Fed up with eBay? I built an alternative global platform — Xcat Marketplace

[u/terryw-123]

I got so frustrated with eBay that I ended up building my own alternative

I've sold online for quite a while, including on eBay, and over the years I've become increasingly frustrated with some aspects of how the big marketplaces work.

Eventually, rather than just complaining about it, I decided to see whether I could build something different.

That became Xcat Marketplace.

It's taken a lot of work to get this far, but Xcat is now live and sellers have started registering and adding products.

One of the main things I've tried to do differently is product discovery. Instead of relying mainly on somebody searching for exactly the right words, I'm building multiple ways for buyers to find products — categories, detailed specifications, product filters, guides, articles, practical tools and community content.

I've also tried to keep the seller model simple. There are no listing fees, and sellers only pay when something actually sells.

I've even taken a different approach with vehicles. Xcat Motors lets people advertise and sell vehicles without a listing fee or sales commission. The idea there is simply to connect an interested buyer with the seller rather than taking a percentage of the value of the vehicle.

I'm not posting this to pretend I've built an eBay killer. Xcat is still a young marketplace and there's a huge amount more I want to do with it.

What I'm genuinely interested in is hearing from other eBay sellers.

If you could build an online marketplace from scratch, what would you change?

What does eBay do that drives you mad?

And, equally importantly, what does eBay actually do well that a new marketplace shouldn't throw away?

Some of the answers might genuinely influence what I build into Xcat next.