ebay eBay Inc.

The former eBay homepage. Type Traded as Public NASDAQ: EBAY NASDAQ-100 Component S&P 500 Component Foundation date September 3, 1995

Headquarters San Jose, California, U.S. Area served Founder(s) Key people Industry Products

Worldwide Pierre Omidyar Pierre Omidyar (Chairman) John Donahoe (CEO) Internet, Online retailing eBayClassifieds, electronic commerce, Gumtree, Kijiji,online auction hosting, PayPal,iBazar

Revenue Operating income Net income Total assets Total equity Employees Slogan(s)

US$ 14.07 billion (2012)[1] US$ 2.88 billion (2012)[1]

US$ 2.60 billion (2012)[1] US$ 37.27 billion (2012)[1] US$ 20.87 billion (2012)[1] 27,770 (2012)[1] "World's Online Marketplace." "Connecting buyers and sellers globally." "Whatever it is, you can get it on eBay." "Buy it, sell it, love it" "Buy it New, Buy it Now" "When it's on your mind, it's on eBay"

Website Written in IPv6 support Alexa rank

eBay.com Java[2] No 20 (January 2014)[3]

Type of site Registration Available in

Online auction Required to buy and sell Multilingual

eBay Inc. is an American multinational internet consumer-to-consumer corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California. It was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995, and became a notable success story of the dot-com bubble; it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries.[4][5] The company manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. In addition to its auction-style sellings, the website has since expanded to include "Buy It Now" standard shopping; shopping by UPC, ISBN, or other kind of SKU (via Half.com); online classified advertisements (via Kijiji or eBay Classifieds); online event ticket trading (via StubHub); online money transfers (via PayPal)[6] and other services. Contents [hide]

eBay headquarters in San Jose, California Early years[edit] AuctionWeb was founded in San Jose, California, on September 3, 1995, by French-born IranianAmerican computer programmerPierre Omidyar (born June 21, 1967) as part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus.[7] One of the first items sold on AuctionWeb was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers."[8] The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiance trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media, which were not interested in the company's previous

explanation about wanting to create a "perfect market".[9] This was revealed in Adam Cohen's book, The Perfect Store (2002),[7] and confirmed by eBay.[9] Reportedly, eBay was simply a side hobby for Omidyar until his internet service provider informed him he would need to upgrade to a business account due to the high volume of traffic to his website. The resulting price increase (from $30/month to $250) forced him to start charging those who used eBay, and was not met with any animosity. In fact it resulted in the hiring of Chris Agarpao as eBay's first employee to handle the number of cheques coming in for fees.

Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of eBay Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the company in early 1996. In November 1996, eBay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction to use SmartMarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. Growth was phenomenal; in January 1997 the site hosted 2,000,000 auctions, compared with 250,000 during the whole of 1996.[10] The company officially changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name echobay.com, but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company,[11] so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com.[12] In 1997, the company received $6.7 million in funding from the venture capital firmBenchmark Capital.[13] Meg Whitman was hired as eBay President and CEO in March 1998. At the time, the company had 30 employees,[14] half a million users and revenues of $4.7 million in the United States.[15] eBay went public on September 21, 1998,[16] and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires. eBay's target share price of $18 was all but ignored as the price went to $53.50 on the first day of trading.[17] 2000's[edit]

As the company expanded product categories beyond collectibles into almost any saleable item, business grew quickly.[8] In February 2002, the company purchased iBazar, a similar European auction web site founded in 1998 and then bought PayPal on October 14, 2002. By early 2008, the company had expanded worldwide, counted hundreds of millions of registered users, 15,000+ employees and revenues of almost $7.7 billion.[15] After nearly ten years at eBay, Whitman decided to enter politics. On January 23, 2008 the company announced that Whitman would step down on March 31, 2008 and John Donahoe was selected to become President and CEO.[18] Whitman remained on the Board of Directors and continued to advise Donahoe through 2008. In late 2009, eBay completed the sale of Skype for $2.75 billion, but will still own 30% equity in the company.[19] 2010's[edit] In July 2010, eBay was sued for $3.8 billion by XPRT Ventures, accusing eBay of stealing information shared in confidence by the inventors on XPRT's own patents, and incorporating it into features in its own payment systems, such as PayPal Pay Later and PayPal Buyer Credit.[20] On December 20, 2010, eBay acquired German online shopping club, brands4friends.de, for 150 million ($197 million), strengthening the company's interests in the fashion industry in Europe. It is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close it in the Q1 2011.[21] On September 26, 2013, eBay acquired Braintree for US$800 million, with the intention to continue running it as a separate service.[22][23] Corporate affairs[edit] Logo[edit] In September 2012, eBay introduced a new logo set in Univers.[24] The logo was introduced to the main website on October 10, 2012.

19952012

2012present Profit and transactions[edit] eBay generates revenue from various fees. The eBay fee system is quite complex; there are fees to list a product and fees when the product sells (Final Value Fee), plus several optional adornment fees, all based on various factors and scales. As of November 2012, the U.S. based eBay.com takes $0.10 to $2 (based on the opening or reserve price) as an insertion fee for a basic auction-style listing without any adornments, and 10% of the total amount of the sale (price of the item plus shipping charges) as a final value fee.[25]Fixed-price listings have an insertion fee of $0.30, and the final value fee varies based on category and total amount of the sale (e.g. 13% for DVDs & Movies up to $50).[26] The UK based ebay.co.uk[27] takes from 0.15 to a maximum rate of 3 per 100 for an ordinary listing and from 0.75% to 10% (writing as of June 2009) of the final price. Reduced Final Value Fees are available to business registered customers. In addition, eBay owns the PayPal payment system that has fees of its own. Under current U.S. law, a state cannot require sellers located outside the state to collect a sales tax, making deals more attractive to buyers. Although some state laws require purchasers to pay sales tax to their own states on out-of-state purchases, it is not a common practice. However, most sellers that operate as a full-time business do follow state tax regulations on their eBay transactions.[28][29] However Value Added Tax (VAT), a form of sales tax in EU countries, is different. eBay requires sellers to include the VAT element in their listing price and not as an add-on and thus profits by collecting fees based on what governments tax for VAT; it not only receives fees as a percentage of the sale price "ex VAT" but also the same percentage on the VAT itself.[30] The company's current business strategy includes increasing international trade.[31][32] eBay has already expanded to over two dozen countries including China and India. Strategic international expansion has failed in Taiwan and Japan, where Yahoo! had a head start, and New Zealand where TradeMe, owned by the Fairfax media group is the dominant online auction website. eBay also notably failed in China due to competition from local rival Taobao.[33] eBay entered the Chinese market in 2002 and shut down its Chinese site in 2007.[34] A more recent strategy involves the company increasingly leveraging the relationship between the eBay auction site and PayPal: The impact of driving buyers and sellers to use PayPal means not only does eBay turn buyers into clients (as a pure auction venue its clients used to be predominantly sellers) but for each

new PayPal registration it achieves via the eBay auction site it also earns offsite revenue when the resulting PayPal account is used in non-eBay transactions. In its Q1 2008 results, total payment volume via PayPal increased 17%, but off the eBay auction site it was up 61%.[35] For most listing categories, eBay sellers are permitted to offer a variety of payment systems such as Escrow.com,[36] PayPal,Paymate, ProPay, and Moneybookers.[37] Escrow.com is eBay's approved escrow site. The transactions processed through Escrow.com largely are in relation to eBay Motors; they are not restricted to this type of listing however.[36] eBay runs an affiliate program under the name eBay Partner Network.[38] eBay affiliate marketers were originally paid a percentage of the eBay seller's transaction fees, with commissions ranging from 50% to 75% of the fees paid for an item purchased. In October 2009, eBay changed to an affiliate payout system that it calls Quality Click Pricing, in which affiliates are paid an amount determined by an undisclosed algorithm. The total earnings amount is then divided by the number of clicks the affiliate sent to eBay and is reported as Earnings Per Click, or EPC. On April 18, 2012 eBay reported a 29% Q1 revenue increase to $3.3 billion compared to their Q1 in 2011. Net income was reported to be at $570 million for the quarter.[39] Environmental record[edit] On May 8, 2008, eBay announced the opening of its newest building on the company's North Campus in San Jose, which is the first structure in the city to be built from the ground up to LEED Gold standards.[40] The building, the first the company had built in its 13-year existence, uses an array of 3,248 solar panels, spanning 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2), and providing 650 kilowatts of power to eBay's campus.[41][42] The array can supply 15%18% of the company's total energy requirements, reducing the amount ofgreenhouse gases that would be produced to create that energy by other means.[41] SolarCity, the company responsible for designing the array, estimates that the solar panels installed on eBay's campus will prevent 37 million pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the environment as a result of replaced power production over the next three decades.[42] Creating an equivalent impact to remove the same amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere would require planting 322 acres (1.30 km2) of trees.[42] The design of the building also incorporates other elements to reduce its impact on the environment. The building is equipped with a lighting system that detects natural ambient light sources and automatically dims artificial lighting to save 39% of the power usually required to light an office building.[40] eBay's newest building also reduces demand on local water supplies by incorporating an eco-friendly irrigation system, and low-flow shower heads and faucets.[40] Even during construction, more than 75% of the waste from construction was recycled.[40] eBay also runs buses between San Francisco and the San Jose campus to reduce the number of commuting vehicles.[40]

Acquisitions[edit] Main article: List of acquisitions by eBay StubHub[edit] StubHub was acquired by eBay in January 2007 for a reported $310 million.[43][44][45][46] According to CNN Money, 2007 was a very successful year for the company, handling five million individual transactions, more than in the previous six years combined of its history.[47] Staffing at StubHub had increased to 350 workers by the time of the sale.[46] Eight months after the acquisition, StubHub reached an exclusive agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB).[47] They get a piece of the 25% in commissions StubHub earns on either end of a season ticket buy and sell transaction. Ticketmaster filed a lawsuit against StubHub and eBay in 2007, alleging "intentional interference" with Ticketmaster's contractual rights.[44] Skype[edit] eBay Inc. acquired Skype in 2005 and significantly expanded its customer base to more than 480 million registered users worldwide. To focus on its core e-commerce and payments businesses, eBay Inc. sold a majority stake in Skype in November 2009, retaining a minority investment in the company.[citation needed] In May 2011, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Skype for $8.5 billion. Craigslist[edit] This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2009) In the summer of 2004, eBay acknowledged that it had acquired 25% of classified listings website, Craigslist. Former Craigslist executive Phillip Knowlton was the seller, and he insisted that his former employer was aware of his plans to divest his holdings. Initially, eBay assured Craigslist that they would not ask the company to change the way it does business. eBay spokesman Hani Durzy stated that the "investment was really for learning purposes; it gives us access to learn how the classified market online works."[48] In March 2005, eBay launched the classifieds service Kijiji. In April 2008, eBay sued Craigslist to "safeguard its four-year financial investment", claiming that in January 2008, Craigslist took actions that "unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest by more than 10%."[49] Craigslist countersued in May 2008 "to remedy the substantial and ongoing harm to fair competition" that Craigslist claims is constituted by eBay's actions as a Craigslist shareholder.[50] In September 2010, Delaware Judge William Chandler ruled that the actions of Craigslist were unlawful, and that the actions taken by Craigslist founders Jim Buckmaster and Craig Newmark had "breached their fiduciary duty of loyalty", and restored eBay's stake

in the company to 28.4% from a diluted level of 24.85%.[51]However, the judge dismissed eBay's objection to a staggered board provision citing that Craigslist has the right to protect its own trade secrets.[52][53] eBay spokesman Michael Jacobson stated "We are very pleased that the court gave eBay what it sought from the lawsuit."[51] PayPal[edit] On October 3, 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay.[54] Its corporate headquarters are in San Jose, California,[55]United States at eBay's North First Street satellite office campus. The company also has significant operations in Omaha, Scottsdale,Charlotte, Austin, and Boston in the United States; Chennai in India; Dublin in Ireland; Kleinmachnow in Germany; and Tel Aviv in Israel. From July 2007, PayPal has operated across the European Union as a Luxembourg-based bank. Use for data analysis[edit] As eBay is a huge, publicly visible market, it has created a great deal of interest from economists, who have used it to analyze many aspects of buying and selling behavior, auction formats, etc., and compare these with previous theoretical and empirical findings. Just as economists have shown interest in eBay's operations, computer information systems researchers have also shown interest in eBay. Recently Michael Goul, Chairman of the Computer Information Systems department of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, published an academic case based on eBays big data management and use. In the case, Goul discusses how eBay is a datadriven company which processes 50 petabytes of data a day.[56] eBay uses a system that allows different departments in the company to check out data from their data mart into sandboxes for analysis. According to Goul, eBay has already experienced significant business successes through its data analytics. To continue improving the business through data-driven decision making, eBay employs 5,000 data analysts.[56] Third party[edit] The accounting software company Intuit launched in 2006 a service called ItsDeductible which is a free web-based donation tracking service. With regard to eBay, the service uses date from the site to assist users in assigning a market value to the items they donate.[57] ebay.com[edit] Items[edit] Millions of collectibles, decor, appliances, computers, furnishings, equipment, domain names,[58] vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, or sold daily on eBay. In 2006, eBay launched its Business & Industrial category, breaking into the industrial surplus business. Generally,

anything can be auctioned on the site as long as it is not illegal and does not violate the eBay Prohibited and Restricted Items policy.[59] Services and intangibles can be sold, too. Large international companies, such as IBM, sell their newest products and offer services on eBay using competitive auctions and fixedpriced storefronts. Separate eBay sites such as eBay US and eBay UK allow the users to trade using the local currency. Software developers can create applications that integrate with eBay through the eBay API by joining the eBay Developers Program.[60] In June 2005, there were more than 15,000 members in the eBay Developers Program, comprising a broad range of companies creating software applications to support eBay buyers and sellers as well as eBay Affiliates. Controversy has arisen over certain items put up for bid. For instance, in late 1999, a man offered one of his kidneys for auction on eBay, attempting to profit from the potentially lucrative (and, in the United States, illegal) market for transplantable human organs. On other occasions, people and even entire towns have been listed, often as a joke or to garner free publicity. In general, the company removes auctions that violate its terms of service agreement.

eBay North First Street satellite office campus (home to PayPal) Beginning in August 2007, eBay required listings in "Video Games" and "Health & Beauty" to accept its payment system PayPal and sellers could only accept PayPal for payments in the category "Video Games: Consoles".[61] Starting January 10, 2008, eBay said sellers can only accept PayPal as payment for the categories "Computing > Software", "Consumer Electronics > MP3 Players", "Wholesale & Job Lots > Mobile & Home Phones", and "Business, Office & Industrial > Industrial Supply / MRO".[62] eBay announced that starting in March 2008, eBay had added to this requirement that all sellers with fewer than 100 feedbacks must offer PayPal and no merchant account may be used as an alternative.[63][64] This is in addition to the requirement that all sellers from the United Kingdom have to offer PayPal.[65] Further, and as noted below, it was a requirement to offer PayPal on all listings in Australia and the UK. In response to concerns expressed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, however, eBay has since removed the policy on the ebay.com.au website requiring sellers to offer PayPal as a payment option.[66]

eBay Express logo In April 2006, eBay opened its new eBay Express site, which was designed to work like a standard Internet shopping site for consumers with United States addresses. It closed in 2008. Selected eBay items were mirrored on eBay Express, where buyers shopped using a shopping cart to purchase from multiple sellers. The UK version was launched to eBay members in mid-October 2006 but on January 29, 2008 eBay announced its intention to close the site.[67] The German version, eBay Express Germany,[68] was also opened in 2006 and closed in 2008. At the 2008 eBay Developer's Conference, eBay announced the Selling Manager Applications program (SM Apps).[69] The program allows approved developers to integrate their applications directly into the eBay.com interface.[70] The applications created by developers are available for subscription by eBay members who also subscribe to Selling Manager. eBay maintains a number of specialty sites including the discussion boards, groups, answer center, chat rooms, and reviews and guides. eBay's mobile offerings include SMS alerts, a WAP site, Java ME clients, and mobile applications for Windows Phone,Android OS and Apple iPhone. Unusual items[edit] Main article: Unusual eBay listings Many unusual items have been placed for sale on eBay, including at least two previously undiscovered species, including theCoelopleurus exquisitus sea urchin.[71][72] Prohibited or restricted items[edit] In its earliest days, eBay was nearly unregulated. However, as the site grew, it became necessary to restrict or forbid auctions for various items. Note that some of the restrictions relate to eBay.com (the U.S. site), while other restrictions apply to specific European sites (such as Nazi paraphernalia). Regional laws and regulations may apply to the seller or the buyer. Generally, if the sale or ownership of an item is regulated or prohibited by one or more states, eBay will not permit its listing. Among the hundred or so banned or restricted categories:

Tobacco (tobacco-related items and collectibles are accepted.)[73] Alcohol (alcohol-related collectibles, including sealed containers, as well as some wine sales by licensed sellers are allowed, some sites such as ebay.com.au allow licensed liquor sales)[74] (eBay

announced September 21, 2012, it will begin removing listings for beer and liquor from its site after a story was aired on ABC series 20/20.)[75]

Drugs and drug paraphernalia[76] Nazi paraphernalia[77] Bootleg recordings[78] Firearms and ammunition (as of January 1, 1999),[79] including any parts that could be used to assemble a firearm as well as (as of July 30, 2007) any firearm part that is required for the firing of a gun, including bullet slugs, brass casings and shells, slides, cylinders, magazines, firing pins, trigger assemblies, etc. Various types of knives are also forbidden.

Police and emergency service vehicular warning equipment such as red or blue lights and sirens (antique or collectible items are exempt) Intentionally soiled underwear (see Panty fetishism) and dirty used clothing[80] Forged, illegal, stolen, or confidential documents, which include passports, social security cards, drivers licenses, voter registration cards, birth certificates, school documents,medical records, financial information, government license plates, or government classified information documents. Any item that is used to modify documents is also restricted.[81]

Human body parts, organs, and remains (with an exception forskeletons and skulls for scientific study, provided they are notNative American in origin)[82] Live animals (with certain exceptions)[83] Certain copyrighted works or trademarked items[84] Lottery tickets, sweepstakes tickets, or any other gamblingitems.[85] Military hardware such as working weapons or explosives with the exception of demilitarized vehicles. Any object of Iranian, Cuban, or North Korean origin. Enriched uranium, plutonium, and other fissile material. Certain categories of sexually oriented material, which must be listed in the "Adult Only" category,[86] notwithstanding certain items prohibited:[86]

Child pornography Materials deemed obscene, including bestiality,necrophilia, rape, coprophilia, and incest Used sex toys Services including any sexual activity Links to sites that contain prohibited items Adult products that are delivered digitally

Virtual items from massively multiplayer online games, restrictions that vary by country[87][88]

Ivory products[83] Knives, other than some cutlery, are prohibited in the UK following the criminal importation into the UK (by BBC Watchdog researchers) of several knives that were already illegal to own or import under existing UK legislation. The ban also includes empty leather knife scabbards if they are listed under the category of "knives" on one of the eBay sites[89]

Fortune-telling and witchcraft-related services[90] Souls, ghosts, and other "items whose existence cannot be verified" are prohibited.[91][92][93] Many other items are either wholly prohibited or restricted in some manner.[94]

Bidding[edit] Auction-style listings[edit] Bidding on eBay (old or new)'s auction-style listing is called proxy bidding and is essentially equivalent to a Vickrey auction, with the following exceptions.

The winning bidder pays the second-highest bid plus one bid increment amount (that is, some small predefined amount relative to the bid size), instead of simply the highest bid. However, since the bid increment amounts are relatively insignificant compared to the bid size, they are not considered from a strategic standpoint.[95]

The highest bidder's bid is sealed, as in a Vickrey auction, but the current winning bid (second highest plus one increment) is displayed throughout the auction to allow price discovery.[96]

Seller ratings[edit] In 2008, eBay began using detailed seller ratings with four different categories. When leaving feedback, buyers are asked to rate the seller in each of these categories with a score of one to five stars, with five being the highest rating and one the lowest. Unlike the overall feedback rating, these ratings are anonymous; neither sellers nor other users learn how individual buyers rated the seller. The listings of sellers with a rating of 4.3 or below in any into the four rating categories appear lower in search results. Power Sellers are required to have scores in each category above 4.5.[97][98][99][100][101] In a reversal of roles, on January 24, 2010 Auctionbytes.com held an open survey in which sellers could effectively rate eBay itself, as well as competing auction and marketplace sites.[102] In the survey, users were asked to rank 15 sites based on five criteria:

Profitability Customer Service Communication Ease of Use

Recommendation

After the results were published, eBay had finished 13th overall,[103] edged out by established sites such as Amazon and Craigslist, as well as lesser-known selling sites like Atomic Mall, eCRATER, and Ruby Lane. In individual category rankings, eBay was rated the worst of all the 15 sites on Customer Service and Communication, and average on Ease of Use. A number of respondents said they would have given eBay a rating of ten 3 to 5 years ago. eBay was rated twelfth out of fifteen in the Recommended Selling Venue category. Charity auctions[edit] Using MissionFish as an arbiter, eBay allows sellers to donate a portion of their auction proceeds to a charity of the seller's choice. The program is called eBay Giving Works in the US, and eBay for Charity[104] in the UK. eBay provides a partial refund of seller fees for items sold through charity auctions.[105] As of March 4, 2010, $154 million has been raised for U.S. nonprofits by the eBay Community since eBay Giving Works began in 2003.[106] Some high-profile charity auctions have been advertised on the eBay home page, and have raised large amounts of money in a short time. For example, a furniture manufacturer raised over $35,000 for Ronald McDonald House by auctioning off beds that had been signed by celebrities.[citation needed] To date the highest successful bid on a single item for charity was for the annual "Power Lunch"[107] with investor Warren Buffett at the famous Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in New York. The winning bid was $2.63 million with all of the proceeds going to the Glide Foundation. At the time of writing, the winning bidder is still not publicly known, but they will be able to bring up to seven friends to the lunch. The previous highest successful bid on a single item for charity was for a letter[108] sent to Mark P. Mays, CEO of Clear Channel(parent company of Premiere Radio Networks the production company that produces The Rush Limbaugh Show and Glenn Beck Program) by Senator Harry Reid and forty other Democratic senators, complaining about comments made by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The winning bid was $2,100,100, with all of the proceeds going to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, benefiting the education of children of men and women who have died serving in the armed forces. The winning bid was matched by Limbaugh in his largest charity donation to date.[109] In 2007; eBay Canada partnered with Montreal-based digital branding agency CloudRaker to develop a campaign to raise money for Sainte-Justine children's hospital in Montreal. They aligned themselves with internet phenomenon Ttes claques to create an eBay auction based on popular T-A-C character Uncle Tom, an infomercial host who pitches absurd products. eBay and CloudRakerreproduced Uncle Tom's

imaginary products, The Body Toner Fly Swatter, The Willi Waller Potato Peeler, and the LCD Shovel and sold them online. In 6 weeks, they raised $15,000 for Hpital St-Justine with one fly swatter, one potato peeler, and one shovel, a world record. The Body Toner Fly Swatter sold for $8,600, the Willi Waller Potato Peeler sold for $3,550, and the LCD Shovel sold for $2,146.21. Shipping[edit] Before an auction, eBay lets sellers choose which shipping options to offer regular mail, express mail, or courier service. The website lets buyers choose which option to accept. Since 2012, eBay has also allowed US sellers to opt into its Global Shipping Program. The program works as follows: Each seller decides whether or not to opt into the program. If a seller opts in, and a non-US buyer buys an item from the seller, then the buyer pays an additional fee to Pitney Bowes. The seller ships the item to a Pitney Bowes facility in the US. After receiving the item, Pitney Bowes forwards it to the buyer. The program enhances the selection available to buyers,[110] but can considerably increase buyers' costs on low-value items. Controversy and criticism[edit] Main article: Criticism of eBay eBay has its share of controversy, including cases of fraud, its policy of requiring sellers to use PayPal, and concerns over forgeries and intellectual property violations in auction items. There are also issues of how negative feedback after an auction can offset the benefits of using eBay as a trading platform. eBay has also been criticised for not paying its share of UK tax: the Sunday Timesreported in October 2012 that eBay pays only 1.2m in tax on sales of over 800m.[ The eBay Company

eBay Inc. pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity. eBay brings together millions of people every day on a local, national and international basis through an array of websites that focus on commerce, payments and communications. The eBay Marketplace The eBay Marketplace creates a powerful online platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and small businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items available through auction-style and fixed-price trading. With millions of buyers and sellers worldwide, eBay offers localized sites in the following markets.

