eBay: The Missing Manual

eBay B2B

Most of eBay is people selling to people, or small businesses selling to individuals. The Business Marketplace, shown in Figure 8-18, is where businesses trade directly with other businesses, called business-to-business (or B2B) trading.

In fact, the Business Marketplace is still a concept in search of its identity. For a while, its name was the Business Exchange, but perhaps that sounded a little too B2B. Nothing restricts the Business Marketplace to businesses; you don't have to register or prove that you're a business to buy or sell there. The Business Marketplace page merely brings together categories that might be of interest to businesses: office products and equipment, industrial and agricultural equipment, wholesale lots, businesses for sale, and so on.

In practice, the Business Marketplace (Figure 8-18) isn't all that different from eBay's Business & Industrial category (Figure 8-19). You'll find the same subcategories on the two pages; they're just arranged a little differently.

Figure 8-18. eBay's Business Marketplace (www.ebaybusiness.com) is a showcase for categories and sellers of interest to business buyers. You can browse business-related categories or search within the Business & Industrial main category. Right-hand links (Under Services & Resources) provide information about what technical specifications mean and how to offer financing for buyers of your ...