search technology reviews, news, features, group tests
Popular Searches:   windows , asus ,
 |  Register
 |  Newsletters  | 
Sitemap  |  RSS
RSS
Monday November 9, 2009 1:13 AM AEST
Skip Navigation LinksPC Authority > News > Ex-eBay sellers offer bang for your buck
Ex-eBay sellers offer bang for your buck
«
NEWS

Ex-eBay sellers offer bang for your buck

by Daniel Long  on Apr 14, 2008
"BankforBuck is a good idea. But Power Sellers should stick with what they know, they know selling. Sellers shouldn't run Auction sites. Thats just my opinion. Another website thats free to ..."
 
The site's CEO, Debbie Williams, is an eBay power seller and has made her living off eBay for the last number of years. She arrived at Bang4bucks with a pedigree background in the politics of eBay buying and selling. She was part of a strong and loyal group of eBay power sellers known as "Auspowersellars" who regularly met to discuss their businesses.

"After a while, it was getting harder and harder to adapt to these changes", Williams told us. That's when Williams and her group of power sellers banded together and started to sow the seed for their auction alternative.

The site hasn’t even launched yet and things are already heating up in the auction marketplace.

"In the last twenty-four hours, we've had an extra 120 sellers sign up with the site. And that's just from word of mouth from seller to seller." That might have something to do with the recent announcement by eBay, stipulating they are only going to accept PayPal as the sole method of payment, which means more fees and less profit for some sellers, argues Williams. "50% of my customers pay on direct bank balance" she said. The Bang4Bucks site will offer all payment types, including PayPal.

One of the other big differences is fees. eBay charges listing fees and this can be very expensive for power sellers, even when the inventory stock is not selling. However, Bang4bucks will only charge fees if an item is sold based on a 2.00 – 3.75% sliding scale, depending on the overall value of the sale.

Bang4bucks will also have live 24/7 customer support, something that Williams hopes will inspire buyer and seller confidence. Because it costs nothing for sellers to list on her website, Williams is hoping it will be very easy for eBay sellers to dual list on both websites at no further cost.

In the first month, Williams said she hoped for at least 500 sellers to be listing with Bang4Bucks and more than 5000 buyers. As for Williams remaining an eBay disciple? "I have full confidence that my customers will follow and buy from the new site. I'm prepared to forgo income to build the new site. I hope to completely pull away within a week of the site opening".

«
Email a Friend Email this
Print Page Print this
Tweet This Tweet this
Feedback Send us your tips


Ads by Google

Comments: 17
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
nix
Apr 14, 2008 3:02 PM
This is great, hopefully there will finally be a very local, very friendly Aussie auction site -- similar to how trademe.co.nz is in NZ. I'll be keeping a close eye on it for sure.

Pity the user interface is atrocious compared to the slick design of Trademe.



Comment made about the PC Authority article:
Ex-eBay sellars offer bang for your buck?
A rogue group of ex-power sellers have broken away from the eBay mothership and launched their own auction site. The best bit? No listing fees.

What do you think? Join the discussion.
charonis
Apr 14, 2008 3:13 PM
eeek... I agree.. about the interface I mean.
Pacman
Apr 14, 2008 3:21 PM
Totally agree about the website looking like a school kids computing studies assignment. Do these companies understand that a website needs to look and feel web 2.0 in order for it to be take seriously? It really does look like a frontpage amatuer hour job, which is sad because the site obviously has great goals to weed out the dirt behind the evil ebay empire.
John Smith
Apr 14, 2008 3:33 PM
And what resolution do the think people use? They must think everybody owns a nice high-res widescreen.
M9ROC
Apr 14, 2008 3:56 PM
Very ugly and cheap looking site. I'd trust eBay over this for the quality of the website and name. I don't care if its Australian products or not!
Karlston
Apr 14, 2008 4:01 PM
Hmmm... the interface is not too bad, reminds me of many online PC gear sites. Good luck, I'll definitely start selling on it, though I doubt there's a market for more than the greedy and arrogant feeBay and the much friendlier OZtion.
Julie15
Apr 14, 2008 5:08 PM
They sent out a newsletter the other day to say the site will have a different look when it launches so I dont think it will look the same as currently showing.
I signed up as a seller and got a selling credit so im going to give it ago.
DW
Apr 14, 2008 5:29 PM
Yep Julie is right, the changes to the interface are continuing, remember the site hasn't gone live yet! It's a fantastic concept, to have a site where we can contact Aussies, and we don't have to compete with thousands of overseas sellers? I've signed up and opened a store, and will be letting all my buyers know where I have gone.
Grsp
Apr 14, 2008 5:41 PM
I will be trying it also, I have tried oztion twice and it never seemed to take off, if someone is going to do some advertising it should work, the look has changed 3 times in the last week so I wouldnt worry about that until it is actually launched.
I wish them all the luck and hope it gets the support needed from sellers and buyers.
Hats of for having the guts to put in the work
Rubes
Apr 14, 2008 5:54 PM
I congratulate them for making a stand against oBey... I mean eBay.