Asia Pacific: Australia Hong Kong India Malaysia New Zealand Philippines Singapore South Korea

Europe: Austria Belgium France Germany Ireland Italy Netherlands Poland Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom

North America: Canada United States

In addition, eBay has a presence in Latin America through its investment in MercadoLibre.

PayPal Founded in 1998 and acquired by eBay Inc. in October 2002, PayPal enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. PayPal's service builds on the existing financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards and uses the world's most advanced proprietary fraud prevention systems to create a safe payment solution. A global leader in online payment solutions, PayPal has tens of millions of registered accounts and is accepted by millions of merchants worldwide, on and off eBay. Shopping.com Shopping.com pioneered online comparison shopping and is one of the fastest growing shopping destinations on the Internet. With millions of products, thousands of merchants and millions of reviews from the Epinions community, Shopping.com empowers consumers to make informed choices and, as a result, drives value for merchants. Shopping.com has sites in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia and was acquired by eBay Inc. in August 2005. Online Classifieds Designed to help people meet, share ideas and trade on a local level, eBay Inc.s online classifieds websites are available in hundreds of cities and regions around the world. eBays

classifieds sites include Kijiji, Gumtree.com, LoQUo.com, Intoko, Netherlandsbased Marktplaats.nl, and German automotive classifieds site mobile.de. In addition, eBay owns a minority investment in craigslist.

Selling Clothing on eBay: An Introductory FAQ

63K 0 Is this guide helpful? 507 9 Report Share:

This guide is an introductory-level summary of the basics of clothing sales in an online auction format, and includes a summary of the kind of information that is helpful to include in a clothing auction.

Selling Clothing on eBay: An Introductory FAQ

1. How do I find items to sell?
Have you ever cleaned out your closets and dressers, and have come up with bags of clothing that you simply can't use any more that end up given away, donated to charity or thrown in the trash? Have you ever walked through your favorite department store during a clearance sale and gawked at the incredibly low prices on clothing that isn't in your size, but you know someone would love them? Every clothing seller has a story about how they started off their auction business (large or small) on eBay, and many of these stories start out with a simple closet cleaning! We all have garments in our closets, storage areas, and dressers that we haven't worn in months (sometimes years) that are taking up valuable space in our homes. If you are looking for items to sell to get a taste of the clothing market on eBay and to sharpen your listing and selling skills, start by cleaning out your family's closets. Women's clothing and children's clothing are the hottest sellers on eBay, but Men's fashions can also be a great find. If your closets are clean and your spouse and children have threatened you with bodily harm if you take one more article of their clothing to sell on eBay, it's time to look outside the box -- it's time to Thrift and it's time to Yard Sale. Depending on the city you live in, Yard Sales and Garage Sales may only last 4 months a year, or they could last nearly 12 months out of the year. Watch your neighborhood and your city newspaper for sales in your area, and go shopping! Be sure to bring cash with you - few (if any) yard sale hosts are interested in considering your checks or credit cards for their items. Another thing to watch for when looking for resaleable items are church, community and school Bazaars and sales. These are some of the greatest places to go for any kind of item, as the people who are selling the items to you do not have an emotional attachment to what you're buying and they typically have only one day to get rid of it all. Almost every city in the United States has at least one thrift store, whether large or small (this may be true for other countries, as well!). Visiting your local thrift stores on a regular basis can yield tremendous results for bargain-basement prices.

Sometimes you live in an area where thrift pickins are thin or you simply may not wish to visit a thrift on a regular basis. Other places where you can find some great deals to resell on eBay are retailer Outlet stores, clearance racks in regular retail stores (pay close attention to deals on the day after Thanksgiving and on New Year's Day for some potentially great buys), and auctions/estate sales are also particularly good for finding better and vintage clothing. A note on selling any pre-owned clothing on eBay: All pre-owned/used/worn items sold on eBay must be cleaned before sale. Be sure that any item that is not New has been washed before you send the item to your happy buyer. To view eBay's policy on pre-owned clothing, click here .

2. How do I list the items I'm going to sell?

This is the most challenging part of selling clothing: listing your item in a way that makes your lookers and watchers turn into bidders and buyers! Here is a list of must-dos and must-nots for your listing:
o

You must take pictures of your item. Many auctions end with no bidders and few (if any) lookers and watchers simply because the clothing seller has not taken a picture of their item. Your buyers have only what is on their computer screen to tell them whether or not your garment is worth the time and money to bid on it. Pictures that are blurry and unclear give the buyer nearly no idea of what the garment actually looks like, and can often make your item look in worse condition than it really is. Be sure to focus your camera properly, and if the picture doesn't turn out right the first time, try it again. Practice makes perfect! Dark pictures also will cause problems with clarity. If you cannot get sufficient light inside to take a good picture, take your items outside in the sun for a much better result. Taking multiple pictures enhances the value of the item and gives your buyer the opportunity to see your garment from many angles. Taking pictures of the back and the front of the garment is a must, and additional pictures of little details like beadwork, embroidery, or a unique weave also enhances your auction. You must describe your item. For every seller that lists a garment without a picture, you have a seller who puts up one picture of a garment with little to no description. Be sure that you describe your garment in detail, especially anything that makes it unique or comfortable. Remember that you are the eyes and the hands of the buyer, and they are relying on you to know what you are selling. Describe your item as if there were no picture at all in the auction! Reveal any and all imperfections. Whether it's a tiny little run or snag or a re-done hem, be sure to note any modifications to or imperfections in your garment. This includes, but is not limited to, any of the following: spots; stains; runs; tears; holes; moth damage; mildew damage; pilling/piling on knits and sweaters; unraveling; odd smells (including tobacco or moth ball odors). It may take more time during listing, but it will increase your customer's confidence in your integrity and your honesty. List at least the basic measurements. Because of the sharp difference in sizing between manufacturers and designers, it is very important to include the measurements of your garments in each auction. Some examples of the basics include: Bust/Chest width Waist

Hips Length (top to bottom of garment) Inseam Other measurements that are sometimes helpful to include are: Rise (for pants - from the crotch, up the front to the waistline) Shoulder width Neck width Arm length Arm opening width (important for plus sizes) Thigh width (also important for plus sizes) Cuff width (for pants and shirts/blouses) Hem width (for skirts and dresses) For garments that have some give or stretch to them (like elasticized waistlines, spandex, or sweaters), be sure to note whether your measurements are stretched or unstretched. For items that have a lot of give to them, list both the stretched and unstretched measurements for the basics. Include the other basics. Be sure that for every garment you list, you give the following basic information: Brand/Designer/Maker Name Size Color Condition (NWT, NWOT, Like New, etc. Please see the CA Board Condition Guide for details on the acceptable condition terms for garments) Other information that may be helpful to include: Washing instructions (in brief - Machine Washable/Hand Wash Only/Dry Clean Only/Spot Clean Only) Fabric content

3. BOY that sounds complicated! I quit!

Don't give up yet! A lot of these things will become second nature to you as you sell more and more things. Most sellers have only learned to include much of what you see above only because they've received ASQs (Ask Seller a Question) in many of their auctions asking for this very information. Don't let the list intimidate you!

4. What materials do I need to be a successful clothing seller?

There are three basic pieces of equipment that are a must have for any clothing seller:
1. A camera that you have unlimited access to. It doesn't matter if it's digital or 35mm (some clothing sellers DO still use traditional film methods, but it does make the process take a lot longer), as long as you can take pictures with it whenever you need to. 2. A tailor's measuring tape. These tapes are made out of cloth, and can be found in any sewing store, in the fabric & crafts department of any K-Mart or WalMart, and can often be found even in some grocery

stores. If you plan on selling plus-sized clothing, splurge a little and buy the tape that is at least seventy inches long. 3. A scale for weighing your items. This is invaluable for any eBay seller (not just clothing sellers) for helping you accurately determine how much to charge your buyers for shipping. Scales may be purchased on eBay for reasonable amounts, and you will rarely need one that is more than a 30 pound limit.

5. You mean I don't need a mannequin?

Having a mannequin (or manni, for short) is a blessing to a clothing seller. It allows them to shape their garment to a human figure, giving the buyer a better idea of its form and flow. If you can find a mannequin, a dress-maker's form (these don't have legs, arms or a head - just a torso), or a hanging form (inexpensive plastic half-forms, like what many department stores use to sell bathing suits), you can certainly buy it if you think you'll be selling enough clothing in the future to warrant the purchase. When it comes right down to it, however, mannis are not a requirement for being a "real" clothing seller on eBay, nor does the lack of manni make your auctions less professional. Whether or not you have a manni, it is important that your pictures are clear, well-lit, and in an appropriate background. Hanging your clothing against a solid-color backdrop (a plain white sheet, for example) can make for good presentation. If you must lay your clothes on the floor or a table to take a picture, be sure to use a drop sheet there, as well, so any distracting background clutter or floor patterns do not detract from the appearance value of your garment.

6. How should I ship my garments?

When you have successfully made your sale and your buyer has paid for their items, you have a number of ways to ship your items. In the United States, most sellers prefer to use USPS (United States Postal Service) to ship their items. Shipping via USPS Parcel Post is the cheapest way to send your garment via USPS. You will need to purchase (or find) packaging material to put your garment in to use this service. eBay clothing sellers use many different types of mailers to ship their goods, including Tyvek, Poly, Paper and Bubble Mailers. Shop around before purchasing and be sure that you're getting the best deal on your mailer purchase. If shipping via USPS Priority Mail (typically a 2-3 day delivery), you can receive free mailing supplies, including boxes and tyvek mailers. By far, USPS Priority Mail flat rate boxes are the best deal for shipping for shipments that include many items -- for one flat fee, USPS will ship anything you can fit in their flat rate box to anywhere in the United States of America (including Hawaii and Alaska). Whichever method you use to ship your item, be sure that you ship safely: If the mailer you're using isn't already waterproof, place your garments in an inner bag (grocery bag, small trash bag, ziplock bags, etc.) that will provide the garment with water resistance. You don't need to package the item to withstand water submersion, but do keep in mind that many buyers live in residences where the USPS carrier will need to leave the package exposed to the elements. One good rain storm can ruin the beautiful silk blouse your buyer just purchased, so be prepared! If you print your postage online via PayPal or the USPS website, Delivery Confirmation is a must-have and is free. Delivery Confirmation provides proof that the item you sent was dropped off at its delivery location, and if you accept PayPal, DC is a requirement for seller protection. Don't let that package leave home without it!

7. What else do I need to know?

One last bit of information that is useful is knowing where to turn when you have questions. eBay's Community is full of discussion forums that can provide you with a wealth of information on any topic relating to making your eBay business work. For clothing sellers and buyers, one of the most useful forums is the Clothing, Shoes & Accessories board. Here, you can talk with other buyers and sellers, get their input, and ask questions. These are the basics when it comes to selling clothing here on eBay! laurel.bay has been selling clothing and vintage collectibles on eBay for two years, and welcomes the opportunity to help new sellers learn the ropes. Introduction to Online Auctions Like eBay http://lone-eagles.com/auctions.htm Lesson Goals

To Introduce How to Get Started with eBay and Other Online Auctions To Clarify a Recommended Step-By-Step Training Program To Clarify Important Trends Related to the eBay Phenomena To Clarify the Opportunities for eBay Stores and Drop-Off Centers

Sponsorship This lesson was created with funding provided by USDA in partnership with the Idaho State University Special Programs Workforce Training Office, led by director Margaret Phelps phelmarg@isu.edu, as part of a series of state-of-the-art rural innovations now entering the fourth year. Additional resources are available at http://lone-eagles.com/connect-idaho.htm and the following sites. Beginning in 2004, "The Montpelier Project" has established a partnership with the Montana Choice Project http://lone-eagles.com/montana-choice.htm, a demonstration project for the U.S. Department of Labor showcasing the Montana Choice Process for rural community Internet self-empowerment as described athttp://lone-eagles.com/montana-choice05.htm

The Purpose of this Lesson This lesson is designed to point you to resources that will teach you how to buy and sell, and much more, using eBay and other online auction sites. eBay is just one part of a whole range of interesting new opportunities related to web-based self-employment. eBay is a good place to get started with buying and selling online, but once you raise your confidence and better understand the broader range of options, then you will better understand that eBay is just the beginning and you'll really be on your way! Avoiding Regrets for Missed Opportunities Have you ever regretted a missed opportunity, such as seeing an idea of yours become a moneymaker for someone else? Perhaps there was a piece of real estate or stock available at a rock bottom price that has since skyrocketed in value? Knowing when a genuine window of

opportunity opens up for you, and having presence of mind and self-determination to take action, can mean the difference between fortune and failure. Seeing others benefiting by taking action can sometimes cause us to freeze in our tracks, somehow unable to get ourselves going. Doubting our abilities and making excuses why others succeeded and we never got around to taking action are common self-deception mechanisms. Your solution is to commit to taking action, and are advised to take it one small step at a time. In this lesson prepare to be overwhelmed with facts on how many people like you are already benefiting from online auctions. Your opportunity - which is made explicit in this lesson - is to define your first next steps and to get yourself going - taking action. The more you learn - the more self-confidence you'll gain that you, too, can learn-to-earn using not just online auctions but far more. If you commit the time to feed your imagination by learning what's working for others, you'll be amazed how quickly you can learn to be successful. Background In 1995, eBay, the largest online auction site, was just someone's new idea and the primary collectables being sold were beanie babies. Today, eBay has demonstrated effective entry-level ecommerce education opportunities resulting in 114 million users, 430,000 full time selfemployed eBay entrepreneurs, and 150,000 online eBay stores. As one of the fastest growing companies in the world, eBay has expanded into 28 countries and last year 28 billion dollars in goods were exchanged on eBay. Did you miss the boat? Have all the great opportunities already be taken? Are you too late? Not at all! In fact, the market is growing so fast that only 4% of the global market for eBay has been tapped. There are nearly one billion people on the Internet with another six billion coming over the next ten years. The sooner you get started, the sooner you'll amaze yourself with real step-bystep successes of your very own. Recommendations for Learning eBay and More Below you'll find a self-tour of eBay and recommendations for what to explore at the eBay site. While many people find their needs for supplemental income are met by occasional posting of items on eBay, others will become interested in selling items for others as a "transaction assistant" or in creating your own eBay online store, or in creating an eBay drop-off center or perhaps becoming a certified eBay trainer. There are many new eBay-related businesses popping up all the time. You'll learn below how you can stay current on the new emerging opportunities on an ongoing basis. Start With A Self-Tour of eBay Learn what's possible by exploring the recommended beginners' resources for getting started with eBay. Explore the audio tour and summary resources intended for beginners (listed on the left); at http://pages.eBay.com/education/ "New to eBay," "How to Buy," "How to Sell," and then "Advanced Selling."

Explore the link to the Site Map at the top right of the screen. Prepare to be overwhelmed, but see what you can discover, one small step at a time. Take a break whenever you feel overwhelmed. Plan on many regular short sessions instead of trying to absorb everything all at once. Explore the My eBay options at the top right of the screen. Registered users can customize their own My eBay page to quickly see the status of all items they have posted for sale, and all auction items they have selected for monitoring. The key to eBay is to keep watching what others are doing and to take advantage of the advice that others offer freely in the discussion forums. Explore a few eBay discussion groups to get a feel for this style of interaction - which is often key to staying current and doing business on eBay. Much of the fun of eBay is interacting with others in this huge online global community. Select the Community button on the home page and/or review the forum topic listing for Community Help in the Site Map. At the bottom of this lesson is a link to an eBay forum for individuals with disabilities. Note the links to the Disabled Online Users Association which has 200 members and a peer-mentoring program. There is also link to a free online course, but they require that you first have to become an eBay user and register. This is not a scam, so go ahead and register. You'll need to have your bank account number ready. Establishing a PayPal account is strongly recommended for future convenience. eBay will do everything they can to make you happy, and this is part of why they are so successful. The only way you'll learn is to jump in and register. Then buy something inexpensive, just to learn from the process, and then learn to post an item photo and description, just to learn how this process works. There is no risk and you'll amaze yourself at how easy this can be. Register as an eBay user and explore the eBay University Online Training athttp://pages.eBay.com/university/ Finding the Best Lessons and Books There are many promises of online lessons that will teach you how to make a fortune on eBay, and some are excellent while some are not. How can you tell the difference? eBay wants you to be successful and their recommendations would be a good place to start. They have their own eBay University with online lessons, and many excellent tutorials right on the site. eBay certifications for trainers and training resources are likely to be far safer than non-certified resources. Specific recommendations follow: You can buy eBay for Dummies and Starting an eBay Business for Dummies written by Marsha Collier from Amazon.com for $10 each. Lots of other books exist and most are probably based on genuine successes, but I'd suggest sticking with books recommended by eBay. The "Official eBay Bible" - Jim "Griff" Griffith, $19.95 plus shipping and handling from Amazon.com, is now also available on CD-ROM!. Since Griff is dean of eBay University, it might be safe to assume he knows what he's doing. You can also purchase this book direct from the eBay University link below.

At http://eBay.com you'll find all the lessons you need and as you discipline yourself to methodically explore eBay and expand your understanding, you'll begin to feel more comfortable with your challenge of educating yourself on how others have learned to make money on eBay. With patience and perseverance you'll soon be buying and selling, too. Become an Authorized eBay Trainer Learn how to you can be paid to teach others to use eBay through eBay's educational specialist program ($149) by becoming an authorized eBay trainer. http://pages.eBay.com/university/specialist/ No doubt there are lots of folks in your local community who want to learn about eBay. What Are You Going to Sell on eBay? If you don't have products of your own ready to sell, a first option is to become an eBay trading assistant which is simply someone who sells items on eBay for those who don't want to do it themselves, in return for a ten to thirty percent commission. You can start small and see how this works for you. You don't need a store front or to invest any money and will be in full control regarding how fast you want to grow your business. eBay Trading Assistants Program and Directory http://eBay.com/tradingassistants.html Introductory resources are listed on the left. Product Sourcing Businesses If you don't already have a product to sell, you still have many options - based on what others are doing successfully. Athttp://www.worldwidebrands.com you'll find the only wholesale product sourcing business certified by eBay. They help you find discounted products you can resell for a profit on eBay just like millions are already doing! At this site you'll also find a "Market Research Wizard" to help you learn what items are hot sellers and which are not. You'll find a directory of drop shipping services, listings of ebusiness product sourcing experts and more. A new competitor to eBay based on this wholesaling theme is http://overstock.com See what they have to offer and compare it with eBay's offerings and World Wide Brands. Seller Central maintains hot lists of best selling products http://www.eBay.com/sellercentral/ There are many other related services including free software tools to increase your efficiency dealing with lots of buying and selling. Get to know these invaluable services. You can scout for product sources that charge less, and resell these items yourself for a profit. For example, if you see that dutch ovens are selling steadily for over $70 each, and you find that your local discount store or an online product sourcing business has them for $35, you can buy one or more and see what profit you can realize by reselling it. If successful, you use your profits to buy 2 dutch ovens and sell them, build your business capital, and reputation, and customer base, one step at a time.

