ebay alternative

[grantham]

I'm considering the creation of an ebay alternative to selling programmes

Basically the options would be a straight listing that lasts until solves and also a auction listing. The programmes would be free to list with a small commission charge for sales, the profits of which would then be spent on advertising and hosting costs to get more traffic to the site.

What I would be interested to hear, is what others deem required features for such a site or ideas of things they might like.

I'm soooo fed-up with ebay that I need an alternative
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www.programmehut.com - The Internet Dealers
archives.football Results, line-ups, profiles, programmes, player images and much more

[Wullie]

???? been done already

[Eck]

I'm fed up selling on ebay but it will always be the best and cheapest way to buy for collectors, I have come across more time wasters on forums than on ebay, and there is always better protection for buyers on ebay as well.

[Wullie]

http://www.footballprogrammece.....mp;start=0

[grantham]

Nope thats all manual !!

This would include a template listing tool so the listings follow a uniform format and include match details where possible, whilst also offering a checkout process.

The payment process would use paypal, so you deal directly 1 to 1 and so the claims process would be the same as ebay
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www.programmehut.com - The Internet Dealers
archives.football Results, line-ups, profiles, programmes, player images and much more

[JJPROGRAMMES]

Theres only one truly alternative to ebay, and thats ebid, I`ve mentioned it loads of times here but no one seems to go for it or try it out, there always seems to be an excuse to run it down, basically its the same as ebay without the unreasonable fees but much less buyers, but surley we on here are the buyers?

[grantham]

Never seen anything I need on ebid, tried it a few times as a buyer
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www.programmehut.com - The Internet Dealers
archives.football Results, line-ups, profiles, programmes, player images and much more

[blackburncollector]

JJPROGRAMMES wrote:

Theres only one truly alternative to ebay, and thats ebid, I`ve mentioned it loads of times here but no one seems to go for it or try it out, there always seems to be an excuse to run it down, basically its the same as ebay without the unreasonable fees but much less buyers, but surley we on here are the buyers?

there are 100s if not 1000s of regular buyers of programmes on eBay, there probably aren't even 50 regular posters on the site...
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Andy

[Wullie]

So true Blackburn. How can anyone for one moment seriously expect to compete with eBay. As an alternative people say. But it's like opening a tiny corner shop as an alternative to Tesco/Aldi/Morrisons etc.
I'd hate to bust someone's bubble but no one, is going to compete with eBay.
As a hobby, football memorabilia collectors are a disjointed lot. Some never read this forum, some never read programme monthly. Some only buy in shops. Others only buy from dealers. Some never buy in auctions. It's really odd and quite secretive . You could have a collector of your clubs programmes who can have an astonishing collection and you may never know or hear about him. But some think they can bring all these people together and offer an alternative to eBay , one of the biggest names on the planet. You may hate it but sadly we are stuck with it.

[blackburncollector]

Wullie wrote:

As a hobby, football memorabilia collectors are a disjointed lot. Some never read this forum, some never read programme monthly. Some only buy in shops. Others only buy from dealers. Some never buy in auctions. It's really odd and quite secretive . You could have a collector of your clubs programmes who can have an astonishing collection and you may never know or hear about him. But some think they can bring all these people together and offer an alternative to eBay , one of the biggest names on the planet. You may hate it but sadly we are stuck with it.

_________________
Andy

[Tynie Topics]

Wullie wrote:

So true Blackburn. How can anyone for one moment seriously expect to compete with eBay. As an alternative people say. But it's like opening a tiny corner shop as an alternative to Tesco/Aldi/Morrisons etc. I'd hate to bust someone's bubble but no one, is going to compete with eBay. As a hobby, football memorabilia collectors are a disjointed lot. Some never read this forum, some never read programme monthly. Some only buy in shops. Others only buy from dealers. Some never buy in auctions. It's really odd and quite secretive . You could have a collector of your clubs programmes who can have an astonishing collection and you may never know or hear about him. But some think they can bring all these people together and offer an alternative to eBay , one of the biggest names on the planet. You may hate it but sadly we are stuck with it.

Correct, there is no alternative and it's a waste of time anyone trying.

