Webstore Review

Wednesday, December 11th

2024 Online Auction Site Reviews

Webstore

• One-stop shop inventory
• Timed bidding auctions and buy now
• Only a few hundred items in stock
• Local auctions available

If you're looking for an updated and modern auction website, Webstore isn't going to be the one for you. Even the name, Webstore, feels pretty generic. And once you land on the website, you get the feeling (or at least we did) that someone just slapped this on the internet and never looked at it again. With weirdly-sized text, random hyperlinks, and small blurry photos, Webstore gives the first impression of a site that's half-built and not terribly secure.

Not intuitive and sounds old-school

Getting started on Webstore isn't the most intuitive. It might take you a little extra time to uncover the various informational pages concealed behind oddly-placed links. In terms of fluidity, Webstore falls short. It doesn't offer the seamless navigation you might expect in the 21st century. The company offers you the option to look for online auctions or local "classifieds”, further aging the company to something that feels more appropriate for someone born in the 1950s.

Auction-style or buy-now listings

There are two types of buying styles at Webstore. You can go for auction-style, which requires regular monitoring to win your bid, or "fixed price” which you can buy outright at any time. In comparison to some of its more sophisticated competitors, Webstore doesn't offer advanced tools for sellers to optimize their listings, such as marketing analytics. Serious sellers aiming to maximize their reach will definitely prefer our higher-rated online auction platforms. However, for the casual seller, Webstore can be an effective storefront.

Clunky search function

Webstore offers a one-stop shop approach to auction inventory. You can find vintage collectibles that haven't seen a sale in decades to cutting-edge electronics. Beyond auctions, you'll also find items available for immediate purchase. On top of that, Webstore's local classifieds section allows you to narrow down their searches by city, state, or zip code to discover items near you. The classifieds section offers both auction-style and "buy it now” style purchases for certain items.

Low inventory

To compare the inventory at Webstore with other options in this review, we used the same three search terms at all auction sites: watches, autographed items, and iPads. At Webstore, we found:

• Watches: 122 results
• Autographs: 682 results
• iPads: 3 results with only 1 actual iPad

While there are some decent results in some of the sections, the inventory is already lower than many competitors who have thousands of results on hand. Further, many of the results at Webstore are only peripherally related to the search terms. For example, under the 122 "watch” results, about half of the results included books or magazines with the word "watch” on them, which made it more difficult to sift through the inventory.

Possible option for casual buyers

Webstore is particularly suitable for casual buyers and sellers. However, beyond that it doesn't have any particular specialization. The one-stop shop approach should allow it to address a wider user base. Yet, with Webstore's low inventory, the online auction site doesn't stand out as particularly competitive. Considering that the site doesn't offer great features for pro sellers, this really is only available for people looking to sell or shop casually, leaving the pros to look somewhere else.

No listed return policy

Unsurprisingly for such an old site, there isn't any listed policy for returns or refunds. So, if you don't like the items you get from Webstore, you may be stuck with them. Given the lack of customer-focused features at this store, it might be better to shop elsewhere.

Mixed reviews with concerning return practices

The reputation for this company is pretty middle of the road. The Better Business Bureau has awarded Webstore a "B-” rating overall. Reviewers on third-party review sites gave Webstore an average rating of 3.2 stars out of 5. Sellers report frustrations with being charged a fee after the first year to "maintain the site” despite being promised free listings. Customers who reported items that weren't the same as in the listing found lots of pushback from the company and while some were granted the ability to return, the shipping center was in China which cost more to ship back than it did to buy in the first place. There are a host of reviewers who did enjoy using Webstore, but with the overall red flags around the site, it's safer to choose an auction service that's more established and more customer-friendly.

Last-place pick

While we usually don't judge a book by its cover, in this case the first impressions of Webstore are pretty spot on. There aren't enough items in inventory to really make the company competitive, and with the host of navigation problems on this outdated website, the shopping and selling experiences are pretty bad. Customers left mixed reviews, and some of the negative ones raised some red flags with items not matching descriptions and high rates to ship items back to China. While it could be an option for casual buyers, Webstore doesn't stand out over any of the other sites in this review.