, thanks

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

I think craigslist might be the only place with more lowball scammers then ebay... Be careful where and when you make deals. Make sure it is in public and you are not alone. Seen some shady stuff on there....

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Ebay, Amazon, and Craigslist are the only ones in USA that have 1000's of people going on. Etsy has its niches. Everything else unfortunately (bonanza, iOffer, eCrater, etc.) just doesn't have the product.

If you have your own site, the shopify platform seems to be working on Facebook, but you'd still have to market your own site

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Tried banana and isuffer for a few years.... a whopping 5 sales and 0 sales respectively! WOW.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Isuffer...?

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Our local police department has posted that you can arrange sales in front of the police station. They won't participate but they don't care if you select that location for your exchange/purchase.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Craigslist and PayPal? You might as well write "PLEASE SCAM ME" in your ad.

Let me give you a rundown of how a Craigslist and PayPal transaction will go:

1. Buyer pays Seller on PayPal.
2. Seller gives Buyer the purchased item. Everyone leaves happy.
3. A couple hours/days later, the Buyer opens a dispute on PayPal. "I never got the item," says the buyer. How will you prove to PayPal that you gave the buyer the item in question? Answer: you can't. PayPal sides with the buyer (obviously), funds are returned to their account, and now you're stuck with no money and no merchandise.

In fact, I'll even throw in a BONUS way of getting scammed on Craigslist with PayPal!

1. We'll skip the formalities. Buyer pays Seller on PayPal, Seller gives Buyer the item, everybody's happy. For now.
2. A couple of days later, guess what happens? Turns out that buyer of yours paid you with a hacked PayPal account? When the real account holder found out about this, they called PayPal up and the charge was reversed. And, once again, you are stuck with no money and no merchandise.

TL;DR: don't be a retard, don't use Craigslist and PayPal.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Craigslist = cash transactions

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

HI,

You can try www.easystorehosting.com. They are the best alternative to your eBay site and also can import all your eBay products in no time. It will save your lot of time and efforts and can start selling instantly.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Does anybody tried groupon marketing

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

No, but if you do try it out...let us know how it went.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

In 2007, I got suspended for 7 days for shill bidding. I got so mad they can restrict me like this that I tried bonanza. No traffic whatsoever and it doesn't look like it's changing anytime soon. eBay and Amazon is still king.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Never close your doors. Try the new marketplaces. They may work out for you, you never know. More importantly, even if it brings in 5% more sales, by opening up accounts on lets say 4 small marketplaces, your already raking in 20% extra per month.

Just dont expect to be as high flying as you are on ebay or amazon. Those get A LOT of traffic.

P.S. Different marketplaces have different product categories that work best.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

I have bonanza, and it's really not great. I mean I do get sales (very rarely now) but I find that they are from people who probably have been banned from eb.ay or have a great fear of it.

Either way bonanza customers seem to be worse than eb.ay (lots more missing item cases from bonanza than eb.ay) This for me, when coupled with bonanza's poor postage pricing system, resulted in my items being overpriced for anyone outside the US. I still get sales through from it but only when bonanza does its free turbo traffic days.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

i've sold on Groupon...dropped shipped items to help pay for my wedding. Last year during Christmas, shipments slowed down and they suspended my account until all my items were able to catch up. The only thing I don't like about Groupon is that they only allow you to sell 50 items and you can not change the item once it was approved.

For example, say you sell menstrual period cups for women and they are approved, well if you want to change that listing to something other than period cups, they will deny the listing. And you are now stuck with 49 items....

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

I've done really well on eCrater.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Good afternoon,

I am also listing on Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp and LetGo and my products sell very well. The good thing about these markets is that you meet buyers, so you discuss their needs and then they contact you directly when they need something else.

It is important to meet buyers in Safe places for example:
http://www.miamidade.gov/police/safe...-exchanges.asp

Hope it helps.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

I sell on craigslist all the time, they pay with paypal , I ship with paypal and tracking is uploaded to paypal, if it is delivered you are cool. so what is the issue

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Yeah I would try craigslist.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Hello,

I am going to suggest the following places to sell:
- Letgo, similar to OfferUp, it works very well locally
- Mercari, it is a new smartphone application, and also it sells well
- eBid.net, sales are very slow in this platform, but fees are also low. So you can list cheaper.

Hope it helps.

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

I've heard of Mercari and I tried Letgo once but I didnt put that much effort into it

Re: Are Any of the Alternatives to eBay and Amazon Worth Trying?
 

Have had multiple successful groupon campaigns. It really depends on how you market it and how hot the niche is/location. If you're serious about it, I'd recommend using Facebook ads to generate traffic.