On 1/30/00, I searched six online auction sites for various items to get a feel for the number of items each site contained. For 9 of the 11 terms I entered, eBay came out on top by a significant margin. Yahoo came in a respectable second place, and even beat eBay in 2 cases (both in the comic category). Please go to http://www.auctionbytes.com/Email_Newsletter/Email_Graphics/auctionchart.html to see the results.
If you are searching for an item to buy, why not try the other sites, especially if you can't find it on eBay? (Make sure you use the proper precautions - review the seller's feedback, etc.)
BTW, I learned something about searching from doing this exercise. Some words came up with more items than others. For example, when I entered "beanie babies," I came up with more hits than when I entered "beanie baby." And I came up with more hits when I entered "superman comics" compared to "superman comic" (plural versus singular). So don't forget to take this into account when you do your searches. Try everything!
About the author:
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and AuctionBytes.com and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @auctionbytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.
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