The only competitor I could ever foresee is if the likes of Amazon delved into the auction market, but that is highly unlikely.

In the 10 years I've used ebay I have hardly encountered any problems either buying or selling. Maybe I'm just lucky.
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/footballprogrammes/albums

[grantham]

But ebay are drving sellers away, to list a programme with little to no value becomes quite expensive. Ebayer are losing customers by the bucket load (FACT), we aren't ever going to rival them in terms of size and reach, but the question was an alternative to ebay (not an ebay replacement) two very different things
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www.programmehut.com - The Internet Dealers
archives.football Results, line-ups, profiles, programmes, player images and much more

[Tynie Topics]

I wouldn't know if ebay is losing customers by the bucket load or not, where would one find out this information?

Why you would want to list a programme as an individual item on ebay that has little or no value beats me. There has been gripes since year dot about the volume of so called "rubbish" that infests ebay, so maybe this is a good thing anyway if these items are reducing?

If you're talking about an alternative to ebay to predominantly list low value items mainly for straight sale, then it might have some mileage, but I'm not sure how you are going to get the volume of buyers to make it work. I think most dealers out there will tell you shifting 99p items is almost impossible these days.
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/footballprogrammes/albums

[grantham]

Quote:

alternative to ebay to predominantly list low value items mainly for straight sale

Exactly one of the target markets, I have 15,000 non-league programmes to sell. If I was to use the 5 click operation that I can do to list it for £1 and some needed it, great job done. If it was listed in more of a store format (whereby you can mark that you already have it, so it doesn't appear in search results in future) you would only ever see programmes you need. You could also mark programmes as required and get notifications when one was listed.

One of the most obvious signs that ebay is losing customers is that in the last 12 months I have registered numerous accounts, for one simple reason, within 2-3 weeks of registering the account receives a £5-£10 voucher to buy something listed on ebay. I must have had £50-£75 of free stuff from ebay sellers due to this (everyone else should try it), I've even asked sellers to increase the listing price a couple of times as to fully use the voucher (you get some strange responses when you ask to pay more )
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www.programmehut.com - The Internet Dealers
archives.football Results, line-ups, profiles, programmes, player images and much more

[derby1884]

How about some sort of general "market place" site?

For instance....I really like the Villa issues of seasons 69/70 to 71/72 inclusive.
But I know they're not worth anything.

I'm not going to pay 99p for one - but I would be willing to pay, say, 10p each for a complete run of three seasons. That's about a tenner, postage included. Condition of progs relatively unimportant. I just want to read through them.

Not much, perhaps, but it would allow a dealer to shift hard-to-shift stock if he was willing to accept such a bid.

I can't offer that on EBay - but I'd appreciate a site where I could.

If no dealer wanted to take me up on the offer, then so be it. Nobody loses.

I'm rambling a bit but you get my drift.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/derby1884/sets/

[Eck]

Selling programmes among Rangers fans is very difficult now for me,I get to know them and I don't want to take money from them. There used to be a Rangers collectors club where people would simply pass on stuff to other collectors from their stash of doubles, this has already started to take hold again with me, Willie Clark, KPSwannie, Mark McAdam etc where money is no longer changing hands but programmes and other things are. In no way promoting things among other supporters because I think this would only happen between collectors of the same club. Another reason why ebay is the only real place for me apart from a few other dealers, is now that i've completed most of the run of the mill 60 onwards, there would be very little chance of me picking up anything I don't have from these proposed alternatives.

[thegers]

For me Eck E-Bay is the best thing that has ever happened to programme and memorabilia collecting, some of the items you come across are fantastic.

[Eck]

I wouldn't be collecting if it wasn't for ebay Willie, it was accidentally coming across my first match that got me started up again, it wouldn't be affordable for me without ebay either.

[tackler7]

thegers wrote:

For me ...E-Bay is the best thing that has ever happened to programme and memorabilia collecting, some of the items you come across are fantastic.

I agree. It has widened the market - both seller and buyer to a level that could only have been dreamed about many years ago.

It allows the one off seller and one off buyer to interect with the professional seller and collector, to everyone's benefit.