mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
You might consider two premium stores instead of one anchor store. Maybe your collectables in one store and your other stuff in another store. Just a thought to consider.
No, there are many many many sellers out there with multiple user IDs and multiple stores.
The fee increase on Anchor Stores is a stiff one. It is the biggest increase of all of them. It is a lot to pay for having a service rep. However when Ebay use to do this years ago for various Power Seller levels, the CSRs that were part of the team were much better trained than the average CSR you would get calling in.
$120 to $150 a month is a lot of money. And you will pay that for 2 months before the benefit of a dedicated CSR will even kick in. And that is if they are on time with bringing the benefit online.
If that is the most important thing to you with the Anchor store update, then you could actually save yourself a little by downgrading your store to a Premium store for May and June and then upgrade back to an Anchor store in July if in fact they actually do have it ready on time. And if they don't, save a little more by waiting to upgrade until they do have it ready.
That isn't exactly how you should look at that. Unless you have a subscription, you can't get those rates for listing fees. So to decide what level of store that is right for you, you have to consider the lower level stores.
For example. If you have no store at all you are paying 30 cents to list fixed price listings. So how many listings does that represent in the Basic store fees. Monthly 24.95 divided by .30 = 83 or the subscription rate 19.95 divided by .30 = 66. So if you are a seller that regularly posts more than 66 to 83 FPLs, then you should consider a Basic store as you will save money.
On a premium store you would consider the figures above for the Basic store and then whatever listings you would post above that at the 20 cent rate [basic store rate]. So the Basic store offers 250 listings for the 19.95 [subscription rate]. So now take the 59.95 Premium store subscription rate less the Basic Store subscription rate of 19.95 = $40 difference. That $40 would then be divided by .20 cents to find out how many listings that represents. So 40 divided by .20 = 200.
So what that mess means is that if you are considering a Premium store you should be posting on a regular basis over 266 FPLs for it to save you money. Or if you compare the Premium store rates on a monthly basis, then you should be posting a minimum of about 333 FPL every month for that to work for you.
For an Anchor store it works out to be about 2666 w/ subscription and 3083 without the subscription.
For those considering Anchor stores or those that have an Anchor store but are considering downgrading, sometimes having two premium stores is better and cheaper, but each seller needs to figure out what is best for them. There is not one answer for everyone.
No I didn't. I assumed someone considering a Premium store would have a Basic store first.
I agree with you, comparing no store to a premium store doesn't make sense. Typically someone would start off with a Basic store.
It is also important to note that those free Auctions given for all levels of stores are ONLY for specific categories. Most sellers don't sell in those categories. it is GREAT that it helps some sellers. But most can't or don't use them.
Dedicated CS is a wonderful thing. Ebay use to do that for certain levels of Power Sellers. It worked great. The CSRs were better trained than the average CSR you get when you call in. So I certainly agree, if Ebay is putting their well trained CSRs into this benefit, it will be very useful. But it does come at a high price. So each seller has to decide for themselves how much they are willing to pay for this benefit.
Yes again you are correct. But unless you want to spend hours analyzing FVFs and sales and listings, a basic number can be achieved without doing that. It is also why I put the words about or approximately.
@Anonymous
That is a bit simplistic. It is a bit more complicated than that. Certainly if you are you save $20 in FVFs on $2000 worth of sales and that will pay for your basic store. But you still need to look at how many BIN or GTC listings you are running on an average month.
Some people that may have 2k plus in sales may be running far more listings than you run on an average month. And if they are running 500 or more, then they really should be looking at a premium store. Or maybe some sellers run auctions in the limited categories that Ebay allows some free auction listings. So there is savings there as well. Maybe the storefront is important to a seller and the ability to have categories. Or the ability to put your store on vacation.
All I'm saying is there is more than one thing to look at. There are few things each of us needs to look at and decide what is the best value for our money. For some it will be a basic store, for others the premium store, or others it will be the anchor store and for some it will be no store at all.
You may only need one. Review your listings, is there a way you can take advantage of Variation Listings. For example if you had ads for Chanel but in two or more styles or types. You could combine those into one listing. This could save you a bunch of money. It will take a lot of time to get ready for this, but it could be well worth the time if this is fiesable for you. Take a peek at some of my listings. Fragrances to be specific. Just to give yourself some ideas.
Make sure you read everything regarding the store levels closely. Don't assume you know what it says, read it all to include the fine print. For example, you are incorrect regarding the amount of free listing fees for auctions. It is 500 per store. So make sure you read everything so you can make the best decision for yourself.
I downgraded from an Anchor store to a premium store when they raised the fees to the $300. It made the best sense for me. Especially since sales has continued to decline since the 2nd Quarter of 2014 for me.
