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Review of bidz.com

(Revised May 2004):

Last summer, while scouting for new wholesale sources, I found my way to the 3 minute auctions on bidz.com. I was told that you could buy jewelry at 90 to 95% off retail, and I figured it was worth a look. I found a site that reminded me of a couple things, one being the old eBay when response time and site availability was inconsistent, and the other being what I always pictured the wild wild west to be like.

I started by following the bidding, and soon got excited at some of the ending prices. The jewelry looked good, the prices were insanely low, and I started thinking about how I could profit from this source. I could buy on bidz and sell on eBay, perhaps. I could buy on bidz and what didn't sell on eBay, I could put out in a jewelry counter in my retail store, or maybe package at attractive prices for flea market sellers. I could buy on bidz and what didn't sell on eBay or in my store, I could give as gifts. What did I have to lose? So I bought a bunch of stuff to check it out, and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. Great prices, great service (the jewelry is sold by the sitemasters themselves), decent quality. By the way, I did list a few of the items I bought from bidz on eBay and had mixed results. The cheaper jewelry sold at a good profit, the better items didn't get bids (a diamond ring for example I bought for $20.00 that supposedly retails for $299.00 didn't get any interest on eBay). Probably relisting it during the holiday season might do the trick. But I digress.

After buying enough jewelry to see how the site ran, I started looking around the rest of the site. I noticed that there were sellers on the site besides the company itself, and I tried to figure out how to register to sell. That was more difficult than I was used to, having experienced eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, Toycarauctions, and a few now defunct sites. But what I figured out was that you had to apply for approval as a "certified merchant", get approved, and then you could sell. Cool, a site that screens their merchants. Less competition was one obvious advantage. Less fraud, most likely also, if they limit the high school crowd. I found out they only approve a seller if they have a valid business license. I got approved about the time the site changed servers, so they put me on hold for about six weeks because they had software problemss during the upgrade. But eventually I got on.

I started slowly, listing some items that I never tried on eBay. And the results were spectacular, I was getting bids well above what the items were worth, and yes, there were definitely a higher percentage of non-paying bidders than on eBay, but the site terms state that if you're a bidder and you don't pay, you're thrown off. I was listing items that were on my store shelf gathering dust, for example I was selling baseball cards that I had marked at a dollar or two (and they weren't selling at that price), and I was getting bids for $3.00, $5.00, $10.00, more! And then there were the $20.00 cards getting the $2.00 bids also, it was and still is a learning process about what will sell and what will get stolen, so to speak.

Revision posted May 2004:

For several months, I had good luck selling on bidz.com, even with the problems with the site software, support, and a large number of non paying bidders. It seemed like they cared about the merchants, and I was able to talk to real human beings in the support staff. All that changed in January 2004.

Beginning in January, the fee structure changed drastically. What used to be a $1.00 listing fee, but free if the item didn't sell or wasn't paid for (non paying bidders ran about 40% of the bids, in my experience), became a flat $1.00 listing fee. No free rides, no free relisting. Where I used to be able to keep relisting an item until it sold (most generally sold the first or second listing), became more risky. In addition, the final value fee of 5% increased to 10%, flat across the board. So if you were selling relatively cheap items, you got socked heavy. For example, if an item sold for $10.00, you paid $1.00 listing fee, and $1.00 final value fee, a total of $2.00 on the $10.00 item, a full 20% overall. Of course if the item sold for $2.00, you paid $1.00 listing fee and .20 FVF, which works out to 60% fee, ouch!

Still, I went along because overall some things sold for higher prices on bidz than on eBay, you just had to choose your spots where the higher price took care of the extra fees. Then the other shoe dropped...........

In April 2004, the site announced another major change. Merchants would be expected to pay a minimum $500.00 monthly fee, regardless of real activity, if the activity yielded a lower fee for the month. Volume sellers wouldn't be hurt, but the smaller ones would, and it seemed there would be no break if you needed to take a couple weeks off, say for a vacation, illness, other personal reasons. At that point, I had to throw in the towel. Though my eBay fees are well in excess of $500 per month, some months over $2000, if they aren't eBay doesn't care, they bill me what they earn, not some arbritrary number just for the "privilege of being a merchant".

That being said, where I used to highly recommend bidz.com for sellers, I can no longer do so. But that's just me, you might be a better candidate for their policies and procedures. If so, I wish you nothing but the best of luck.

If however, you are looking to pick up some nice jewelry cheap, you might want to give it a look, I personally got some bargains in the beginning, even some items that I sold on eBay for higher prices. If you know what you're doing, you might be able to make some profits buying on bidz and selling on eBay. Check it out.

Dennis Becker,
May, 2004