Selling on eBay vs Bonanza; any thoughts?

Johnpauliegal

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Nov 4, 2013
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I'm an intermittent seller on eBay (meaning I don't sell all the time) and was thinking about going to a website with lower final value fees.

Has anyone had any favorable experiences selling on Bonanza as opposed to eBay?

Thoughts are appreciated! Thanks.
 
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So I checked out Bonanza and they can import my eBay listings. So I guess that means they grab my eBay listings and place them on their site instead.

I haven't done it yet. I'm just just courteous how this works and if anyone has any favorable experiences. Thanks.
 
Bonanza can import your listings from ebay but the import isn't perfect. When I did it, some things didn't translate right and it only imported 3 pictures for each listing. I ended up having to edit every listing. It would almost have been as quick to create them from scratch. I've been on Bonanza for 5 years, selling for over 2 years, and in all that time have only made 5 sales, compared with over 100 a year on ebay. These days I only put a fraction of my listings on Bonanza as it is too much trouble without any results.

The customer service at Bonanza is terrible. You can't call on the phone and get an immediate answer to a question. You have to send them an email and they will get back to you within 48 hours. Once I had a sale but the buyer said she had a coupon she couldn't get to work. I didn't want to lose the sale so I told her if she couldn't get it to work, I would refund her the amount of the coupon myself. I ended up having to do this because I couldn't get anyone at Bonanza at the time to help determine why her coupon didn't work.

The final value fees aren't necessarily less. There are different levels of advertising. You put in the maximum percentage you are willing to pay. The higher percentage you put in, the greater chance you'll make a sale. If your buyer comes from a cheaper source, you only have to pay the percentage for that source. I've picked the standard advertising level, which means that I may pay up to 13% for a sale, which is more than ebay. There are levels that cost even more. If you pick the cheapest option, which is only 3.5% you will only get shoppers that are already on Bonanza, which is almost no one. I made one sale in which I only had to pay 3.5%.

One thing I really like about ebay is that they constantly have promotions, both to encourage people to buy and to make it cheaper to sell. They also send reminders to potential customers about items on their watchlists, notifies them if you lower your price, and promote your listings to buyers who are looking at similar items. I don't see anything like this on any other site.
 
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Whateve, I want to thank you very much for the heads up and your experiences with selling on Bonanza as opposed to eBay. This info is very helpful and very much appreciated!

I was looking for a cheaper way to sell; which apparently isn't a good idea. I guess sometimes you have to pay the price.

Thanks again! :smile:
 
I have a more positive opinion of Bonanza than Whateve's.

I too use the standard advertising level but find that often, items that have been found through Google shopping still cost just 3.5% fee. (I'm not sure why that is but I'm not complaining.)

Granted traffic is a lot lower than ebay but I appreciate the fewer headaches. I haven't had a problem buyer in years on Bonz and my most frequent complaint is non-payers. And with recent changes within Bonz, there's no FVF assessed until the buyer pays so there's no credit to have to apply for if they don't pay.

Like ebay, Bonanza encourages "free" shipping but I prefer to charge reasonable fees since Bonanza doesn't charge FVF on the shipping (up to $10) charges. With "free shipping," I'd pay FVF on the full price.

I average between 5 and 10 sales per month on Bonz but pay no listing fees so I don't mind my items sitting.

My main complaint is with their batch editor and duplicating listings. I don't find it user friendly (or I haven't figured out the easy way to do it) so it's quite time-consuming.

Whateve mentioned being unhappy with customer service. While a phone number would be convenient to call, I suspect it would become more like ebay, with reps reading off a script. What I like about the email communication from Bonanza, those who respond actually seem to know what they're talking about and answer the actual questions and address the issues I've asked about.

On ebay, I've found that they tend to tell callers what they want to hear so they can cut the call as short as possible, often dispensing misinformation. Bonz may take more time to answer the questions but the responses are accurate.
 
I have a more positive opinion of Bonanza than Whateve's.

I too use the standard advertising level but find that often, items that have been found through Google shopping still cost just 3.5% fee. (I'm not sure why that is but I'm not complaining.)

Granted traffic is a lot lower than ebay but I appreciate the fewer headaches. I haven't had a problem buyer in years on Bonz and my most frequent complaint is non-payers. And with recent changes within Bonz, there's no FVF assessed until the buyer pays so there's no credit to have to apply for if they don't pay.

Like ebay, Bonanza encourages "free" shipping but I prefer to charge reasonable fees since Bonanza doesn't charge FVF on the shipping (up to $10) charges. With "free shipping," I'd pay FVF on the full price.

I average between 5 and 10 sales per month on Bonz but pay no listing fees so I don't mind my items sitting.

My main complaint is with their batch editor and duplicating listings. I don't find it user friendly (or I haven't figured out the easy way to do it) so it's quite time-consuming.

Whateve mentioned being unhappy with customer service. While a phone number would be convenient to call, I suspect it would become more like ebay, with reps reading off a script. What I like about the email communication from Bonanza, those who respond actually seem to know what they're talking about and answer the actual questions and address the issues I've asked about.

On ebay, I've found that they tend to tell callers what they want to hear so they can cut the call as short as possible, often dispensing misinformation. Bonz may take more time to answer the questions but the responses are accurate.
Thank you BeenBurned for your expertise and opinion in selling on Bonanza. It gives me another perspective.

I was thinking about selling a few items with their standard advertisement; but I guess since there's not as much traffic as eBay, my stuff would probably just sit there. I guess if I want a quick sale I should just stick with eBay.
Thanks.
 
There's no risk and nothing to lose by trying another site. You don't pay anything unless an item sells so there's nothing to lose.
 
There's no risk and nothing to lose by trying another site. You don't pay anything unless an item sells so there's nothing to lose.
Thanks. Ok I will probably give it a try to test it out. Unfortunately I'll be a new member with zero feedback lol. It's probably going to be hard to get sales. (I've been with eBay for 18 years.)
So when I registered at Bonanza, it stated something about importing my listings from eBay. If I do that, does it mean that my listings will no longer be on eBay; and that they will now be on Bonanza?

If that's the case, maybe instead of doing that, I will list the ones that didn't sell on eBay and transport them to Bonanza.
 
Thanks. Ok I will probably give it a try to test it out. Unfortunately I'll be a new member with zero feedback lol. It's probably going to be hard to get sales. (I've been with eBay for 18 years.)
So when I registered at Bonanza, it stated something about importing my listings from eBay. If I do that, does it mean that my listings will no longer be on eBay; and that they will now be on Bonanza?

If that's the case, maybe instead of doing that, I will list the ones that didn't sell on eBay and transport them to Bonanza.
When you import listings, they stay on both sites. When you remove them or they drop off of ebay, they will drop off Bonanza. Bonanza also imports your feedback, so buyers will see your selling feedback score from ebay.
 
FWIW, I just bought a bag from Bonanza. It went smoothly and I would do it again. I bought it there versus other sites because the seller had it listed for less. If I see a bag I am interested in, I google it, just in case I can find it cheaper. So I googled the bag and bang - same bag found on a reseller site but listed for less on bonanza. Bonanza rarely comes up on simple searches.

However, I think it is a circular problem - people don't check out Bonanza because they have less product. So sellers don't list their products there because there is less traffic.
 
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I have had a great experience on Bonanza. I actually sold 3 pieces of LV, on 3 separate occasions to someone in my area.

I also used to sell $$$ perfume decants. I would actually shut down my booth, b/c of the influx that I could not meet.

Yes, there is a lot less traffic. I can say that any problem I have had has been handled quickly.