Transparent Pricing The Internet is changing the way we shop. eBay aside for the moment, before many of us purchase items in our local stores, more and more of us enjoy first checking the Internet for better prices. Many sites like http://mysimon.com allow us to instantly get a listing of the best prices from dozens of national discount stores. Local retailers are quickly learning that they need to be ready to say "We'll match whatever price you can get elsewhere if you buy from us!" Watch for new ways local retailers are learning to use eBay to make money! You can find other sites like MySimon by reviewing the specialty search engines at http://www.searchenginewatch.com A Word of Advice on eBay Training Scams There are way too many eBay-related scams out there. Stick with eBay certified services. Here's an ad offering you a telework job selling on eBay. Be cautious about such offers as they don't guarantee you'd make money and they quickly have many services for which they'll charge you on a monthly basis.Take a few minutes to review the following site. http://www.careersite.com/perl/vaui/EmpList/top/jobview/9E042-45F7?pid=93 I'm sure you'll see many similar ads, but be cautious. There are many scams and hard sells that you want to avoid. When I called, I was asked to pay $6.95 for a 14-day free trial at http://www.onlinesupplier.com I recommend you NOT call and would like to report on what I learned when I did call. When I went to this site for my "free" trial, I was required to give them an electronic copy of my signature "to allow them to protect my privacy" but then I read in the ten pages of legal agreement that I was required to agree to - that I have to agree to allow them resell my personal information. This experience was like sinking in quicksand. I was required to give away my privacy rights and money and they promised absolutely nothing in return! I don't need them to be successful on eBay and neither do you. They will supply products to sell which are supposed to be hot items on eBay. I would then learn how to sell these items, but no profit is guaranteed. They quickly pushed an automatic monthly fee of $29.00 for ongoing support services for my new eBay online business. Then, they had additional automatic sign-up for another $19.00 a month for Business Max, Business Matters, and Privacy Matters security services. If I don't call to cancel within 14 days, they will automatically bill my credit card these amounts. Maybe there are lots of folks who are making money thanks to this type of service, but maybe many people paid for the hard lessons that they should have just learned how to use eBay themselves using from the free lessons on eBay as the easiest way to go. Growing a Business on eBay You'll find extensive resources on how to grow a business, how to create an eBay store, and more at the eBay site. Business services on eBay www.eBaybusiness.com

Here's a quick Success Story on how one person started small and grew a business. Shane Johnson, the high school janitor in Montpelier, Idaho, posted a photo of a baseball bat on eBay. He wrote a description and set the number of days for the auction. When it sold, he used his profits to buy more bats, and soon created his own web site such that each time he posted a bat on eBay, he included a link to his new web site. This worked to drive traffic to his web site and eventually he discontinued using eBay. Shane started an "affiliates program" whereby he offered a ten percent commission to any web site owner who would post a graphical hyperlink button to his site. Affiliate program software allowed Shane to easily keep track of what purchases were initiated by customers clicking on his graphical button from over 700 affiliate web sites. This allows Shane to automate sending commission checks as an incentive to all his affiliates. This model has become very common because it works so well. Shane keeps a mailing list and sends out print catalogs to thousands of former customers. Shane has recently expanded to five new web sites and product lines, has over a dozen employees, and has just built a warehouse. The janitor from the High School retired after creating a successful Ecommerce business selling baseball bats globally. This model can be replicated for many other products. The growing number of daily shipments range from 50 to 120 packages. He has successfully homesteaded his global niche and and is expanding with five new websites...which are: Halloween Supplies http://alarmingproducts.com Golf Supplies http://theonlinegolfshop.com Hockey Supplies http://2playhockey.com Sports Balls http://jjsportsballs.com Sports Cards http://jjsportscards.com You can read more about Shane's success at http://lone-eagles.com/montpelier-bats.htm Affiliate Programs You can search for "affiliate programs" and review many variations of these services. Amazon.com has affiliate programs so you can receive a commission for selling their products through your web site, Google.com offers payments to you for posting their ads on your web site,http://overture.com has information on Yahoo affiliate programs, and this model is booming. You can easily find articles on this trend by using search engines. See also http://payperclick.com You don't need eBay to establish an Ecommerce web site and/or an affiliate program. At http://tripod.com is one of the easiest places to establish a very low-cost Ecommerce web site. Buy It Now For over a year now, eBay's Buy It Now allows posting products with a flat fee instead of as an auction. As a result, IBM and many other big corporations now post products for direct sale on eBay. You'll see a link for Buy It Now next to the Auctions tab on most eBay pages. Learn About Creating a Store on eBay

eBay has affordable services to help you create your own web site store right on eBay, at http://pages.eBay.com/storefronts/seller-landing.html Your store will be posted right along with 150,000 other eBay stores. If you read their suggestions you'll better understand the advantages of being part of their E-mall and how to make your site appear unique and competitive. eBay Drop-Off Centers Beginning in 2004, over 1000 drop-off centers have popped up, including 3,400 UPS offices which now offer drop-off services. The concept is to have a storefront where anyone can drop off items for sale. Up to a 30 percent commission is taken for items sold, with no cost for items that don't sell. Since 70 percent of everything on eBay does sell, this model works well. Eventually others will offer the same services for a lower commission, and many people will eventually learn how easy eBay is to use and will begin using it themselves. If you are interested in starting a drop-off center, you should first become a trading assistant. You might find you don't need to invest in a store front but could work effectively from home. While many franchises are available starting at around $15,000, be sure to research how easy it is to start your own drop-off center without paying someone else. Articles and resources specific to drop-off centers are listed in the hands-on section of this lesson. Keeping Track of Emerging New Business Models We live in a world of accelerating change. Just as you can do your market research directly on eBay to see what is and is not selling well, so can you research the new business models that others are trying to make work. When you see a new business model that is starting to prove itself, you can quickly create your own variation. This general theme applies to all innovative activity on the Internet. But, you have to be actively looking for what's new and this takes proactive self-determination. Subscribe to one or more of the Online Auctions newsletters listed below to stay current on the latest trends and successful spin-off business models. A Word on Finding More Local eBay Success Stories If you begin to ask around you'll find that eBay success stories are everywhere. Here's a few quick examples, Mary Ann Wofford paid 25 cents for a cookbook at a garage sale and sold it to a lady in England for $66 - this was her first eBay posting and since then she's been surprised to find she's been able to sell everything she's posted! The Antique store in Phillipsburg, Montana does 90% of their business on eBay, which is important because Phillipsburg is not on a major highway. Frontier Anglers, a flyfishing store in Dillon, Montana, has a good location but today does more business online than they do from their store front. Hands-On Activities Online Newsletters on Auction Trends Online newsletters are popping up to meet the need for ongoing current updates on these new

trends, new online auction sites, and related spin-off businesses. Sample resources for your exploration are listed below. Auction Bytes http://www.auctionbytes.com/ This site offers two free newsletters and many related resources.
Auction Know-How http://auctionknowhow.com/ This site contains resources telling all about eBay auctions, includes a free newsletter, links to online courses and more.

Auction Mole http://www.auctionmole.com/ See their Online Auction Help Directory! http://www.auctionmole.com/links/ Note the help directory lists other auction sites and more. Online Auction Drop-Off Centers It is recommended to read up on the various drop-off approaches before even thinking of paying anyone anything at all. You might just find this is easy enough that you can do it yourself. Most of the following sites offer franchise details and have listings of how many new stores are opening, press releases, and articles about their models. These articles are important for understanding the trends behind the boom of drop-off centers. Start an eBay drop-off store: http://www.1stopauctions.com/googleCM.htm Manual for under $100 will give you everything you need. No franchise fees. Book details http://www.auction-sellers-resource.com/products/consignment.shtml Lots of interesting reading even if you don't buy the book. Auction Mills http://www.auctionmills.com/ As the first publicly-traded eBay drop-off center franchise you'll find a well-developed drop-off center model and franchise to study carefully. As an example of where to start - here's their listing of articles from their web site: http://www.auctionmills.com/press.html AuctionDrop www.auctiondrop.com AuctionDrop, the original eBay drop-off store, is now in your neighborhood! Visit us at over 3,400 locations (UPS Stores) in the continental U.S. (excludes Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories).

QuikDrop

http://www.quikdrop.com/ QuikDrop is a local store dedicated to providing a simple, fast and convenient way to sell items and vehicles on eBay. Customers bring in items or vehicles that they would like to sell. Digital photographs are taken. Descriptions are written and an attractive, detailed listing is placed on eBay. QuikDrop tracks the auction, answers questions from prospective buyers, processes payment, packages the item, and ships it to the winner when the auction closes.

11 Sites Like eBay - Other Websites To Buy And Sell On

28 Comments Like88

11

Ranked #6 in Internet, #128 overall Ads by Google

Wholesale Connect with suppliers & exporters from China & Asia. Free Service. www.hktdc.com $0.01 Web Hosting Scalable, Secure Web Hosting. Try Our Award-Winning Service Now!www.hostgator.com/1Penny Vintage Arcade Auction Vending, slot & amusement machines. Register now to bid on Jan. 1819!www.vcaauction.com

11 Sites Like eBay - A Collection Of eBay Alternatives

Can't find what you want on eBay? Or are you looking for somewhere else to sell your products? There are plenty of sites like eBay available (for both buyers and sellers). eBay started in 1995 as a simple place to bring buyers and sellers together and is one of the Internet bubble success stories. These days eBay has added a number of buy it now and store options to make it the most popular online auction website available. On eBay you can find anything from clothing and games to air guitars and love potions.

A common issue with eBay though is the associated selling fees cutting into your profit margin. As such many of the sites like eBay focus on reducing your selling expenses (both listing fees and selling fees). My dad loves to sell things on eBay regularly but after listening to him complain about fees for a long time I decided to track down some alternatives for him (which you'll find below). He now sells across a number of the sites below which has helped him branch out and remove his dependence on eBay as a selling platform (he couldn't be happier). Stop by the comment section to share your favourite website like eBay or recommend your own favourite auction site.

Table of Contents
Check Out These 11 Sites Like eBay:
1. 1 - Amazon 2. 2 - eBid 3. 4. 3 - Etsy 5. 6. 4 - iOffer 7. 8. 5 - Webstore 9. 10. 6 - Online Auction 11. 12. 7 - ePier 13. 14. 8 - Overstock 15. 16. 9 - uBid 17. 18. 10 - Quicksales 19. 20. 11 - WeBidz 21. 22. 23. Have You Used Any Of These Sites Like eBay?

11 Sites Like eBay

Other Merchant & Auction Websites

1 - Amazon
One Of The Most Popular Sites Like eBay

Amazon is one of the most popular and well known sites like eBay. Amazon is a great eBay alternative for buyers or for businesses looking to grow their online presence. Amazon started back in 1995 and has since expanded outside the United States to have separate warehouses (and websites) for a number of countries (most notablyCanada and United Kingdom). Amazon's product lines include toys, baby products, sporting goods, health, beauty, clothing, groceries, DVDs, books and consumer electronics. Amazon now also offers e-book sales for the Kindle, Instant Watch movies and MP3 downloads. While Amazon has an extensive collection of products nearly 50% are served from third party sellers. Amazon's website also delivers reviews for each product from previous buyers allowing you to easily make the right decision on your next purchase. Amazon's popularity, shipping options and product availability make it one of the best sites like eBay available. Amazon.com From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Amazon.com, Inc.

Type Traded as

Public NASDAQ: AMZN

NASDAQ-100 Component S&P 500 Component Foundation date Headquarters Seattle, Washington, United States[1][2][3] Area served Founder(s) Key people Worldwide Jeff Bezos Jeff Bezos (Chairman, President & CEO) Industry Products Internet, online retailing Appstore, LoveFilm, The Book Depository, Game Studios,Instant Video, Kindle, Lab126,Studios, Woot MyHabit.com[4] Askville[5] Revenue Operating income Net income Total assets Total equity US$ 39 million (2012)[6] US$ 32.555 billion (2012)[6] US$ 8.19 billion (2012)[6] US$ 61.09 billion (2012)[6] US$ 676 million (2012)[6] 1994

Employees Subsidiaries

109,800 (September 2013)[7] a2z, A9.com, Amazon Web Services, Alexa Internet,Audible.com, Digital Photography Review,Goodreads, Internet Movie Database, Junglee.com,Zappos

Website

amazon.com (original US site) various national sites

Written in Alexa rank Type of site Advertising Available in

C++, Perl and Java 8 (January 2014)[8] E-commerce Web banners, videos English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese

Launched

1995

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American international electronic commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer.[9][10][11] Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, sellingDVDs, VHSs, CDs, video and MP3 downloads/streaming, software, video games,electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. The company also producesconsumer electronicsnotably the Amazon Kindle e-book reader and the Kindle Firetablet computerand is a major provider of cloud computing services. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company (as Cadabra) in July 1994 and the site went online as Amazon.com in 1995.[12] The company was renamed after the Amazon River, one of the largest rivers in the

world,[12] which in turn was named after the Amazons, the legendary nation of female warriors in Greek mythology. Amazon has separate retail websites for United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada,Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India and Mexico, with international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products.[6] In 2011, it had professed an intention to launch its websites in Poland,[13] Netherlands, and Sweden, as well.[14] Contents [hide]

1 History
o o o

1.1 Acquisitions 1.2 Investment 1.3 Subsidiaries

2 Merchant partnerships 3 Locations

o o o o o o

3.1 Headquarters 3.2 Software development centers 3.3 Customer Service Centers 3.4 Fulfillment and warehousing 3.5 Other 3.6 Closed fulfillment, warehousing and customer service locations 4.1 Retail goods 4.2 Consumer electronics 4.3 Digital content 4.4 Amazon Art 4.5 Amazon Instant Video 4.6 Amazon Prime 4.7 Private labels and exclusive marketing arrangements 4.8 Computing services 4.9 Content production 4.10 Donations 4.11 Amazon Local

4 Products and services

o o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o

4.12 AmazonWireless 4.13 AmazonFresh 4.14 Amazon Prime Air 4.15 Other services 5.1 Reviews 5.2 Content search 5.3 Third-party sellers

5 Website
o o o

6 Amazon sales rank 7 Amazon technology 8 Multi-level sales strategy 9 Revenue 10 Controversies
o o o o o o o

10.1 Sales and use taxes 10.2 Sale of revisionist and Holocaust-denying books 10.3 Alleged tax avoidance in the UK 10.4 Internet piracy issues in China 10.5 Alleged mistreatment of individual sellers 10.6 Poor working conditions 10.7 Amazon UK

11 Lobbying 12 Notable businesses founded by former employees 13 See also 14 References 15 Further reading 16 External links History[edit]

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos The company was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bezos called his "regret minimization framework", which described his efforts to fend off any regrets for not participating sooner in the Internet business boom during that time.[15] In 1994, Bezos left his employment as vice-president ofD. E. Shaw & Co., a Wall Street firm, and moved to Seattle. He began to work on a business plan for what would eventually become Amazon.com. After reading a report about the future of the Internet which projected annual Web commerce growth at 2,300%, Bezos created a list of 20 products which could be marketed online. He narrowed the list to what he felt were the five most promising products which included: compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, videos, and books. Bezos finally decided that his new business would sell books online, due to the large world-wide demand for literature, the low price points for books, along with the huge number of titles available in print.[16] Amazon[17] was originally founded in Bezos' garage in Bellevue, Washington.[18] The company began as an online bookstore, an idea spurred off with discussion with John Ingram of Ingram Book (now called Ingram Content Group), along with Keyur Patel who still holds a stake in Amazon.[19] In the first two months of business, Amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries. Within two months, Amazon's sales were up to $20,000/week.[20]While the largest brick and mortar bookstores and mail order catalogs might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could "carry" several times more, since they had an almost unlimited virtual (not actual) warehouse: those of the actual product makers/suppliers. Bezos wanted a name for his company that began with "A" so that it would appear early in alphabetic order. He began looking through the dictionary and settled on "Amazon" because it was a place that was "exotic and different" just as he planned for his store to be, and he believed it was the biggest river in the world, and he planned to make his store the biggest in the world.[12] Bezos placed a premium on his head start in building a brand, telling a reporter, "There's nothing about our model that can't be copied

over time. But you know, McDonald's got copied. And it still built a huge, multibillion-dollar company. A lot of it comes down to the brand name. Brand names are more important online than they are in the physical world."[21] Since 2000, Amazon's logotype has featured a curved arrow leading from A to Z, representing that they carry every product from A to Z, with the arrow shaped like a smile.[22] Amazon was incorporated in 1994, in the state of Washington. In July 1995, the company began service and sold its first book on Amazon.com: Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.[23] In October 1995, the company announced itself to the public.[24] In 1996, it was reincorporated in Delaware. Amazon issued its initial public offering of stock on May 15, 1997, trading under the NASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN, at a price ofUS$18.00 per share ($1.50 after three stock splits in the late 1990s). Amazon's initial business plan was unusual; it did not expect to make a profit for four to five years. This "slow" growth caused stockholders to complain about the company not reaching profitability fast enough to justify investing in, or to even survive in the long-term. When the dot-com bubble burst at the start of the 21st Century, destroying many e-companies in the process, Amazon survived, and grew on past the bubble burst to become a huge player in online sales. It finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million (i.e., 1 per share), on revenues of more than $1 billion. This profit margin, though extremely modest, proved to skeptics that Bezos' unconventional business model could succeed.[25] In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos the Person of the Year, recognizing the company's success in popularizing online shopping. Barnes & Noble sued Amazon on May 12, 1997, alleging that Amazon's claim to be "the world's largest bookstore" was false. Barnes and Noble asserted, "[It] isn't a bookstore at all. It's a book broker." The suit was later settled out of court, and Amazon continued to make the same claim."[26] Walmart sued Amazon on October 16, 1998, alleging that Amazon had stolen their trade secrets by hiring former Walmart executives. Although this suit was also settled out of court, it caused Amazon to implement internal restrictions and the re-assignment of the former Walmart executives.[26] Acquisitions[edit]

1998: PlanetAll, a reminder service based in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Junglee, an XML-based data mining startup based in Sunnyvale;[27][28] Bookpages.co.uk,[29] a UK online book retailer, which became Amazon UK on October 15, 1998.[30]

1999: Internet Movie Database (IMDb);[31] Alexa Internet, Accept.com, and Exchange.com[32] 2003: Online music retailer CDNow.[33] By 2011, the website cdnow.com was defunct and in use by a different company.

2004: Joyo.com, a Chinese e-commerce website.[34] 2005: BookSurge,[35] a print on demand company, and Mobipocket.com, an e-Book software company.[36][37] CreateSpace.com (formerly CustomFlix), a distributor of on-demand DVDs, based in Scotts Valley, California.[38] CreateSpace has since expanded to include print on-demand books (POD), CDs, and video.

2006: Shopbop, a retailer of designer clothing and accessories for women, based in Madison, Wisconsin.[39] 2007: dpreview.com, a digital photography review website based in London; Brilliance Audio, the largest independent publisher ofaudiobooks in the United States.[40] 2008: Audible.com; Fabric.com;[41] Box Office Mojo;[42] AbeBooks;[43] Shelfari;[44] (including a 40% stake in LibraryThing and whole ownership of BookFinder.com, Gojaba.com, and FillZ); Reflexive Entertainment,[45] a casual video game development company.

2009: Zappos,[46] an online shoe and apparel retailer[47] Lexcycle,[48] SnapTell, an image matching startup,[49] Stanza, a rival e-book reader to Amazon's Kindle.[50] 2010: Touchco.,[51] Woot,[52] Quidsi, BuyVIP, Amie Street. 2010: Toby Press[53] 2011: LoveFilm,[54] The Book Depository,[55] Pushbutton[56] Yap,[57] 2012: Kiva Systems,[58] Teachstreet[59] Evi[60][61] 2013: IVONA Software,[62] GoodReads[63] Liquavista [64]

Investment[edit]

2008: Engine Yard, a Ruby-on-Rails platform as a service (PaaS) company.[65] 2010: LivingSocial, a local deal site.[66]

Subsidiaries[edit]

2004: A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology.[67] 2004: Lab126, developers of integrated consumer electronics such as the Kindle. 2007: Endless.com, an e-commerce brand focusing on shoes.[68] 2007: Brilliance Audio, the largest independent audiobook producer in the US.[69]

Merchant partnerships[edit] Until June 30, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com into a browser would bring up Amazon.com's "Toys & Games" tab; however, this relationship was terminated due to a lawsuit.[70] Amazon also hosted and managed the website for Borders bookstores but this ceased in 2008.[71]From 2001 until August 2011, Amazon hosted the retail website for Target.[72] Benefit Cosmetics, another merchant partner of Amazon, has

also launched a major E-Commerce platform of their own based on Hybris and arvato systems NA, in the US, EU and China.[73] Amazon.com operates retail websites for Sears Canada, bebe Stores, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, and Lacoste. For a growing number of enterprise clients, currently including the UK merchants Marks & Spencer, Benefit Cosmetics' UK entity, edeals.com, and Mothercare, Amazon provides a unified multichannel platform where a customer can interact with some people they call the retail website, standalone in-store terminals, or phone-based customer service agents. Amazon Web Services also powers AOL's Shop@AOL. On October 18, 2011, Amazon.com announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman, and Watchmen. The partnership has caused well-known bookstores like Barnes & Noble to remove these titles from their shelves.[74] In November 2013, Amazon.com announced a partnership with the United States Postal Service to begin delivering orders on Sundays. The service, included with Amazons standard shipping rates, initiated in metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and New York, with plans to expand into Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, and Phoenix by 2014.[75] Locations[edit] Amazon has offices, fulfillment centers, warehouses, customer service centers and software development centers across North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.[76] Headquarters[edit]

Amazon.com's former headquarters in the Pacific Medical Center building in Beacon Hill, Seattle. The company's global headquarters are in 14 buildings in Seattle's South Lake Unionneighborhood. The European headquarters are in Luxembourg's capital, Luxembourg City. In Seattle, as of 2013, a 3-tower headquarters near Amazon's existing buildings with a capacity of 12,000 employees was under construction.[77]

Software development centers[edit] While much of Amazon's software development occurs in Seattle, the company employs software developers in centers across the globe. Some of these sites are run by an Amazon subsidiary called A2Z Development.[78]

North America

USA: Cambridge, MA;[79] Charleston, SC;[80] Cupertino, CA;[78] Orange County, CA;San Francisco, CA; San Luis Obispo, CA;[81] Seattle, WA; New York, NY andTempe, AZ Canada: Vancouver, British Columbia, Toronto downtown and Mississauga, Ontario Ireland: Dublin Germany: Berlin and Dresden[82] Netherlands: Rijswijk Romania: Iai UK: Slough (England), London (England) and Edinburgh (Scotland) India: Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai Japan: Shibuya (Tokyo) China: Beijing South Africa: Cape Town

Europe

Asia

Africa

Customer Service Centers[edit]

United States: Kennewick, WA; Huntington, WV; Grand Forks, ND; Winchester, KY India: Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore South Africa: Cape Town[83] Philippines: Convergys Cebu, Convergys Bacolod China: Chengdu Germany: Berlin Ireland: Cork Morocco: Sala al Jadida UK: Edinburgh, Scotland Japan: Sapporo Costa Rica: Heredia and San Jose

Uruguay: Montevideo Italy: Cagliari Jamaica: Kingston

Fulfillment and warehousing[edit] Fulfillment centers are located in the following cities, often near airports. These centers also provide warehousing and order-fulfillment for third-party sellers:[84] Warehouses are large and each has hundreds of employees. Employees are responsible for four basic tasks: unpacking and inspecting incoming goods; placing goods in storage and recording their location; picking goods from their computer recorded locations to make up an individual shipment; and shipping. A central computer which records the location of goods and maps out routes for pickers plays a central role; employees carry hand-held computers which communicate with the central computer and monitor their rate of progress. A picker with their cart may walk 10 or more miles a day. In the United Kingdom initial staffing was provided byRandstad Holding and other temporary employment agencies. Some workers are accepted as Amazon employees and granted pension and shares of stock; others are dismissed. "When we have permanent positions available, we look to the top performing temporary associates to fill them."[85] Development of a high level of automation is anticipated in the future following Amazon's 2012 acquisition of Kiva Systems, a warehouse automation company.

Customer Service Center in Huntington, West Virginia

North America

USA

Goodyear, AZ Phoenix, AZ Patterson, CA San Bernardino, CA Tracy, CA (opening 2014) Windsor Locks, CT Middletown, DE[86]

New Castle, DE Jeffersonville, IN Plainfield, IN Whitestown, IN Coffeyville, KS Campbellsville, KY Hebron, KY (near Cincinnati, OH) Lexington, KY Louisville, KY Baltimore, MD (opening Fall 2014)[87] Robbinsville, NJ (opening early 2014)[88] Fernley, NV North Las Vegas, NV Nashua, NH Breinigsville, PA Carlisle, PA Hazleton, PA Lewisberry, PA Lexington, SC[89][90] Spartanburg, SC; Chattanooga, TN Lebanon, TN Murfreesboro, TN Irving, TX[91] (between Dallas and Fort Worth) Schertz, TX (near San Antonio) Chester, VA Dinwiddie, VA (near Richmond, VA) Sterling, VA Bellevue, WA DuPont, WA (opening Fall 2013) Sumner, WA.[92][93] Huntington, West Virginia

Canada

Mississauga, Ontario Annacis Island a part of Delta, British Columbia[94]

Amazon.co.uk warehouse in Glenrothes, Scotland, UK

Europe

United Kingdom, as of 2013, 7 in operation with 3 more planned.[85]

England

Marston Gate (near Brogborough) Rugeley,[85] Staffordshire Peterborough Doncaster Hemel Hempstead Gourock (Inverclyde) Dunfermline (Fife) Crymlyn Burrows Swansea[95][96] (near Jersey Marine)[97]

Scotland

Wales

France

Boigny-sur-Bionne (2000) Saran (2007) Montlimar (2010) Sevrey (Autumn 2012) Lauwin-Planque (October 2013) Bad Hersfeld (1996 and 2010) (Hessen) Leipzig (2006) (Saxony)

Germany

Werne (2010) (North Rhine-Westphalia) Rheinberg (2011) (North Rhine-Westphalia) Graben (2011) (Bavaria) Koblenz (2012) (Rhineland-Palatinate) Pforzheim (2012) (Baden-Wrttemberg) Amsterdam Castel San Giovanni (2011) (Emilia-Romagna)[98]

Netherlands

Italy

Slovakia: Bratislava (2011)[99] Spain

San Fernando de Henares (Madrid)

Asia

Japan

Ichikawa Yachiyo Chiba Sakai Daito Osaka Kawagoe Saitama Guangzhou Suzhou Beijing Chengdu Mumbai

China

India

Other[edit]

Audible.com (subsidiary) Headquarters at 1 Washington Park in Newark, NJ. Zappos.com Headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada. Woot Headquarters in Carrollton, Texas.

