For the people who do not buy from abroad, or are not looking for rare parts/items, ebay may appear to be costly, complaining about fees selling to people in this country (their own country), but to those of us who regularly buy from abroad, it is an essential marketplace that gives access to all the countries of the world, and their products, with almost no risk, because Ebay effectively acts as an escrow service, where we know that Ebay will be impartial and will protect buyers.
I haven't had a problem, yet, that the seller hasn't rectified immediately, or Ebay hasn't rectified to my satisfaction, very quickly I might add.
The money I make on Ebay goes into buying from companies who sell on Ebay most of the time. Perhaps they have worked out that it helps keep the private buyers sweet, being able to sell your old bits and bobs for free, keeping the circular economy going, enabling the reuse of old unwanted items, but they can charge a reasonable fee for online sellers, who usually also have their own websites, but use Ebay to attract new buyers, especially from abroad.
I use Ebay because it is easy to use, it saves me time, I get search results from companies I have never heard of, but can be confident buying from them. I have spent thousands on car parts (new and used), with maintaining two old cars (my major expenditure after food), and do use it for buying food/clothing/books/white goods and many DIY parts if the local hardware store hasn't got it, and have purchased from countries all over the world, and now with their global shipping programme, I get hassle free selling worldwide as well.
Everything is in English, so if buying from abroad, I don't need to start doing translations from say Lithuanian.
For those businesses that may struggle, you need your own website, and then put higher prices on the Ebay listings to pay for their fees. That is what many other companies do already, but most of the time I will buy from Ebay, because I know if things aren't right, that Ebay will sort it out very quickly.
Alot of the car parts I buy are not produced any more, so it's rare new stock that I am looking for.......can't get it from the local dealership/parts stores, or almost new (used items), but for one of my cars, eastern europe is a good source. Saves having to spend hours going to car boot sales, where you may not get the parts. Servicing parts (high quality) are dirt cheap, where you're not paying for the distributor network/profit, it's straight from a central warehouse for each company that you buy from.
I have used Amazon, but prefer Ebay because it is often cheaper and has a better spread of sellers, and I really don't like the "contract" (Ts&Cs) that Amazon uses for sellers.
Ebay......brilliant!!! I can buy and sell confidently on Ebay!!!!
