eBay alternative Bonanzle is super simple, list in 60 seconds

I have some very good news for those who've just about given up with trying to navigate eBay's sea of chaos.

 I've been investigating a site called Bonanzle.com, Silly name I know, silly site it is not. It is without doubt the cleanest and easiest to use selling platform I've ever listed anything on.  The tag line of the site is  "Real people, real deals, real time".

Bonanzle is completely different from eBay or anything else I've seen online, but it's built around an old school model of trading.

When you sign up as a Bonazler, you get a "booth".

You can put as many items in your booth as you wish with no listing fees! Bonanzle takes it's fees on the back end, they are very reasonable.

"Add an item to your booth in under a minute" is one of the main features that the site pitches. I thought this was a pretty outrageous statement so I signed up and put it to the test. Yes, indeed, you can. And it will look sharp, clean, to the point, and easy to navigate.

Here's where it gets "old school" good for me. Once your booth is up, at the top of your page is a real time chat module where buyers can come and hang out, much like as if you were selling at a flea market or a show. Of course you don't have to be in the chat room to make a sale either, a simple drag & drop tool allows buyers to place an item in the shopping cart, then takes them to the checkout process. Easy peasy.

If you've ever set up in a live antiques mall or consignment shop, you'll know that you always have a big advantage in selling when you are present. No one can sell your merch like you can.

In the chat room you can exchange links and any other information you'd like. Talk about possibilities! Allowing you to link off site shows respect for the users, I like being treated like an adult.

Another social aspect of the site is it's very active discussion forum. People in the community are so impressed and appreciative of the opportunity here, that they fill the forum with tips and suggestions about how to get the site and individual booths juiced in the search engines. 

In short, the users have become evangelists for the site and  there is no amount of advertising money in the world that can replace that.  This is how sites go viral, this is how fortunes are made.

Some of the other benefits are:

• You can import your eBay and Craigslist listings.
• You can import your feedback from eBay
• As far as I know, you can sell any product that is legal, including eProducts, services etc.
• Bonanzle promotes local selling. People can search for items by distance, you can pre-arrange delivery times.
• You can run sales, discounts and batch items, very easily.
• You can decide how to be paid. The site accepts PayPal, Google Checkout, Cash, Checks, MOs,CCs
• You can offer freebies and distribute them any way you wish, be they bundled with a sale, or on their own.
• You can multi-task while on the site! Right now I have my chat window open, so if anyone pops in my booth, I'm there.
• Categories are only 2 deep! This makes for fast listing, but you can place categories on your items once they're in your booth. The process is intuitive so you don't have to individually allocate each item to your booth's categories. You get the best of both worlds with this feature.
• Safe buying and selling is in the forefront due to the transparency that comes with the chat feature.
• It's a lot of fun!
• It's haunted, that's right, the sight claims to have it's own ghost! I'm not kidding. Go check it out for yourself.

Of course, all of this means nothing if there is no traffic, but there is. A lot. The site was only launched in June and it already has over 75,000 items and 2400 users and growing rapidly.

Want to know more? I've been in contact with Bill Harding, the site owner and he's agreed to come on The Auctionwally Show, in the near future, I hope you tune in for that, I'll post the time and date here and at www.auctionwally.com when the the show is scheduled.

By the way, the site is even more of a blast to shop on!

Below are a few things that are up on Bonanzle right now, click on the links under the photo to see the complete listing.

  Adorable art deco, I found this seller VERY reasonable. 

  I imported my entire eBay store inventory in a snap!

I was able to import my entire eBay store inventory with a click of a button. It worked as promised.

Imports of large inventory can take a little time as there are a lot of sellers doing the same thing.

  Get things for the Thanksgiving table here!

You can find some pretty cool things for your Thanksgiving table at this seller's booth without breaking the bank!

  Click here to see the full appraisal.

Test your antiques knowledge, can you guess what the roll top desk on the right was appraised at? 

 Bonanzle.com