Closed fulfillment, warehousing and customer service locations[edit] These US distribution centers have been closed: SDC Seattle Distribution Center, located in Georgetown, just south of downtown Seattle; Red Rock, Nevada; Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Munster, Indiana; and McDonough, Georgia.[100][101][102] From 2000[103]until February 2001, there was an Amazon customer service based in The Hague, Netherlands.[104][105] Products and services[edit]

Third-generation Amazon Kindle Retail goods[edit] Amazon product lines include media - books, DVDs, music CDs, software, videotapes, and software apparel, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal-care items, industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry and watches, lawn and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, and toys & games. The company launched amazon.com Auctions, a web auctions service, in March 1999. However, it failed to chip away at the large market share of the industry pioneer, eBay. Later, the company launched a fixed-price marketplace business, zShops, in September 1999, and the now defunct partnership with Sotheby's, called Sothebys.amazon.com, in November. Auctions and zShops evolved into Amazon Marketplace, a service launched in November 2000 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Today, Amazon Marketplace's main rival is eBay's Half.com service.[citation needed] In August 2007, Amazon announced AmazonFresh, a grocery service offering perishable andnonperishable foods. Customers can have orders delivered to their homes at dawn or during a specified daytime window. Delivery was initially restricted to residents of Mercer

Island, Washington, and was later expanded to several ZIP codes in Seattle proper.[106] AmazonFresh also operated pick-up locations in the suburbs of Bellevue and Kirkland from summer 2007 through early 2008. In 2012, Amazon announced the launch of Vine.com for buying green products, including groceries, household items, and apparel.[107]It is part of Quidsi, the company that Amazon bought in 2010 that also runs the sites Diapers.com (baby), Wag.com (pets), andYoYo.com (toys).[107] Amazon also owns other e-commerce sites like Shopbop.com, Woot.com, and Zappos.com.[107] Amazon's Subscribe & Save program offers a discounted price on an item (usually sold in bulk), free shipping on every Subscribe & Save shipment, and automatic shipment of the item every one, two, three, or six months.[108] In 2013, Amazon launched its site in India, amazon.in. It has started with electronic goods and plans to expand into fashion apparel, beauty, home essentials, and healthcare categories by the end of 2013.[citation needed] Consumer electronics[edit] In November 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Kindle, an e-book reader which downloads content over "Whispernet", via Sprint's EV-DO wireless network. The screen uses E Ink technology to reduce battery consumption and to provide a more legible display. As of March 2011, the stated library numbers over 850,000 titles.[citation needed] In September 2011, Amazon announced its entry into the tablet computer market by introducing the Kindle Fire, which runs a customized version of the operating system Android. The exceedingly low pricing of Fire ($199 USD[when?][citation needed]) was widely perceived as a strategy backed by Amazon's revenue from its content sales, to be stimulated by sales of the Fire. In September 2012, Amazon unveiled the second generation tablet, called the Kindle Fire HD. On September 25, 2013, Amazon.com unveiled its third generation tablet, called Kindle Fire HDX.[109] In October 2013, the sixth generation Kindle was released. Digital content[edit]

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9" Tablet Amazon's Honor System was launched in 2001 to allow customers to make donations or buy digital content, with Amazon collecting a percentage of the payment plus a fee. The service was discontinued in 2008[110] and replaced by Amazon Payments. Amazon MP3, its own online music store, launched in the US on September 25, 2007, selling downloads exclusively in MP3 format without digital rights management.[111] (In addition to copyright law, Amazon's terms of use agreements restrict use of the MP3s, but Amazon does not use DRM to enforce those terms.)[112] Amazon MP3 sells music from theBig 4 record labels EMI, Universal, Warner Bros. Records, and Sony Music, as well as independents. Prior to the launch of this service, Amazon made an investment in Amie Street, a music store with a variable pricing model based on demand.[113] Amazon MP3 was the first online offering of DRM-free music from all four major record companies.[114][115][116][117] In January 2008, Amazon began rolling out its MP3 service to subsidiary websites worldwide.[118] In December 2008, Amazon MP3 was made available in the UK. In July 2010, Amazon announced that e-book sales for its Kindle reader outnumbered sales of hardcover books for the first time ever during the second quarter of 2010. Amazon claims that, during that period, 143 e-books were sold for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no digital edition; and during late June and early July, sales rose to 180 digital books for every 100 hardcovers.[119] On March 22, 2011, Amazon launched the Amazon Appstore for Android devices and was made available in over 200 countries.[120] In 2011, Amazon announced that it was releasing a Mac download store to offer dozens of games and hundreds of pieces of software for Apple computers.[121] On August 2012, Amazon announced it would be adding a gaming department to its company titled Amazon Game Studios. Amazon states that they will be bringing, "innovative, fun and well-crafted games."[122] In January 2013, Amazon launched AutoRip, a digital music service. The service allows customers to receive a free MP3 copy of select CDs purchased through Amazon.[123] Amazon announced in September 2013 that they would launch Kindle MatchBook in October 2013, a similar service for books allowing customers who buy books from Amazon to acquire a e-book copy for free or at a discounted price of $3 or less.[124] MatchBook was launched on their site on October 29, 2013.[125][126]

Amazon Art[edit] In August 2013 Amazon launched Amazon Art as an online marketplace selling original and limited edition fine art from selected galleries.[127] The initial 40000 items listed for sale included Norman Rockwell's painting Willie Gillis: Package from Home priced at $4.85 million, "L'Enfant a la tasse" by Claude Monet for $1.45 million and Andy Warhol's "Sachiko" for $45 000.[128] Amazon Instant Video[edit] Main article: Amazon Instant Video Amazon Prime[edit] Amazon Prime is a service of free two-day shipping on all eligible purchases, for a flat annual fee, as well as discounted one-day shipping rates.[129] Amazon launched the program in the contiguous United States in 2005, in Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany in 2007, in France (as "Amazon Premium") in 2008, in Italy in 2011 and in Canada in 2013. Amazon Prime membership in the United States also provides Amazon Instant Video, the instant streaming of selected movies and TV shows at no additional cost, as of February 2011.[130] In November 2011, it was announced that Prime members have access to the Kindle Owners Lending Library, which allows users to borrow certain popular titles for free reading on Kindle hardware, up to one book a month, with no due date.[131] Private labels and exclusive marketing arrangements[edit] In August 2005,[132] Amazon began selling products under its own private label, "Pinzon"; the trademark applications indicated that the label would be used for textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods.[132] In March 2007, the company applied to expand the trademark to cover a more diverse list of goods and to register a new design consisting of the "word PINZON in stylized letters with a notched letter "O" which appears at the "one o'clock" position".[133] Coverage by the trademark grew to include items such as paints, carpets, wallpaper, hair accessories, clothing, footwear, headgear, cleaning products, and jewelry.[133] In September 2008, Amazon filed to have the name registered. USPTO has finished its review of the application, but Amazon has yet to receive an official registration for the name. AmazonBasics is a private-label consumer electronics product line. It sells AV cables, blank DVD media and other electronics products under the AmazonBasics product label.[134] The line was launched in 2009.[135] An Amazon.com exclusive is a product, usually a DVD, that is available exclusively on Amazon.com. Some DVDs are produced by the owner of the film/product, while others are produced by Amazon.com itself. The DVDs produced by Amazon are made using their "CreateSpace" program, in which DVDs are created,

upon ordering, using DVD-R technology. The DVDs are then shipped about two days later. Some DVDs (such as the Jersey Shore Season 1 or The Unusuals Season 1) first release their DVD on Amazon as an Amazon.com Exclusive for a limited time before being released elsewhere. On May 23, 2011, Amazon.com allowed customers to download Lady Gaga's Born This Way album for $0.99, resulting in some downloads being delayed, due to an extremely high volume of downloads.[136] Amazon provides fast and inexpensive self publishing services through one of its companies, CreateSpace, a member of the Amazon group of companies, allowing authors to easily offer their content to millions of customers on Amazon.com and other methods.[137] Computing services[edit]

AWS Summit 2013 event in NYC. Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002, which provides programmatic access to latent features on its website. Amazon Web Services (AWS) was first launched as a public beta of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud running Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server.[138] This was later expanded to several operating systems, including various flavors of Linux and OpenSolaris. In November 2005, amazon.com began testing Amazon Mechanical Turk, an application programming interface (API) allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors. In March 2006, Amazon launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). An unlimited number of data objects, from 1 byte to 5 terabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via HTTP or BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and transferred. In 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), a distributed queue messaging service, and product wikis (later folded into Amapedia) and discussion forums for certain products using guidelines that follow standard message board conventions. Also in 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure to run applications ranging from running simulations to web hosting. In 2008, Amazon improved the service by adding Elastic Block Store (EBS), offering persistent storage for Amazon EC2 instances andElastic IP addresses, and offering static IP addresses designed for dynamic cloud

computing. Amazon introduced SimpleDB, a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a high-reliability, high-performance database system. Amazon continues to refine and add services to AWS, adding such services as Scalable DNS service (Amazon Route 53), payment handling, and AWS specific APIs for their Mechanical Turk service. In August 2012, Amazon announced Amazon Glacier, a low-cost online file storage web service that provides reliable data archiving, storage, and backup.[139] In November 2012 at AWS' web developer conference in Las Vegas it announced it was targeting large companies as cloud storage clients. It will further cut its S3 prices to customers with long-term contracts in its "Redshift" storage service launching in 2013. In March 2013 Amazon announced its Mobile Ads API for developers. The new Ads API can be used on apps distributed on any Android platform as long as the app is also available on Amazons Appstore.[140] Content production[edit] Amazon Publishing is Amazon's publishing unit.[141] It is composed of AmazonEncore,[142] AmazonCrossing,[143] Montlake Romance,[144] Thomas & Mercer,[145] 47 North,[146] and Powered by Amazon. Additional imprints are planned. Launched in 2005, Amazon Shorts offered exclusive short stories and non-fiction pieces from best-selling authors for immediate download. By June 2007, the program had over 1,700 pieces and was adding about 50 new pieces per week. The program was discontinued on June 1, 2010.[147][148] In 2008, Amazon expanded into film production, producing the film The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox.[149] Donations[edit] Amazon also created "channels" to benefit certain causes. In 2004, Amazon allowed customers to donate $5 to $200 to the campaigns of 2004 US presidential hopefuls, providing links that raised $300,000 for the candidates.[150] Amazon has periodically reactivated a Red Cross donation channel after crises such as Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. By January 2005, nearly 200,000 people had donated over $15.7 million in the US.[151] Amazon Local[edit] Amazon Local is a daily deal service launched in June 2011 in Boise, Idaho.[152] As of 2013, Amazon Local offers daily deals to over 100 regions in 36 US states. Amazon Local also acts as a deal aggregator; some of the deals are actually offered through LivingSocial, a firm in which Amazon has heavily invested.[153]

AmazonWireless[edit] In July 2009, Amazon.com launched their AmazonWireless website,[154] which offers cellular devices and service plans for Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile in the US.[155] AmazonFresh[edit] Main article: AmazonFresh Amazon Prime Air[edit] Announced on December 1, 2013 on 60 Minutes, Amazon Prime Air is a possible future delivery service expected to be many more years in development. It would use drones to deliver small packages (less than five pounds) within 30 minutes by flying short distances (1020 km) from local Amazon Fulfillment Centers.[156][157] The project will require the FAA( Federal Aviation Administration) to approve commercial use of unmanned drones.[158] Although such approval could be in place as early as 2015, the project is still expected to be a few years off.[159] Other services[edit] In 2007, Amazon launched Amapedia, a now-defunct wiki for user-generated content to replace ProductWiki, and the video on demandservice Amazon Unbox. Also in 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Vine, which allows reviewers free access to pre-release products from vendors in return for posting a review, as well as a payment service specifically targeted at developers, Amazon FPS.[citation needed] IMDb and Amazon launched a website called SoundUnwound for browsing music metadata with wiki-like user contribution in September 2007; this data was also used for Amazon's Artist Pages.[160] Soundunwound ceased existence on June 18, 2012, and the site redirected to Amazon. Amazon Connect enables authors to post remarks on their book pages to customers. Amazon Webstore allows businesses to create custom e-commerce websites using Amazon technology. Sellers pay a commission of 1-2%, plus credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee which ranges from $0 to $39.99 per month depending on the bundle option for an unlimited number of listings.[161] Amazon has chosen very few companies to become their implementation solution provider, and they are 4C Media, Absolute Webstores, atmosol, eCatalog, Explore Consulting, GoWebBaby,Kaushalam, KLoc Technologies, Luxor Design, SynapseIndia, and V Group. These companies ecourages traders to have their own webstore with easy guidance and solutions.[162] Website[edit]

The domain amazon.com attracted at least 615 million visitors annually by 2008, twice the number of Walmart.[163] Amazon attracts approximately 65 million customers to its US website per month.[164] The company has also invested heavily on a massive amount of server capacity for its website, especially to handle the excessive traffic during the December Christmas holiday season.[165] In addition to amazon.com, there are different versions of Amazon for several different countries, each varying in assortment and prices. As of December 2013, in alphabetical order by region, these are:

Asia: amazon.cn or z.cn (China), amazon.in (India), amazon.co.jp (Japan). Europe: amazon.de (Germany), amazon.es (Spain), amazon.fr (France), amazon.it (Italy), amazon.co.uk (UK). North America: amazon.ca (Canada), amazon.com.mx (Mexico). Oceania: amazon.com.au (Australia). South America: amazon.com.br (Brazil).

Reviews[edit] See also: Amazon.com controversies#Amazon reviews Amazon allows users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. Reviewers must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon provides a badging option for reviewers which indicate the real name of the reviewer (based on confirmation of a credit card account) or which indicate that the reviewer is one of the top reviewers by popularity. Customers may comment or vote on the reviews, indicating whether or not they found it helpful to them. If a review is given enough "helpful" hits, it appears on the front page of the product. In 2010, Amazon was reported as being the largest single source of Internet consumer reviews.[166] Amazon's customer reviews are monitored for indecency, but do permit negative comments. When publishers asked Bezos why Amazon would publish negative reviews, he defended the practice by claiming that amazon.com was "taking a different approach...we want to make every book available the good, the bad, and the ugly...to let truth loose".[167] Although reviews are attributed to the credit-card name of the reviewer, there have been cases of positive reviews being written and posted by a public relations company on behalf of its clients,[168] and writers employing pseudonyms to leave negative reviews of their rivals' work.[169] Following listing for sale of Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson a disparaging biography of Michael Jackson by Randall Sullivan his fans, organized via social media as "Michael Jacksons Rapid Response Team to Media Attacks" bombarded Amazon with negative reviews and negative ratings of positive reviews.[170] Content search[edit]

"Search Inside the Book" is a feature which allows customers to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the catalog.[171][172] The feature started with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23, 2003.[173] There are currently about 300,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130 publishers to allow users to perform these searches. To avoid copyright violations, amazon.com does not return the computer-readable text of the book. Instead, it returns a picture of the matching page, instructs the web browser to disable printing, and puts limits on the number of pages in a book a single user can access. Additionally, customers can purchase online access to some of the same books via the "Amazon Upgrade" program. Third-party sellers[edit] Amazon derives about 40% of its sales from affiliate marketing called "Amazon Associates" and thirdparty sellers who sell products on Amazon.[174] Associates receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links on their websites to Amazon, if the referral results in a sale. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.[175] Amazon reported over 1.3 million sellers sold products through Amazon's websites in 2007. Unlike eBay, Amazon sellers do not have to maintain separate payment accounts; all payments are handled by Amazon. Associates can access the Amazon catalog directly on their websites by using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) XML service. A new affiliate product, aStore, allows Associates to embed a subset of Amazon products within another website, or linked to another website. In June 2010, Amazon Seller Product Suggestions was launched (rumored to be internally called "Project Genesis") to provide more transparency to sellers by recommending specific products to third-party sellers to sell on Amazon. Products suggested are based on customers' browsing history.[176] A January 2010 survey of third-party sellers by Auctionbytes.com[177] found that Amazon was 4th overall.[178] Amazon.com placed second in "Profitability". Its lowest rating, but still above average, was in "Ease of Use". Sellers felt it had clearly defined rules, provided a steady stream of traffic to their listings, and put less emphasis on a community component. Amazon came in second in the Recommended Selling Venue category. Amazon sales rank[edit] The Amazon sales rank (ASR) provides an indication of the popularity of a product sold on any Amazon locale. It is a relative indicator of popularity that is updated hourly. Effectively, it is a "best sellers list" for the millions of products stocked by Amazon.[179] While the ASR has no direct effect on the sales of a product, it is used by Amazon to determine which products to include in their best sellers lists.[179] Products that appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure on the Amazon website, and this may lead to an increase in sales. In particular, products that experience large jumps (up or down) in their

sales ranks may be included within Amazon's lists of "movers and shakers," and this also provides additional exposure that may lead to an increase in sales.[180] For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release actual sales figures to the public. However, Amazon has now begun to release point of sale data via theNielsen BookScan service to verified authors.[181] While the ASR has been the source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers and marketers, Amazon itself does not release the details of its sales rank calculation algorithm. In addition, it states: Please keep in mind that our sales rank figures are simply meant to be a guide of general interest for the customer and not definitive sales information for publishers - we assume you have this information regularly from your distribution sources Amazon.com Help, [182] Amazon technology[edit] Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Information Management (IM) support Amazons business strategy. The core technology that keeps Amazon running is Linux-based. As of 2005, Amazon had the worlds three largest Linux databases, with capacities of 7.8 TB, 18.5 TB, and 24.7 TB. The central data warehouse of Amazon is made of 28 Hewlett Packard servers with four CPUs per node running Oracle database software. Amazons technology architecture handles millions of back-end operations every day, as well as queries from more than half a million third-party sellers. With hundreds of thousands of people sending their credit card numbers to Amazons servers everyday, security becomes a major concern. Amazon employs Netscape Secure Commerce Server using the Secure Socket Layer protocol which stores all credit card details in a separate database. The company also records data on customer buyer behavior which enables them to offer or recommend to an individual specific item, or bundles of items based upon preferences demonstrated through purchases or items visited.[183] On January 31, 2013 Amazon experienced an outage that lasted approximately 49 minutes, leaving its site inaccessible to some customers.[184] Multi-level sales strategy[edit] Amazon employs a multi-level e-commerce strategy. Amazon started off by focusing on Business-toConsumer relationships between itself and its customers, and Business-to-Business relationships between itself and its suppliers but it then moved to incorporate Customer-to-Business transactions as it realized the value of customer reviews as part of the product descriptions. It now also facilitates customer to customer with the provision of the Amazon marketplace which act as an intermediary to facilitate consumer to consumer transactions. The company lets almost anyone sell almost anything using its platform. In addition to affiliate program that lets anybody post Amazon links and earn a commission on

click through sales, there is now a program which let those affiliates build entire websites based on Amazons platform.[185] Some other large e-commerce sellers use Amazon to sell their products in addition to selling them through their own websites. The sales are processed through Amazon.com and end up at individual sellers for processing and order fulfillment and Amazon leases space for these retailers. Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace to offer goods at a fixed price.[186] Amazon also employs the use of drop shippers or meta sellers. These are members or entities that advertise goods on Amazon who order these goods direct from other competing websites but usually from other Amazon members. These meta sellers may have millions of products listed, have large transaction numbers and are grouped alongside other less prolific members giving them credibility as just someone who has been in business for a long time. Markup is anywhere from 50% to 100% and sometimes more, these sellers maintain that items are in stock when the opposite is true. As Amazon increases their dominance in the marketplace these drop shippers have become more and more commonplace in recent years. The resulting damage to a supply and demand marketplace remains to be seen but advertising contracts with large search engines eliminating smaller websites from overall exposure these practices should have a negative effect on the industry on the whole. Revenue[edit] Over the last decade,[when?] Amazon has developed a customer base of around 30 million people. Amazon.com is primarily a retail site with a sales revenue model. Amazon makes its money by taking a small percentage of the sale price of each item that is sold through its website. Amazon also allows companies to advertise their products by paying to be listed as featured products.[187] Controversies[edit] Main article: Amazon.com controversies Since its founding, the company has attracted criticism and controversy from multiple sources over its actions. These include: luring customers away from the site's brick and mortar competitors,[188] poor warehouse conditions for workers; anti-unionization efforts; Amazon Kindle remote content removal; taking public subsidies; its "1-Click patent" claims; anti-competitive actions; price discrimination; various decisions over whether to censor or publish content such as the WikiLeaks website; LGBT book sales rank;,[189][190] and works containing libel, facilitating dogfight, cockfight, or pedophile activities. In December 2011, Amazon faced backlash from small businesses for running a one-day deal to promote its new Price Check app. Shoppers who used the app to check prices in a brick-and-mortar store were offered a 5% discount to purchase the same item from Amazon.[191] Companies like Groupon, eBay, and Taap.it countered Amazon's promotion by offering $10 off from their products.[192][193]

Sales and use taxes[edit] Main article: Amazon tax Sale of revisionist and Holocaust-denying books[edit] In October 2013, the World Jewish Congress called on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to remove from its offer books that deny the Holocaust and promote anti-Semitism or white supremacy. "No one should profit from the sale of such vile and offensive hate literature. Many Holocaust survivors are deeply offended by the fact that the worlds largest online retailer is making money from selling such material," WJC Executive Vice President Robert Singer wrote in a letter to Bezos.[194][195] Earlier, a report in the British online magazine The Kernel had revealed that Amazon.com was selling books that defend Holocaust denial, and shipped them even to customers in countries where Holocaust denial is prohibited by the law.[196] Alleged tax avoidance in the UK[edit] In November 2012, the UK government announced plans to investigate Amazon.com, along with Starbucks and Google, for tax avoidance.[197] As a result, Amazon has faced a backlash and boycott from the general public and other businesses in the UK.[198][199] Internet piracy issues in China[edit] The Chinese government is planning to increase regulation of Amazon (along with Apple Inc. and Taobao.com) in relation to internet piracy issues. Amazon has already had to shut down third party distributors due to pressure from the NCAC.[200] Alleged mistreatment of individual sellers[edit] Amazon has faced scrutiny from numerous individual sellers who have claimed that Amazon unexpectedly closed their accounts, and subsequently withheld their funds for indefinite time frames.[201] According to Section 5.k of the Amazon Seller's Participation agreement,[202] Amazon may earn interest on funds collected from buyers before they are disbursed to sellers, meaning Amazon can increase their earnings by delaying disbursement. Poor working conditions[edit] Amazon has attracted widespread criticism by both current and former employees,[203] as well as the media and politicians for poor working conditions. In fall 2011 it was publicized that at the Allentown, Pennsylvania warehouse, workers had to carry out work in 100 F (38 C) heat, resulting in employees becoming extremely uncomfortable and suffering from dehydration and collapse. Loading-bay doors were not opened to allow in fresh air as "managers were worried about theft". Amazon's initial response was to pay for an ambulance to sit outside on call to cart away overheated employees.

