eBay sync

[stukatzstamps]

Can you sync with eBay so items and inventory levels, new eBay listings show up on Ebid?
Or can you just import and have to do things manually.

Can you import into a Ebid store as well?

Thank you!

Stuart Katz

[madelaine]

You cannot sync with ebay - it's a different company!

[BordersBargains]

You can only import, if it's working that which it still isn't for me and there will be numerous things you will need to manually fix like barcode, brand

It better to just do it all manually

[billsstamps]

In the early days I tried to list the same item on both Ebay and Ebid and learnt the hard way that an item could get sold on one before you could delete it on the other. Too much of a headache.
It became clear that my selling costs on Ebid were much much lower, and managing and relisting stock was much easier. The footfall on Ebay is much higher, yes, but do I want to give such a high proportion of revenue to Ebay? For me it is not worth it, so it is long time since I listed with Ebay
My feedback is 26000 on Ebid, 2000 on Ebay which says it all.

[theElench]

If you haven't listed there for a while you'd find it even worse these days, especially if you sell internationally.

There's a seller of rare fragrances that regularly complains about the sites' international visibility fee (she's based in Spain with buyers in the UK and the US), import duties, on-line sales taxes and steep postage costs. All of which they then charge FVFs on. She's said her fees are often in the region of 25 - 30%!!

[goldenwonders]

If you haven't listed there for a while you'd find it even worse these days, especially if you sell internationally.

She's said her fees are often in the region of 25 - 30%!!

Hello elench, long time no speak. Afraid I have to disagree, been biting my tongue reading some of the comments on here on various threads over the last few months.

I sell very little on ebid even with over 1000 items listed (and regardless of this - 'you have to promote yourself' on social media/pinterest/google shopping etc etc) but I do really well on OBAY and my fees are not 25-30% !
I went back to OBAY last November, have sold over 400 items in that time (only about 5 on ebid of about £25 value - inc your purchase, Thanks again!) I tried selling my Hard Rock Cafe pin collection here, over 250 of them - sales after about 2 years, NONE! Even though I offer them to USA and abroad, not so much as an enquiry.
On OBAY I guess I've sold around 200 - I avoid offering them overseas, due to OBAY's costs/clawbacks on overseas sales! I've not lost one pin in the UK and have over 200 excellent feedback from my 426 sales. I have now got around 800 items listed - I don't list new ones until they give me 80% off selling fees on certain weekends. I have regular buyers and despite the current climate, things are not too bad - other than postal issues! Monday I sold 4 pins to a regular buyer for £46 - my fees in the promotion were £1.60p - about 3-4%. I know I'm not a business seller, just trying to sell off my pin collection and other items which are no longer needed. The Irony is that I'm selling pins on OBAY for more than I have them listed here for!!

As I've always said - 'Pay peanuts get monkeys'! ..on ebid most people get what they pay for, sadly VERY LITTLE
From what I'm seeing, ebid is going into decline and is living on borrowed time, which is sad!!

[BordersBargains]

Hello elench, long time no speak. Afraid I have to disagree, been biting my tongue reading some of the comments on here on various threads over the last few months.

I sell very little on ebid even with over 1000 items listed (and regardless of this - 'you have to promote yourself' on social media/pinterest/google shopping etc etc) but I do really well on OBAY and my fees are not 25-30% !
I went back to OBAY last November, have sold over 400 items in that time (only about 5 on ebid of about £25 value - inc your purchase, Thanks again!) I tried selling my Hard Rock Cafe pin collection here, over 250 of them - sales after about 2 years, NONE! Even though I offer them to USA and abroad, not so much as an enquiry.
On OBAY I guess I've sold around 200 - I avoid offering them overseas, due to OBAY's costs/clawbacks on overseas sales! I've not lost one pin in the UK and have over 200 excellent feedback from my 426 sales. I have now got around 800 items listed - I don't list new ones until they give me 80% off selling fees on certain weekends. I have regular buyers and despite the current climate, things are not too bad - other than postal issues! Monday I sold 4 pins to a regular buyer for £46 - my fees in the promotion were £1.60p - about 3-4%. I know I'm not a business seller, just trying to sell off my pin collection and other items which are no longer needed. The Irony is that I'm selling pins on OBAY for more than I have them listed here for!!

As I've always said - 'Pay peanuts get monkeys'! ..on ebid most people get what they pay for, sadly VERY LITTLE
From what I'm seeing, ebid is going into decline and is living on borrowed time, which is sad!!

I agree with both of you in a way - Ebid has been better this year but *bay is still winning easily. However if I compare 100 sales on eBid vs *bay over say a year, the amount you save on fee's is amazing.

