Preloved versus Ebay

For the most part, I feel forced to use Ebay.  It's the choice of no choice.  Ebay has huge reach. The site dominates the sales of the virtual world. Well, it does so, alongside the likes of Amazon.  They have a huge usership.  Indeed when you think buy it online, you think, head to Ebay.  It is synonymous with shopping online.  Paypal, which is owned by Ebay, is much the same. Yet, problematically, the 'person' who make the most, when a seller sells via Ebay / Paypal, is Ebay / Paypal and to a lesser extent, the parcel delivery company.  In particular, if you sell something for 99p, the amount you, the seller makes, is tiny.  Whereas when Ebay / Paypal add up all the millions and millions of 40 pences, they reach millions of pounds.

So, it seems to me, that it would be better for the little people, if the big people, the likes of Ebay and friends, didnt charge for using their site but instead charged advertisers.  Facebook do this.  Preloved do it too.  You, the small-scale seller, can sell on Preloved for free. There are no hidden extras, it is just free. You can pay for adverts, if you can afford that kind of thing but you can sell without spending a penny.  Sadly, their reach is nothing like that of Ebay.  It seems that, you are more likely to make a sale on Ebay because it is so well-used.  Yet, we, the people, can change this.  We can use Preloved rather than Ebay.  We can shout about it.  We can totally ignore Ebay as sellers, which would mean buyers would avoid it too. If there is nothing to buy, you go elsewhere.

So, in short, I, as a low-level seller of things I already on own, implore the buying masses to buy via Preloved.  Collectively, we can ignore Ebay and their over-sized, power of three charges and support websites like Preloved.

Note - Ebay now own Gumtree too.  It is getting harder to sell on their for free.

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