Google Auctions Vs. Ebay

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 15 people | Log in to rate

Ranked #20 in Duels, #3,264 overall

HERE'S WHAT I THINK

Google Should Compete With Ebay

Everyone and their dog knows their is only one player in the online auction world. Ebay have a very unhealthy monopoly of the market, allowing them to hike up fees, kick off buyers and sellers alike, force people to use Paypal, which incidentally is owned by ebay and also charges higher fees than any other provider. These are just the tip of the iceberg as to why ebay is becoming very unpopular amongst sellers, and a few buyers!

Although other big players have dipped their toes in running online Auctions, notably amazon and yahoo, neither committed to these or provided the resources and support to offer a viable alternative. Yahoo Auctions was pulled after only a few months and although amazon auctions was ticking over with very little publicity or support from amazon it was also closed down recently.

Many people have got quite excited about the possibility of Google running their own auction site. Although nothing has officially been stated by Google, the introduction of Google Checkout last year is certainly a great foundation for google to do so. Other online auction sites suffer from not being indexed by search engines and not having a secure online payment system, unless they use paypal, which kinda defies the point of being independent if you end up giving ebay a cut of the profits by using paypal.

Quick Poll 

It would be assumed if google did launch an auction site that their fees would be cheaper than ebays

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Ebay are Nazis

They are crap at fighting fraud, fake items proliferate on the site and good sellers get kicked off for no good reason!1 point

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eBay is Recognized By The General Public

Fortunately or unfortunately, eBay is the auction company people recognize most frequently. That's hard for a new auction system to beat.1 point

Ebay Versus Google Auctions 

Google Should Compete With Ebay

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Google Auctions Now!

Joseph says:

An effective online auction site needs a community or systematic approach.

Ultimately, the profits will be lower, and the maintenance higher than a corporate site. This is just because every client is individual person like yourself, some good, some bad, all different.

But it can work, and there is enough money for it to sustain itself comfortably, with the right approach.
eBay's mistake was that it put profit over values, time after time.
Values are more expensive, but at the end of the day, you want your house to be made of bricks, not straw?

Posted November 28, 2009

andrew says:

google should do it now or yahoo will see this opportunity and run before you. even good if facebook do it too. hmmm how about this? google, yahoo & Facebook JV for a auction business? so the end of ebay will come sooner...

Posted November 26, 2009

Laurie says:

I sell on eBay and I for one am tired of the changes....If I want to accept a money order or check it should be MY choice not theirs. Fees, Fees, Fees, and nothing to show for them really. No more insurance, no negative feedback to deadbeat buyers. Geez, they have become the government!

Posted November 21, 2009

john reid says:

Go for it. Google would do great with auctions.

Posted November 15, 2009

Hart says:

Yes they should,anytime you allow one company to control a market with no competition at all you are asking for the public to get abused. Ebay is no different. They have no problem with playing God with other peoples money to suit them with little or no care for it's customers. Yes Ebay is all about making money with very little risk, not much different than wall street, by the way it's run by the same coorporate models and mindsets that it's all about the money, people don't matter to these folks.

Posted November 15, 2009

Bettie Cason says:

I have been with ebay for 9 yrs.It has changed so but not for the little seller.We have to compete with the bis stores anymore.I really use to enjoy selling but now I don't.B

Posted November 05, 2009

dm says:

yes ebay sucks

Posted November 01, 2009

Gabe says:

I love Google - everything they do is absolutely fantastic! PLEASE, GOOGLE, BRING ABOUT GOOGLE AUCTIONS SOON!

Posted October 24, 2009

willardbusiness says:

please start an online auction to compete with ebay and bring some competetion in fee pricing

Posted October 03, 2009

dimondarmymom says:

I would like to see google start a site for people to sell or buy thier good
ebay fees are getting out of hand for the little guys like me, more and more restrictions and a more complicated process as wll as charging for simple templetes they use be free. Anh freedom of the tye of payment. They nickel anddime you to death.

Posted September 27, 2009

Bunny says:

I look forward to the day when eBayers around the world unite in putting eBay/PayPal where it belongs. They say there is strength in numbers. You cannot treat people like they do and rule forever. I also look forward to reading some student's thesis on how a huge auction leader like eBay once ruled the earth and then fell to it's feet. "Rome is burning!" How do we get the word out and across the globe??? ANYBODY????

Posted September 24, 2009

Toxa says:

eBay is pulling away from the auction model. The auction-style (mainly used goods, collectables) market place is limiting their growth. eBay is shifting its business model to become another Amazon, which is mainly a new item retailer. I think it is clear eBay will fail miserably at that. The online-retail market is saturated as-is, with Amazon.com being the definite leader. eBay should have embraced being the leader in online-auction segment. But eBay did what many other internet-bubble companies did: overestimated the value of the market they were in. Now to stay afloat they need to show growth and increased profits to the shareholders. eBay is doomed. eBay will become just another casualty of the dot-com bubble of year 2000. So google or no google somebody will take their place.

Posted September 15, 2009

peacocky says:

I am really mystified why Ebay can legally insist on the buyer having to use PayPal. Isn't there a law about that? I would prefer a check over having to have more money taken out of my sale by using PayPal ...... especially since I sold something on Ebay and they held my funds at PayPal for 10 days. They held them until the customer got the item AND gave me a postive feedback. This happened in March 2009. I have been selling things on Ebay (and buying things) for years. I have never had one bad remark. I have 100% rating. So when this happened, I decided I would take checks, let them clear, send the merchandise. Ebay let me know this was not an option. So they have a monopoly on the whole market. I can't believe all the new rules that they just came up with as well. I emailed them regarding one of the new rules for clarification as it seemed to say that I must have enough money in PayPal to cover the price of whatever I am selling in case the seller isn't happy or receive the goods. They sent me a format email saying that this was a PayPal question and not an Ebay question and that they would forward the question to PayPal. Do you think I ever got an answer? This is the same run around I got when they held my money in March. No one to answer the questions I had and I got referred to Ebay or PayPal, each by the other one. I just don't get it. WHY DOESN'T SOMEONE ELSE GO INTO THE AUCTION BUSINESS????? GOOGLE OR SOMEONE PLEASE!!!!! Now the fees are rediculous and I pay on both ends.... Ebay and PayPal. I guess Etsy is an alternative but not for everything I sell. I could stop selling all together and I guess that is what I will do. Ebay is getting a really bad rep. As a seller, I have never been ripped off by a buyer ..... hmmmmm ..... it seems I am only getting ripped off by Ebay WHICH OWNS PAYPAL if you don't know this by now. Please let someone hear our voices. It seems as of my post there are about 100 Ebay haters to 2 Ebay likers. Let's jump on the bandwagon. What can we do? I am really at the point of just stopping but I have the merchandise which I need to sell. Any ideas?

Posted August 31, 2009

Jon says:

Much as I would love Google to compete with ebay I don't see that as a realistic event anymore.

Ebay has been sued several times now by big brand names over fakes being sold on their site. Google simply does not want to risk the possibility of being fined many millions of Dollars/Pounds/Euros. There are many safer ways for google to make money.

The sale of fake goods was a major factor in both yahoo & amazon exiting that particular marketplace. It was just too big a financial risk. Despite their best efforts many fakes were still being sold under the guise of genuine items.

The EU is now talking about empowering manufacturers to be able to dictate where their items can and cannot be sold. If such a law is passed then it will affect all branded and trade-marked goods, not just designer items. Therefore the likes of Apple could prohibit eBay (Europe) d any other online auction house from selling ipods for example.

Both Tesco & ASDA (aka Walmart) fell foul of similar EU legislation whereby Livi's prohibited them from importing 501 jeans from the USA, where the wholesale price was cheaper than in Europe. Levi argued that it was an infringement of their copyright brand and the Eu courts agreed.

Now the EU courts want to take things a step further and allow the manufacturers to decide who can and cannot sell their brands.

Basically, Google are unlikely to jump onto the online auction bandwagon.

Posted August 30, 2009

googleauctionsplease says:

THEN you have to deal with all the relist fees as buyers on ebay know they will not get bad feedback NOW if they buy then dont pay as ebay change that man what morons none paying buyers went up 60% i have to deal with more relisting and file unpaid case then i every did it take most of my time good going ebay morons

Posted August 27, 2009

googleauctionsplease says:

EBAY IS TAKING 12% FROM ME NOW WHAT A RIP OFF!! If I sell one cell phone at $50 dollars they take $6 dollars man thats to much then PAYPAL!! WANTS MORE it not worth it for me to do business with them anymore.

Posted August 27, 2009

Pedro says:

Ebay deserve to go down

Posted August 26, 2009

Auctioner says:

I agree. ebay is really greedy. I am sure gooogle will win!

Posted August 14, 2009

UNHAPPYEBAYER says:

EBAY IS TOO GREEDY AND HAS A HOLD ON ITS SELLERS AT PRESENT DUE TO NO REAL COMPETITION. FEEDBACK SYSTEM IS VERY UNFAIR TOO.

Posted August 13, 2009

eBay SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

PS- Alan probably works for eBay!!! Who in there right mind would ever thumb there noses at a company accurately known as "Fee-Bay"? For Gods Sake People, WAKE UP! It's called free enterprise for a REASON! Competition is healthy for the marketplace and healthy for our wallets! At the expense of sounding like a broken record.... eBay SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and btw, I am a seller and buyer in good standing with eBay, so no, this isn't sour grapes. eBay double dips, and oh, uhm, you HAVE to pay ONLY via PayPal.............. I think that's the same as cornering the market, and if it's not illegal, it should be. I would be thrilled if eBay went bankrupt over night. Legal Extortion.................

Posted August 08, 2009

I'm happy letting ebay ramp up their fees with no competition

peterpaan says:

there should be one niche google is not reaching the leader position ;)

Posted October 18, 2008

alan says:

ebay is so much beter than googles take on the same thing. I think its time that google learnt their place and stopped trying to walk over everyone else!

Posted October 13, 2008

 
view all 107 comments

Why other auction sites fail 

There is no shortage of other auction sites, (just check the list below!) But why do they not deliver?

One of the main reasons is that customers are a suspicious lot. Would you sign up for an account with any of them as a buyer? When it's easier to just go straight to ebay and have a choice of hundreds? Though, if Google were to join the Auction Market, many would be customers already have google accounts and would be happy to trust a google auction site.

The other big reason is that as very few people actually sell on these other sites, the range of items is very poor in comparison.

Finally, many other auction sites seem to have problems getting their sites listed, or even their items listed on search engines. So even if they do have something you want, no one is going to tell you it's there.

Featured Alternatives to Ebay 

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Ebay Alternative for DVD's, CD's & Games! 

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Google Checkout Interview 

If google will agree to an interview about the possibility of starting an auction site, we will add it!
Meanwhile here's one of the Google Guys being interviewed about Google Checkout, which is surely the cornerstone of them opening and auction site in the near future.

AuctionBytes Interviews Google on Checkout Payment Service

Benjamin Ling, Product Lead for Google Checkout, talks to AuctionBytes.com`s Ina Steiner about the nuts and bolts of this new checkout service and what it means for online sellers.

Runtime: 240
1420 views
5 Comments:

curated content from YouTube

Google Auctions and Adsense 

Google recently integrated a pay-per-action facility to their adsense program. Surely it won't be too much more for them to add a specific auction advert module where you could define a few parameters and have this show in your advert box?
Am I dreaming or would this be a great feature for users of their auctions and advertisers? Not forgetting potential bidders who would see their adverts everywhere!

The Google Story 

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"Here is the story behind one of the most remarkable Internet successes of our time. Based on scrupulous research and extraordinary access to Google, the book takes you inside the creation and growth of a company whose name is a favorite brand and a standard verb recognized around the world."

Predictions or Wishful Thinking? 

My prediction:

The_Book_Garden, at 4am on November 9, 2008 predicts:

Google Will Launch An Alternative to Ebay

Reader predictions:

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John, at 9pm on October 3, 2009 predicts:

Ebay has made it to the point that the vast majority of sellers now despise Ebay, the latest is the atatck on the power sellers who they have now hurt deeply right before the holiday season and I doubt that not to many of these once succesful sellers will be able to celebarte the holidays due to loss of income (i know I wont) this action is unforgivable for all eternity and even though these selles are still there because lets Face it there are not to many places to go they are hanging on by a thread and more than likely will be kicked off the site when they have to choose between eatng and paying Ebay.

In my opinion if Google was to launch an alternative site designed to compete with Ebay 95% of Ebays power sellers would run to google and bring their customers with them.

Ebay deserves to Die and everyone of the decision makers there should be sent to the unemployment line.

Grateful11, at 9pm on September 2, 2009 predicts:

I've been on eBay since almost day one and it worse be the day, constant changes, fee hikes, new rules, the stupid DSR system. eBay used to be fun. Those of who are low volume honest sellers with thousands of feedback ratings sitting at 100% positive are being choked out. I stopped selling completely for almost a year but some really good deals on some great stuff to sell and have started back. I'm shocked at the hoops you have to jump through nowdays to put somethin on eBay and soon their going to remove the insurance option and you can't even ask the buyer to pay for shipping insurance.

RSCRIB, at 11pm on July 12, 2009 predicts:

If Google opens an auction site, they'll have a million users in less than a month EASY! The public has been crying for it!

ppc4beginners, at 9am on April 28, 2009 predicts:

Wight Auction will become the Fastest Growing UK Online Auction Site for the Isle of Wight

Mike, at 1am on April 20, 2009 predicts:

Google will never be in the auction business.

 
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Any General Comments? 

So, if you want to leave some general comments, please feel free to do so!

There's more below the comments too!

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  • Reply
    milkcananime milkcananime Nov 13, 2009 @ 11:38 pm
    Thanks for this remarkable quality lens!
  • Reply
    Pukeko Pukeko Oct 25, 2009 @ 4:16 am
    Interesting debate.
  • Reply
    Ilchy Baby Ilchy Baby Aug 31, 2009 @ 3:10 pm
    I officially hate eBay. I was a member for 10 years and 100% feedback, you would think they would treat online customers more professionally.

    I listed a Pioneer DVD player this past month and BANG they canceled my auction and suspended me for NO REASON! Only stated they did not think I was auctioningéacting in the SPIRIT of their policies - WTF?

    Thanks ebay, I hope your monopoly ends soon.
  • Reply
    mo mo Aug 16, 2009 @ 6:37 am
    Ebay this name make me sick...I have lost so much money due to their new rules...I hope google do create a auction site.. and take the bastard ebay out of market for good..
  • Reply
    Ritch Ritch Jul 24, 2009 @ 1:05 am
    If Google opened an auction site with a nice, clean, easy to use interface - they would BLOW eBay out of the water. They have the ultimate advertizing tool with their Google search engine. All it would take is for them to add a small flashing icon on Google searches mainpage saying: "NEW GoggleBay" and everyone would click it.

    eBay have made a very bad mistake by getting on the wrong side of sellers in so many different ways. 80% of current sellers would drop eBay in favour of gBay in a heart beat. And where the sellers go, the buyers will follow.

    GO GO GO GoogleBay!!!
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