I also look that way when I try to sort out a certain equation and the answers come out all wrong namely, given :-
STR = number of items sold per number of item listed over a given period expressed as a ratio
PERIOD_FEE = fees for that period (whether insertion, FVF or subscription)
AVE_VALUE = Average sale price of item
PERIOD_WORTH = what the seller gets out of it during that period
QTY_LISTED = qty listed in that period
When considering other sites to sell on just in the UK (as 99% of current sales from greedbay sell in UK) I look at :-
PERIOD_WORTH = (STR x AVE_VALUE x QTY_LISTED) - PERIOD_FEE
Add into the pot that generally fees tend to be
inversly proportional to STR.
Many places appear to have a very low PERIOD_WORTH much lower than greedbay, even negative as the traffic they seem to attract is minimal. I look at sellers registered there for months who have sold very little, despite being successful on greedbay where a link is available to have a look.
A further warning sign is that most auctions are not auctions, by that I mean most are the equivelent of BIN or Offer, you cannot run an effective auction if only one bidder turns up as the item goes at the starting price so most sellers go BIN.
Whichever way I look at this the only worthwhile option is to buy a domain and a hosted website and spend the remaining equivelent fee value on advertising as the level of advertising purchased by a lot of other sites is so minimal and it does not matter how flash the site is or how many sellers and active listings there are, no buyers, no sales.
I did not know there were so many wanabee sites in the UK until these storms started last year and so many links started appearing in various posts.
So might just as well do-it-myself (D-i-M
)
Off course greedBay know this so they can lay us over a barrel and use more than a wet noodle to whip us with, the biggest losers are all those folk who cannot take this step because it is tough enough for many folks to handle their PC safely on the interent without going it alone unless they can afford a lot of dosh to pay others for website design and maintenance.
So being postive (which is not my natural state because I usually come a cropper being positive) I see the present scenario on greedbay to be a real turning point for many in taking a business to the next level.
Ok apologies for being so off topic here ....
! elbissop sa noos sa ecivres lamronba gnimuseR
edit deleted inversly - ! ymmuD