Best Auction Sites – When it comes to selling your goods online, many people mistakenly believe that the most important factor is the item itself which will dictate whether it will sell.
In reality, in the online world, the marketplace you choose to sell your product on is one of the most important aspects of a sale.
The best auction sites to use may be different from product to product and with a wealth of different options available online it can be hard to know where to look.
The trouble is many auction sites don’t help you enough to figure out where the best place would be to sell your product.
Online auctions are also hugely popular with 100’s of millions of buyers alone; it’s no small market.
Luckily, there is a solution.
This guide will take you through all of the best places to sell your products online.
Let’s get started.
Why Would You Different Auction Sites in the First Place?
When it comes to considering all of the different auction sites there are online.
Why would you even consider using anything but the best auction sites?
Everyone has heard of eBay as being one of the biggest out there, but why wouldn’t you use it exclusively?
When it comes to using these different auction sites, they all have different niches and different benefits.
For example, eBay has the widest audience, but its fees are more expensive than say Ebid’s site.
It’s worth running through this list to decide which of these sites suits you best for your needs.
Best Auction Sites – Guide to Increase Sales on Overlooked Marketplaces
Revenue for e-commerce and online auctions in the US was $298 billion in 2014.
That’s a lot of money that is going to these auction sites.
To help you distinguish the best auction sites and what they have to offer, read on below to go through the full list.
eBay Is the King of Online Auctions
The undisputed king of online auction is of course eBay.
eBay’s annual net revenue came in at $9.6 Billion in 2017.
eBay’s easy to use interface and strong search features have placed it at the top of the best auction sites in the world since its inception in 1995.
eBay has turned thousands of different hobbyists into PowerSellers, and it has allowed even more people to run profitable, at-home companies.
In recent years you will have seen a lot of changes to the way eBay works including sharper fees, changing policies and limitations.
These changes have led many users to consider alternative options to eBay.
Many people have run into issues with eBay compliance.
eBay has a bunch of rules that you need to adhere to including making sure your listings and potential templates you use to fit the bill.
Your eBay listings need to be:
- Mobile friendly
- Have no active content
- use HTTPS
These changes can push users away from the platform, and that’s where some of the other options below may take your interest.
For somebody who wants to dive into one of the best auction sites online through, eBay is a great first place to stop by.
For Lower Cost Listings Consider Ebid
One of the biggest frustrations many users have with eBay is the fees.
It can turn a business you run as a hobby into a nightmare, with little returns if you don’t correctly work out the fee’s and adjust your prices accordingly.
Eating into your profit margins is never popular, which is why sites like Ebid have risen to prominence over the last few years.
Ebid works similar to eBay as a marketplace.
It’s not as well known as eBay so your audience may be a little smaller, but it is still considered one of the best auction sites due to it’s lower costs.
There are no listing fees when posting on Ebid and there is only a 3% commission charged on each sale.
The only downside is due to the lesser audience you may have less profitability potential compared to other auction sites.
However, Ebid is still a trusted marketplace with a fairly wide audience.
Ebid is one of the best auction sites to consider if you don’t want to pay to list your items.
It can be a great proving ground to test the validation of a theory, to see if it works before you put more money into buying the products.
The only major downside of Ebid is the lower levels of traffic.
If you know a thing or two about generating your own traffic.
There is potential for you to make your selling profiles a success.
Sellers on Multiple Sites May Consider Bonanza
Seattle based marketplace Bonanza is a fairly new competitor on the scene but is doing incredibly well.
With more than 22 million items throughout its, marketplace Bonanza is no small fish.
With merchants in nearly every country in the world, Bonanza has more than 40,000 sellers who have created their businesses on this platform.
Think of Bonanza as a quirky bazaar compared to a plainer traditional shopping outlet like eBay.
Many items you’ll see throughout Bonanza will stand out, and it’s one of the easiest platforms to use.
It even received accolades in the Seller’s Choice Awards coming out as the top rated for communication.
Bonanza works a little differently on eBay again looking at profit margins.
It doesn’t make money until you do, so no listing fees and average fees come in at around 3.5%.
Bonanza is unique in that it sends items you list to Google and Bing.
This adds more exposure to your listings, and you can even choose to promote them in other channels or by using Bonanza’s affiliate advertising platform.
Bonanza stands out if you like to sell your items across multiple sites as it has very simple import features from sites like Etsy, eBay, and Amazon.
Bonanza stands out as one of the best auction sites mainly by its customer to seller ratio.
Whereas eBay comes in at ten buyers to every one seller, Bonanza comes in at 1300 buyers to every one seller.
That’s a lot less competition!
Some of the Quirkier Competition
eBay, Ebid, and Bonanza definitely come in as some of the powerhouse sellers when you look at the best auctions sites.
However, there are some quirkier alternatives which you can find your market.
Shopgoodwill for a Non-Profit Auction
Goodwill is a well known non-profit organization who are looking to take the traditional charity retail store into the online space.
Goodwill is a non-profit that specializes in helping people earn a living, improve their lives and strengthen their families and their communities.
Shopgoodwill takes the regular concept of a traditional goodwill store online.
The sites proceeds go to enhancing mission-driven services provided by the Goodwill industries.
Anything listed helps to provide training and job placement to hundreds of thousands of people.
The goods come from a variety of collaborating Goodwill stores all across the United States and provides a huge variety of all kinds of items from cameras to sports equipment.
Estatesales.Net – Sell Your Family Estate Online
Estatesales.net is one of the best auctions sites if you need to get rid of a lot of stuff at once.
Perfect for anybody who is listing an estate for sale, estatesales.net lets you easily reach and attract new shoppers to your sale by using one of the largest estate liquidation service available online.
Estatesales.net is actually a family run business, and it all got started by one of the family members going to garage sales, and he decided there had to be an easier solution.
Roll into 2002 and they began targeting a nationwide audience.
In 2018 Estatesales.net can be an interesting alternative to some of the other best auctions sites recommended above.
When you are considering liquidating a whole household or business, this is a great consideration.
Usually, you would consider liquidation if you needed to sell a lot of items due to downsizing, moving, divorce, death or bankruptcy.
You would usually invite the public into your home, and given the opportunity to purchase any item that’s for sale.
The idea behind estatesales.net is you can advertise these types of sales both locally, regionally and nationally.
Listia Uses Credits Not Cash
If you want to look at a creative solution, another one of the best auction sites to use is Listia.
Listia goes away from the conventional bidding process and instead of using cash uses credits.
How it works is people list items online, and other users bid on the items using the Listia credits.
You earn credits by referring friends to the site and by selling your goods.
The user who bids the most credits wins the auction.
With over 100,000 goods listed on the site, there is plenty of choices of items available, and it may be a creative solution in a smaller market for your chosen goods.
The Best Auction Sites at Your Fingertips
Now that you’ve had a chance to read through the best auction sites available, it’s time to get out there and start using them.
For help setting up an GunBroker template, you can check out our site or contact us for any questions about auction sites.