How would you compete with eBay if you wanted to?
 

just as a mental exercise, if you wanted to compete with eBay and grow to the point where they actually noticed you and your website became a blip on their radar, how would you do it?

you can't.

ever heard of etsy?

Charge the buyer fees like every other auction. Ebay seller fees are ridiculous and if you're not selling high dollar items its not worth it.

Treat your sellers as you customers too, not only your buyers. :2 cents:

Yeah Ebay sellers get ass fucked these days. Most times it's hardly ever worth it...

Spend like a gazillion dollars on advertising and branding.

Focus on a small niche market to start, build a loyal following of sellers of these niche products, pay to advertise to enough buyers to keep things moving and the sellers happy. Missing about a million steps, but something around that idea.

Yep... I agree... Niche is the only way.. In fact there are lots of niches where you can compete with both ebay and amazon.

Nope never heard of etsy, I've heard of yahoo auctions that failed

Thanks, what do you think is a small enthusiastic market?
Like focusing on say toy trains, or comic books, or kids toys, or womens jewelry or dvd movies or baby clothes or used pet toys?

Thats like saying no one can compete with Dunkin Donuts, and I never heard of Starbucks, or Peet's

The same way I would try to compete with Toyota. I wouldn't. Instead I would look for something they are not doing and try to do that, or create something that makes their product better and sell it to them. Something Toyota would NEED to buy from me and put inside of every one of their cars. But compete directly with them, wouldn't even entertain the idea.

My cousin did this with BMW btw.

It is not hard to get recognized by eBay. All you need to do is buy a domain with the word "bay" in it and put some hint of text on it that it is an auction or bidding website. eBay's legal department should contact you directly within two weeks.

Simplicity. Make it simple and transparent so that eBay looks clunky and archaic in comparison. That's how Apple won the day with iPhones and iPads.

ohhhh thats good

A big advertising budget.

i hate ebay.

I lol on all the one word ways to do it, just like only one thing changed adult, it would take many different things to do anything like this

Many have tried and failed or are in the process of failing.
Offering for the first year no fees could be a solution, the only thing is how to get the proper jump start, without spending tens of millions in advertising. Even with that you'll still need a lot of luck. Thats why no one has actually taken it seriously. Mall.com in 1999 through 2002 spent millions and never even got off the starting line, and something similar like Quibids.com is on its way out.

Actually I love the iphone app of eBay. It's so much better than the website, maybe create a site that works in a similar way.

Like this http://www.eBid.net

Then fail :upsidedow

Never heard of Peet's either, and your argument is mute, there is no one competing with ebay because it's not possible , if it is show some examples. If yahoo, a well branded name couldn't.. how the fuck is joebobs.com going too? smh

The only possible way you might even attempt too, is have a shit ton of money to advertise lower sellers fee's and market that angle of it. Also integrate a new payment method other then PayPal.. because eBay fee's + PayPal fee's = raped

"moot"

compete doesnt mean BEAT, It meant it competes. Etsy did over $500mil last year. i think thats pretty good. Bonanza is growing, etc etc

Not a good example. Yahoo has been mismanaged for over a decade. They can barely put their pants on in the morning.

Trying to be eBay makes no sense. EBay is eBay. Led Zeppelin is Led Zeppelin. Apple is Apple. Create your own identity with your own purpose.

If I were to start any kind of auction site, I would do it in a specific niche and find a way to offer more than a traditional auction site, or I would stick to a specific locale, and grow from there. Trying to be a monster overnight is simply a great way to blow investors money.

There's actually a very clever way to do it, I started a project here in a college town that's had some initial success.

It would involve partnering with several firms and businesses and would involve the internet. We're talking worth billions.

:anon

Assuming you had the monumental war chest to compete with eBay, you'd need a three-pronged approach:

(1) Invest in lobbyists and action groups to address what many perceive as eBay's extensive engagement in criminal enterprise e.g. acting as a fence, helping people avoid taxes, etc. I know I personally have come across my intellectual property being sold on there and found the system for getting it removed impenetrable. You'll need an excellent compliance department on your own site to avoid being hoist on your own petard.

(2) Obviously, you need a scalable, well-coded, site with a good user interface.

(3) Massive PR outreach and incentives to people to try your system. Kind of like cams, you need to make sure you time out getting people to try out selling (chat hosts) and try out buying (surfer traffic) at the same time.

Craigslist.

Been done.

Oops!

Egay owns 25% of Craigslist, so you are kind of fucked no matter how you go but I sold $250 on Craigslist today for CASH, so I ain't complaining!

Have over $5K in shit listed on CL and most of it will indeed sell for CASH!

No chargebacks possible with fucking CASH!

In the last year I have sold well over $35K on CL and am to the point at which I really no longer bother with egay even though I have a very, very high positive feedback rating.

egay will fuck you to death if it can!

:2 cents:

:2 cents:

i dont think it can be done. main reason being, ebay grew when the web was young & people gave some leeway to newness. Now the web shopper won't come back if a deal goes bad. so a new company wont have room for growing pains like dealing with fraud & payment scams.

I don't know how the chinese sellers do it. I bought something for less than $2 including delivery (and their costs like ebay fees, handling etc). Their margin must be tiny, for a $2 product they probably make 5-10 cents.

need very clean and good looking , easy to navigate site.
big budget for advertising.
lower fees for sellers.
bonuses for regular buyers or sellers, discount coupons and smart person to handle the biz.


then you have a chance.

be Amazon..the end

Never seen http://etsy.com before. Looks like an online competitor for Joann consumers http://www.joann.com//



Gifts and crafts.

I have no idea of how I'd get the exposure they have, but, it would not be difficult to offer a better service. A retarded psychotic monkey could do better and charge a-lot less. The fees those cocksuckers charge are a fucking outrage.

yep you need your own paypal payoneer skrill to process payments :2 cents: etsy uses paypal

Simple: with lots of money and a team that know what they're doing.

Bit coins
Ds

Here it is, Sunday morning, three emails and two phone calls later and I have sold another $250 through Craigslist.

No listign fees, no Paypal fees, no risk of chargeback, no worries about negative feedback from an unqualified buyer..................

Going to list a few more items which will total out around $1.5K for which I will settle at around $1K and it will all be paid in CASH!

Who needs egay?

CL sales take a bit longer to complete but with enough items and services offered, you can do well and have a consistent side income or even full time income if you want.

:2 cents:

Some items are hard to find local buyers for and the reputation system on ebay helps mitigate fraud and build trust from people that are well established.

I recall sending a guy in California (when I lived in Illinois) a box package of MATLAB student edition. It had never been opened and he wired me $60 included with shipping. He got his package and was very happy. Lots of people have been screwed over and are jaded.
Anyway, it doesn't compete, just kills local classified prints, which has been all around with digital media and craigslist classifieds.

cash biz is risky be careful. :2 cents: