eBay has been the top auction website for years now. As a buyer, it’s the first place you think of to go looking when you can’t find something, or when you can’t find it cheap enough. As a seller, it stinks because they charge you up the wazoo for listing items for sale, and your fees aren’t reduced if your item doesn’t sell. They’ve neglected the art community so many times I can’t even count, since now they’re “big business” and really don’t need the “little sellers” anymore. SO. If you’re a buyer or seller, I want to share this info with you.

Overstock.com has implemented an auction feature. The functionality is great for buyers, it is “just like” eBay where you can find what you’re looking for, but better for sellers because those of us who can’t afford eBay fees can list our items and not be broke, which means what you’re buying may be even cheaper since we won’t have to increase our prices to try to absorb the cost of selling them.

I received this e-mail yesterday from Overstock urging folks to “strike eBay”. The problem before was that there was no competitor auction site that was worth sticking with. Now there is. I haven’t listed on eBay in a while, mainly because I’ve been really busy with commissioned works, but even still I would normally list a commission auction. It’s just too expensive to sell there! So I’m asking all of you to keep in mind the alternative – Overstock.com. Many, many sellers have made the move already.

We (you and Overstock.com Auctions) have one chance to make this work. You gain, we gain. Given the confluence of eBay’s fee hike, our fee drop, our integration with ChannelAdvisor, and our focusing advertising on auctions, now is that chance.

Each of you knows thousands of eBay buyers. Now is the time to contact them and tell them to try Overstock.com Auctions. Let them know that:

1. Our listings are respectable in quantity (about 100,000) and quality.
2. Our technology is working smoothly.
3. Our auctions customer service department is staffed, trained, and broken in.

In sum, if there were ever a time to strike, now is that time.

We are doing our part. We built and tuned the site, staffed customer service, cut fees, made a deal with ChannelAdvisor to get good listings, and devoted a six figure budget to auctions advertising.
Please do your part by telling thousands of eBay buyers to try us now. You’d be doing us a favor, we know, but you are doing yourselves a favor too.

Your humble servants,

Patrick Byrne – Chairman & President
Holly MacDonald-Korth – VP of Auctions
Sam Peterson – CTO of Auctions

When I get back to listing items, I will list on either ArtByUs or Overstock, and I will provide those links when that happens.

🙂