Neha Tiwari Pvt. Ltd.

I am a big fan of online shopping. Whether it’s buying my latest read from Amazon.com or bidding on some vintage jewelry on eBay, I am all about it. The convenience, the price and selection online is usually unbeatable.

Recently, I stumbled upon a site called iOffer.com. This site is a community of traders from around the world. I just had my first transaction, and was relatively pleased with it. I received the items I ordered in a timely fashion, and liked the way the website worked. Basically, a seller lists an item with a price plus shipping and a lot/bulk price if applicable. Then, the buyer can offer whatever they deem fit and go through a series of counter-offers or negotiations with the seller. An added incentive over eBay is that there is no selling fee, though they do not disclose how much of your final sale they take a cut of. Users can also import their eBay ratings, which is a nice feature for buyers and sellers alike.

Another site, Ebid.net is also a place to buy, sell and trade goods. I haven’t personally used eBid, but it seems like a site worth trying. Ebid has different types of memberships, mostly for sellers. Unlike eBay, sellers can run an auction until something is sold, rather than limit it to 5 or 7 days. Users can also list items they are searching for, a feature that has not caught on based on the number of people posting [< 100 items listed], but has potential.

One thing that online retailers now take seriously is the auction of counterfeit goods. eBay has been pinned the most for this, with retailers like Tiffany & Co., Rolex and most recently, Louis Vuitton, suing for enabling the sale of unauthentic goods. It seems that eBid takes this issue very seriously, whereas iOffer does not.

When searching (in the name of research) for Coach handbags, iOffer returns 249 items with price range well under what an authentic Coach bag retails. I was at the popular handbag outlet in LA recently, and even there, purses like those advertised on iOffer were not available for under $300 a pop. On Ebid, there were also many Coach bags, but for a price that seems more fitting of a designer bag. My advice: shop wisely. It seems a number of sellers on iOffer sell from China, which is the counterfeit capital of the world.

On a positive note, it’s nice to see other sites for online merchants to sell their goods, making eBay and Amazon less of an web market monopoly. I don’t believe that iOffer or Ebid are eBay killers quite yet, but I think that they are worth trying for your next purchase. In any case, I wish you happy trails in your online shopping excursions!