eBay's latest stunt (limiting payments to PayPal only) has thousands of sellers and buyers looking at alternatives and I hope that banf4bucks can capitalise on this.

Interface, schminterface...
jim
Apr 14, 2008 7:23 PM
I also congratulate Gary and wish him all the success under the sun. A person who has the balls to take on eBay should be applauded in my book. So what if it doesnt have bells n whistles, blimey mate, give it a go, its early days yet. I say onya mate and best of luck.
thanatos
Apr 14, 2008 10:44 PM
That's fine, but there are other Excellent Australian Auction sites out there like www.BidMate.com.au and they have been around for about a year and have a good following. This website evan has an article about BidMate http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Feature/106521,ebay-friend-or-foe--part-1.aspx/12
coil101
Apr 15, 2008 5:09 AM
Hi all well i would just like to point out that a site is not never complete just look at http://web.archive.org/web/19970614001443/http://www.ebay.com/

this shows what ebay first looked like was it nice you think ?
Anyhow i know of one other site called http://www.howfx.com and its 100% free to sell no fees ever, i quit ebay over 1 year ago and saved heaps :)
Abby
Apr 15, 2008 2:08 PM
Competition for eBay can only be good, but some clarification is needed here. Aussie products or Aussie sellers? Quite a difference.
peejay
Apr 17, 2008 6:44 PM
Bang4bucks is still a very new site, changing daily, have already seen some improvements and only found it yesterday. Immediately registered as a buyer and seller and just had my first sale today. WOW!!!
Bang4bucks has its Grand Opening on the 30th April 2008 and look forward to watching it evolve. Congrats to the ex-bayers for putting Bang4bucks together and plan to show my support for this new all Aussie site.

PS. Bit of a typo in this PCAuthority article - can sell just about anything on Bang4bucks - article should have said "members must reside in Australia" - NOT only sell Australian products.
Alistor
Apr 19, 2008 5:28 PM
I applaud them for breaking away from eBay. I hope that they can get somewhere.
RazorBid
Jun 16, 2008 11:48 PM
BankforBuck is a good idea. But Power Sellers should stick with what they know, they know selling.

Sellers shouldn't run Auction sites. Thats just my opinion.

Another website thats free to list on, has lower fee's then eBay and Ozition is www.razorbid.com.au

It's just launched on the 13th of June 2008. Again another site providing an option for eBay Power Sellers to transfer onto along with standard sellers and buyers.
Login or register to submit a comment.
 

Top Stories

New York launches antitrust investigation into Intel
The New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has announced it is launching an anti-trust investigation into Intel after allegations that the chip giant abused its market position.
 
5 More Free PC Apps You Can't Do Without
More digital Swiss Army knife software, including utilities and tools that are so useful you won't know how you ever did without them
 
Movie tech: The science behind the film 2012
The Mayan prophecy might be counting down, but the science behind the new film 2012 might leave a few people confused. We look at what the film got right and what is best left to conspiracy theorists.
 


 
LogMeIn
 
 
HP
 
 
Amazing Dell Coupons now available