Trading Post guns for eBay in auction space

[J_D]

Stumbled across this article last night: "Trading Post guns for eBay in auction space" (http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/trading-post-guns-for-ebay-in-auction-space/2008/05/27/1211654021228.html)

After reading Brendans previous post about myhome.com.au closing down because it tried to take on the big guys, I still kinda think trading post (sensis) could pull this off... Especially now that eBay have started to restrict certain paypal transactions etc.


Your thoughts?

JD

[Slade]

The trading post does have a good name.. and I guess it is a good step forward for them to move into the 21st century.. it will be very hard to compete with the likes of ebay however.

I think they need to make sure they differentiate themselves from ebay.. not sure how, but its going to be a hard market to break into!

[Brendan]

This will be very interesting to watch indeed.

Ebay is a big player, already has a very established online user base and will be hard to grab some of the market share.

I guess the bonus is there is probably room for a local player on the auction space, maybe more targeted at the home once off sellers rather than the businesses we see selling via ebay.

[silver_surfer]

I'm not sure that things will translate 'as is': Trading Post is a static marketplace, with eBay obviously being an active marketplace. I think that's really the appeal of it - besides the post-sale communication etc, there's not too much hard work involved in a sale. The current Trading Post system obviously involves a lot more communication and organisation (see: Castle, The).

[gerryonline]

very interesting J_D, I used to use the trading post all the time to buy cars and stuff, then I moved online to places like drive.com.au and ebay for other good.

I think it will be very hard to trading post to get back into the market with this tactic.. I personally think they are about 5 years late.

[J_D]

Fairfax (trading post) should have snapped up Oztion..... Considering they've been stealing a heap of Aussie Ebay users.... Check out the article below:

Jumbuck to buy Oztion | Australian IT (http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23803013-15306,00.html)