what would you do, listing when no store
Summary: keziak discussed their strategy for selling vintage books and other items, considering using up 250 free listings versus paying extra for additional ones. Several participants provided advice, suggesting focusing on bulk sales and avoiding low-value individual listings. The conversation also covered the benefits and drawbacks of having a store subscription, with some recommending listing items likely to sell and considering opening multiple accounts to maximize free listings. keziak indicated a preference for keeping the process enjoyable and was open to feedback on optimizing their sales strategy.
I have (1) closed my store and (2) been listing hard. I am on track to use up my 250 free listings before the end of the month. What would you do, only list the allotted amount or put pedal to the metal and list as much as possible and pay the 35 cents for excess listings?
Note that getting a store doesn't solve the problem because I would get zero free auctions and that is my bag now. I list "lots" and only a couple of fixed price things now. The exception is some vintage books I am auctioning singly. I have a whole lot of those but don't want to get a Store just to list those and wait around for who knows how long . My goal is to sell as much as I reasonably can pretty much by the end of this year. I spend most mornings listing and doing the mail then taking off afternoons.
Soon I am opening my store to any dealers who might want to come and scan my previously single title books and hopefully buy a lot. I'm only going to ask $1 each and there are dealers who buy books worth as little as $4.
reallynicestamps
·3 weeks agoMembers who are better at arithmetic than me agree that you can list about 300 items before the "extra" listings start costing more than having a Basic Store.
keziak
OP3 weeks agoyou only get 250 free listings including auctions with no store. I cannot understand why.
reallynicestamps
·3 weeks agoBecause a Store is a subscription which buys you more listings (they are not "free" they are at "no further charge").
It also buys you the ability to sort your product into categories (I think of them as aisles in my store).
It also buys you a quarterly discount coupon on branded supplies.
It also buys you a slightly lower selling fee.
It also buys you occasional promotions (at the moment my Store has a 10,000 free listings promotion).
keziak
OP3 weeks agoI had a store for decades so I know the deal. In my situation I am listing only auctions and can get 250 with no listing fees with no store. In my category I can get no free auctions. So there's that.
keziak
OP3 weeks agoHey thanks. I should have calculated that myself. I appreciate it.
mam98031
·3 weeks agoWhy? Having a Basic Store is not that expensive. If on a regular bases you are in need to list 60+ listing per month, the store would more than pay for itself. I'm not sure that I understand your issue with having a store!
Now if you only want to do auctions, then of course, as you know, a store is not the answer. Instead doing the math for your sell through rates and the amount you sell stuff for will be the answer if the added listing fees will be worth it. Only you can make those calculations.
Good Luck!
keziak
OP3 weeks agoYes, as I said I quit my FP/store account and I have a non-store to get the 250 free auctions. I've decided to take the approach of not worrying too much about going over the limit. These auctions are doing well and it feels good to dig inti the boxes that have been piled super long. Not really an end in sight so the more I list the better.
mam98031
·3 weeks agoSorry, guess I misunderstood the reason for the thread!?!? If not concerned, why the thread?
chapeau-noir
·3 weeks agoI like risk - what I would do is spend the pittance to list books that you think may be auctioned up to a worthwhile amount. Books that you can't get rid of for a buck I would not condemn to a landfill (what's with this thing on here about tossing everything into the trash?) but just donate or wait until you have some spare listings and lot them up.
Agree with not spending your time on money-losing propositions, but you know the market well enough to have an idea of what might be worth taking that little risk of spending a few pennies for a good payoff.
keziak
OP3 weeks agoI will be curious to see what doesn't sell to dealers. What I do not want are lookeloos or people who want to poke around to buy few books. I am optimistic enough to see how many FBA dealers will be motivated to come by when I put the volume in a Markeplace ad for $1 a book. I just want people motivated to clear me out.
I don't like the idea of trashing books either. Donating a box at a time has the problem of too much carrying around boxes especially since the stairs are involved.
I would like to find one of those guys who run ads to haul away boxes for free. I was in talks with one guy who didn't want to honor his ad but come a buy "a couple of boxes of books". that doesn't interest me because that is cherry picking and I want them gone in bulk. I've lotted up what I can.
fm2000
·3 weeks agoProblem is most book sellers are small operations and don't have warehouses or huge fancy sheds to store gaylords full of random books or any employees to help them go through them. Most simply have to cherry pick due to lack of space and manpower. I have had to turn away huge random media collections because I don't have that kind of space.
