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Amazon Prime and Craiglist for two. Nowadays Ebay is still the place to buy and sell specialty items, which will always be a multi-billion dollar market, but t
by showerst 13y ago
Amazon Prime and Craiglist for two.
Nowadays Ebay is still the place to buy and sell specialty items, which will always be a multi-billion dollar market, but they've lost their position as the marketplace of the internet.
If I were Ebay I'd also worry that thanks to Stripe it's quickly becoming much easier to become the marketplace for a given category, and beat Ebay via specialization.
- alaskamiller 13y agoI've been on eBay since 2002. It's only in the past 6 months that I finally got how great eBay really is. Before I make any purchase on Amazon these days I always double check with eBay and ever single time eBay has been able to beat Amazon prices. With same if not better checkout experience, faster shipping prices and access to Asian marketplaces; it's the jumpoff point before I hit up DealExtreme or Alibaba. Plus no sales tax. Plus eBay bucks. But I'm hesitant on telling more people about this secret because I don't want the cheap prices to go away.
- dublinben 13y agoI think it really depends on what you're buying, and what kind of quality you need. eBay is great for cheap electronics that don't really need to work, but I'm not going to buy my food there.
- erdle2 13y agoI buy a ton of yogurt and eggs on eBay
- alaskamiller 13y agoI buy new/used CPG, electronics, medicine, and food on eBay. On average 5% cheaper than Amazon. Business wise, eBay/PayPal makes 15% off transactions without having to spend on COGS or warehousing. It's incredible. Jeff Bezos lost. No one gets it yet.
- sentenza 13y agoNote, however, that not every country on the planet has a Craigslist equivalent. I don't know of one of notable size here in Germany. Over here, Ebay is the fleamarket of the internet, dominating the used items market. There are some ebay-like runner-ups, but nothing has broken through yet.
- jedberg 13y ago> Note, however, that not every country on the planet has a Craigslist equivalent. Owned by eBay. Kijiji is an eBay property and it's the biggest "Craigslist" in most markets other than the US. They also own 25% of Craigslist
- bcbrown 13y agoI would add Etsy to that list.
- bowyakka 13y agoEbay try to keep a short leash on competitors and have a stake in CraigsList http://www.craigslist.org/about/press/ebay.stake http://www.craigslist.org/about/press/ebay.stake
- hnisnotreddit 13y agoKijiji, the classifieds leader over Craigslist in Canada, is an eBay property. If the US has competition for eBay, the rest of the world seems to be sorely lacking in it.