I’ve been making money on the web since 2004, and have had some experience buying and selling things online. Some of you have probably considered doing the same thing, whether you’re looking for a good deal on an mp3 player, trying to sell your own handicrafts, or you need to dispose of some unnecessary possessions for emergency cash. However, most people don’t know where to start.
I found that the online buy and sell landscape for Filipinos is very different from that of most Western cultures. With that said, I’ve evaluated some popular online buy and sell sites for Filipinos. This is the first part of a series of 3 articles on the subject. We’ll be reviewing the following sites:

Without further ado, we’ll start with a couple of auction sites:

buynsell.jpg eBay.ph Our local eBay is a little different from the US version. First of all, it seems to be the least populated among our other online buy and sell options. There seems to be less activity here compared to TipidPC and Sulit (reviewed in the second part). eBay.ph did integrate itself with the rest of eBay.com, but how many people are willing to make international transactions? They often aren’t cost effective because of shipping and price differences. Also, it’s more risky to deal with someone internationally rather than locally.  So whenever you’re looking to buy an item locally, make sure you select the box that says “Show items from the Philippines only”.

One of the good features that eBay.ph has is its rating system - be cautious when buying from anyone whose rating is below 98%. However, in the site’s earlier stages, there were many people who were giving out false negative ratings. Wala lang, nanggugulo. So try to read each comment and decide for yourself how trustworthy a buyer or seller is. The same goes for the user ratings you find on Sulit.com.ph.

Another advantage that eBay has is that among most of the popular buy and sell sites, it has a cleaner, more professional look. However, eBay doesn’t seem to get the way Filipinos make transactions. Most of the products for sale are just listings, they aren’t really auctions. If you’ll notice, bids are quite rare on that site. Filipinos don’t really participate in auctions. In fact, you’ll find that most buyers will privately contact the seller and start the tawaran process, and the price will be negotiated. True, there’s a “Buy it Now” option that overrides an auction, but how many people actually click that button? I’m willing to bet that it’s less compared to the number of those who text or send a private message to the seller to show an interest to buy.

Bidshot. The selling point that Bidshot has is that it enables cellphone notifications whenever someone bids on your item. This site has several things in common with eBay:

  • Popular categories are for electronics, home video and audio, computing, and cellphones.
  • They have an auction format with a “Buy it Now” feature.
  • There are ratings and feedback for buyers and sellers, so you’ll know how smoothly their previous transactions went.
  • Clean interface.

Although both Bidshot and eBay have a neat interface, the Bidshot page loads much easier, making it dial-up friendly.  Also, there seems to be more activity on Bidshot compared to eBay.  There’s not much else I can say as their new site is still in Beta (meaning it’s not the final version yet).   However, once their final site is up and running, I’ll write a more thorough review.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2 of this series, where I’ll review TipidPC and Sulit.