So I promised back when we first signed up for Bonanzle on September 30th, 2008 that I would let you know when we had a sale. A random PayPal payment came through today and after much trying to figure out what site it was from, we looked on Bonazle and, lo and behold, we had made our very first Bonanzle sale!

Instead of emailing you when you make a sale, Bonanzle emails you when you get an offer and then the sale comes as a surprise when the offer is accepted which is kind of fun but really confused the heck out of us this morning.

Luckily the item that sold is one that we have a lot of inventory of and sell all the time so we can make all sorts of direct comparisons now.

How did the fees compare? Well we have the exact same item with the exact same terms listed on eBay so we saved 56 cents by selling it on Bonanzle which is cool (eBay fees were $1.56, Bonanzle $1). We don’t pay a fee when we sell this item on Amazon so I cannot make a comparison there. The only thing that is really weird is the Bonanzle BETA eBay fee comparison calculator told me we saved $34.38 in eBay fees which is obviously a bit more than 56 cents so I thought I had sold way more than I really did and got all excited and then got a little sad when I realized it was just totally wrong. So, yeah, I guess that’s why it’s in Beta. 🙂 But still, while 56 cents is no $34.38, it is a good chunk of change and I could see savings like that really adding up in the long run if you did a high volume. (Overall: For higher priced items, Bonanzle is usually the cheaper deal though some under $5 items are cheaper on eBay so you have to look.)

What does this mean in the long run? From Sept 30th to Jan 13, we only made one sale on Bonanzle. But within that same exact time period of that exact same item with the exact same terms (free shipping, same price) on eBay we sold 12 and on Amazon we sold 3.

So, while Bonanzle did save us 56 cents, we sold more on both eBay and Amazon (though not much more on Amazon, you slacker). This item is 5 year old inventory so we don’t expect sales to be on fire, but the more we move, the better.

What does this mean? Not much. We are going to try to duplicate some of our eBay inventory over to Bonanzle to see if we can move some of it but, so far, things are moving faster and in greater quantity on eBay so that is going to stay the focus. Not to sound like a broken record but, in the end, while I appreciate the lower fees, I appreciate sales more and we have to focus on the platform moving the stuff. But finally moving something, even if its only one item, does give me a little more hope for the platform.

That said, it’s nice to finally sell something through Bonanzle and to get to try the after sale experience so we are going to continue to play with it and list duplicate inventory there when we can.

Have sales picked up for you other Bonanzle sellers or are you still in a drought like we were?