Some workers, "pickers", who travel the building with a trolley and a handheld scanner "picking" customer orders can walk up to 15 miles a day back and forward, and if they fall behind on their targets, they can be reprimanded. The handheld scanners feed back to the employee real time information on how fast or slowly they are going, and also serve to allow Team Leads and Area Managers to track the specific locations of employees and how much "idle time" they gain when not working.[204][205] In a German television report broadcast in February 2013, journalists Diana Lbl and Peter Onneken conducted a covert investigation at the distribution center of Amazon in the town of Bad Hersfeld in the German state of Hesse. The report highlights the behavior of some of the security guards who apparently either had a Neo-nazi background or deliberately dressed in Neo-Nazi apparel, and who were intimidating foreign and temporary female workers at its distribution centres.[206][207][208][209][210] Amazon UK[edit] On 2 August 2013 the Daily Mail ran an expose outing Amazon UK for employee GPS 'tagging' and subjecting them to harsh working conditions, describing employees as 'human robots', the newspaper said that Amazon employed 'controversial' zero-hour contracts as a tool to reprimand staff.[211] A Channel 4 documentary broadcast on the 1st August 2013 employed secret cameras within Amazon UK's Rugeley warehouse documenting worker abuses and made similar claim to the Daily Mail calling the working practices 'horrendous and exhausting' .[212] Lobbying[edit] Amazon.com lobbies the United States federal government and state governments on issues such as the enforcement of sales taxes on online sales, transportation safety, privacy and data protection, and intellectual property. According to regulatory filings, Amazon.com focuses its lobbying on the US Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Reserve. Amazon.com spent $450,000 on lobbying in the second quarter of 2011, $630,000 in the first quarter of 2011, and $500,000 in the second quarter of 2010.[213] Amazon.com was a corporate member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until it dropped membership following protests at its shareholders' meeting May 24, 2012.[214] Notable businesses founded by former employees[edit] A number of companies have been started and founded by former Amazon employees.[215]

BankBazaar.com was founded by Arjun Shetty, a former senior product manager Findory was founded by Greg Linden Flipkart was founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal[216] Foodista was founded by Barnaby Dorfman

Hulu was led by Jason Kilar, a former SVP Infibeam was founded by Vishal Mehta Inside Jobs was founded by Todd Edebohls[217] Interviewstreet was co-founded by Vivek Ravisankar Jambool/SocialGold was co-founded by Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein Nimbula was co-founded by Chris Pinkham, a former VP, and Willem Van Biljon, a former Product Manager Opscode was co-founded by Jesse Robbins, a former engineer and manager Pelago was co-founded by Jeff Holden, a former SVP, and Darren Vengroff, a former Principal Engineer Quora was co-founded by engineer Charlie Cheever TeachStreet was founded by Dave Schappell, an early product manager The Book Depository was founded by Andrew Crawford; acquired by Amazon in 2011. Trusera was founded by Keith Schorsch, an early Amazonian Twilio was founded by Jeff Lawson, a former Technical Product Manager Vittana was founded by Kushal Chakrabarti and Brett Witt Voonik was founded by Sujayath Ali, a former senior product manager Wikinvest was founded by Michael Sha Yellowleg.com was founded by Aashish Gupta Zeitgeist Research was founded by Manfred Bluemel, former head of market research worldwide [218]

See also

Amazon has an excellent buying system that presents useful information about each auction item including the seller, when the *Amazon no longer offers auctions* We suggest you refer to our review of eBay , or see a side-by-side comparison of other reviewed online auction websites. Amazon has a great reputation selling books, music and other entertainment products. When you buy or sell with Amazons auctions, you are guaranteed the safety and satisfaction that all Amazons services offer. Amazon has a good auction service; however, they lack some additional user features offered by the higher ranked auction websites like opening a store or adding to an items description. In addition, navigating through the category layout is time consuming and many products are missing pictures.

auction started, where the item is located, the number of bids and payment options. One disappointing feature associated with Amazon auctions is the deadline countdown clock. You have to refresh the page every few moments for the clock to reflect real time. Selling Features: 7.5/10 Compare All the basic features a seller would need to have a successful sale are available through Amazons auction service. However, they do not have some of the fancier features like cross promotion, extra picture options or customizable listing layouts offered by our higher raked services like eBay. Amazon charges 10 cents to list each item and you can relist once for free. Amazon also charges 25 cents plus 5 percent of the final sale, including shipping and handling, for all items sold. There is also the Pro Merchant Subscription for $39.99 a month for sellers that often list many products. Amazon does not allow you to cross promote additional items you are selling from your details pages. However, they do include a cross link feature with Amazon.com. This feature lets you promote your auction item with new books, music or DVDs located on Amazon.com. For example, you can cross link your The Lion King Board Game on Amazon.coms The Lion King DVD page. Buying Features: 5/10 Compare Amazon has several feedback and account management options. They encourage feedback and recommend that all buyers check seller feedback prior to bidding. Through your account, you can manage all the items youve sold, bid on and won. However, you cannot save favorite categories, sellers or searches. Help & Support: 8.8/10 Compare We found Amazons search features consistently produce relevant and comprehensive results. If you know exactly what you are looking for, this is the best way to use Amazons auction service. Unfortunately, we found many searches that did not have gallery or detail page photos. Summary: Amazon is one of the most easily recognized names on the internet, and has a loyal following. However, they are still cutting their teeth in the online auction business and could be a major contender if they reorganized their layout, included more item photos and user options.

_________________________________________________________________

1. Cqout.com
A UK-based eCommerce Site Similar to eBay Cqout, read as "seek-out", is a fast-growing website like eBay that's based in the United Kingdom. The site, launched in 1999, currently reaches out globally in more than 70 countries across the major regions in the eastern and western hemisphere. Among the major features of Cqout is its "no sale, no fee" service where a "cut" or "fee" is collected from the final selling price of any sold item. However, buyers and sellers are required to register and pay a registration fee, which, by some means, may not be agreeable to some. Nevertheless, Cqout is one of the sites like eBay that's good to check out. CQout has been providing a secure online auction website since 1999. With reasonable fees and a resolution center for sellers and buyers, both can feel safe doing business on this site. The selling fees with CQout are reasonable and easy to understand. To set up an online auction account as a seller, you pay a one-time verification charge of $3.22 so that the site can verify your identity. This safety feature prevents people from setting up accounts under fraudulent names and helps ensure a safe marketplace. There are no upfront listing fees to sell your items and if an item fails to sell on the first try, you can re-list it as many times as you want at no extra charge. However, you do have to pay a backend fee when your item sells, known as a commission. This charge varies depending on the cost of the item you sell. For example, you will pay 5.4 percent of total costs up to $50.00 and 3.6 percent for selling totals of $1,000.00 or more. There are fees for optional enhancement features, including a charge of $0.16 for additional photos. Since you only get one image with each listing, this cost can add up if you want a lot of images for a single item. If you want to buy products on this site, CQout offers a unique payment method called SecurePay. SecurePay is CQout's in-house escrow service that holds your money until after you examine your purchase. After you have received your goods and are satisfied, you notify the seller. At that time, SecurePay releases the funds to the seller. The best part about SecurePay is that as a buyer, you are guaranteed a refund if the item is not as described. CQout offers an email address and telephone number for customer assistance. Since the

company's headquarters are located outside of the USA, contacting them for support by telephone is a challenge. However, the company FAQs page is well organized and it is easy to find answers to any questions you may have. Why list your item in a magazine or newspaper for a fixed price (or near offer!) and hope for the best, when you can auction your item through CQout for a set minimum ('reserve') price and monitor progress 'in real time' as the auction proceeds? You can even include a scanned picture of your item to ensure potential buyers can see exactly what they are getting. CQout offers you the opportunity to buy or sell items, via auction, to the largest audience available - the Internet Community. We have registered users from over 80 countries around the world. If you've never used an online auction before, try it once with that old Lego your kids don't play with any more, the Star Wars toys that you're sure must be of value to someone, but you're not quite sure who, or even the saxophone that seemed like such a good idea last year.

CQout is committed to ensuring that its internet auction site is a secure, reliable and easy place to trade on the Internet. To ensure this, anyone selling an item through CQout must first register with us and be verified as 'bona fide' by our rigorous user validation procedures. CQout
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(January 2010)

This article appears to be written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by rewriting promotional content from a neutral point of view and removing any inappropriateexternal links. (August 2008)

CQout

Type Foundation date Headquarters Industry Products

Limited Company London, UK (1999)

Reading, UK Auctions, Electronic commerce Online auction hosting, Online payment systems, Electronic funds transfer

Slogan(s) Website Type of site Registration

The UK's 2nd largest online marketplace www.cqout.com online auction required to buy and sell

CQout (pronounced 'Seek You Out') is an online auction company which is based in the UK and trades nationally in over 80 countries. CQout was launched in 1999 by three London Business School Graduates, namely Tony Newton, founder and creative director, Siamak Bashi, now the company's CEO, and Mike Rees. By number of items listed, CQout is the UK's 2nd largest online auction website listing around million in December 2006, million in September 2007 and almost million in August 2008. Listing items for auction on CQout is free in order to offer its sellers a 'no sale, no fee' service. A proportion of the final selling price for each item sold via the CQout website is taken as an alternative to charging listing fees. CQout charges a commission on each sale contract relative to its final selling price. This commission is payable by the seller on formation of a contract of sale.

Contents
[hide]

1 Payment options 2 Preventing fraud 3 Auction sniping 4 Restricted items 5 ISBN search 6 Criticism 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

Payment options[edit]
Sellers of CQout must accept CQout's Escrow/Secure Pay and may even be forced to accept CQout 'Easy Pay' method if they also accept Nochex.

Preventing fraud[edit]
When using CQout's own Secure Pay service, payment is not released to the seller until the goods have reached the buyer and been deemed satisfactory. This enables CQout to prevent any illegitimate transactions from being processed until such time as both sellers and buyers are satisfied with each transaction. Similar to eBay's feedback system for combating auction fraud, CQout has also addressed these issues with their own anti fraud initiative. This comes in the form of their 'CQ trusted' medal. Sellers are only granted this medal if (among other criteria): a) the seller is known to CQout and/or has a good trading track record b) the seller is known to be genuine and honest c) the seller is reliable and provides above average customer service.

Auction sniping[edit]
CQout have an anti-sniping feature which allows sellers to obtain the true selling price of their goods. This feature avoids disadvantaging buyers who are using a slower internet connection. The 'anti sniping' feature automatically extends the closing time of an auction to allow buyers on slower dial up internet connections to catch up.

Restricted items[edit]

So long as an item is permitted for sale under English & Welsh law, such an item is permitted for listing on CQout's auction website. CQout ensures that viewing and bidding access to any adult materials is restricted to 'logged in' users only. Logged in members are by definition over 18 years of age as credit/debit card details are required to attain log in details. Such cards are not available until the holder is 18 years of age.

ISBN search[edit]
The website has an ISBN search function. This allows buyers to search for the unique International Standard Book Identifier (ISBN) code which identifies the majority of publications since its induction in 1966.

Criticism[edit]
It has been reported that some of the busier areas of the site can be slow to load at peak times. Also, CQout does not have a forum where its users could benefit from being part of a CQout community. The listing pages on CQout are in alphabetical order (unlike eBay), making it harder to know which auctions are ending soonest. All users, regardless of whether selling or simply buying, must pay a 2 registration fee to use the website, unlike competitors which are free to buy from.
About eCrater.com
eCrater began in 2004 and since then has been known for its clean and simple user interface. It is a completely free web store and online marketplace for sellers looking to make money on everything from cameras to clothing. eCrater has been praised by numerous news networks and industry publications such as CNN, BusinessWeek and PCWorld for its easy-to-use interface, quick and easy seller registration and web store creation, and connection to Google Product Search. With eCrater.com, sellers have the ability to create, design and brand their own web stores within minutes. For an example of a branded store, please click here.

eCrater is not an auction site. It is more like an Ebay store, but free to list and sell.

What is eCRATER? eCRATER.com is both a free web store builder and a free online marketplace. Sellers can easily create their own free online store in minutes. Buyers can easily browse and compare between thousands of products. Sellers receive free website hosting, a free subdomain and a powerful admin tool to manage

their free online stores. All products are posted to Google Product Search as well.
I thought it would be important to put myself in the buyers shoes for a complete review of eCrater.com. After all, if the site doesnt make the buying process as friction-free as possible, theres not much of a point selling there. Buyers who experience a confusing or difficult time are likely to abandon their shopping carts and move on to the next Internet merchant. Initially, I went straight to the eCrater home page to start my shopping experience. I found myself a little nervous at the potential prospect of dealing with fraudsters posing as merchants. The feedback system isnt very mature yet, and many of the merchants whose listings I visited were unrated. Additionally, there is no verification required to register as a seller. While the seller in me sees this as a benefit, Im uncomfortable with the additional risk this exposes me to as a buyer. This was reminiscent of my experiences in the early days of eBay & Yahoo! auctions. I actually sold for a year before I ever worked up the courage to buy from someone I didnt know in these venues. (I was always amazed when someone sent me a money order, someone they didnt know, and trusted me to send them the goods). Hesitant, I decided to take a break and hit Google to see what others were saying about eCrater. Thats when I came across a Blog of an individual who sold comic books on eCrater. After spending a little time on this sellers site, I felt extremely comfortable that I was dealing with a real person (who, BTW, graduated from the same University as me) that wasnt trying commit fraud. After I followed the links to his eCrater listings, I realized that this is the way eCrater is supposed to work. eCrater doesnt send traffic to sellers listings in the same way eBay does (or used to). Instead, it is incumbent upon the merchant to send traffic to his or her listings after establishing some level of trust and credibility with the buyer. Ive been preaching this for sometime on this blog, yet I still surprised myself a little with how effective this technique can be. At any rate, I soon found myself at the home page of Walkin Willies eCrater Comic Shop: http://walkinwilliescomix.ecrater.com/. I was immediately impressed with the clean layout and the customization. The fact that this store is hosted by eCrater is not obvious to the visitor. The seller has uploaded his own logo and the only reference to eCrater is in the URL and a subdued Powered by eCrater link at the bottom.

Top 5 Tips for Getting Started on eCrater.com

Choose your store ID wisely. When you set up an eCrater account (by the way, you can have your store up and running in only a few minutes), you'll be asked to select a store ID, or a name for your web store. It is important to select a name that you like, that is easy to remember, and that appropriately reflects your business. This store ID will appear in your unique eCrater URL in the form of http://storeid.ecrater.com. Take time to design your store. Now that you've registered on eCrater, let's start designing your store! After logging in to eCrater, you'll see a "Color Templates" button on the left-hand side; choose the one that best matches the products you'll be selling. For example, if you plan on selling electronics, go for a blue or gray theme. Also, to make your store look even more professional, we recommend creating your own 250x68px logo to upload. If you don't

have one, you can use Vistaprint's free logo builder to get a basic one in minutes. Upload square product images to avoid cropping issues.When you upload images of your products, eCrater will automatically crop them into smaller, square images. To avoid messy and potentially off-putting thumbnails, make sure that the main item images you upload are square-shaped. Import your eBay listings. If you have an eBay store, eCrater is a great way to diversify your business quickly and easily to reach more buyers. eCrater allows you to import all items and product listing information directly from eBay. We recommend only importing a few at a time to start, as you'll have to go into each listing after the import to manually remove specific eBay references and add line breaks. Offer informative FAQs. Since you've basically just created your own store, you also have the ability on eCrater to create your own FAQ for your customers. This is a great opportunity for you to let your buyers know about your payment and shipping policies so that they feel more comfortable purchasing from you. This will also help facilitate the purchase process so that they aren't left with any questions about what kind of service to expect from your business.

Conclusion
All in all, eCrater.com is a fantastic alternative to eBay and is a great way to diversify your online business. In essence, you get to create and brand your own web store without actually building your own website from scratch! Also, eCrater frequently submits feeds to Google Product Search, so your merchandise will automatically appear on Google within a few days of posting your items. One thing to keep in mind about eCrater is that because the buyer base is smaller, you have to do some work to get people to find your web store. For more information on how to market your online business, click here. We hope you found this introduction to eCrater.com helpful! There are many great advantages of this marketplace, and if you have any questions while you're getting started, we encourage you to consult eCrater's community forums here. You'll find many active threads dedicated to helping sellers get started and boosting their sales.

n April, I wrote about free alternatives to eBay Express, including a site called eCrater. Since then, it has continued to gain traction, in part from some help from sellers who previously sold on the now closed Yahoo Auctions. eCrater is more than just a marketplace of fixed-price listings. It's a free web-hosting site where sellers manage their own stores (sort of like eBay Stores but better organized). On eCrater, shoppers can access an individual seller's site directly or may search for products from the main eCrater.com website (http://www.ecrater.com). The beauty of eCrater, and I think one of the reasons for its success, is that it is so simple. It literally took me only two minutes to get a store set up and begin entering inventory. It's a very user-friendly, fill-in-the-blank system. Sellers can point their websites to their eCrater page using URL masking, so buyers will only see the seller's website address (not eCrater's). This makes it seem more professional, and more like your own website rather than a page on someone else's site (as you get with eBay Stores).

eCrater has a feedback feature just like eBay, and some of the better features of Feedback 2.0 were integrated, well before eBay launched them. eCrater allows sellers to accept PayPal and Google Checkout and has plans to add Amazon Payments. Premium Listings eCrater is completely free, but the site does offer premium positions. A position on the home page, which merchants can use to rotate their products, costs $100/month. (The position is booked through the end of March 2008.) A position on the top of all listings in a category costs $25/month per item and guarantees a premium top spot in the category. New Features Founder Dimitar Slavov said he has added new features since April, including an optional inventory control feature (http://www.ecrater.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=4405). eCrater also added a "mods" system. "The idea is similar to the Wikipedia content control," Slavov said. Moderators make sure that all the listings belong in the correct category and are compliant with eCrater's policies. "As a certified Google Checkout partner we would like to make sure that all listings are compliant with Google Checkout's and Google Base's policies too. With this step we would like to improve the quality of the whole marketplace and make it more attractive for both buyers and sellers." Moderators receive a small icon next to their store name as a bonus for their efforts, making their stores stand out from the others. Slavov said eCrater is working on improving the search function, adding product attributes, adding express product listing and upgrading its bulk lister. eCrater will be adding some new features to its Google Checkout integration, and is adding Amazon Payments. "There are also some new features that we would like to keep secret at this point," Slavov said. eCrater Forums Unlike some other free sites, eCrater has a great set of forums. They have an entire board dedicated to suggestions for making eCrater better. They genuinely seem to be interested in their sellers and want to improve the site's functionality for all involved. There are some useful posts about how to get setup on the site, as well as technical questions. The forums have a decent amount of traffic too, so if you do post a question, you won't be twiddling your thumbs for two weeks waiting for someone to respond. Marketing One of the big questions new sellers ask is, "How do I get sales on eCrater?" On the Forum boards, eCrater sellers talk about using Craigslist and My Space to drive traffic to their site. Kijiji, local ads, and even flyers, business cards, etc., will help.

Slavov said most of the traffic to eCrater comes from search engine optimization (for example, eCrater comes up on the top of Google results for searches on "free online store" and "free online marketplace"). eCrater also uses Google Adword advertising. "Most of the traffic for the sellers comes from Google Products and Google," Slavov said. "Some sellers are doing pretty good job in making their stores search engines friendly, others are using paid advertising or just relying on posts in blogs and forums. eCrater is nothing like eBay or Amazon, so bringing their own traffic is important." eCrater has great potential as long as they keep the simplicity and usability they have now.

eCRATER
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article appears to be written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by rewriting promotional content from a neutral point of view and removing any inappropriateexternal links. (January 2012)

eCRATER

Type

Private

Foundation date

September 27, 2004

Headquarters

Irvine, California, United States

Key people

Dimitar Slavov, founder

Industry

Electronic Commerce

Products

Online Shopping Mall, Online Store Builder

Website

www.ecrater.com

Alexa rank

7,835 (January 2014)[1]

Type of site

Online Shopping Mall

Registration

Required to sell

Available in

English

eCRATER is a free online marketplace and an ecommerce website builder based in Irvine, California. It was launched in the early fall of 2004 by Dimitar Slavov.[2] By October 2008, it reached 1,500,000 items for sale in the marketplace and, as of January 2009, eCRATER has 65,242 active stores, and 95,773 stores have been created since its launch.[3] eCRATER does not follow the online auction business model, it is more an online equivalent of a shopping mall. Its marketplace offers the products of all registered sellers in one place, while the web store builder allows sellers to have their own custom online store.[4][5][6] All listings are "fixed price" and buyers can add products from several sellers into their shopping cart and buy them in one single order.[7] Creating stores and listing items for sale in eCRATER is free of charge; also, "final value fees" are not applied to the merchants' sales. eCRATER does offer premium positions on its website for a fee, but this is completely optional for sellers.[6][8]
Contents
[hide]

1 Origins 2 Services and Features 3 Prohibited or Restricted Items 4 Customer Support 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

Origins[edit]
Dimitar Slavov, a programmer, started putting the eCRATER.com site together in early 2004. It took him about four months to code an initial version, coding module by module from scratch. His goal was to create an ecommerce marketplace that was nice and clean, where buying and selling was easy.[9] Slavov eliminated any fees charged to buyers and sellers because he thought that online selling should be as free as it is searching the internet.[9] This idea gave birth to eCRATER, a free marketplace, just a few minutes before midnight on September 27, 2004 in Irvine, California.[3][7] Despite some sources pointing to eCRATER as a competitor to eBay,[6][8][10] Slavov says that his marketplace doesn't intend to take on eBay, but to provide an alternative ecommerce venue for both buyers and sellers. [9] eCRATER's first store opened on September 28, 2004 and, as a curious fact, they never listed any product.[3] By the end of 2008, eCRATER's listings hit the 1,500,000 mark and over 300,000 orders placed.[3] As of January 2009, eCRATER has 65,242 active stores[3] and has 462,000 unique visitors.[11] As of March 2011, its traffic rank on Alexa is around 4,260.[1] Some eCRATER's selling facts: A CD by the rock group Motrhead was the first product sold, for $10.99. The most expensive item ever sold on eCRATER to date was a 2005 Chevrolet Corvette.[3][9]

Services and Features[edit]

The main service that eCRATER offers is a free of charge, customizable ecommerce website and, a free online marketplace. The website builder allows sellers to choose the color of the store template, as well as adding their own logo, main picture and category's pictures.[4][12] The product listings have a fixed price[12] and can include up to 10 pictures, there can be unlimited product listings in a store and they are automatically included in the marketplace. Sellers can add their own text to the homepage, about, terms, FAQ and contact pages of their stores but, they cannot use any HTML code. The stores' back-end allows sellers to modify the store's look and contents, set up internal categories, add products, configure shipping and payment options and managing orders. eCRATER's stores also count with a bulk lister tool,[4][12] to upload a hundred or more products at a time, and a product inventory control. eCRATER's marketplace and stores have a shopping cart that allows buyers to pay with PayPal, Google Checkout, check or money order.[12] The cart is integrated with PayPal Express Checkout and Google Checkout.[8] eCRATER is listed as a Google Checkout ecommerce partner[13][14][15] and it offers integration with other Google solutions, like Google Product Search[5] and Google Analytics. eCRATER has an internal messaging system to allow buyers to contact the sellers, also, buyers can use the feedback system to rate the transaction with the seller.[8][12] The eCRATER community forums were launched

on February 24, 2006, open to both sellers and buyers with the exception of some boards that are exclusively for sellers. . Main Categories: Art, Antiques, Baby, Books, Cameras and Photos, Collectibles, Computers, Craft, Electronics, Movies and DVDs, Home and Garden, Music, Sports and Outdoors, and Toys, Games & Hobbies.

