eBid Review

Monday, January 25th

2021 Online Auction Site Reviews

eBid

• Cost: Free

eBid is the second-largest online auction site in England. Started in 2000, they have since expanded into the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Ireland markets.

eBid is a visually very busy site. It is easy to become overwhelmed and confused when trying to find your way around the interface. In some ways it reminds us of a Vegas billboard gone amuck. There always seems to be an advertisement that is either flashing or moving on the screen at any given second.

Many sellers seem to have never sold before, which makes us leery, especially when they are selling Rolex watches. In fact, on eBid's main page most of the FEATURED sellers have never sold. The most any of the featured sellers had sold was only 17 items. Also, because of its origins, a great many of the sellers are located outside of the US. In addition to the high number of "new" sellers, this raises our concerns for the chance of fraud and counterfeit issues.

eBid encourages buyers to sign up for "PPPay" for payment options. This is obviously a holdover from their European roots, as PPPay works only with accounts in Euros or British Pounds. Why does eBid encourage PPPay? What you may not know is that eBay, a direct competitor to eBid, owns Paypal. So by using Paypal, you are helping to fund eBid's main competitor. In reality, while PPPay is a reliable payment service, it doesn't fully support the U.S. buyer. American users will need to use Paypal or another form of payment.

eBid has 60 minute auctions, happy hour auctions, front page auctions, free auctions, standard auctions.... the list goes on and on. In this case we believe that more is not always better. The variety of auction types can be confusing if you're just interested in trying the auction site. Also, the volume of items being sold seems to be on par with Overstock Auctions, so buyers may not be able to locate hard to find or very popular items.

While eBid may have a better reputation in England, its transition to the U.S. is confusing and somewhat lacking. If you do take a look, be prepared to take an aspirin afterwards for your headache.