Leaving Ebay-Review of Bidville, Blujay, and Wagglepop

If you’ve been on Ebay for any length of time, you probably know that there is a lot of discontent, and even anger, since this summer’s latest fee increase. This anger is most evident on the Ebay Stores discussion board. Contributing to the ill feelings is the apparent lack of exposure that the Stores are receiving.

I opened an Ebay store in 2005 because I wanted I place to sell some of my artwork and other items. It went well. I enjoyed it and was pleased with my sales. Earlier this year, I closed my store because I planned on taking a new job, and felt that I’d be too busy to run my store too.

This month I decided I’d like to start selling online again. I read the Ebay Stores boards regularly, and knew that many people were leaving Ebay, and many were advising others to start listing on other auction sites and selling venues.

I wanted to see for myself whether or not the stores “blackout” was true, so I reopened my Ebay store. I also planned to explore selling on other sites.

I did not make any sales from my Ebay store this time, and my traffic was way down from what it used to be. To be fair, I must say that I didn’t leave my store reopened for very long, only about a week, before I hit the “close store” button. Still, when I opened my store the first time, I had traffic to my store right away. It wasn’t long before I had made my first sale. This time, there was no traffic, and there were no sales.

On the Ebay Stores boards, I paid close attention to where people mentioned that they were going to try selling. I kept an eye on the auction stats listed at Power Sellers Unite (http://www.powersellersunite.com) too, hoping to learn where the best traffic and chances for sales might be.

I’d heard a lot of people saying that Bidville (http://www.bidville.com) was a good location. I went there and signed up to sell, but in the looking around that I did, I didn’t see many bids on anything. I haven’t done any listing on Bidville at all.