Prohibited or Restricted Items[edit]

There are some basic requirements to list products on eCRATER: the seller has to be a registered user, all texts must be in English, all prices must be in US dollars and equal or greater than $0.20, and the seller must be able to ship throughout the United States. It is not allowed to post:[16]

Body parts & organs Pirated materials and products Copyrighted materials (images & texts) Counterfeit designer items (replicas or imitation of designer products) Fake documents Illegal goods and services Personal information about another individual Prescription drugs Prostitution Currency exchanges The same or very similar content several times (even in different categories) Miscategorization Meaningless titles & descriptions Test items unless your store is put on-hold Free items and items with prices that are not "real" Items that are not for sale Pre-order items Firearms & ammunition Tobacco and cigars for smoking Live animals Mod chips or mod chips accessories

Customer Support[edit]
The eCRATER community forums are an important part of the site's customer support. Most common questions and technical issues are covered on the boards and, if not, a contact form is available to direct the

questions to the eCRATER team. eCRATER's customer support is not intended for buyers asking about a particular product or payment and shipping arrangements, those kind of questions are meant for the seller directly, as eCRATER itself does not sell any particular product.[17] However, buyers can request support if they're having problems with a seller or if there is a technical issue with the site that prevents them from making their purchase. Problems with sellers may include: non-delivery of product, selling of counterfeits, breach of terms and agreements, and others. Also, anyone can report illegal products being sold/listed, fraudulent activities and/or DMCAinfringement.[17][18]

6. eCrater.com
eCrater, launched in 2004 out of Irvine, California, is an online marketplace that provides customizable storefronts for registered sellers. eCrater doesn't charge any listing fee or final sale commissions to the seller; however, premium listing spots such as those on eCrater's hot categories are available for a small fee. As of the latest 2013 figures, eCrater has boasted its listing of almost 2 million products listed in over 60 thousand active storefronts. Payment methods acceptable are Google Checkout, Paypal and by mail order. Being a Google eCommerce partner is one of the reasons why eCrater has become one of the go-to eBay competitors that has been trusted by many global sellers and buyers. If you want to try eCrater, visit the eCrater Official Site

Webstore
One Of The Best Online Auction Sites Like eBay For Sellers

Webstore tries to differentiate itself from the other sites like eBay listed on this page by offering the lowest fees of all the online auction sites. Webstore does not charge sellers any fees and even allows you to setup your own online store front with ease. Best of all Webstore does not impose a maximum number of listings allowing you to put up 10, 100, 1000 auctions or more. On Webstore buyers can get a great deal thanks to the zero selling fees, Webstore allows you to bid on items, buy the item instantly or even place an offer on items. This flexibility has made it a very popular eBay alternative for both buyers and sellers. Webstore features the same feedback system to other online auction websites and also supports a number of payment methods (including PayPal and Google Checkout).

Both sellers and buyers will find this website like eBay a great option, allowing everyone to save money. Webstore - Official Website

Buying and selling online is getting easier and more prevalent. Online auction sites help you get your merchandise seen by hundreds, which increases the possibility of finding interested buyers. This site is supported by selling advertisements so you don't have to pay fees. It has many options for helping you find things that you are interested in buying, and many more options for selling your products. This auction site is simple and straightforward, which allows you to jump right into the auction experience. Best of all, it is free. WebStore takes a unique approach to monetize its site. Many online auction sites charge fees for listing, final-value fees, relisting fees and enhancement fees. WebStore, however, does not charge fees of any kind. It is free to register, to list, and to add additional pictures. If you're looking to sell, WebStore offers many useful tools for getting your products posted, seen and purchased. For instance, they allow you to post Dutch listings, wherein you list multiples of the same items. Buyers can then indicate how many products they want to purchase, and finalize the deal with one click. This works great for small businesses that are trying to empty their inventories of older products.

There are many times when products can be categorized in multiple areas. This online auction site lets you place your product in more than one category. If you want to sell a romance comedy movie on WebStore, for instance, you can place it in the romance section as well as the comedy section, and thereby reach people looking in both genres. This online auction site gives you a few other important selling options. You can run private auctions. You can open an in-site store where people can view everything you are selling, and you can set up your own personal return policy for customers. Additionally, you can cross-promote items that go well together. If you ever need to cancel a sale before it is final, you have the option to do so. You can also pause your store if you are away on vacation. When you get back, everything you listed before repopulates automatically. In addition, buyers can make an offer on any product and close the deal with sellers right away, without waiting for the auction period to end. When it comes to buying, the WebStore online auction site makes it easy. To help you get started, there is a search option where you can type in the name of what you're looking for. If the term you search for brings back too many results and you want to narrow them down a bit, there is an advanced search option. If you're not sure about the exact product and want to browse by category, you can do that too. Once you find what you are looking for and click on it, this online auction site directs you to that item's page, where you can do a number of things. You can read the item description, view enlarged photos of the product, ask the seller a question, check out the payment methods that the seller accepts, see how much shipping is going to be and, of course, bid on or purchase the item instantly with the Buy Now option. This online auction offers buying and selling security. It does not offer its own return policy, but the site is set up to help you avoid scams and to get your money from buyers and your products from sellers. WebStore also lets you leave comments about transactions so that merchants and buyers build up reputations over time. The company then reviews this feedback on a regular basis. The best-rated sellers get special top-seller status, while the worst are banned from the site entirely. With Webstore, sellers also get a communication score that is based on how quickly they reply to potential buyers' questions. If the sellers are quick to reply, the rating goes up. Between the communication score and the comments that people leave about the transaction itself, you can be better prepared for your online auction site experience.

Summary:
This online auction site gives you many selling options. You can run private auctions and you can open an in-site store where people can view everything you are selling. Additionally, you can cross-promote items that go well together. In addition, WebStore lets you leave comments about transactions so that sellers and buyers alike can earn top rated status. At Webstore buyers and sellers can come together and trade just about anything without membership fees, bidding fees, or selling fees. You can find great bargains at Webstore because sellers don't have to mark up their products to cover fees and percentages typically charged by other online marketplaces. Join the excitement of a low winning bid on an auction item, or purchase instantly from the tens of thousands of fixed price items.

__

2 - eBid

A Popular Auction Site Like eBay

eBid is another online auction site like eBay that allows you to easily buy and sell anything and is definitely the best eBay alternative. eBid currently accepts sellers in over 20 countries but allows buyers from over 100 different countries. eBid offers its own PPPay payment method but does also support PayPal, Moneybookers and Google Checkout. On eBid you can list any basic auction for free, meaning you are only charged if you make a successful sale. eBid offers a number of membership levels; Buyer (free), Seller (free but requires verification) and Seller Plus (annual fee) which allows you to setup up to 5 stores and unlocks a number of other premium features to make selling easier. If you are looking for another popular auction site like eBay to grow your online business then try out eBid. eBid is also great for buyers with an average of over 5 million listed sales live at any time.
_______________________________________________________________

3. eBID.net
A Website Like eBay based in the UK eBid, currently a Google Marketplace Partner and founded in the United Kingdom in 1998, has grown into a formidable eBay competitor. Its listing of almost 5 million products spread over 14 thousand categories as well as its growing membership (composed of both buyers and sellers) has made eBid among the most promising Ebay alternatives.

Just like eBay, eBid's program includes auction-style listings and fixed-price listings of almost every item you can think of (legal, of course). For sellers, listing an item is free and eBid only charges a fee whenever an item is sold in its marketplace. Furthermore, eBid has a paid membership option that's catered for the the professional sellers. Payment methods acceptable to eBid are: PPPay (eBid's in-house payment processor), Skrill Moneybookers, Google Checkout and Paypal. If you want to give eBid a try, check out its website - eBid Official Website
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

eBid

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(April 2009)

eBid Ltd.

Type

Private

Industry

Auctions

Founded

London, England UK (1998)

Headquarters

Surrey, England UK

Key people

Gary Sewell & Mark Wilkinson, Co-founders

Products

Online auction hosting,Electronic commerce PPPay,

Website

www.ebid.net

eBid is an online auction website founded in December 1998. eBid operates in twenty-three countries where it allows sellers, United Kingdom, United States of America,Canada, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands,Denmark, H ong Kong, India, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Singapore, South Africa, Brazil, Malaysia and lists to buyers in over 100 Countries. eBid uses its own online payment service PPPay[1] to allow for buyers and sellers to pay each other in Euros and Pounds Sterling, although members are not restricted to using this form of payment:Paypal, Google Checkout and Skrill (Moneybookers) are also accepted payment methods. Listing a basic auction on eBid is free and a zero or small percentage final value fee is paid on selling your item. The domain ebid.net has 8 million page impressions a month and attracts around 60,000 visitors a day (15m unique visitors yearly) alexa.com ranking.[2] Currently eBid has 3 membership levels available for new members, Buyer (free) buyer only, Seller (free but requires credit/debit card verification) occasional seller, final value fees are 3%, Seller Plus+ subscription based membership aimed at professional sellers with a recurring fee, payable every 7,30,90 or 365 days, OR a one off lifetime payment (currently 99.99 or 49.99 if taken within first 24 hours of joining). Seller Plus+ members can open up to 5 shops free. For a basic auction Seller Plus+ members pay no fee, for a gallery one they pay 2% fvf. Options like BIN only auctions & Run until Sold, are also available for free. Buddy Points Members can earn Buddy Points when they buy, sell or enlist new members. These points can then be used in Buddy Auctions to bid on items from eBid t-shirts, hats and golf umbrellas to cameras, monitors, kindles and household electrical items. Methods of Earning Buddy Points: Referring a Buddy 1.00 points Your Buddies Upgrading to SELLER 2.00 points Your Buddies Upgrading to SELLER+ 5.00 points You Making a Bid Meeting Reserve 0.50% of reserve price (max 5.00 points) You Winning by Bidding 1.00% of final bid (max 5.00 points) You Purchasing Using BuyNow 1.00% of BuyNow price (max 5.00 points) You Gaining Positive Feedback 0.50% of final bid OR BuyNow price (max 5.00 points)
Contents
[hide]

1 Auctions

o o o o o o o o

1.1 Auto-extend Auctions 1.2 Featured Auction 1.3 Gallery Auction 1.4 Free Auctions 1.5 Platinum Auctions 1.6 Gallery Auction 1.7 Run Until Sold 1.8 On first bid

2 References 3 External links

Auctions[edit]
Auto-extend Auctions[edit]
If the seller has this turned on it will extend the length of the auction by 60 seconds if there is a bid within the final 60 seconds of the auction. This option is only available to Seller Plus+ users.

Featured Auction[edit]
If the seller selects this method then the item will be at the top of the relevant section for 30 days. Featured listings cost from zero to 1.00 in your local currency, however the final value fee is zero

Gallery Auction[edit]
Gallery auctions are only for seller + status. The listing of Gallery auctions is free, they get a thumbnail and up to 5 free pictures. When a Gallery auction is successful then a 2% final value fee is incurred. Gallery auction is the most popular auction type. Gallery auctions can have a run time of 3+ days

Free Auctions[edit]
The listing of free auctions is totally free, but Basic Sellers do not get a picture thumbnail on the results page, but you still get up to 5 free pictures. If a free auction sells then it incurs a 3% final Value Fee. Free auctions can have a run time of 3+ days

Platinum Auctions[edit]
Platinum auctions are only for seller status. There is a listing fee of 0.05 or 0.05 in local currency normally. The platinum auction gets you a thumbnail picture and if it sells you pay a final value fee of 3%. Again platinum auctions can have a run time of 3+ days. These listings can be set to Auto Repost up to 10 times.

Gallery Auction[edit]

Gallery auctions are only for seller+ status. There is no listing fee for standard auctions, but unlike the free auction above, a gallery picture is shown in the results. If a standard auction is successful then a final value fee of 2% is charged. Run time of standard auctions is 3+ days. As with the Platinum Listing, these listings can be set to Auto Repost up to 10 times.

Run Until Sold[edit]

A "Run Until Sold" auction is one where the item is listed until it is sold. This type of auction appears near to the bottom of the search results. This type of auction does not have a countdown time. These listings show at the bottom of Search Results, so careful thought should be take when using this type of listing.

On first bid[edit]
On first bid auctions only start after the first bid has been placed, with a minimum duration of 3 days.

_________________________________________________________________

10. uBID.com
Formed in 1997, uBid, based in Itasca, Illinois, USA, is a popular eCommerce site that offers a diverse array of over 5 million products (brand new, used or refurbished) in dozens of categories that cover consumer electronics, computers, home and garden, jewelry, watches, televisions and everything else that can be sold legally. Just like eBay, these goods are sold directly by uBid and its pool of certified third-party merchants through auction listings or fixed-price listings. With over six million active members, uBid has become one of the popular online marketplaces where millions of merchants and buyers converge. uBid Official Site - Start Bidding or Selling Now

About uBid.com

uBid.com, a majority-owned operating company of CMGI, Inc., is a leading online auction and e-commerce site offering brand-name products to both consumers and small- to mid-sized businesses through live-action bidding using sophisticated auction technology. The companys Internet auctions feature a rotating selection of brandname computer, consumer electronics, housewares, sporting goods and memorabilia, jewelry, apparel, appliances, art, travel and events, home improvement products and off-lease computer equipment. uBid.com is committed to providing all customers with the highest-quality auction experience on the Internet and offers supplier warranties on most consumer products. uBid.com also meets Better Business Bureau Online standards, which give customers the confidence and security to bid safely online. For more information, visit the companys Web site at www.ubid.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements which address a variety of subjects including, for example, the expected benefits of the agreement between uBid and TechSmart.com and the expected ability of uBid to offer and sell TechSmart products. The following important factors and uncertainties, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements: uBids success depends on the continued and increased acceptance of its website and the Internet as a medium; consumer preferences for the products offered by uBid may change rapidly; and increased competition and technological changes in the markets in which uBid competes. For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer to CMGI's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including CMGI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year. uBid and ubid.com are trademarks of uBid, Inc. All other products and services mentioned may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

uBid.com E-Commerce
Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: uBid.com E-Commerce Introduction uBid.com is an online marketing business that is owned by uBid holdings.uBid.com was founded in 1997 as a marketplace that provides goods from manufacturers to the consumers through the internet at prices lower than the market price and wholesale prices at fixed and auction options. The company has an estimate of 1 million square foot distribution center for handling customers well, and still has a customer care center to respond to customer needs and queries. The site sells to consumers new, refurbished and overstocks merchandise such as computers and electronics, cell phones, house appliances and many more. Online marketplaces have become instrumental sites for consumers who are constrained by time and have little time for shopping. More still, the site offers business-to- business sales for many businesses. The company collaborates with other firms for growth and 2000 CMGI agreed to buy it out (Bloomberg News, 2000). The growth of internet is further driving the growth of such sites where there are more such as Amazon and eBay. This has led to competition that keeps businesses reviewing their strategies to remain competitively active in the market. Since the use of such sites is growing, it is up to the e-commerce sites to improve their strategies and output to serve more customers and venture into new markets other than their current boundaries.

Chicago, IL -

June 9, 2005 Online auction provider, uBid, Inc. announced the introduction of a new auction format called Mega Auctions. Themed auctions featuring an assortment of well

recognized popular branded items, Mega Auctions contain more units per item over a longer period of time than typical uBid auctions. As a result, consumers have more time to get involved in the bidding process and more products to bid on. This week, uBid is launching its first "Sizzling Summer" themed Mega Auction featuring brand name items from Lexmark, Sony, Remington, HP, Onkyo and more. The number of units per item in this Mega Auction ranges from 9 to over 400 giving consumers substantial opportunity to win. "Mega Auctions provide our customers with more chances to win and save," said Tim Takesue, uBid, Inc. EVP of Merchandising & Business Development. "These Mega Auctions contain a lot more items than you'll find in other companies' auctions. And they're filled with popular products like LCD projection TV's, digital cameras, printers, apparel, tools, toys and stereo receivers," he said. The launch of Mega Auctions reflects uBid's commitment to innovative new auction products and features that provide value for its customers and are consistent with its position as "The Marketplace You Can Trust."TM uBid, Inc., part of the Petters Group Worldwide family of companies, has recently stepped up its new product development efforts starting with the launch of new uBid Travel. Several new auction categories, enhancements and upgrades are also planned for introduction throughout the remainder of the year.

About uBid, Inc. uBid is a leading brand name auction marketplace that offers consumers and businesses manufacturers merchandise at below wholesale prices. Founded in 1997, uBid has swiftly emerged as a major force in the e-commerce world. Formerly owned by CMGi, today, uBid is a member of Petters Group Worldwide, uBid specializes in providing customers with savings on items from leading brands. In addition to uBid's own product listings, uBid features uBid Certified Merchant listings in which consumers will find items listed by uBid approved businesses. With more than 5 million registered users, uBid is committed to providing its valued customers with the highest quality experience on the Internet and offers manufacturer warranties on products. For more information, visit the company's web site atwww.ubid.com.
"Editors Note: This product has been removed from viewing as part of this site because it does not accept auction l istings unless you are a professional retailer. You can still read our original review below, but TopTenREVIEWS is no longer updating this products information."

uBid is significantly different from the other online auction sites reviewed. uBid.com is unique in that it doesnt rely on members to post products and items. Most items available are excess inventory items sold new through uBids warehouse or affiliate manufacturers, distributors or resellers. Therefore, all products are shipped from legitimate businesses. This approach has its benefits and downfalls. On the one hand, buyers are further assured that the item they are bidding on is legitimate. However, because the auction sellers are professionals, getting an extra good deal is unlikely. Also, you are less likely to find unique antiques being sold through uBid.

Features:

Categories
Computers & Office

Desktops Laptops PDAs & Handheld PCs Monitors Drives Servers Printers Scanners Computer Components Networking Accessories Software

Jewelry & Gifts

Mens Watches Womens Watches Bracelets & Anklets Charms Costume Jewelry Earings Beads & Gemstones Necklaces Pendants & Lockets Rings Men Other Jewlery Gifts & Occasions Cigars

Sports, Toys & Hobbies

Sporting Goods Memorabilia Toys Games Trains

Models Radio Control Stuffed Animals Binoculars & Telescopes

Consumer Electronics

Apparel

Digital Cameras Video Home Audio Portable Electronics Car & Mobile Audio Televisions Phones & Pagers Cameras & Optics Speakers Other Electronics

Womens Clothing Womens Shoes Womens Accessories Mens Clothing Mens Shoes Mens Accessories Girls Boys Infants

Everything Else

Real Estate Constuction Electronic Components Farm Healthcare Industrial Supply & MRO Laboratory Equipment Metalworking Printing & Graphic Arts Restaurant Retail Test Equipment Education & Learning Everything Else

Music, Movies & Games

Movies Music Musical Instruments Video Games

Books

Home & Garden

Tools Kitchen & Dining Kitchen Appliances Bedding Bath Home Decor Art Furniture Lighting Windows & Floors Storage & Organization Household Appliances Housekeeping Garden, Lawn & Patio Food & Wine Luggage Baby Gear Pet Supplies Gifts & Celebrations Crafts

Collectibles

Coins & Stamps Collectibles Antiques Art Books, Movies & Music Dolls & Doll Houses Militaria Pens & Writing Instruments Pottery & Glass Sports

1.

ToysuBid

Holdings

Since 1997, uBid.com has been a top auction and fixed price marketplace offering new, overstock, closeout and recertified products covering more than 25 categories. Our 6 million members love us because they know theyll find bargains on everything from Toys to Televisions - great merchandise that comes only from approved manufacturers and other certified sellers.One area uBid.com excels in is being able to offer BIG DEALS on some of the coolest technology and electronics around. You'll find products from Apple, HP, Lenovo, Dell, Sony, Samsung, Microsoft, NEC, Epson, Phillips, Kodak, Panasonic, Canon, LG and more.Weve got great partnerships with top manufacturers and certified resellers and our dream team of merchandising whizzes uncovering the best bargains for our customers!uBid.com also powers a sister site called RedTag.com, where we feature a Daily Deal, Flash Sales and other fixed price promotions.Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter

and Pinterest at uBidDeals! SpecialtiesOnline Retail Marketplace, Auction Style Listings, Fixed Price Merchandise

uBidby Steve Encell and Si Dunn

The online auction site uBid.com turned eight years old in 2005. It bills itself as the largest online business (only) to consumer marketplace. The site specializes in closeout, refurbished, and end-of-life products, as well as new products. Thanks in part to some defections from eBay, uBid now has more than 3,000 business partners auctioning a wide array of merchandise that ranges from tile saws and jewelry to pet supplies and refurbished computers. On uBid, most bidding starts at a dollar, and often, no reserve prices have to be met before the item can be won. It also posts shipping charges up front.

The New uBid Late in 2002, when fraud was running rampant in the online auction industry, uBid discontinued the ability for everyday consumers to sell on uBid due to counterfeit, stolen and generally untrusted offerings. The uBid site announced: Even though we agree with the basic premise that all humans are fundamentally good, a few can ruin it for everyone. Now uBid lets only Certified Merchants post merchandise for auction. To become a Certified Merchant, a manufacturer, distributor, or reseller must apply to uBid and prove that they have been in business for at least a year. There is also a $99 application fee, and the approval process includes a Dun & Bradstreet report, credit checks, and verification of trade references. Merchandise specialists procure most of uBid's auction items, and the company is an authorized dealer of many of the products it posts for auction. It offers manufacturer's warranties, optional extended protection plans, and a return policy on certain brand-name merchandise. Site personnel occasionally make random purchases from uBid auctions to help monitor service quality. The company does not ship to addresses outside the United States, and it accepts only two types of payment: credit cards and debit cards. Interestingly, uBid operates a million-square-foot warehouse and a call center with more than 200 operators. The call-center operators support customer needs for all sales, whether shipped from one of our approved suppliers or directly from our warehouse in Naperville, Illinois, according to uBid. All payments are handled in -house, to minimize the chances of fraud and identity theft. Your payment information never goes outside of uBid, the auction site promises. Getting Started To learn more about buying and selling on uBid, click on the Help link on the site's main page. This will open the Welcome to uBid Help page.