Here's my honest opinion on both -

*bay still delivers 95% of the sales but they lie to us all the time! Managed payments was going to be cheaper when its actually much more now especially since they re-organised the categories so most are in higher fee tiers. They squeezed tons of categories together so when someone searches for items they get loads of other insignificant ones which only means sellers get less visibility. They are clearly aiming to have everyone using one of the promoted listing features to gain even more fee's. Visibility is not 24/7 on a random amount of your listings which they did say in the UA. They have sold off most of what they owned to make up for the losses created the past 5 years. However the site still has the best sales rate over all others. That rate is going down though for a good % of sellers and its not due to other sites, lockdowns, strikes etc it's down to a really bad CEO with delusional ideas.
With all this going on *bay still comes out on top for sales which is why it will never die

Ebid has had the best potential to take on the big boys for many years but they have shown zero effort to do anything, I've always wondered if one of the big boys actually owns it to keep it in check. The layout is great, the shops are great and the fee's are low but there's no point having all these teasing things when new sellers that don't last long say the sales were so bad they didn't see the point in trying anymore, I have invited so many sellers and I think one out of probably 100+ is still here. Most Sellers are impatient and need to see action fast otherwise they go straight back to were the action is and that place will always be *bay, Etsy and Amazon. Ebid needs, more payments options, branded tape, poly bags etc which yes cost them to create but I think most sellers would have no issues paying a little more in fee's to make this happen, I highly doubt most sellers even think this will ever happen though.
Ebid has one good thing I love - Its fast to list and I don't need to spend years putting Item specifics etc in.
Sales have been a little better this year but that's only due to having more listings up and self promoting.
I'm still here though because I am getting sales that never happened on *bay which means if I wasn't here those sales may have never happened
Ebid can do better but it's not in our hands it's in the owners and if they continue to do nothing to grow the site they will get taken over by the recent now ones who are slowly growing and most sellers will have no loyalty when something better comes along.

[goldenwonders]

I agree with both of you in a way - Ebid has been better this year but *bay is still winning easily. However if I compare 100 sales on eBid vs *bay over say a year, the amount you save on fee's is amazing.

Here's my honest opinion on both -

*bay still delivers 95% of the sales but they lie to us all the time!

They don't lie, they do what most companies do these days, manipulate the facts and create situations where they can make extra money from you - you can avoid it, don't pay for the extra's, use every cheap listing opportunity when its financially viable. That's what I do and it costs me less and I'm still FAR better off than here.

I realised that ebid are doing nothing for sellers here, I was wasting time waiting - for what? A sudden influx of new buyers, new items from new sellers, more interaction. It is not happening and will not happen. I said it years ago (2005 - when I first joined) this site had potential, but it did have to promote itself, however it never has! It never will AND eventually it will disappear taking away the opportunity for these penny sellers to enjoy their hobby - because that's all it is 'a hobby' that makes ebid crumbs that do not pay the bills.

By the way one thing, I have not spent much more in fees than on here - because In many cases I sold the items for more on OBAY than they could have purchased them for on ebid!

You have made a hundred sales here, you've done well and good luck to you - you should use as many different marketplaces as possible.
I don't really care as its not an income for me, I don't need it, but there are those that do and want to run businesses on here - they will as you say be impatient, as to them its more important and time waits for no man!
Good Luck for the future.

[theElench]

@Goldenwonders. Why bite your tongue? Something (anything?) that gets some activity / interest going would be welcome. I only repeated what the seller wrote, perhaps she just doesn't use obay as efficiently as you do?

If you're expecting me to try to rebut the rest of your post I'm sorry to say that I'm not even going to try. Apart from asking if you do your best to ensure that google shopping picks up your ads.? (making ads. sufficiently different to those on obay etc. It seems that most of my sales might come from GS.)

@BordersBargains. For me this year both sites have seen a reduction in sales (not surprising with the wider economic factors in play). But it hasn't been as bad as I feared it might be back in January.

But this year hasn't increased my confidence in the site or its management. A request to rectify glaring omissions on the public facing categories (to browse). No response, no action.
A request to pin a thread on the "Suggestions" board. Ditto.

When ebid stopped collecting my monthly fees by DD without any communication and a question about how to get it re-activated getting no answer from CS.

Makes me wonder if anyone at HQ even reads the boards any more.

Most recently that what I assumed was a large(ish) but inactive interest in the boards is likely illusory makes me wonder if I'm aboard a "ghost ship" with little management or member involvement, just running along on automatic.

I'm still here for the same reason as you. Sales do keep coming with no real effort on my part beyond making the listing, which is far quicker than obay and I save on fees. I'll finish the year with ebid sales ahead of obay yet again and I recently made my 100th here. But I also start to ask myself if anything beyond listing / selling is just wasted time if hardly anyone is taking any notice?

[goldenwonders]

@Goldenwonders. Why bite your tongue? Something (anything?) that gets some activity / interest going would be welcome.


...wonder if I'm aboard a "ghost ship" with little management or member involvement, just running along on automatic.
...But I also start to ask myself if anything beyond listing / selling is just wasted time if hardly anyone is taking any notice?

Hello elench, your observations are near the mark, it has become a ghost ship! When I started back 2 years ago there was more activity, more discussion on here than now. I now only visit when I have 5 mins, just to see whats being said. I usually end up laughing at some of the inane comments - not from yourself, I hasten to add!
There are a few good posters here, who've made an effort (in vain) - I'll mention one, RPM just to see if he monitors whats being said!

This site needs a really good overhaul by management - but guessing they just want an easy life picking up a few bob along the way. It needs as I've always insisted, promoting and some money spending - but its never going to happen unless it gets sold, ...and then you have the controversy as to who would buy it and what the fees would rise to?

Best of luck - you have a niche market and you'll always sell a few on here as you have the time to work at it. Have a Good One !