In Part 1 of this series, I walked everyone through the plus’s and minus’s of selling your items on eBay and Amazon. For for more information on this topic, please see the link below.
On the other hand, in Part 2 of this series, I want to perform a detailed investigation of how Amazon and eBay stack up against each other when it comes to buying items.
Executive Summary
In my experience, I’ve found that while it is very clear that Amazon.com charges higher fees for selling items, it is far more difficult to definitively state whether eBay or Amazon is better for buying items. So, it really comes down to personal preference for how you like to search for items and making sure you search both sites for your item to compare prices.
Personally, I tend to buy more items on Amazon (hence the reason why I am an Amazon Associate / affiliate and promote buying things from them on my site). However, for this investigation, let’s take a look at eBay’s buying platform first.
In my opinion, there are five aspects of the buying experience that you should keep in mind when deciding whether to use Amazon or eBay, assumming that the price is similar.
eBay
- Searching
- Searching on eBay is very easy. You can enter the product you are searching for on the main page, hit enter, and it takes you to where you can filter the search results by price, category, etc.
- Item Pricing / Listing Format
- Items are priced in either an auction listing format or a fixed/Buy It Now listing format. There is also a feature that allows you to filter by these listing formats.
- Personally, I only buy items on eBay that are in the Buy it Now format because I don’t want to wait around for the 7 day auction term to end to know if I won the item.
- Payment
- For all practical purposes, payment is only accepted on eBay through Paypal.com.
- Paypal is a payment processing/services company, that is owned by eBay. It is a very secure way to link bank accounts and credit cards to make online payments. Payments are also guaranteed to be refunded if you get ripped off by a seller that doesn’t deliver their product.
- Shipment
- Personally, I have found that the shipment of items I have bought on eBay have been very reliable. I have never not received an item that I bought on eBay.
- Fees
- You pay no fees when buying an item on eBay or paying for it using Paypal (provided that you don’t pay for any of the extra features that are offerred during checkout). They are all paid by the seller. Lucky you!
Amazon
I hope this series yields you all much success in your eBay and Amazon adventures. Thanks for tuning in.
Keep on learning!
Jacob
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