Top 5 Auction Web Sites for the U.K.
As an artist struggling to get my web site to stand out from the plethora of others on the "interverse", I have tried many techniques for marketing, this in turn has lead me to use some of the auction sites that are available in the U.K and Europe.
The Top 5 leading Auction sites in the U.K are:
eBay U.K
CQout
Ebid
QXL
TazBar
More about ebay
Ebay is without doubt currently the largest online auction house in the U.K.
A variable fee is charged per listing and extra fees are charged if you chose to add additional features to your listings. When an item sells there are final value fees which are charged on a % over 5 levels. If your item fails to sell you are still charged the listing fee and feature fees. You may also re-list an item and avoid the first charge if it subsequently sells.
Ebay allows you to list items with reserve and buy out prices for another fee which varies according to the values you choose. You can also have a dedicated shop area on ebay and this is where it gets complicated with so many differing fees scales.
Locally ebay has attracted the title of Greedbay due to its fee structures which can make it very hard to get a return on your items.
In addition ebay has an international presence supporting 27 countries and no less than 4000 categories.
More about CQout
CQout the second largest auction site, with no listing fees for basic listings, you can of course choose extra features at very reasonable prices, additional pictures and categories etc. Buy it now and first pictures are free, however you do need to pay for store front if you want a shop on the site.
CQout only charges the seller a fee once a successful sale has been made. If you item sells between £50 - £200 you are charged a final fee of 4%. Below £50 is at 4.5% above £200 you are charged only 3% and over £1000 a mere 1.5%
You are also able to place Wanted adds, a very handy feature and the fees are charged on the person who has placed the auction.
There is a small £2 charge for verify you registration, Any fees due will be debited at the end of the month from the seller's credit/debit card, which were provided at the time of registration.
More on eBID
Like a few other sites ebid allows registering and listing for free, an initial final value item fee of 3% is charged on all sales and no fees charged if the items fails to sell, unless you have chosen featured or home page extras.
You can upgrade to seller-plus for a one off fee - currently £49 and this gives you features including linking google checkout and PPPay and Paypal as payment options and lowers the final value fees to 2% with Gallery listings.
Upgrade Fees : 7 Day £1.99 | 30 Day £6.99 | 90 Day £16.99 | 365 Day £59.99 | Lifetime £49.99
You are also entitled to up to 5 shops on the site. other features include, Run until sold, Buy it now and auto re-listing, 60 minutes and happy hour options which add a bit fun to everything.
Ebid certainly seem to have done their homework and come up with a not only a very usable and friendly system complete with forums, but also at sensible prices its not hard to see why they are in at number 3.
More on QXL
Coming in at number 4 in the top 5 UK. Auction sites is QXL who having been running inline since 1997.
Registration is free, and listing fees are on tiered basis although nowhere near as costly and complex as ebay.
Listing an item for £100 start on ebay will set you back £2.00 on QXL its a measly 40p. Sell it on QXL and it will cost you an additional 2% final value fee, on ebay thats a whopping 5.25% final value fee extra thank you very much.
Extra listing fess examples are: first picture is free, additional pictures are 5p each adding a bold title is 5p and a highlight is 75p.
QXL also has an over 18 category and sales in there are a fixed 15% final value fee and like ebay listing fees are charged even if your item does not sell. A classified section is also available.
More on TazBar
Soundng more like a Aussie binge drinking session than an online auction house, Tazbar is another great UK site this time coming in at number 5.
Tazbar has two methods for listing, the what has become standard free listing with a % final value fee, or choose a fixed monthly fee for extra features and a set amount of listings per month. The monthly fee is payable in advance, you can also place free wanted adds on the site.
The basic free listings has a final value fee of 3% and you are limited to a maximum of 100 live adverts. Extra features can be added if you so choose. For example adding bold is 10p extra photos 8p subtitles 20p. Basic listings are not added to the sites google feed.
The monthly paid listings are on 3 levels 1,2 and 3 set at £4.00, £8.99 and £18.99, each providing different features. Level 1 allows for 2000 live advert and for level 3 its unlimited. Buy it now items are added to the google site feed for all monthly paid levels.
Level 3 subscribers are not charged for extra photos and can have up to ten per item. They also get 10 top of categories features and auto re-lists and promo packs.
