| Sellers are often revolted after receiving their bill for | | | | owners clearly don't have as much overhead to bear. |
| listing items at online auction sites. They seem to have | | | | Most have extremely modest fees while some have |
| fees for everything under the sun these days. On one | | | | no fees at all. That's right, none. If you dig deep enough |
| popular auction site it is possible to run up fees of over | | | | you can actually find full service auction sites that allow |
| $50 just by selling a single item. Many would be clients | | | | visitors to run auctions completely free of charge. Not |
| wrangle over whether it is really worth paying that | | | | just once but as many times as they want and for as |
| much. They fear that their auction may never get | | | | long as they want. Now that's what we call a bargain. |
| noticed while buried beneath a million other similar | | | | In recent years, smaller auction sites like these have |
| auctions. | | | | also been enjoying a steady growth of "buyer" traffic. |
| If you've ever spent time on Internet discussion forums | | | | More and more people are shopping from the security |
| then you know you can easily find people willing to | | | | and comfort of their own homes. As the number of |
| speak their minds. Anger and resentment toward | | | | shoppers grow, so too do the number of auction sites. |
| those big sites can sometimes run deep. Especially | | | | Bargain hunters have more choices today than ever |
| among those who sell frequently. Professionals, | | | | before. Shoppers have adjusted to these trends by |
| homemakers, hobbyists, and collectors all tend to be | | | | learning to hop from one auction site to another in |
| somewhat frustrated when it comes to buying and | | | | search of the best deals. No more of the |
| selling used merchandise online. One member gripes, | | | | one-size-fits-all marketplace for them. |
| "Those greedy sites might as well be collecting taxes | | | | Ambitious webmasters have utilized unique and |
| too." | | | | creative ways to advertise auction items. They know |
| Most sellers say they are fed up with soaring | | | | that more buyers mean more sellers and that the |
| End-of-Auction charges and what seems like a | | | | whole process can snowball. They generally make use |
| minefield of listing fees. A few can recall how it once | | | | of free or inexpensive off-site advertising for each |
| was when online auctioning was in its infancy. Selling | | | | auction item. The advertised links can lead straight to |
| expensive items online used to be somewhere around | | | | the auction pages of their clients which draws in |
| two or three dollars in total fees. They have indeed | | | | prospective buyers. The proof is in the pudding |
| been slowly creeping up for many years. | | | | because folks have indeed been migrating to those |
| More and more disgruntled sellers have been turning to | | | | smaller sites. |
| alternative selling methods in an attempt to save | | | | Thanks to the perseverance of budget minded site |
| money. A new trend has been growing in the form of | | | | owners, sellers can now shop around almost as much |
| "niche" auction sites. These are smaller and leaner | | | | as the buyers. Price wars between sites are emerging |
| auction sites that specialize in only one type of | | | | as they vie for market share. The low-priced auction |
| merchandise or what would be only one category. | | | | sites have been slowly but surely nibbling away at the |
| They have been gaining appeal because fees are | | | | clientele of those gigantic auction sites. Does this mean |
| generally much lower than their big brother's. | | | | that those fat cats have finally priced themselves out |
| Another source for inexpensive auctioning is the mom | | | | of the market? No one really knows for sure, but |
| and pop owned sites. These are private and | | | | perhaps someday some of those Goliath sites will fall |
| sometimes home based sites which seem to combine | | | | from power. |
| the best of both worlds. They often have all of the | | | | Perhaps the time has come for sellers to finally feel |
| general merchandise categories like the big sites, yet | | | | the sweet revenge...and laugh all the way to the bank. |
| they keep overhead low like the niche sites. These site | | | | |