With so many shopping portals available to consumers, online auctioning has changed the way people shop online. While each marketplace tries to separate themselves from the others, it can be prudent for consumers to compare the different sites before committing to one. eBay has obviously been a popular choice for years, offering users the chance to buy and sell merchandise through conventional auctions. DubLi is a new online marketplace, where users participate in reverse auctions and try to win an item by giving the lowest unique bid. eBay provides three ways to shop: Auction-style listings, a fixed price format, and a fixed price format with best offer. Auction-style listings have the seller offer items for a specific amount of time with the option of setting a reserve price. DubLi auctions, like eBay, are set for a pre-determined period of time, but instead of buyers attempting to outbid another by raising the price, the goal is to find the lowest unique bid to win. In order to place a bid, DubLi credits are required, which cost $0.80 a piece. Buyers can make bids in $0.25 increments as long as the auction continues. Users participating in the auction will be notified by e-mail if another user has bid at their amount, canceling their current status as the lowest unique bidder. Bidders can even bid over a range of prices. A user could bid across the price range a few dollars, until the last 5 minutes, where only single bids will be allowed. eBay’s fixed price format offers a “Buy It Now” option, most like DubLi’s “Xpress” auctions. A pre-determined maximum sale price is listed – the reverse of a reserve price on eBay, and users must use a credit in order to see the current sale price. Each time someone uses a credit to view the current sale price; the price is reduced by $0.25. The important part of this auction style is for the buyer to judge when they believe the price is low enough, but not too low that someone else will buy it before them. While eBay offers users the chance to sell their own merchandise through the website, DubLi offers its users a chance to sell name brand merchandise through their own DubLi storefront instead. The sellers cannot provide their own personal items as merchandise, but they also don’t have to be involved with buying products, shipping, or handling. For more information on reverse auctioning, visit http://www.dubli.org |
