“Quite simply, [Bonanzle is] the best I’ve seen in my four years of reviewing and writing about start-up marketplaces” –Vangie Beal, on behalf of Ecommerce Guide.

Bonanzle

At Bonanzle, we think that online shopping is stuck where online search was 10 years ago, in the age before Google. Many users today think that eBay and Craigslist are “good enough,” and the “rules” for online shopping are set: items get posted through a series of selling pages, buyers browse static listings, buyers buy items and hope that sellers are trustable.

We think there’s still a lot of room for improvement over the precedent that eBay and Craigslist set 10 years ago (and that the eBay/Craigslist lookalikes have copied ever since).

Here’s how we think online shopping ought to be:

• Relentlessly simple. Remember five years ago when it was easy to post and browse items on eBay? We have spent more than a year designing the easiest selling process, and re-invented the concept of a “store” to revive that refreshing feeling of ease eBay once gave you.
• Instant. Every seller on Bonanzle has the option of tying their Instant Messenger to their group of items, so buyers can get questions answered (or deals made) instantly. For local items, sellers can pre-schedule pickup times to take the guesswork out of which of those Xboxes you could pick up today.
• Engaging. On Bonanzle, the journey to buy or sell your items is part of the destination. With built in user-to-user messaging and pervasive chat, you’ll find that shopping isn’t nearly as lonesome as you remember it being on Craigslist.
• Safe. It sucks to have no idea who you’re dealing with. At Bonanzle, we’re committed to building a community of friendly, everyday people. Bonanzle is not (and will never be) a place for adult content or unseemly message forums.
• Free and Almost Free. There is no reason that you should have to pay a percentage of your item sales to The Man. At Bonanzle, listing is free and fees are dirt cheap. They’re also guaranteed not to raise an iota through 2010.

What Does “Find Everything but the Ordinary” Mean?

While everybody is welcome to sell on Bonanzle, our most successful sellers are those that have items that aren’t new, shiny, and mass-produced. Why? Because we believe Amazon already does a darned good job at helping people find new DVDs, CDs, electronics, computers, and books. We specialize in helping you buy and sell everything else.

I’m Still Not Sold. Is Bonanzle for Me?

“[Bonanzle] is without doubt the cleanest and easiest to use selling platform I’ve ever listed anything on.”
– Auction Wally, Marketplace Writer & Antiques Expert, in article eBay Alternative Bonanzle is Super Simple

“The runaway winner as our Best eBay Alternative is Bonanzle. This startup combines an easy listing process with cutting-edge features such as on-the-fly image cropping and live chat and an avid seller community.”
– SmallBusinessComuting.com, Marketplace Journal, in article 2009 Awards: Reader’s Pick the Best Small Business Tech Tools

“Bonanzle is putting the fun back into online selling.”
– Randy Smythe, Marketplace Analyst, in article You Can Find eBay’s Soul At Bonanzle.com!

“If there was just one eBay competitor to watch, I might just put my money on this one.”
– Scott Pooler, Marketplace Journalist, in article Bonanzle – Bodacious eBay Competitor Gives Birth to Fresh Merchandising Format

“There’s a reason Bonanzle is experiencing tremendous growth. Well, ten and a half reasons, actually. But it all boils down to a simple business model that promotes communication and builds trust among members, a simple interface that’s easy on the eyes and even easier to use, tools that make simple things even easier, and reasonable rates.”
– Salehoo, marketplace review blog, in article Bonanzle: An exciting eBay alternative

… And that’s not to mention the many thousand positive messages about Bonanzle on the Powersellers Unite forum, making it the most talked about eBay alternative in the four year history of this popular site!

Intrigued?

Sign up for an account now, or jump straight to selling your items. It won’t hurt a bit, that’s the whole point!

I found this about amazon and it was interesting enough for me to post. Copy the link below for the full article.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/30/magazines/fortune/investing/investor_daily.fortune/

The online retailer hits the street with a two-fold gift for investors: a great quarter and a share price to match.

By Michael V. Copeland, senior writer January 30, 2009: 11:54 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Fortune) — Finally some good news, brought to you by Jeff Bezos and the gang at Amazon.com.

In a week when company after company announced horrible earnings and pulled the plug on tens of thousands of jobs, Amazon’s fourth-quarter net profit rose 9 percent, to $225 million, or 52 cents a share, in the quarter ending December 31. Overall revenue jumped 18% (the Street was looking for 13%).

Those are good numbers by any measure, but in the context of total online retail sales down 3% over the holidays, according to ComScore, and overall retail down 5% during the same period, according to the Commerce Department – they’re stunning.

A big part of the story for Amazon appears to be international growth. While net sales for categories like media (books, DVDs and the like) in the U.S. slowed to a 7% rise versus 31% a year ago, international was on fire.

Excluding the effects of exchange rates, Amazon’s fourth-quarter net sales from sites in the U.K., Germany, Japan, France and China climbed 31%, slightly down compared to the 35% growth during the same period last year.

“But based on everything we know about the global economy,” says Thomas Weisel Partners retail analyst Matt Nemer, “That is downright shocking.”

Bezos is cagey about the future direction of his business, and he wouldn’t say which countries and which categories Amazon might tackle next. “Internationally we focus on the same things that we focus on in North America,” he said during a conference call.

According to Bezos, those are great pricing and a great customer experience. The Internet giant’s continued focus on those two areas was a refrain repeated by both Bezos and Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak throughout the earnings call. Pressure on margins was apparent, as Amazon lowered prices to keep shoppers coming, but not as bad as analysts had feared.

In general, neither Bezos or Szkutak gave away much, dodging questions about the specifics of Kindle sales, the impact of defunct competitors like Circuit City and just what Amazon might spend some of its $3.7 billion in cash on. Bezos didn’t even hint at the launch of its second-generation e-reader Kindle 2, widely expected to be revealed February 9th.

Like many companies, Amazon refrained from giving full-year guidance. Szkutak did offer broad first-quarter estimates, pegging operating income between $125 million and $210 million in the current quarter. That spans either a 37% decline, or a 6% growth in operating income compared with the first quarter of 2008. Even for the world’s largest online retailer, apparently visibility is an issue.

Investors warmed to what they heard. Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) stock rose about 18% Friday in early trading, just north of $59.

You can bet some of that is a short-squeeze being felt. There isn’t likely to be a sustained run-up is its price, because at $59, Amazon is trading at around 36 to 40 times 2009 projected earnings (depending on whose projections you use), far exceeding its Internet peers like Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) (16 times) Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) (29 times) eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) (8 times) and retail competition like Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) (13 times).

Had Bezos ventured full-year guidance he could have instilled enough confidence in investors to take the plunge at $59 or more. Without it, too much uncertainty remains to send the stock appreciably higher.

“The problem is, in a tough economy Amazon doesn’t get a lot of margin for error,” says Nemer, who has a “hold” rating on Amazon. “You can’t take away what they have done, but if they have a blip the other way, stocks trading at 36 times can get hurt.”

Of course, if Amazon keeps nailing its quarters (and not just sand-bagging them as they seem to be inclined to) $59 could start to look pretty cheap.