User Base:  

With over 1 million auctions running at any given time, eBid’s sellers have plenty to offer plenty of people. eBid has managed to win over several disgruntled eBay users and continues to grow.

To further grow in numbers, eBid offers a Buddy Points system to encourage users to enlist their friends. Buddy Points can be obtained when others sign up from your referrals. Buddy Points can then be used to bid on certain auctions.

Fees:  

Part of eBid’s success comes from their very low fees. It costs nothing to register and become a member. And they also have no listing fees. Sellers have the ability sell with a low 3% final value fee, or can upgrade to “Seller+” (fees vary from $2-$50 depending on length of membership) and sell their items with absolutely no final value fees tacked on.

eBid also hosts a variety of promotional options and attention grabbers that cost extra, but these fees are quite competitive and can be well worth the investment. Making your listing text bold only costs 7¢ and you can feature your item in a particular category for $1. Subtitles only cost 15¢, featuring on the homepage only $2.50, and relisting your auction in a second category costs a mere 5¢.

Selling:  

eBid offers more attractions to sellers than just low seller fees. They also offer several options for sellers to get the most out of their auctions. If you have several of the same items, you can sell them using a Dutch auction on eBid. You simply list how many of the item you have, and bidders will bid with how much they are willing to pay for each item, and how many items they are interested in.

Serious sellers might be interested in setting up an online store to sell their various items, and eBid makes this simple. With a Seller+ account, eBid members can open up to 5 stores with no extra fees. Additional stores (after 5) are available for $1.99 a month per store.

Sellers have complete control over their auctions. They can set a reserve price, which is the minimum price they will sell the item for. If nobody meets the reserve price, the seller isn’t obligated to sell the item. Sellers also have the ability to block specific bidders whom they may not trust or simply don’t wish to sell to.

Buyers and sellers can see how many people have looked at a particular item listing with a simple view counter near the top of the listing.

Buying:  

Finding what you’re looking for on eBid is not a problem. Simply type a keyword or two into the search bar and check out the results. Or you can look at listings in a particular category. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, you may consider placing a wanted notice. You describe the specific item you’re looking for and how much you’re willing to pay and potential sellers can contact you if they have what you’re looking for.

Browsing through the listings is easy and gives you quite a bit of at-a-glance information, including remaining time, current bid, shipping and handling costs, seller, payment options, and even how many times the item listing has been viewed. The gallery photo is a good size, providing a big enough shot to depict the product, but still leaving enough room to have up to 75 listings on a single page.

Specific listing pages have some great tools to help potential buyers. Along with all the essential information and product description, the auction page has a live clock with the remaining auction time, so you don’t have to refresh your browser to keep up. You can also designate your location and calculate shipping based on where the item will need to ship.

Buyers can learn about the auction sellers quickly by checking out their profiles on the side. The whole eBid interface is very intuitive for both sellers and buyers and makes for a great buying experience.

Reliability/Security:  

eBid relies on their feedback system to keep buyers and sellers in line. After an auction and transaction is complete, the buyer and seller are allowed to use feedback on their experience. Users can even reply to feedback after it has been posted and the original poster can edit the initial feedback if needed. Users can leave positive, neutral, or negative ratings, with additional comments about their auction experiences.

Adult auctions are not prohibited on eBid, but are properly categorized and require users to accept terms prior to viewing the listings.

eBid wants both buyers and sellers to have a safe venue for auctioning. eBid points out several common fraud scams and suggests how to avoid them. For one, they suggest using a secure payment method. eBid recommends and is compatible with PayPal, pppay.com, and Google Checkout.

Help/Support:  

eBid has an extensive series of FAQs to help answer any questions. The FAQ pages are separated into categories to further meet your specific questions. eBid also hosts a community support forum where users can help other users. Email support is available, though eBid acknowledges upfront that due to time constraints, a request for an answer that could be obtained by reading the FAQs is set aside.

If you’re looking for a solid eBay alternative, eBid is a great option. Cheaper seller fees and a relatively large user base make eBid a great choice for online auctioning. With a broad list of features and an easy to use interface, eBid is definitely an online auction solution worth looking into.