ebid.co.uk > Reviews > eBid - miles ahead of other auction sites

Author's product rating:   

Layout & Design	Excellent
Navigation	Excellent
How fast is this website?	Fast
Quality of the Content	Excellent
Range of Services / Products	Very complete

Advantages:	FREE !  !  !  And 100% excellent customer service !
Disadvantages:	needs to make potential users more aware of it's presence

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

As a keen eBay user, but SICK of the fees imposed on almost everything when selling, I decided to look for an alternative. I found all the usual ones, but none held any interest for me, especially as they were smaller, had way less buyers, but still charged fees.

Then I found eBid. Which was 100% free to list items, with NO Final Value Fees. In January 2003 I joined and listed a few bits and pieces. I didn't really expect much to come from it at the time, as the site and forums were pretty quiet, although the range of items listed was very varied and interesting enough for me to place some bids, and I found the site very user-friendly. I sold a few bits and bobs, and I was happy to list my items quietly and let them run, as the BIG BIG plus for eBid was that it was FREE. Completely and utterly free.

Then, in June 2003 eBay, simultaneously with imposing VAT, put their fees up. 5p here, 10p there, even a £20 price hike on Front Page Featured (which may or may not feature your item, there's no guarantee). The community was incensed and started looking at eBay's competition. Within 1 week of the fee increases, I had sold most of the items I had listed on eBid and was having to list more and more....the snowball effect was incredible.

So, onto the eBid site itself. The site design I find easy on the eye - the font size, colours and graphics are continually being worked on to pull the site even tighter together as eBid heads towards an international launch (see: www.ebid.tv ). Site upgrades and "tweaks" are regular, but the transition is practically seamless, even when the upgrade is performed during a busy period, such as when one occurred a few evenings ago. The design itself is becoming more and more business-like over time, but still manages to maintain it's fun & friendly image with simple graphics and their new "eKid" - a little cartoon boy who is on hand to offer help online where you might need it the most.

Site navigation is simple and easy. The header of all the pages has all the buttons you need for any visit to eBid - Browse, Search, Sell, Register, myebid, Helpdesk, Forums. Down the left-hand side of most pages there are all the search boxes and categories you need to browse and buy. Search by seller or buyer, item number, title or description, check someone's feedback or search by Busy, Closing or New auctions - it's all there.

Listing items for sale couldn't be easier. Three quick-to-load pages to enter and review all the relevant details if selling an item you've never listed before, just the one if you are relisting the same or similar item. You can choose how long you want your listing to run for (1 - 10 days, and you can also choose for the countdown not to begin until the first bid has been placed). Uploading your item pictures is quick and easy, and all your uploaded photos get stored in a place called "my Gallery", where they will remain until 90 days after the auction finally closes, so if you have more than one of the item, no messing about with another picture upload, just click and continue!

Relisting items is even better. Just choose how many times you want your item to relist if not sold, and eBid automatically does it for you.....STILL at no cost whatsoever to you. Remember how eBay charges you each time you relist? NOT on eBid. You can relist to your heart's content - eBid will NOT charge you.

The features side of eBid is another big plus. This is the one thing that you will ever have to pay for - IF you choose to upgrade an auction to it. You can choose Gallery (little pic next to each of your items in searches) which costs literally pennies, but only WHEN the item sells. So, no sale, no charge. Or there is Front Page Featured, where you pay a one-off charge to have your item featured on the front page for 2 days. And then there is Happy Hour (runs from 4-8pm every single day) and 60 minute auctions, both of which are prominently displayed on the Home Page, giving you maximum exposure to every single buyer that passes through eBid. Compare the prices between eBay and eBid, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

As a buyer, you can pick up some real bargains on eBid. For example: I recently saw a pair of faux Chanel earrings on eBid which were about to end. The bidding stood at £10. The EXACT same pair of earrings on eBay stood at £32 with 3 days left to run. (I had a look because I was interested, but I didn't buy them because I don't wear sparkley earrings "as worn by Kylie"!!!)

But the BEST thing about eBid is their customer service. No waiting for 3 or 4 days for a reply to an urgent email (unlike SOME auction sites) - their responses are quick, helpful and friendly. No matter what I have emailed them about, I always receive a reply within hours, if not minutes. 100% EXCELLENT customer support.

Some people think that using a "Free" site won't bring them any bids or sales. I disagree. eBid isn't eBay. Your selling tactics on eBid may have to be significantly different to the ones you use on eBay. Personally, I do make sales. Not enough to live on, granted, but usually more than I make on eBay, with little or no outlay (I like the Gallery feature on eBid, and I'm happy to pay pennies for it when an item sells!). If anyone wants to see whether I get bids or sell anything.....my name on eBid is the same as on here. Feel free to check my feedback, and hopefully you will see that it IS possible to get bids and sales on eBid. (so much so that I now have TWO selling IDs on there!)

So, if there's anyone out there wondering if eBid could be for them....why not take a look? It's FREE - and that's just ONE of the many reasons why I love eBid.

(By the way - the URL is: www.ebid.co.uk - the logo on this page is completely incorrect, and I'll be contacting ciao to rectify this!)

Thanks for reading!