eBay alternatives: Amazon
20 February 2008One of the most popular alternatives to eBay auctions is to sell on Amazon. It’s one of the largest non-auction marketplaces online and has truly great exposure for most everything. Obviously, when most think of Amazon, they think books, but Amazon has become a marketplace for so much more recently.
Selling on Amazon is really pretty easy. You simply have to log in to your Amazon account, search for the item you want to sell and then click the “sell yours” link. Add a few details, a price and agree to a few terms and it’s listed. Listing an item is free. There are some pretty hefty final value fees and Amazon doesn’t let you adjust what you charge for shipping so you can come out short on occasion. But it does even out as you come ahead sometimes too.
You also have the option of subscribing to the Pro Merchant program for $39.99 a month and getting access to some more powerful listing tools that make listing large amounts of items a lot easier. The account also cuts the fees a bit and gets past the 40 item restriction that regular seller accounts have.
Each listing is active for 90 days after which it is closed and available for relisting. You can relist as many times as you would like and you can adjust pricing anytime while the item is active or closed.
As I mentioned before, the shipping is fixed. You receive a flat amount for the standard shipping or a flat amount for the expedited shipping. If you pack the item heavier than what Amazon allotted for the item, you’ll end up paying extra to get it where it’s going. One other thing to note is that they don’t make an easy way to handle shipping. Unlike eBay which is integrated nicely with PayPal (doesn’t hurt that they own the service), Amazon only allows for printing reports and such and then you’ll need to create your shipping labels separately.
Selling on Amazon could be easier, but the selling prices are usually a bit higher than what they are on eBay. The difference, of course, being that your price is being compared to the retail price that Amazon has listed and the fixed prices that your competition sets. If you’re in a hurry to sell, you can simply price your item lower than others. If you aren’t in a hurry, you can price it higher and see if it sells. You can always adjust the price later.
At the very least, Amazon is a great supplement to eBay. It can also serve as a great alternative to eBay. Many of the sellers that close up shop on eBay are making the move to Amazon.
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