How Many Alternatives to Ebay are there?

I lived in New Zealand for a while, and used trademe.co.nz a lot, buying and selling photo gear. It functions much like EBay, but, is miniscule in comparison.
 
Nothing is as broad and extensive as ebay. However, Amazon, while not auction-based, seems to be offering quite a few used photo items listed as alternatives to the similar new one. Some large camera stores, like Ace Photo in Virginia, are selling new and used items on Amazon.
 
my thought
Depends where you are and your culture. This is NOT a criticism but it comes across that most of the negative feeling towards e-bay comes outa the US, the homeland of freedom of thought and personal responsibility.
E-bay sucks for a number of people, however we are apparantly all grown ups and should be able to make decisions on purchase and sale.
E-bay is JUST a company, and like a utility company the choice to use is completely in your hands -never hear much complaining or hand ringing when the power co. presents a bill higher than expected or the service from a mobile provider is not as promised. E-bay is a global flea market and dumping ground for items that would otherwise sit on a shelf without a quick return.
You want - you buy. not sure? think it could go bad? then you do not buy.

As to the OP main question, the following is completely wrong, many countries have their own national auction site, some allow international, some do not.
quote
On a national basis (pick your country, any country) there are no alternatives to ebay.
Classifieds here and in other community style pages at least give much more of a `connection' between buyer and sellor - providing both parties want this.
I saw a post here yesterday that concerned a `give away swap' - only one party played their part with `ethics'.
 
Good alternatives to Ebay?
In the past there were a number: bid.com was just one of them, I believe buy.com was another - plus there were innumerable local newslists.

Now? Well, Ebay now isn't what it used to be.
Sure you have a wider audience if you're selling.
If you're buying though, you have to wade through umpteen dealers and such to get to "joe blow user/collector/photographer" who's just looking to sell his stuff.

Most things on Ebay now are listed only as "Buy-It-Now" which is extremely frustrating.

Further frustrating is the fact that most folks on there have really jacked up the shipping costs. It's pretty clear when you receive your package and the stamped cost is $12 USD but you were charged $25 USD that somewhere, someone's making money on that end too.

For me, I'll browse Ebay but I'll narrow my search locally. It's only if I see something that I know I cannot get ANYWHERE ELSE LOCALLY that I'll give in and buy from Ebay now.

I prefer to search here for gear and on the local craigslist which seems to be a good place to sell. There's no charge, you can put up photos, you can link to photos etc. and you can easily ignore lowballers.

Here, well, ya, I like a lot of the folks here so I'm a softie so I try to price my stuff accordingly. I don't try to make money on people.

So, in the end, there are still alternatives to Ebay. How good or bad they are is completely dependent on how much you want to pay for something and if you can get it elsewhere.

Cheers,
Dave
 
upillar.com is a new one. Susposed to be more family friendly what ever they mean by that. You have to type cameras in the search (don't like that) but they have plenty of them on there. Film too! http://www.upillar.com/
 
eBay ... proof that absolute power corrupts!

And we, the consumers of the world, are responsible for allowing it to become such a monster!

As for viable alternatives ... fat chance now! :p
 
Being an old type guy I look at the past and regret the things we used to have. There used to be, in the US and every state, camera shows. Dealers (and hobbyists like me were "dealers") could rent a table for $25~$50 and sell and buy for two days. There would be hundreds of dealers and maybe a thousand buyers of every type and description. Buyers could examine the goods and haggle with the sellers. Just meeting all the people, both buying and selling, was probably the best fun. Lots of buying, selling and trading on both sides. Then with the internet and especially eBay it all evaporated. I did shows in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska and people from all over the world came to the middle of nowhere to buy, sell and haggle. A lot more fun than eBay, cheaper and people rarely got robbed.
 
I agree about the fee structure. I used to sell on ebay, but it's become expensive for a seller. Classifieds of any form are a great option.
 
Sure aren't camera stores around here any more selling used gear. Use to be one could walk into mpex and cord camera in columbus and haggle over all kinds of neat stuff. Now they are on life support. Think that is probably the same case in places other than big cities.
 
In my country there is no local ebay and there is alternative, which is originaly from Poland it is doing well for few countries around. And in those countries is stronger than ebay.
 
There are national alternatives to eBay

There are national alternatives to eBay

JSU said:
On a national basis (pick your country, any country) there are no alternatives to ebay.
Click to expand...

Well, not quite true - as mentioned in a post before, TradeMe is the big,big market leader in New Zealand. eBay tried to enter the market in 2001 without any success.
 
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Always check ship amount on Shopgoodwill.

Always check ship amount on Shopgoodwill.

not_in_good_order said:
I've heard good things about goodwill's online site, but I have not yet purchased anything there:

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/
Click to expand...

I bid on Shopgoodwill often and for a long time now.

Shopgoodwill is an auction site only for items from GoodWill stores around the country.

Be careful.... the people who put up the auctions are often ill informed. They know nothing about the merchandise, pictures are quite bad. So it pays to be cautious on bidding.

Also, they often guess at the shipping weight (high), add insurance at their own discretion and do charge for handling, boxing. I forgot to check on an OM-1 and lens recently that I won for $60 and then saw the $19 shipping and handling. I actually wanted the lens as it was a Zuiko 1.4 SN>one million.

Otherwise, the site goes through a lot of interesting camera equipment. It's amazing to me what some people donate to good will. There are usually 2-3 Canon GIII QL17's on the site at any given time.
 
Another website just hit me. Facebook Marketplace. It's a modern Craigslist-esque type of classifieds. I would label it slow, inefficient, plagued by scammers, and not very user-friendly...

But it's there. And a lot of people look at it.
 
Ebay owns a 25% share of craiglist since 2004.
If you have a compeditor, it's the best you own it!

best regards,
Peter
 
What about national auction sites?

Which will / will not
accept buyers and sellers from outside that country?

Stephen
 
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