eBay doesnt operate in South Africa, but there are two sites down here that offer auctions like eBay - not on the same level but pretty close.

OK, but what about the US or countries where eBay does operate?

for the obvious reason that they got in early and are the huge.

thus:

as a buyer - why bother to look anywhere else as the most stuff is on ebay.
as a seller: why list on small sites with few visitors.

however i notice, that many ebay sellers in th ecollectible fields now list their items in multiple places, although usually not other auction sites, but there are many fixed price specialist sites where you can list your items within a particular niche.

however i notice, that many ebay sellers in th ecollectible fields now list their items in multiple places, although usually not other auction sites, but there are many fixed price specialist sites where you can list your items within a particular niche.

I've noticed this too. Is the online auction format patented?

Many eBay sellers list fixed price items simultaneously with Amazon.com. Craigslist, which is partially owned by eBay, also competes with eBay for selling products over the Internet. While neither of those are auction based they can still be considered competitors because eBay is not limited to auction items, they also compete in the fixed price marketplace.

Perhaps only Amazon has the muscle to enter the auction space. One has to wonder why it is waiting to do so.

>>Perhaps only Amazon has the muscle to enter the auction space. One has to wonder why it is waiting to do so.

i think fixed price is a better space, i notice on ebay there are less and less auction listings (due to the fact that the market is flooded and everyday items hardly get any views, thus the auction format is pointless, unless you list the item at the price you want, in which case why not sell at a fixed price.

as an example, right now there are 6,000 results for a certain collectible that i'm interested in, and only 60 of them are listed as auctions the rest buy it now. i buy a lot on ebay and i've just reviewed my last 100 auction purchases - 78 of them i was the only bidder. (maybe i'm not a typical buyer and it is skewed because any item that has a buying frenzy on, i don't 'win' as i just load my software with my bids and leave it at that)

outside the field of collectibles, such as office supplies etc, there are very few auctions, it is nearly all fixed price.

personally i think the auction format doesn't have a great future, i notice ebay advertises heavily on the london underground - nearly all for new fashions.

There are actually quite a few. They just don't have the momentum eBay does, and all look like some poor coder built them "on a budget."

Who's #2?

I don't follow any of that stuff, numbers have no meaning to me. :-) Judging by the TV commercials (which require budgets) how about Qbids? Webstore, eBids?

There's even a few sites that are in the business of comparing them.

eBid doesn't look bad at all. eBay fees have become outrageous so I'm glad somebody is stepping up. If you pay eBid $50 you pay no fees for life apparently.