EBay sellers say they'd welcome rival market

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Sellers on eBay Inc. have no plans to bolt from the number one online marketplace, but would welcome a rival that might drive down eBay's fees.

EBay dominates online auctions in the United States and Germany, its biggest markets, is ever expanding to new countries, and there aren't any alternatives as effective, sellers said at eBay's user conference here.

''Everywhere else we've checked is nowhere near the magnitude of eBay," said Steve Bachmann of Anaheim, Calif., a seller of gun scopes and other weapons parts. ''You go with the winner."

Many expect another winner to emerge in Google Inc., which is working on an online payment system that it has said would not directly compete with eBay's PayPal service, although it has not provided details.

EBay has already faced rivals. Yahoo Inc.'s US auction business has struggled, though it beat eBay in Japan, and sites like Overstock.com remain dwarfed by eBay despite aggressive marketing.

Ping Gee, also from Anaheim, sells about $3,000 worth of Walt Disney Co. memorabilia a month through her eBay store, which she has used for five years despite increases earlier this year in eBay's selling fees.

''I don't want to pay anything," Gee said, who has no plans to set up her own site off eBay and try to drive customers to it through online ads. ''It's too much work."

EBay chief executive Meg Whitman said Thursday at the company's annual shareholder meeting that one in four dollars spent online in the United States flows through San Jose, Calif.-based eBay.