Important Frugaller mini survey - avoid ebay / amazon fees?

Hi all,

looking for your thoughts once again.

Almost every Business seller on Ebay and Amazon have their own website.

When you're browsing away on either marketplace and you find something you want, if you were given their website address and found you could buy directly from them for 5% - 7% less would you go for it?

Of course there is the risk of the transaction going wrong, but if they never rectified it, you could always buy a cheap item from ebay and neg them anyhow.

Here's the question:

1/ Buy via ebay / amazon and pay more due to the respective fees the merchant get's charged?

2/ Buy directly and save 5 - 7%

That's a good point.

Another very good point. The only thing that would put me off using a website is if it looked badly maintained and presented. Some merchants may be tempted to look after their customers more if they come through ebay because of the feedback possibility.

However, if they know you found them on ebay first, then went direct and you both save, then everybody's a winner. They'd be stupid to give you any less tlc.