Going, Going, Gone The Going, Going, Gone feature guards against a practice known as bid sniping. Some buyers love to bid snipe, while others absolutely hate the practice and consider it unfair. What is bid sniping? Bid sniper software lets buyers watch an auction until its final seconds. Then the software places their bid at the last moment, when no time is left to top it. The Going, Going, Gone feature automatically extends an auction's closing time if there are bids received within the final ten minutes. The auction continues until no more bids are received in a ten-minute period. Bid sniping aficionados hate uBid, of course, but potential winning bidders often aren't happy with Going, Gone, Gone, either. They have to watch the end of the auction closely and decide whether to bid higher or bail out if the listing is pushed into overtime. There are no limits on how many times the ten-minute ending period can be restarted by new bids.

- uBid
A Site Like eBay With A Mixture Of Auction and Fixed Price Shopping

uBid has many similarities to eBay making it a great eBay alternative. uBid doesn't allow individual sellers but does allow approved business sellers. These listings from businesses are combined with uBid's own products which you can bid on or purchase for a buy it now price (just like eBay). Because uBid approves all sellers you can be sure that all sellers are legitimate businesses, making uBid one of the safest sites like eBay. uBid specialises in excess stock along with refurbished consumer electronics including home appliances, phones, laptops and computers. If you are looking to get some low price consumer electronics in a safe and reliable environment then consider browsing the collection of products available on the uBid website. uBid - Official Website

uBid Commercial by uBidCommercial | video info

WeBidz
An Easy To Use Website Like eBay With No Selling Fees

WeBidz is another site like eBay that focuses on reducing fees allowing you to keep more profits from your online auction. WeBidz has no listing fees or sales fees unlike eBay making it a great alternative for start up a business. The only WeBidz fee is to become a verified seller ($5) which is generally recommended if you plan on selling on the site. WeBidz also offers free store fronts allowing you to easily create a WeBidz branded store to promote and sell your products. One of the biggest strengths of WeBidz is in its massive amount of search options allowing buyers to easily find what they are looking for based on price, location, keyword, brand or particular seller. WeBidz also offers unique wanted advertisements that you can create if you can't find a particular item. WeBidz packs all the features that you would come to expect from an eBay alternative and thanks to the low fees and strong website traffic starting your own online commerce business couldn't be easier. WeBidz - Official Website

Webidz.com
Webidz was introduced in 2005, and despite a slow start, it now has a large amount of regular sellers and buyers along with thousands of active auctions and listings. They offer zero fees on all auctions with a choice of featured upgrades from just a few dollars. A $5 registration fee is required for all new sellers, which could be seen as a downfall, however, this keeps scammers and fakes away from the website as the fee is used to verify seller accounts.

Summary:
Webidz offers a safe and user-friendly auction site for doing business. With plenty of features and selling tools, this site has everything you need to sell your wares. However, with a small customer base, you will not have access to as many buyers as you get with other sites. At the WeBidz online auction site, you will find an affordable platform for selling and buying anything online, from electronics to antiques. Basic listing fees are free on this auction website, including upfront listing and final sales fees. To set up your seller account, you will have a one-time seller verification charge of $9.95 so that the site can verify your identity. This safety feature keeps unethical sellers from setting up accounts under false names and helps ensure a safe marketplace for buyers. With no listing or final auction selling fees, you can use marketing tools like listing enhancements without breaking the bank, and you can list your items in more than one product category. Costs for enhancements vary from $0.05 to $0.15 per product and the picture gallery allows you to upload four product photos at no cost. To upload merchandise on the website, you just follow the instructions as you go. There are boxes designated for product information including item descriptions and prices. You can even decide what types of payments you are going to accept and create your own refund policy. Buy-it-now options are available if you would rather sell your items at a fixed-price rather than auction-style listings. Be aware that the WeBidz community does not have as large of a membership base as other online auction sites, which means you may have fewer customers than you would on comparable sites.

WeBidz uses a feedback system that allows buyers to rate their experience with specific sellers. It is listed under a category titled reputation and this is where buyers can view a seller's customer service score. This rating system encourages sellers to provide high-quality products and customer service. WeBidz has moderators on staff to help settle disputes between buyers and sellers. That means you have support when a buyer files a claim against you. An email address is located on the company website and WeBidz provides a FAQs page and community forum for additional assistance. There are no telephone numbers or live chat services, so you will not be able to have real-time conversations with representatives. As a result, we found it difficult and time consuming to find answers to our questions. Our company has been a supplier/wholesaler to many online sellers for many years. We have heard many stories of grief regarding profit margins when selling in online auctions. We have lost many customers/resellers because they were actually losing money after paying all their fees to eBay and PayPal. After years of seeing dreams washed down the drain, we decided to build an alternative website where basic listing is free and the final value fees are affordable. Therefore, if a user's item does not sell, they pay no fees.

WeBidz Auctions

Description: WeBidz Auctions is an eBay Alternative Auction Site. Buy or sell with our online auction community today. Bid low to get your next great deal. Free auction listing is a great alternative to eBay. WeBidz is an online bargain shopping mall with thousands of online auctions at bargain prices. Keywords: auctions, auction, online auction, online auctions, online bargain shopping, shopping, computer, bid, buy, sell, bidding, sale, classified ad, classifieds, want ads, trading cards, memorabilia, sporting goods, music, dolls, comics, antiques, jewelry, ebay alternative, ebay, bargain prices, bids Tags: webidz, auctions, buy, sell, online, auction, items, silver, view, black, bid, usd,new, feedba ck, start, ebay, site, bargain, iphone, time, folding, apple, travel,alternative, watch, leather, tri m, shopping, white, alarm, april, users, great, seller,brand, left, brushed, art, ipad, apple,

Webidz.com
Content Revalency: Title: 100.00% Description: 41.18% Keywords: 50.00% | Document size: 95,401 bytes

Alexa rank: #167,044 Quantcast rank: #34,445 More info: Whois - Trace Route - RBL Check

WEBIDZ.COM - Site Location

Country/Flag City/Region/Zip Code Organization United States Lenexa, KS 66215 Codero

Internet Service Provider

Codero

WEBIDZ.COM - Domain Information

Domain Registrar Registrar URL Whois server Created Updated Expires Time Left Status DNS servers WEBIDZ.COM [ Traceroute RBL/DNSBL lookup ] ENOM, INC. http://www.enom.com whois.enom.com 19-Oct-2004 18-Oct-2013 19-Oct-2014 280 days 15 hours 19 minutes clientTransferProhibited NS1.WEBIDZ.COM 198.50.199.28 NS2.WEBIDZ.COM 198.50.199.28

WEBIDZ.COM - DNS Information

IP Address Domain Name Servers 69.64.83.114 ~ Whois - Trace Route - RBL Check ns1.codero.com 64.150.179.21 ns2.codero.com 216.55.130.43 mail.webidz.com 198.50.199.28

Mail Exchange

Site Response Header

Response Server Date Content-Type Cookie HTTP/1.1 200 OK Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:44:29 GMT text/html PHPSESSID=0543kpnonpsp69r8hp6uv65573; path=/

Etsy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Etsy

Web address

Etsy.com

Commercial?

yes

Type of site

E-commerce

Registration

Required to buy or sell

Created by

Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, Haim Schoppik, Jared Tarbell

Launched

June 18, 2005 in Brooklyn, New York City, USA

Revenue

US$500 million (2011)[1]

Alexa rank

135 (January 2014)[2]

Etsy
Sell Your Handmade Products On This Site Like eBay

Etsy is one of the newest sites like eBay that focuses on selling handmade products. Items sold on Etsy are predominantly focused on art, clothing, jewelry, accessories, craft supplies and toys. Etsy allows you to easily create your own store front (which you can customise) and also allows users to easily list their products for a small flat fee. One strength of Etsy is that Etsy listings perform well in search results, helping drive more traffic to individual products or stores. If you are looking to buy/sell handmade or vintage products then Etsy should definitely be on the top of your sites like eBay to try.
Etsy is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items, supplies, as well as unique factorymanufactured items under Etsy's new guidelines, released in October 2013. These items cover a wide range, including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, food, bath and beauty products, quilts, knick-knacks, and toys. Many sellers also sell craft supplies such as beads, wire and jewelry-making tools. All vintage items must be at least 20 years old.[3] The site follows in the tradition of open craft fairs, giving sellers personal storefronts where they list their goods for a fee of US$0.20 per item.[4] As of August 2013, 30 million users are registered on the

website and by the end of 2013, projections of one million sellers and over US$1 billion in total annual transactions have been announced.[1]
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Main Features

o o

2.1 Selling 2.2 Buying

3 Operations 4 Ethos 5 Competitors 6 Controversy

o o o o

6.1 Privacy 6.2 Ecologica Malibu 6.3 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) 6.4 Cause crafting

7 References 8 External links

History[edit]

Etsy staff at work, July 2010

Art in the Etsy office in Brooklyn.

The site was launched on June 18, 2005, by iospace, a small company composed of Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik. The initial version had taken two and a half months to build.[5] Later Jared Tarbell joined the team. Former NPR executive Maria Thomas joined as COO in 2008, was promoted to CEO and left Etsy in December 2009. Robert Kalin resumed his role as CEO from December 2009 until July 2011.[6] Investors include Sean Meenan, Spencer and Judson Ain, Union Square Ventures, and founders ofFlickr and Delicious.[7] Kalin said that he named the site Etsy because he "wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. I was watching Fellini's 8 and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say 'etsi' a lot. It means 'oh, yes.' And in Latin, it means 'and if.'"[8] In Etsy's first year, it attracted attention for frequently adding new tools and functionality to the site to help sellers gain exposure and traffic, including Adobe Flash-based visualizations and a taxonomy of categories with tags.[9] Etsy passed $1.7 million in sales in May 2007. [10] On July 29, Etsy had its one-millionth sale and anticipated its two-millionth sale would occur mid-December 2007. In November 2007, buyers spent $4.3 million purchasing 300,000 items for sale on Etsy, an increase of 43 percent from October 2007. [4] In June 2007, it expected to be profitable by the fall,[11] but in December 2007 it was not a profitable company.[12] In January 2008, Etsy received an additional $27 million in funding from Union Square Ventures, Hubert Burda Media, and Jim Breyer.[13] In February 2008, trouble at eBay, including a strike by some dissatisfied sellers, brought speculation that Etsy could be an increasing competitor.[14] At the same time, however, some Etsy sellers expressed unhappiness with how Etsy was handling complaints about stores.[15] At the time, a comparison of the two websites included complaints that on Etsy, items are difficult to find, the interface "feels slow", and the buying and selling process is United States-centric.[16] Other reviewers enjoyed using Etsy's specialized search options,[17][18] including the "Shop Local" tool.[19] In July 2008, Rob Kalin ceded the position of CEO to Maria Thomas.[20] Some longtime Etsy employees left the company in August 2008, including founders Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire.[21] In September 2008, Etsy

hired Chad Dickerson, who formerly worked at Yahoo!, as Chief Technology Officer.[22] The company acknowledged concerns about vendors selling other people's work as their own.[23] In April 2009, users organized an "etsyday" promotion on Twitter that brought extra attention to the site.[24] As of May 2009, it had approximately 60 employees and sales of $10 to 13 million per month,[25] possibly boosted by consumer interest in cheaper and more personalized goods due to the United States recession.[26] In March 2010, Kalin said that the company is profitable and "plans to go public, though not until at least next year."[27] In December 2010, Etsy said it had seven million registered users and predicted $400 million in transactions for the year, and that it would continue to focus on a personal community feel as it grows larger, as that is part of what distinguishes it from eBay.[28] In 2010, Etsy saw revenues increase from $180 million to $314 million, which fell short of the $400 million prediction.[29] In March 2011, Etsy "introduced a Facebook-style social networking system called People Search...to help buyers and sellers connect with each other and become friends". By doing so, Etsy made any past purchase with feedback easily searchable, which caused many complaints. Etsy then made changes to the site to better guard information regarding users' purchases.[30] In July 2011, Chad Dickerson, CTO since September 2008, became CEO, upon the firing of Rob Kalin. In April 2012, a newspaper article about Etsy covered its fraud detection efforts;[31] Etsy had been criticized in the past for inconsistently applying its rules about items having to be handmade.[32] Later in April 2012, the writer of Regretsy, a popular blog, did independent research into a specific featured vendor, Ecologica Malibu, and found evidence to accuse the vendor of being a reseller, which would be against the Etsy Terms of Service.[33] The vendor asserted that it was in line with the Terms of Service, stating that the shop had simply failed to identify itself as a "collective" that included the work of several individuals, and many Etsy community members posted on the Etsy forum expressing unhappiness with the action (or lack of action) taken by Etsy.[34] As of June 2012, the vendor's account is no longer active on Etsy.[35] In May 2012, Etsy raised $40 million in Series F funding, and announced the company had become B Corporation certified.[36] This funding is partly going toward expanding Etsy in international markets, including France, Germany, and Australia.[37] On October 1, 2013, Dickerson held an online Town Hall Meeting to announce that Etsy would now permit factory-made goods and drop shipping, provided the seller either designed or hired designers of the items, disclosed to Etsy their factory, disclosed that they used factories and took "ownership" of the process. In that meeting and afterward, Etsy claimed the meaning of the word "handmade" should be redefined to encompass factory made.[38]

Main Features[edit]

Selling[edit]
A variety of products are sold on Etsy, including arts supplies, handmade products and vintage pieces. Vintage pieces can only be listed if they are a minimum of 20 years old. In order to sell products on Etsy, users must create a username and have the option to create a shop name. The username cannot be changed once created. Creating a shop on Etsy is free, however each listing that is posted in the shop costs $0.20. Each listing will remain on the shop's page for 4 months, or until someone buys the product. The sale prices of products are determined by the shop owner, but Etsy claims 3.5% of the sale price of each listing. Shop owners are sent a bill at the end of every month containing the fees they owe, and they have until the 15th day of the following month to pay the Etsy bill.[39]

Buying[edit]
Searching for products to buy on Etsy is generally intuitive and simple. On the homepage, potential buyers can type a product description into the search bar,[40] or they can "Browse" through a list of options on the left side of the homepage, which include Art, Home & Living, Jewelry, Women, Men, Kids, Vintage, Weddings, Craft Supplies, Trending Items, Gift Ideas, Mobile Accessories, and more.[41] Alternatively, buyers may choose from a list of categories by clicking on the "Categories" link under "More Ways to Shop". This will bring the user to a page of over 30 categories, each containing sub-categories.[42] When a buyer views a product, he/she can view the positive percentage feedback of each seller to determine the reliability of the shop. Once a buyer finds a product he/she would like to buy, he/she clicks "Add to Cart", and that product is added to his/her virtual "Shopping Cart". The buyer may then continue shopping or purchase the selected item. In order to purchase items, buyers must have an account with Etsy. The account is free and can be integrated with Facebook. The total product and shipping costs are shown to the user prior to entering payment information so the user knows exactly how much is being paid. Sellers choose which payment options to offer buyers; options include credit/debit cards and PayPal, among others. [43]

Operations[edit]

Etsy Labs community workspace area.

Etsy is popular as a side-business[44] as well as a place to buy goods made from recycledand upcycled materials,[45] along with less expensive or more unusual versions of mass-produced items.[46] The unique nature of many of the items for sale is part of their appeal to some shoppers. [47][48] Product photos on Etsy tend to be editorial or artistic instead of commercial catalog style. [49] Sellers can add tags to their products to help buyers find them,[50] and buyers can choose to search for items available locally.[51] Etsy staffers publish lists of featured items.[52] Etsy makes money by charging a listing fee of 20 cents for each item and getting 3.5% of every sale,[53] with the average sale about $15 or $20. Most sellers are women[11] who tend to be college-educated and in their twenties and thirties.[25] Individual Etsy sellers decide which payment options to offer buyers; these options may include credit card, check,money order, PayPal, bank transfer, and Etsy gift card.[54][55] Etsy sellers range from hobbyists to professional artists who use the site to make a living. [56] According to artists who have developed their Etsy stores into their primary jobs, scaling up production of handmade items can require more than full-time work,[57] especially during the holiday shopping season.[58] Etsy's main office is located in DUMBO, Brooklyn, and it has hosted open crafting classes in the "Etsy Labs".[59] The site's technology, customer support, marketing/PR, business, and communications teams operate out of this office. Etsy Labs has a workspace that provides equipment and donated materials where members gather to make items, take and teach workshops, and attend special events.[4] Etsy also has an office in Berlin.[60] In April 2012, Etsy announced that it was taking steps to hire more women engineers to improve the gender balance of its team, as a website with majority women users but few women engineers. [61] Etsy was one of the main members of the Handmade Consortium, a 2007 effort to encourage buying handmade holiday gifts.[12] Etsy has partnered with the retail chain West Elm to sell some Etsy products in its stores.[62][63] In December 2012, Etsy opened a temporary holiday storefront in SoHo, New York City.[58]

Ethos[edit]
In an August 2013 interview, CEO Dickerson emphasized the importance of human interaction and meaning from creativity in regard to his perspective on Etsy. Dickerson described the website as "a platform that provides meaning to people, and an opportunity to validate their art, their craft", and after spending time with Etsy users, Dickerson learned that "all commerce is about real human interaction". Dickerson also provided a summation of Etsy that is a further reflection of the company's relationship- and meaning-based ethos: "At the end of every transaction, you get something real from a real person. There is an existential satisfaction to that."[1]

Competitors[edit]

Etsy has been compared to "a crafty cross between Amazon and eBay",[10] and to "your grandma's basement".[64] Etsy also has a number of direct competitors. DaWanda, based in Germany, focuses on growing in European countries.[65] ezebee.com, based in Switzerland, is a global competitor, but also caters to freelancers and professionals [66] Bonanza (formerly Bonanzle and 1000 Markets[67]) is based in the United States and focuses on clothing and fashion, Zibbet and MadeIt which are based in Australia, iCraft is based in Canada,[68] and Artfire is based in the United States.[69] Tindie is based in Portland, Oregon, and focuses on technology and electronics.[70] Asked about competitors, Etsy's European CEO said, "As far as I am concerned, the more people highlighting the value of supporting micro-producers and buying handmade and vintage directly from them, the better."[71]

Controversy[edit]
Privacy[edit]
In an effort to add social networking features to Etsy, the company implemented features in 2011 that allowed users to search other users' buying histories and to trace their purchasing transactions. Etsy thought that this feature would allow Etsy users to connect to individuals with similar buying and/or selling histories and an automatic opt-in was applied to all users without the attainment of prior permission. Users of the service raised concerns over the feature's violation of privacy rights, but an official response was not released by the company.[72]

Ecologica Malibu[edit]
In April 2012, Etsy users began demanding the removal of Ecologica Malibu from the website due to the shop's use of a wholesale manufacturer. Users complained that Ecologica Malibu's practice was contradictory to the anti-big business values of Etsy.[73] CEO Chad Dickerson responded in an Etsy blog post: Much of the information we learn from investigations cant be shared with the larger community out of respect for the privacy of the seller being investigated, so there is a natural divergence between what the community sees when they report a seller and what we see as we go deeper on the case. [T]here are times when available public evidence suggests that a violation of our policy is clear, and our investigations find that its actually not the case.[74] Many users are still not contented by Dickerson's response.[75]

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) [edit]

In May 2012, the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP contacted Etsy in regard to the sale of racist memorabilia. Etsy's site policy states that sellers cannot post "Items or listings that promote, support or glorify hatred toward or otherwise demean people based upon: race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation; including items or content that promote organizations with such

views";[76] however, Etsy allows users to sell Gollywog Dolls and posters portraying African-Americans in a negative light.[77] When Etsy was contacted by The Grio, an NBC-operated African-American news site, Etsy's Adam Brown replied: We encourage our members to report or flag items or sellers they feel are not compliant with Etsys marketplace policies, which they can do via a link on every listing or shop page...W e cant comment on private communications or on specific cases".[78] A petition was on the Change.orgwebsite by Raquel Mack that asked potential supporters: "Please help us tell Etsy to follow their own policies and stop profiting off of PROHIBITED ITEMS". The petition was sent by email to Dickerson and Brown on February 28, 2013, but, as of November 2013, an official response has not been received.[79]

Cause crafting[edit]
Etsy sellers promote items related to particular causes. In October 2012, an Etsy seller raised concerns over other sellers who use causes as a way to promote their products without actually supporting or making a donation to whichever cause they are using.[80]Etsy's "Do's and Dont's" page contains a section that explains the rules regarding the matter, but they are not strictly followed.[citation needed] During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, pink-colored items were advertised as part of Etsy's "Tickled Pink" campaign. Many sellers donated the full price of items to the cause, but others did not donate any portion of the proceeds from their sales, including items that displayed Breast Cancer Awareness logos or themes. A person living with breast cancer published a blog post in October 2012 in which she complained about Etsy's conduct.[81]

Online Auction
A Popular eBay Alternative For Regular Sellers

Online Auction was started by Chris Fain a successful auctioneer and regular online seller with a goal to improve the online auction industry. Thus far Online Auction has not failed to meet this goal and offers one of the best online auction websites like eBay Online Auctions is different to other sites like eBay in that it doesn't charge any listing or selling commissions and only charges a monthly fee. This means that if you sell a lot of items on a regular basis you can save a large amount of money on listing/selling fees. On the flip side this means that once-off or small scale sellers will end up paying more. If you are a power online auction seller looking for new sites like eBay then you can't look past Online

Auction, it could save you a fortune in fees. Online Auction - Official Website

Online auction
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series on

E-commerce

Online goods and services

Streaming media Electronic books Software

Retail services

Banking Food ordering

Online flower delivery Online pharmacy DVD-by-mail Travel

Marketplace services

Trading communities

Auctions Online wallet Advertising

Price comparison service Social commerce Mobile commerce

Payment Ticketing Customer service

Call center Help desk

Live support software E-procurement

Purchase-to-pay

V T E

An online auction is an auction which is held over the internet. Online auctions come in many different formats, but most popularly they are ascending English auctions, descending Dutch auctions, first-price sealedbid, Vickrey auctions, or sometimes even a combination of multiple auctions, taking elements of one and forging them with another. The scope and reach of these auctions have been propelled by the Internet to a

level beyond what the initial purveyors had anticipated.[1] This is mainly because online auctions break down and remove the physical limitations of traditional auctions such as geography, presence, time, space, and a small target audience.[1] This influx in reachability has also made it easier to commit unlawful actions within an auction.[2] In 2002, online auctions were projected to account for 30% of all online e-commerce due to the rapid expansion of the popularity of the form of electronic commerce.[3]
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Types

of online auctions auctions

o o o o o o

2.1 English 2.2 Dutch

auctions sealed-bid

2.3 First-price 2.4 Vickrey

auction auction

2.5 Reverse 2.6 Bidding

fee auction

3 Legalities

o o o

3.1 Shill

bidding

3.2 Fraud 3.3 Sale

of stolen goods

4 Bidding

techniques sniping

4.1 Auction

5 See

also

6 References

History[edit]
Online auctions were taking place even before the release of the first web browser for personal computers, NCSA Mosaic. Instead of users selling items through the Web they were instead trading through text-based newsgroups and email discussion lists. However, the first Web-based commercial activity regarding online auctions that made significant sales began in May 1995 with the companyOnsale. In September that same year eBay also began trading.[4] Both of these companies used ascending bid, English auctions and were the first of their kind to take advantage of the new technological opportunities. The Web offered new advantages such as the use of automated bids via electronic forms, a search engine to be able to quickly find items and the ability to allow users to view items by categories.[4]

