Are There Any Real Alternatives to eBay?
Established in 1995 eBay has grown into an Internet giant with nearly 150 million members all around the world. For many years it has enjoyed a near monopoly in the online auction field. As it prospered eBay quickly saw off auction rival sites on AOL, Yahoo and elsewhere. Online auctions caught the imagination of both buyers and sellers. Before long a whole sub culture of writers, entrepreneurs, suppliers and the world postal and courier services were making a great deal of money because of eBay. However, as eBay grew so did the discontent amongst some of its customers. One of the online auction sites biggest weaknesses has always been its perceived poor level of customer support. E-mail queries either went unanswered or received a stock and often irrelevant reply. Also fees have risen steadily over the years and many who initially build thriving online businesses selling through eBay found that they were no longer as profitable.
