eBay is the worst for so many reasons. I can’t believe no startup or even big tech company has tried to make a competing platform.
In my country eBay doesn't exist (i.e. they don't have a localised site, you can sell on other country sites though). The main 'second hand junk' services are:
- a local version of Craisglist
- Facebook Groups (for hyper local listings, mainly for very cheap or free stuff, e.g. "I'm moving tomorrow, come get my half destroyed IKEA furniture")
- Vinted [0] - although it's intended for second hand clothes, a lot of people sell new items they bought in sales from other countries, so it's more like eBay in this retrospect
For new items Etsy (crafts and furniture) is quite popular.
For electronics Tindie (although it's custom / DIY, rather than 'random adapter that only 5 other people worldwide have bought this month'). Most of the time when I want some sort of electronics that I can't find elsewhere I will buy from eBay in another country (using a shipping service) or AliExpress (then wait 2 months).
[0] https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/27/vinted-the-second-hand-clo...
You can sometimes find some bargains of people reselling from alibaba or whatever (FPGA boards can be had for cheap on eBay). In the UK at least, the listings are so unprofessional I don't understand why people would shop - usually no contact details, THE DESCRIPTION IS IN CAPSLOCK, and those stereotype word-art and product on white background photos.
I’ve been using Swappa for phones and consoles, and Bonanza for other things. But they’re still not mainstream.
They tried expanding to Czechia, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in 2015 but conceded defeat a year later.
What issues do you have with it? I find it's not perfect, but it generally works reasonably well.
The fees are high, and they even take a cut of your shipping fee. And yet, they still have 3rd party ads all over.
Their rules and policies are strange and one-sided, just like this one.
Poor customer support.
I finally rage-closed my account after carefully listing a thing, monitoring the auction, being happy when it sold, and then having the buyer casually tell me that they didn’t need it after all.
I remember when clicking the ‘make a bid’ button actually meant something. Wasn’t there even a warning along the lines of ‘you are entering in to a contractual obligation’?
I'm not used to selling on eBay and was shocked that people are so careless. Apparently even for unusual vintage items they just glance at the photo and then bid.
Next time edit the photo to include large red text over top of the monitor saying monitor not included or better leave it out. Plan ahead for stupid because it is here to stay.
:)
There are platform specific stupidities, last I saw it their mobile interface almost hides the listing details... and on a lot of listings the details are worthless and not really worth looking at. But I think experiences like yours, which I've also had, are just the natural result of taking the most eager buyers out of a lot of candidates.
Me personally I can’t stand to give people money for a shitty service. eBay has become, in my opinion, a shitty service.
fyfy18 already mentioned Facebook, but I'm not sure how serious they are with competing against eBay.
Everyone used eBay like 20 years ago. Now, not so much.
Amazon has locked out private selling for most mainstream items unless you’re a business with a PO directly from the manufacturer. Also, their fees get higher the more your item competes with their own sales. Totally anticompetitive.