EBay Alternatives Offer Free Listings & Promotions

Everyone knows that it's hard to beat eBay in terms of traffic, and yet, nearly all the sellers interviewed for our coverage on the boycott say they are listing at other auction sites — and perhaps more telling say they plan to do so for the long-haul.

Wensy
Launched earlier this year, the online auction site Wensy has grown in the past six months to a total of 2,400 registered members conducting $60,000 in net sales. Currently Wensy offers offer 21,000 listed items spanning a total of 22 categories. Wensy has become more popular than many of the smaller online auction sites we've covered simply because all services to buyers and sellers are completely free.

My Auction Planet
Free item insertion, free image upload, free stores and no final value fees are some of the many give-aways that My Auction Planet, formerly called Ubid Fast, is offering. Additionally, sellers can take advantage of auto-listing, which lets them post any item until it sells. Like most small auction sites, My Auction Planet still has just a handful of registered members and only 50 or so total auctions listed. Still, with lots of "free fees" it might be worth bookmarking and checking in on from time to time.

OnlineAuction.com
According to company spokesperson Valerie Fain, the success of OnlineAuction is due to its low cost membership. OnlineAuction offers free basic member accounts that can be used to bid, browse or buy on the site. A $4-per-month account offers access to private mail, feedback and chat rooms to connect with the sellers. Sellers can get verified for as little as $8 per month, and that fee also allows you to buy and sell as many items as you like, without paying additional listing or final value fees. A Founding member account gives you access to everything offered by OnlineAuction and costs $196. After the first year, this membership is $96 each year.

BiddersnSellers
Online sellers looking for another basket to carry their wares might want to take a look at BiddersnSellers.com, an auction Web site offering more than 30 categories for buyers and sellers including art, cars, parts & vehicles, cell phones, clothing, DVDs, real estate and video games. Currently BiddersnSellers is promoting the "EB** Boycott", as they call it on this site, with plenty of features for new sellers including; $1 per month fees, Homepage Featured for $1, penny Gallery fees and a flat 1 percent final value fee for the first month (see "Eye on The Little Guy: BiddersnSellers.com Profile.")

CozyBug
CozyBug is an online flea market and garage sale boutique that connects local buyers and sellers for safe, shipping-free transactions. CozyBug was created to address the challenges of buying and selling items online that are expensive and difficult to ship. This week CozyBug is offering all eBay sellers free
storefronts.

WeBidz Auctions
Calling itself The Other Auction Site, WeBidz Auctions is a general auction marketplace, offering a variety of categories for buyers and sellers. For the most part it, is also a free online auction site. At WeBidz sellers can list items for free (basic listing), but can opt for listing enhancements, which do come with small fees (see "Eye on The Little Guy: WeBidz Profile.")

HiBidder
HiBidder.com is one of the more established and well-rounded alternatives to eBay that you'll find online today. For the fee-weary seller, HiBidder doesn't actually charge any fees for listing items, reserve price, image gallery, InstaBuy or second-category listings. Instead HiBidder charges only a final sale fee, if your item sells. Currently HiBidder is offering $50 in free credits when you join, and sellers can also relist unsold items up to 20 times each (see "Eye on The Little Guy: HiBidder Profile.")

USiFF Auctions
The USiFF auction concept was developed in early 2005 by Rene and Teri Holliday. Usellit4free.com, Inc. launched USiFF Auctions, which operates with the motto "you don't sell, you don't pay." The goal of USiFF Auctions is to offer sellers the opportunity to list items for sale without the fear of being charged if their merchandise fails to attract a buyer (see "Eye on The Little Guy: USiFF Auctions Profile.")

PlunderHere
PlunderHere, launched in mid-2005. For sellers interested in listing on PlunderHere, the auction site offers a clean-cut interface with quick and easy access to auction or fixed-price listings, an eBay feedback importer, as well as a Power Lister. PlunderHere offers its sellers free listing, free reposting, and free image hosting and image previews. Fees that sellers may incur on the site when listing are for optional services such as category featured, highlight titles and icons. Final value fees are a flat 2.5 percent of the selling total (see "Eye on The Little Guy: PlunderHere Profile.") Currently the PlunderHere Web site welcomes ebay sellers with the following message; "PlunderHere Supports the eBay boycott!!! Of course we do, we want your business!!!"

MotoYard.com
MotoYard.com is a niche auction Web site for consumers to buy and sell ATV and motorcycles, as well as power sports parts and accessories. MotoYard was started when two friends with a passion for motorcycles realized that there was a significant demand for power-sports auction site that was easier to use, and less expensive, than eBay (see "Eye on The Little Guy: MotoYard Profile.")

BikerBids.com
In 2006 Biker Bids, an online auction community, was launched to foster the relationships between sellers and buyers in a venue based on honest negotiations between people who share a common passion for bikes (see "Eye on The Little Guys: Biker Bid Profile.")

Bidtackle
Online sellers not getting any bites at other auction sites now have a new online marketplace to sell their fishing-related products. The niche market auction site Bidtackle caters to the sports fishing community by letting them buy and sell gear without the distraction of non-related items found at the general auction Web sites (see "Eye on The Little Guy: Bidtackle Profile.")