Should you buy on Bonanza? Here’s our honest site review.
Most of you have heard of Bonanza marketplace. Therefore, for those newbies, let’s give them a background about, “What is bonanza marketplace?”
Bonanza is a type of online marketplace for buying and selling. It is becoming one of the most popular peer-to-peer marketplaces, alongside eBay, eBid.net, Tophatter, and other auction and marketplaces. Bonanza has called itself a “self-centric” type of business approach, wherein it allows you to put up your own booth where you can sell different items, “everything but the ordinary.”
With Bonanza, you can easily create your own online business. You can design your own online booth with a beautiful listing of your items with eye-catching text formats. Moreover, unlike other sites such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and other marketplaces that require seller verification fees, with Bonanza, you don’t need to worry anymore about seller verification fees.
Well, to know more about Bonanza, here is our honest site review about Bonanza, both for selling and buying.
Bonanza Site Review
People say that Bonanza is a combination of eBay and Etsy because anyone can sell their items, which can be new and used products. If you are a buyer, you can purchase both unique and those garden-variety items. As for the seller, it’s just like selling to other online marketplaces; however, without many seller fees or verification.
To start our review, let’s kick off with…
Bonanza Site Features
Here are some of the remarkable features of the Bonanza marketplace:
1. Free Participation
All auctions are free to participate and there is no competition or bidding for an item. The buyer will just pay when he/she wants the item being posted.
2. High Volume of Items
The Bonanza marketplace has different categories such as Women’s Fashion, Men’s Fashion, Home & Garden, Health & Beauty, and other categories. In every category, there’s around more than 250,000 items for sale, which can be shopped freely.
3. No Auction
Bear in mind that Bonanza is not an auction website, instead it is just an ordinary marketplace wherein when you like the item, you contact the seller, and then pay for the item, and you are done.
Like I said, you do not need to compete or bid for the item you want, just pay the item, and it’s already good to go.
4. Consist of Private Sellers
Bonanza consist of private sellers from different product categories featuring fashion, health, home, gardening, jewelry, accessories, and more. Basically, there are thousands of private sellers selling products at all times.
Common Bonanza Items Featured
There are a lot of items you can buy at Bonanza; hence, here are the common goods featured at their website:
- Antiques
- Electronic items for industrial and business, parts and accessories, or toys
- Fashion such as clothes both for men and women, jewelry, bags, hats, and other accessories
- Home items such as kitchen tools, gardening items, for home decorations
- Memorabilia and other collectible items
- New and used items
- Pet supplies and items
Shopping Tips at Bonanza
When shopping items at Bonanza, be careful with the seller you are transacting with, make sure that he/she is a legit seller. Moreover, look for the shipping fee charged by the seller for every item you shop.
Keep in mind that these Bonanza sellers are responsible for how they charged for the shipping fee. Therefore, as a buyer, make sure to review the shipping cost if it is rational and the time of delivery for every item you have purchased. Most of the negative reviews you can read about Bonanza are complaints about the shipping cost and time. Therefore, if you are not okay with the cost and the delivery time, avoid transacting from these sellers.
Bonanza Pros and Cons
| PROS | CONS |
| You can buy unique stuffNo bidding of itemFree to shopYou can choose from a variety of items | The shipping cost and delivery time can be expensive and delayedYou can meet different seller (some are good, but some are terrible) |
Is Bonanza Marketplace a Scam?
We don’t think that this marketplace is a scam. Yes, given that Bonanza is an online marketplace; therefore, you will encounter different sellers. That is why, we recommend to review the seller’s reputation first, if he/she has a lot of great reviews, before you purchase an item. This is the simplest way to avoid being scammed.
Bonanza Selling Experience
The reason why Bonzana is popular among online wannabe sellers is that it is easy to use the platform. Hence, if you want to create your own online booth at Bonanza, make sure to sign up for a seller’s account. Once you have created your account, it is now time to set up your booth.
Steps to Create your Bonanza Booth
Here are 5 simple steps in order to create your Bonanza booth.
- Click the “Open your booth” button
- Set up your booth title, contact email, password, and username. You may also use your Google or Facebook account to create an account.
