Kreativebargains: An eBid success story

Last month eBid sent us a press release which claimed that “eBid is a better alternative for anyone looking to really make a living, or at least a fair income, with online auctions“. We were a little skeptical about the ability to really make a living on eBid, so we asked eBid for a case study or to put us in touch with a successful eBid seller turning over £1000 a month on a regular basis. eBid stopped answering our emails but today we’re delighted to publish an interview with Andy, the most successful eBid seller we’ve been able to find.

Andy is pretty realistic about eBid and although not making a living on eBid is using the platform to supplement his income with a turnover which has averaged around £700 for the last three months and he’s still growing his business. Here in his own words are Andy’s tips:

My eBid selling

My eBid user name is kreativebargains. I have a varied mix of products in 5 stores, the majority being clothing and accessories.

I cannot get into Facebook, Twitter and the like though I know I should, so rely mainly on Google for sales. My clothing store currently has the second highest number of listings on eBid.

What works

For any seller on eBid getting Google right is imperative, titles, barcodes and ticking all the boxes to get it onto Google.

Unfortunately for me, clothing is not a massive seller on eBid although there are steady sales. I have increased my baby items and they sell well, homewares also do pretty well.

Tips for listing – Keep Google happy!

I use BIN for 7 days with 10 auto relists, that means I only relist every 77 days, my listings rise up the eBid pages pretty quick and there is ample time for them to move up the Google pages as well.

I have got the Make An Offer on some listings and have had some success with that.

I have had listings on Run Until Sold but have not found this to be a success.

Traffic

If I was not so anti Facebook/Twitter I would drive a little more traffic myself, but I generally rely on Google.

I do use the eBid forums and this has brought some sales.

Sell through

I’ve got to be honest it is not what I would like, but it is improving. I started with about 1400 listings almost 2 years ago and in my first month had 5 sales, second month 10 and the hovered around the 10-15 mark for a while.

This year sales have always been over 20 and are now averaging 45 over the last 3 months. I have just achieved my 2500th listing, so overall I am just under 2% monthly sell through rate. With baby items this is probably around a 5% sell through rate.

Overall things do appear to be improving recently, sales are becoming more consistant and repeat buyers more frequent, though over 90% of my sales are new to eBid. Viewings also seem to be rising, though bots do count on the viewings as well. I am confident that that £1000 figure mentioned in the article will be achievable before long. I have managed 5 sales in the first four days of this month worth £115.44, with sales every day.

Tamebay Take

We’d like to thank Andy for talking to Tamebay, this is the first time any eBid seller has been willing to show us a screenshot to verify their sales and who really is making money on eBid.

Whilst Andy’s sales aren’t enough to support eBid’s claim that you can make a livable income on the site, they’re certainly high enough to be of interest. Andy is already turning over well in excess of £6k per year, and it looks likely he’ll soon be turning £12k per year if sales keep increasing.

Sell through is very low in comparison with eBay or Amazon, but as Andy told me if you do an eBay listing it only takes another 30 seconds to port the listing onto eBid. eBid is definitely attractive if you have a large inventory but your products are very slow selling as with a lifetime membership there are no insertion fees to pay.

Andy’s experience suggests that despite the widely acknowledged relatively low number of buyers on eBid, it may be worth experimenting with the site again. If adding £6k – £12k turnover to your business would make a significant difference to your overall profits that is achievable.

What we don’t yet know is how Andy’s experiences would translate across different product lines in different categories. Andy already has significantly different sell through rates between adult and baby clothes – tech products, antiques, motors and home and garden may all have widely different success rates on eBid.

If you are an eBid seller and are willing to substantiate your sales (with screen shots of your recent sales) we’d love to hear from you. In the mean time Andy holds the crown as the all time most successful eBid seller Tamebay have ever found.