FAIR SHAKE

Hi Everyone

As a UK seller I am searching the web for UK sites on which to sell on. As I find one I am making notes for reference before I decide. So I thought if I was doing this I would let you guys know the basics of each site I find. One of the sites I found today was 121bid.com. Below is some key points which may give you a rough idea of what it offers:

121bid.com

''121Bid is a genuine 100% FREE auction site. This means- ''

''No charges to List items for sale. No Final Value Fees. No HomePage Featured Fees. No Category Featured Fees. No Reserve Fees. No Buy It Now Fees. No Fees to Highlight an item.
No Fees to list an item in Bold. No Fees to list Wanted Ads. No Fees to Swap an item. No Fees to use Photos in listings. No Fees to Open a Store. NO CATCHES or GIMMICKS !
No Fees ! ''

''Fair Listing Policy''

''As 121Bid is a 100% Free Auction Site we have had to come up with a few rules to stop some Sellers spamming our site with duplicate listings.

With immediate effect members listing identical items at identical prices must list them as Dutch Auctions ( more than 1 item ).
Members can still list their items in more than one category so long as the category is relevant to the item/s being listed.

Members who are already in contravention of our "Fair Listing Policy" will be given 4 weeks from today ( 06.03.2008 ) to have their listings rectified before any action is taken.

Failure to comply with this will result in the erroneous listings being deleted and suspension of the member concerned.
( The reason for suspension is that it is quicker for us to have all of a members listings terminated by suspending the member rather than having to delete each of the members listings individually ).

We have had to impliment the above rule to ensure that everybody has a fair chance to Freely advertise the items they are selling.''

FEEDBACK: It appears to use a 1 to 5 Star Rating system
HOME PAGE: Site News, Top Sellers, Featured Items, Recently Sold, Newest Members
OTHER: Members Area, Wanted Adds, Forum
PAYMENT METHODS ACCEPTED: I couldn't seem to find a section that specifys this but sellers appear to offer paypal, cheques & postal orders as payment methods.

Hope this helps.....Back tomorrow

Hi All, just adding more info to do with 121bid.com

I read the Terms & Conditions & one part concerned me, pasted below:

'1.13PAYMENT OF COMMISSION TO 121BID
Each Seller in a transaction for which a Winning Bid notice is issued shall pay 121Bid the agreed upon commission based on the final sales price for the asset in question. Such amount shall be paid to 121Bid within thirty (30) days of invoicing by 121Bid.'

So I contacted them re. above & I got a quick reply, which was:

'Re T&C 1.13, In the beginning 121Bid did charge Final Value Fees, however we discontinued with this practice some time ago, we do not, and will not be charging fees !'

I also asked about payment methods & they replied:

'At the moment you can use PayPal, Nochex, Google Checkout and various other online payment processors. It is your choice which, if any, payment processor you wish to accept payments by. We are not affilliated with any of the payment processors.
Please login to your members area to see which other processors we currently use.
If we can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.'

I will say that I am impressed with their quick response & the fact that they actually answered me direct. What I have seen up to now I like & it is, at the moment, top of my list for consideration. I have also checked the 'Newest Members' section on the home page & there appears to at least 3 to 4 joining each day. Doesn't sound a lot but at least people are. I have asked them about digital download & when I get a reply I will let you know.....

Just a quick note to say that 121bid replied to my question about digital downloads. Pasted below is their reply:

'It is not against any of 121Bid's policies to sell Digital Downloads, eg E-Patterns.'

Hope this helps...

chrissy, you are a fountain of great information. thank you for posting all these sites! xxxSusie