- Set up your payment scheme by connecting your PayPal or Amazon Pay account. In this way, you will be able to receive payments from buyers.
- To validate your identity, you are required to enter your credit card information
- Lastly, finalize your booth set up. Make sure to select your pre-approval and advertising setting.
How Much Would it Cost to Use the Platform?
As an online seller, it is very important to know the pricing of Bonanza to use it as your platform. Luckily, with Bonanza you are completely free to list your items, and then sell your items using the platform. The time that Bonanza will charge you fee, when you sell an item.
Overall, Bonanza is a risk-free marketplace for sellers, wherein once you decide to close your booth, you are not required to pay any fees.
On the other hand, if you want to list more items in your booth, Bonanza offers membership subscription, wherein you will be granted access to sell other items. It is divided into three plans: the Gold, Platinum, and the Titan.
Since Bonanza charges when you sell an item, you must know where those charges will be coming from. Check this site to know how Bonanza pricing works.
Let’s say you sold a $30 plus $12 shipping fee, Bonanza charges on the Final Order Value (FOV). This is how FOV calculated: you get the sum of the cost of the item purchased and the shipping fee, and then less it by 10.
Therefore, the FOV in the example is $32.
However, for sold items below $500 but has a minimum fee of $0.50, Bonanza will charge 3.5% of the FOV. In our example, the FOV is $32; therefore, Bonanza will charge $1.12. Take note that this is for every item, you have sold.
For sold items above $500, Bonanza will charge 3.5% to $500 plus 1.5% of the remaining amount to $500. For example, you sold a $650 item with $15 shipping fee; therefore the FOV will be $155 and Bonanza will charge $22.93.
That’s why many online sellers love Bonanza because the charge is relatively cheap, compared to other online Marketplaces.
| SELLING PROS | SELLING CONS |
| The platform is easy to useYou can import from other online Marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, EtsyFree to sell and list your productsHas membership subscription, which grants you an access to sell more itemsThe seller’s fee is cheap | Membership subscription is costlyGold: $40/monthPlatinum: $70/monthTitan: $200/month A small portion for the shipping fee will go to Bonanzas chargesLong-waiting hours for the item to be indexed in searches |
Bonanza Buying Experience
There are two ways on how to place an order. The first is the usual way of purchasing online items, wherein the seller will state the price of the item, and then it is up to you whether you will buy the item or not. Then, proceed to check out.
The second way on how to buy an item is through offering. The seller will invite you to make an order if you, and then the seller will accept and the order will be placed. Lastly, the seller can make a counteroffer, wherein you need to accept so that the order will be placed.
Buying items at bonanza is easy, if you are used to online shopping. You can search for the item you want to buy on the Search button, and then you will see the list of the related items you search. If you click the item, you will see the item description and the option “add to cart” if you want to buy the product. Then, fill up all the necessary information such as the payment method and billing address.
The Price of the Items
The sellers will dictate the price of the items. Therefore, Bonanza may not be considered as a low and affordable online shopping marketplace since the price of the items varies depending on the seller.
When we talked about payment methods, every seller supports PayPal as a method of payment. Some sellers have Amazon Pay and Stripe as another way of payment.
The Shipping Fee and Time
Another thing to consider as a buyer at Bonanza is the shipping. You may ask the seller, if he/she ships to your location, how much is the shipping cost, and the duration of delivery.
However, some sellers offer standard delivery and express delivery; therefore, it is your choice how to deal with the shipping of the item to the seller since every seller has their own rules.
Do They Accept Returns?
Unfortunately, Bonanza marketplace does not have a return policy because Bonanza is not involved in your transaction between you and the seller. Therefore, before you buy an item from the seller, ask if they have a return policy so that if you got the wrong item, you can return it to the seller.
| BUYING PROS | BUYING CONS |
| The prices are not that expensive nor cheap. They are in the middle-price rangedShips to worldwide locationsYou may buy at your own termsShips in 1 to 2 business days | Bonanza does not have a buyer protectionNo return policyCancelling an order is up to the seller |