Online auctions have greatly increased the variety of goods and services that can be bought and sold using auction mechanisms along with expanding the possibilities for the ways auctions can be conducted and in general created new uses for auctions.[5] In the current web environment there are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites dedicated to online auction practices.[5]

Types of online auctions[edit]

There are six different basic types of online auctions:

English auctions[edit]
In live terms, English auctions are where bids are announced by either an auctioneer or by the bidders and winners pay what they bid to receive the object. English auctions are claimed to be the most common form of third-party on-line auction format used and is deemed to appear the most simplistic of all the forms.[5] The common operational method of the format is that it is an ascending bid auction in which bids are open for all to see. The winner is the highest bidder and the price is the highest bid.[5] The popularity of the English auction is due to the fact that it uses a mechanism that people find familiar and intuitive and therefore reduces transaction costs. It also transcends the boundaries of a traditional English auction where physical presence is required by the bidders, making it increasingly popular even though there is a susceptibility to various forms of cheating.[5]

Dutch auctions[edit]
Dutch auctions are the reverse of English auctions whereby the price begins high and is systematically lowered until a buyer accepts the price. Sites that offer Dutch auction services are usually misleading and the term 'Dutch' tends to have become common usage for the use of a uniform-price rule in a single unit auction as opposed to how it is originally intended for that of a declining price auction. [4]However, with actual on-line Dutch auctions where the price is descending, it was found that auctions have on average a 30% higher ending price than first-price auctions with speculation pointing to bidder impatience or the effect of endogenous entry on the Dutch auction.[5]

First-price sealed-bid[edit]
First-price sealed-bid auctions are when a single bid is made by all bidding parties and the single highest bidder wins, and pays what they bid. The main difference between this and English auctions is that bids are not openly viewable or announced as apposed to the competitive nature which is generated by public bids. From the game-theoretic point of view, the first-price sealed-bid auction is strategically equivalent to the Dutch auction; that is, in both auctions the players will be using the same bidding strategies.[6]

Vickrey auction[edit]
A Vickrey auction, sometimes known as a second-price sealed-bid auction, uses very much the same principle as a first-price sealed bid. However, the highest bidder and winner will only pay what the second highest bidder

had bid. Online auctions where bidders utilize a proxy bidding system is a close resemblance to that of a Vickrey design for single item auctions, however due to the fact that the bidder is able to change their bid at a later date means it is not a true representation of the Vickrey auction.[7] The Vickrey auction is suggested to prevent the incentive for buyers to bid strategically, due to the fact it requires them to speak the truth by giving their true value of the item.[8][9]

Reverse auction[edit]
Reverse auctions are where the roles of buyer and seller are reversed. Multiple sellers compete to obtain the buyer's business and prices typically decrease over time as new offers are made. They do not follow the typical auction format in that the buyer can see all the offers and may choose which they would prefer. Reverse auctions are used predominantly in a business context forprocurement.[10] The term reverse auction is often confused with unique bid auctions, which are more akin to traditional auctions as there is only one seller and multiple buyers. However, they follow a similar price reduction concept except the lowest unique bid always wins, and each bid is confidential.[11]

Bidding fee auction[edit]

A bidding fee auction (also known as a penny auction) requires customers to pay for bids, which they can increment an auction price one unit of currency at a time. On English auctions for example, the price goes up in 1 pence (0.01 GBP) increments. There has been criticism that compares this type of auction to gambling, as users can spend a considerable amount of money without receiving anything in return (other than the spent bids trying to acquire the item).[12][13][14][15][16] The auction owner (typically the owner of the website) makes money in two ways, the purchasing of bids and the actual amount made from the final cost of the item.
[17]

Legalities[edit]
Shill bidding[edit]
Placing fake bids that benefits the seller of the item is known as shill bidding. This is a method often used in Online auctions but can also happen in standard auctions. This is seen as an unlawful act as it unfairly raises the final price of the auction, so that the winning bidder pays more than they should have. If the shill bid is unsuccessful, the item owner needs to pay the auction fees. In 2011, a member of eBay became the first individual to be convicted of shill bidding on an auction.[18] By taking part in the process, an individual is breaking the European Union fair trading rules which carries out a fine of up to 5,000 in the United Kingdom.[19]

Fraud[edit]
The increasing popularity of using online auctions has led to an increase in fraudulent activity. [2] This is usually performed on an auction website by creating a very appetising auction, such as a low starting amount. Once a

buyer wins an auction and pays for it, the fradulent seller will either not pursue with the delivery,[20] or send a less valuable version of the purchased item (replicated, used, refurbished, etc.). Protection to prevent such acts has become readily available, most notably Paypal's buyer protection policy. As Paypal handles the transaction, they have the ability to hold funds until a conclusion is drawn whereby the victim can be compensated.[21]

Sale of stolen goods[edit]

Online auction websites are used by thieves or fences to sell stolen goods to unsuspecting buyers.[22] According to police statistics there were over 8000 crimes involving stolen goods, fraud or deception reported on eBay in 2009.[23] It has become common practice for organised criminals to steal in-demand items, often in bulk. These items are then sold online as it is a safer option due to the anonymity and worldwide market it provides.[24] Auction fraud makes up a large percentage of complaints received by the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). This was around 45% in 2006 and 63% in 2005.[25]

Bidding techniques[edit]
Auction sniping[edit]
Auction sniping is a controversial bidding technique used in timed online auctions.[26] It is the practice of placing a bid in the final stages of an auction with the aim of removing other bidder's ability to place another bid before the auction ends. These bids can either be placed by the bidder manually or automatically with the use of a tool.[27] There are tools available that have been developed for this purpose. However, the use of these tools is the subject of much controversy.[28] There are two different approaches employed by sniping tools.

Online: These are hosted on a remote server and are a service run by a third party. Local: This type is a script which can be downloaded onto the users computer which is then activated and run locally.

Selling your wares on this online auction site enables you to keep more of your profits because you pay lower fees. You pay a monthly fee of $8.00 to list your items. There are no per-item listing fees or back-end fees to pay when your item sells. That means you keep 100 percent of your profits once the $8.00 fee is paid. Additionally, if your item does not sell, you can relist it at no additional cost. The OnlineAuction.com site comes with an image-upload feature that allows you to post four photos of each item that you list. In comparison, most auction sites only allow one. To add more than four photos, you must pay $0.25 per additional image. If you want to set up your own store, you have a couple of options. You can pay a $10.00 fee in addition to the $8.00 monthly fee or you can purchase the Founding Member selling plan that costs $196.00 per year. The latter is the best value for your money because it includes up to 8,000 listings for the entire year.

Selling Features: 9.4/10

Compare

Click to Enlarge

Listing your wares on this auction site is easy. There is an auction-listing tutorial on the website that will walk you through the selling process. Uploading products is easy because there are empty text boxes with pull-down menus that contain specific details to choose from, like colors and size. That way you can clearly and easily describe each item for potential buyers.
You can customize your listings with your own text. Once that is complete, you upload your photos. There are no strict formatting guidelines to follow, but the site recommends you use a 330x330-pixel JPEG image for optimal page viewing. Once you have added your product information, you enter what kind of payment methods you accept and add auction enhancements if you choose. Auction enhancements are features such as bold text that can improve your listings and boost sales. Some of these enhancements have additional fees so read the fine print. We like Online Auctions trademarked Quick Bid feature, which works like a real auction and allows people to continue bidding on an item until the true highest bid is reached. Other sites have a time limit, so whoever sneaks in the highest bid at the last minute wins. When using this auction website, an auction continues as long as there are active bidders. The time limit will extend an additional 90 seconds. As a seller, this allows you to get the maximum amount of money for your goods.

Buying Features: 9.4/10

Compare

Click to Enlarge

OnlineAuction.com has a feedback system that allows buyers to view feedback left by other buyers. The system rewards sellers who provide excellent service and penalizes those who do not because buyers will avoid buying items from vendors with negative feedback.
Keep in mind if there are issues with a purchase you will have to work those problems out directly with the seller. There are no buyer protection policies through the auction platform itself so there is risk involved for buyers making a purchase on the site. Advanced search features allow your buyers to look for specific items. With almost fifty categories to browse, you can shop for items including sports memorabilia, antiques and clothing and shoes. Buyers can even save their favorite sellers and products so they do not have to search for them later. The auction site itself does not have a return policy so you set your own individual policies. Make sure your return policies are well defined and easy for buyers to understand.

Help & Support: 10/10

Compare
You will get excellent customer service with OnlineAuction.com. The company website offers email and telephone contact information. We found it easy to contact and speak with a live agent. There is a FAQs page for commonly asked questions, and live chat and video tutorials.

Summary:
One of the biggest benefits of selling through this auction website is the ease involved in calculating the expense of your selling fees. There are no variable fees to figure out based on your selling categories or percentages to calculate. You will pay less to sell on this site than you will with many others. OnlineAuction.com was started when founder, Chris Fain, had an idea of creating an online auction site that focused on building a powerful community where people were free to buy and sell affordability and with simplicity. After many successful years as an auctioneer, Chris went on to became one of the first "Power Sellers" online but was continually frustrated and dissatisfied with the established online auctions because they seemed so intent on injecting themselves into each and every transaction making things difficult, awkward, and very expensive. He began to dream up a marketplace where sellers were not penalized for doing well and buyers could easily connect with sellers through an open and simple platform. It was from this dream that OnlineAuction.com was designed and established and continues to this day with the sole purpose of creating a simple marketplace where buyers and sellers connect.

- Quicksales
An Australian Online Auction Alternative To eBay

Quicksales is one of the few Australian sites like eBay available and combines auctions, shopping and online free classifieds. Quicksales offers a wide variety of categories so there is no shortage of products for buyers to browse. Quicksales is based in Melbourne, Australia and was launched in 2005 under the name of 'Oztion.com.au', the site was relaunched under Quicksales in early 2011. If you are an Australian user looking to move away from eBay then this Australian auction website is a great alternative. Quicksales - Official Website

Quicksales.com.au - Extra Cash by quicksaleschannel | video infoIntroduction

Quicksales.com.au is very much like a start up. It is experiencing growth in terms of stock and searches, so much so that the traditional relational database (TRD) system has been struggling to service our customers needs for sometime. The decision to remove searches from the TRD and replace it with Ryvus, a dedicated search platform, was the next step for Quicksales. It now opens the way to release many new and exciting features to our customers.

Discussion
Many products grow beyond their original architectures. From a business perspective this shows that the product is growing and successful. From a technical perspective it is a challenge to transition from one architecture to the next. In the case of Quicksales, the bottle neck was the traditional relational database. It could no longer handle the search load being placed on it, nor could it easily or cost effectively be scaled to handle the extra load. Even if a scaling solution could be found it was missing many of the features are

dedicated search platform could provide. Ryvus was chosen to be the search platform for Quicksales. Data was published to Ryvus, indexes set up and SQL calls were replaced. This might sound like many months of work, but it was completed by one developer in less than three weeks. On the first day that Quicksales started utilizing Ryvus for its search the results were immediate. The CPU on the TRD dropped by 60%. Page load time improved by an average of 2 seconds, but some pages improved by more than 5 seconds. Since Ryvus has been running on Quicksales the team have been able to add new search features like SearchAssist - so that when you type into the keyword search field it now tries and finds matches within the Quicksales category system.

Conclusion
When existing architectures no longer support your needs there is an opportunity to chose a new platform that will allow you to continue to grow and provide plenty of new features. Quicksales goal is to leverage its new and innovated search platform to improve the customer search experience.

Quicksales
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quicksales

Type

Subsidiary of Carsales.com Ltd

Traded as

ASX: CRZ

Foundation date 2005

Headquarters

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Area served

Australia and New Zealand

Founder(s)

Philip Druce and Kelvin Yip

Industry

Internet, Online retailing

Slogan(s)

Australia's newest local marketplace for free classifieds, shopping & auctions

Website

quicksales.com.au

Alexa rank

351

(July 2012)[1]

Type of site

Online auction

Registration

Required to buy and sell

Available in

English

Launched

As OZtion: January 2005 As Quicksales: 7 February 2010 Relaunched: 16 July 2012

Quicksales (typeset as quicksales) is an online auction site based in Australia, and the second largest auction website in Australia.[2] According to the site there are more than 1.8 million items available for auction or purchase and, as of 8 July 2013, there are over 515,000 member accounts.
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Community 3 Trading 4 Prohibited

items

5 References 6 External

links

History[edit]
The website was founded as OZtion in 2005 by Melbourne based Philip Druce and Kelvin Yip.[3] By May that year there were 2000 members and over 9000 items for sale.[4] The website rose to prominence in May 2008 after rival auction site eBay announced it would force all customers to use PayPal for payment processing. Although eBay later reversed their decision, in six weeks OZtion's sales jumped 50% and its member based

jumped by 28,000 to 275,000.[5] The number of new signups also rose, from an average 250 new members per day, to 650 per day.[6] In June 2008 the founders sold the website to the listed media company Jumbuck Entertainment for $2 million in cash and shares. In April 2010 Jumbuck sold the website to online classifieds company Carsales.com for $1.1 million.[5] On 7 February 2010, the website changed its name to Quicksales.[7] In 2012, Quicksales became increasingly integrated into sister sites on the Carsales network, handling accessory listing for Carsales, Bikesales and CaravanCampingSales. In turn, stock from these sites were listed on Quicksales to give buyers a greater degree of choices to search from. In July 2012, Quicksales was relaunched, offering free classifieds listings. The site was redesigned, losing the green hue that had been present since its launch in 2005.

Community[edit]
Quicksales uses a "rating" system (similar to the feedback system used on other online sites) for rating transactions. Transactions can be rated by both the buyer and seller as 'Satisfied', 'Neutral' or 'Unsatisfied'. Each Quicksales user is also given an overall rating score based on their transactions, as follows: two points are added for each 'Satisfied' rating; zero points for each 'Neutral' rating, and two points deducted for each 'Unsatisfied' rating.

Trading[edit]
Listing items for sale are free, regardless of sale format and include up to twenty photos, with optional paid listing upgrades available qShops are a unique Quicksales version of online auction shops. They allow sellers to have a searchable store, and include information about their business on a separate page. Owners of qShops are charged $5 per calendar month for the service. At least one form of verification is required to become a seller. [8] Forms of verification available are: SMS verification and Landline Telephone verificationaddress verification. Additional verifications are available after initial account verification are: address verification, credit card verification, photo ID verification (drivers licence or passport), telephone verification and Australia Post verification (which adds address and photo ID verification as well, which is no longer offered). As of 2007 only residents of Australia and New Zealand are permitted to sell on Quicksales (sellers from other countries registered prior to September 2006 are still allowed to sell).[9] A major difference between Quicksales and more dominant auction sites is that Quicksales allows non-electronic verification (for example, eBay's verification system involves credit card or phone, while its payment system, PayPal, involves bank details).

Prohibited items[edit]
A number of items are not permitted to be sold on Quicksales.[10] Some notable examples include:

Adult items Alcohol An alcohol license is required to list wine and other alcohol on Quicksales. The seller must display their license number on the listing and are responsible for knowing alcohol laws in all states and territories.

Drugs No controlled prescription drugs, regardless of herbal or chemical in origin, are permitted for sale.

Fireworks Illegal items

Illegal items are unable to be sold on Quicksales as they are, of course, prohibited.

Lock Picking Devices

Lock picking or lock smithing devices (including key cutters) cannot be listed.

Tickets Over Face Value

Quicksales does not allow tickets to be re-sold beyond their face value (referred to as ticket scalping). To prevent tickets being sold over their face value they must be listed as "BuyNow Only" (instant purchase, no auction) items with a price below or equal to the face value.

Used Clothing

Clothing that has been used may be listed, however, the garment must be cleaned before sending. Used underwear and swimwear (including children's) and cloth nappies must not be listed on Quicksales.

7 - ePier
Another Site Like eBay With Low Fees

due

to

its

ePier is another one of the sties like eBay listed here that is popular lack of listing and selling fees.

ePier is a free marketplace and open source e-commerce project that allows you to easily buy or sell items in an auction environment. ePier does offer a membership upgrade to access a number of premium features for $10/month which focus on allowing you to create a store front atmosphere which includes your own brand logo, web hosting, image storage, classified ads, priority support and featured listings. If you are looking to make a one off sale or simply interested in browsing a wide selection of listings then ePier is a good place to start. ePier provides a reliable auction website where independent vendors can
sell their products without having to pay expensive selling fees. With hundreds of categories to choose from, this site attracts sellers in part because of its wide variety of merchandise. When selling your goods on ePier, you will not have to pay up front listing fees or final value fees when your item sells. If you want to set up a store, a premium service e-store costs $9.95 per month and you get a customizable storefront with access to over twohundred thousand visitors per month. Selling enhancements including bold listings are available to make your products stand out. For a fee, you can get more visible placement on the website including a front-page presence. You can also have your products featured in the top of each category listing for more customer views. With video tutorials located on the website, entering products is easy. After you enter your merchandise in the correct categories, you fill in the text boxes. Many have drop down menus that make the data entry process easy and the free photo gallery gives you the ability to upload multiple photos of each item. ePier has advanced selling features so you can search for a specific product using keywords or you can search by category. ePier makes it easy to find what you are looking for. Buyers can read comments on each seller's page to see if they have had prior complaints. This allows you to screen out the sellers that do not provide good customer service. Keep in mind this online auction site does not have its own return policy so sellers set their own. Make sure to read each sellers feedback and policies so you know what to expect. Because ePier does not offer mediation, you will have to resolve problems directly with vendors. You will find most sellers want to provide good customer service to prevent negative feedback and comments. ePier's online auction site offers an email address and FAQs, page for help and support. The video tutorials and community forum give you all of the information you need to start selling. You will not find Live Chat or a toll-free telephone number so you will not get help in real time.

Summary:

To make sales happen, you have to attract buyers, and with the huge selection of categories ePier offers, many sellers visit the site in search of bargains. ePier provides a quality auction service for a reasonable price, making it possible to pass savings on to your customers. ePier makes it quick and easy for individuals and businesses to buy and sell their products and services, all without expensive marketing costs! At ePier:

Individuals can buy and sell anything from personal items to automobiles! Businesses can sell their products to the global community by setting up their own free business site. Service providers can advertise their services and watch the business roll in! ePier levels the playing field; placing the competitive focus on quality, price, and speed of delivery. Buyers and sellers alike use our site to find each other, negotiate the deal and even as a platform for the delivery of goods and services.

Whether you are browsing, looking to hire someone to complete a project or needing a place to advertise your goods, ePier has a place for you. We hope that you will take advantage of all ePier has to offer as we embark upon an exciting journey of buying and selling.

Online Auction Site ePier Introduces Email for Merchants

By Ina Steiner EcommerceBytes.com May 07, 2002

inShare

ePier has introduced ePier Merchant email accounts for members. The cost is $10 per year for regular members and is free for Premium members and Storefront owners. ePier Merchant email is browser-based, so members can check email from anyplace that has Internet access. This will allow sellers to check auction-related email from work or when they travel. One username and password will work for all auction services and email. The ePier Merchant email system will be tightly integrated throughout the auction and storefront system so that emails can be retrieved from the auction login page.http://www.epier.com

GERMAN WWII 1938 WHW DRL MARKSMANSHIP PIN BADGE

Starting bid

$24.95 Anchorage, AK

Reserve? Number of Bids High Bidder

No Reserve 0 No bids 5days 18hours 28min 26 sec 1/19/2014 7:31:20 PM

Time Left

Ends

Times Viewed 407 Quantity 1

BidHere.com
BidHere is a leading penny auction website where brand new electronics, jewelry, watches and accessories fall under the auction hammer everyday and sell for prices that can only be described as totally insane. At BidHere, take pride in bringing bargains to their customers. it has been doing so for past 2 years. Its experienced management team comes from different walks of life, making this website possible. Its team includes top notch people from various sectors such as, e-commerce websites, auction websites, logistics, distribution, customer support, legal, and banking. Organization is committed to bringing the latest and most expensive brands, whilst also making it a fun and enjoyable experience. All personal data is kept secure and confidential. We are also a certified member of McAfee, TrustGuard and VeriSign. BidHere brings bargains to hundreds of people every day, whether that's through winning an auction, by buying from us, by buying from our marketplace, or by earning loyalty points. It always believed in the power of our website to bring quality discounts to peoples lives and in doing the right thing. Involved in recognizing the importance of customers participation on website and are committed to providing the best value for your money. Unique features Free Sign Up Exchange your win for bids 100% secure payment options

Earn Loyalty Points for money you spend Sell your item on marketplace and make money

Process
Starts from Register for a free account It takes just a few moments to sign up. Registration is free. No credit card information required for registration. Customer must be over 18 years of age to participate. Purchase extra bids to continue bidding If you have already used your free bids, you can top up your account by PayPal, Credit card, Debit card or other payment options available in your country, such as Echeck, Bpay, GiroPay, etc. All payment options are SSL secured for your peace of mind! Once you have purchased bids, they will appear in your account immediately. Bid Packages are available in 100, 250, 500 and 1000. The larger the package, the bigger the discount. Vouchers are also available.

Placing Bids
Start placing your bids on any active auctions. When another person places a bid, the timer will reset and begin counting down from the start (usually 20 seconds). If you cannot follow the auction online, you can use BidMonkey to place bids for you. BidMonkey is set up specifically by you.

Win If you are the last bidder and the timer reaches 00:00:00 and there are no new bids placed, then you win the product for that final auction price. Placed bids are non-refundable. Detail is available in Terms and Conditions. Once you Win, There are 2 options: A) Exchange your win for Bids: Redeem the prize in Bid credits worth the value of the retail price of the product. For example: Retail Price of the item you win: $100 Tag Price of the item: $10. You now have the choice to redeem the win for bids. In this case, you will get bids worth $90! B) Purchase the item you won Payment and delivery Pay the final auction price and receive the winning product by post in 7 to 14 working days. Products

Brand new electronics, jewelry, watches and accessories. Type of business This website is involved in B2C.

Differences
the unique features of the website is that customer can Purchase extra bids to continue bidding which mean customer can top up its account by PayPal, Credit card, Debit card or other payment options available. Once customer has purchased bids, they will appear in its account immediately. The larger the package, the bigger the discount. the customer has also exchange its win for more Bids, this is other extra feature of the website. Customer can also earn Loyalty Points for money which he or she spend and take the fruits of different types.