I used to have a website. The price was really reasonable. At one point in my life, I had decided to quit selling online but I kept the really good stuff I had with me…getting rid of the rest.

Lo and behold things did not go as bad as I had thought they would and I decided I missed it (surprise, surprise).

So, since Bonanza was/is free and I wanted to keep this somewhat above a hobby, I decided to just list all of my stuff here whereas when I went out of business when having my website and because it was not free and could not just keep things up quietly in the background (reserve), I had an enormous amount of work to do in getting my stuff back up for sale.

I look at my booth on Bonanza as being the mother ship. Because really it helps me to manage all of my stuff across the board on the selling sites I sell on…because it is free and there’s the reserve and batch edit. I cannot do this with eBay or even Etsy. Batch edit here on Bonanza works wonderful in working on listings behind the scenes in my opinion.

For my website before, the bulk editing features sucked to tell you the truth. That did slow my progress there.

As far as driving traffic, I hate to drive traffic and I also disliked it when I had my website. I did not drive traffic there either…..The only traffic I drive is sending my listings to Google shopping which was the same as when I had my website. I still got sales there and I do get some here. Yes, my sales could be better but most of the time I am fine with how things go. Some months/times of the year are definitely better than others.

I will say that getting sales via Google organic was better on my own website. I know it was because of using the keywords to describe a page behind the scenes were a big help, etc. We do not have that kind of control here or for any marketplace site even eBay.

It works for me. I was pretty pleased during the holiday season leading up to it and somewhat after it.

I’m not one to say that just because Bonanza is free that Bonanza should not drive some of their own traffic to the site overall but they are showing signs of evidence in doing this. Could it be better? Probably. But it could also be worse. I tried eCrater, Atomic Mall and one other site and they were all as slow as molasses.

For me, I was a computer programmer (but not for the web, basically mainframe old stuff) and I dont know enough about the web stuff and all that is involved with it. That and I basically gave up on trying to learn NEW TECH as like everything involved is almost obsolete by the time you learn it OR own it for a very short time and it seems to cost more and more $$$ to keep current with the latest. I dont even deal with Facebook or Tweats stuff so my sales here are dismal since I dont pay the subscriptions here (because I dont sell enough to justify the monthly vig) and refuse to cross promote on the auction site advertising as Ebay was something I was trying to DISTANCE myself from. I advertise my wares here at the 9 pct level to get it into Google and thats it.
That and I dont know the ins and outs of various payment systems other than Paypal. I park my stuff on Bonanza and if it sells, it sells.
I am like a vintage garage sale that never closes here.

So basically, I am not looking to manage and maintain my own site, so come BUY MY STUFF HERE as I wont be on the auction site very much longer (when their new payment system wants to take over my bank accounts) and not looking to get into Amazon as they are as bad in some cases (or worse) than Ebay.

For me, it is that you have to pay a monthly fee to a hosting company to have a website of your own, and here it is free for a booth.

Been selling online since 1998 thru various platforms….I wouldn’t want all the hassle of running my own site, or paying someone else to. I still sell thru many locations with Bonanza being my main, any sales from those sites I direct them here. I have yet to understand the individuals mindset that lists an item and then just walks away expecting it to sell on it’s own and then blame the platform for their failure…..I have said it many times, you get what you put it, I myself list new items daily, update photos, blurbs, constantly cross reference prices, looking for new items, cross promoting thru social media etc. I do well here, obviously we are in our slow months as with every online site but when it is busy, it is busy. This is not eBay, and never will be, but I actually think other than the traffic (of course I wish there was more), Bonanza is a much better site. The ease in itself is worth being here, free until I make a sale is great. All these sites are a platform, that is it….the rest is up to the business owner.

It changes constantly. Selling online since 2002 on many venues and in real World since 1996.

Hoarder run amok. It should be fun and the venues are making it less so.

Life too short.

Let these venues work it out.

Basically I see it as I have good treasures from all over the World.

You want it? It is now going to be on Bonanza Marketplace.

New, Vintage and Antiques and no telling what else.

Time is money and there is never enough of either.

I do understand I have to work it myself with Social etc. but on my choosing.

I appreciate all of your detailed responses. So far I think the best argument in my case of comparing apples to apples is the bulk editing. I can see where Bonanza would be much easier to bulk edit on. I would have to do some sort of custom solution.

I too have sold online since 2002 (along side of my Web Business, because I needed both incomes) and so much has changed since then. So much competition willing to make pennies and then over saturation that makes a lot of merchandise worth only pennies.
In these folks case they are just selling off what they have accumulated in life so it’s a different perspective. I am not out buying to support a business I am trying to apply what I know to sell SOME things that I wouldn’t necessarily buy for my own sales.