I'd be more open to allowing people to cherry pick for a while, donating the rest and just being done with it. You have some great stuff right up my alley that I'd be happy to buy if you were local, I just couldn't physically take everything.
onefootflipper
·3 weeks agoI often suggest throwing stuff out because when you donate worthless items to a charity those items are more likely to hurt the charity than help them. If the book can't even sell on ebay then it is unlikely to sell at the thrift store, then won't sell at the outlet, and then will eventually end up pulped in the end, and human labor was wasted at each step.
keziak
OP3 weeks agoThe libraries in the area are already at max capacity so do not really need more donations My real problem is a zillion vintage books that would be a shame to throw out but I am not sure what to do if they just don't sell. I'm dropping the price on the relist.
fm2000
·3 weeks agoWhere I live we have a huge regional library sale that goes on for multiple weekends. About 85% of all donated books, records, DVDs and other media are sold, and nearly 100% of the paperback and hardcover novels are sold by the last day where a bag of books is $1.00. An eBay megaseller buys up the rest... how they make money on them is... well a story for another day. But if you have such a large library sale locally, donate. They will make something on most of them. My family struggled growing up, seeing things be wasted is just viscerally upsetting to me.
onefootflipper
·3 weeks agoThat is an exception to the general rule. I have read multiple articles about the subject. Most libraries don't really want your donated books, they just take them because everyone expects them to take them.
sakic92710
·Jul 11, 2026 at 4:13 AMI had an eBay from 2001 to 2022. I had over 700 listings & my sales dropped from 8-20 a week to single digits per month. After 1 year of that, I closed my store & never had more than 100 since then. I would never pay for listings that may never sell. Especially when we are paying for those listings every month. At least, with the first 250, the listing fee is not charged until something does sell.
luckythewinner
·Jul 11, 2026 at 3:53 AM · EditedWhether to pay listing fees is a math calculation that factors in how many listings you plan to create, what your sell-through rate is, and how much profit you expect from those sales.
We can't do the calculation without those numbers, and once you have those numbers you can do the calculation yourself.
keziak
OP3 weeks agoAll I've done of that is check my sell through which has hovered in the late 20% to low 30%. More than I expected. I'm not sure how many I want to list, it feels endless and don't have data on how much I paid for the stuff so that makes profit hard to callcuate.
I do have a limit which is space to store boxes of stuff for a week. I am almost filled up. I ran out of space at 70 listings so that may be the limit to what I can list.
Maybe I'll use this month as a test and try to evaluate at the end of July if it sems worth going over 250.
ryry-jj
·3 weeks agoJust stop at 250 and see what sells, no point in using up 250 free listings with items that don't sell, and then paying to go over that thinking the 251st book is the one that sells. Wait one month and get rid of all books that get no or very low views, then file those slots with new listings
keziak
OP3 weeks agoThat is kind of hard to predict.
powell-collectibles
·Jul 10, 2026 at 11:05 PMHonestly, for you, psychologically the best route is to list as much as you can and clear out everything that you can. I think once you are done, you are done. In my current situation, I Things that 250 listings. I’ve gotten rid of my store – which was a hard thing. I went from about 800 listings to 250 listings – I just didn’t wanna do it at the time anymore. I have a plan to get back to 1000. If I start selling something new. I have a plan to get back to 1000. If I start selling something new. Right now, I like the nose store item – I don’t wanna be so heavy into eBay with a lot of long tail items. If your goal is to really be done – list as much as you can.
keziak
OPJul 11, 2026 at 2:38 AMWE are much alike except for the goal of getting FP listings up like that. I'm done with that kind of business like I am done with Amazon. I am in phase 3 which is termimal. I am so bombed with the backlog that it feels good to list and sell it finally rather than letting the stuff fill up a storage unit I haven't even touched some things like vintage MAD magazines, Nintendo magazines and a whole lot of stamps which I may put on Marketplace instead of on Ebay.
simba6
·Jul 10, 2026 at 10:38 PMGo through your items and sort out the ones you think have the best chance of selling. List those first. Then if you have any free listings left, list some of the others.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 10:54 PMYes I have been doing that with a few wildcards. For example I listed a lot of 10 "White Dwarf" gaming magazines just to see before I threw them away and got a bid to my surprise. On the other hand I have a lot of paranormal romances which are doing nothing so they will end up being donated to a library.
bonanza125
·Jul 10, 2026 at 9:55 PMIf you like auctions and willing to pay the 35 cents then go at it. Continue to list. What I would do is if I have a bunch of items which are similar and are cheap then I would sell it a bulk lot at a fixed price and hopefully a buyer comes along and purchases it. Don't expect market value then for bulk lot purchase. I know you have posted multiple times before and I am sure the advice given has not changed. This process of selling everything off will take time.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 10:01 PMYes that is what I am auctioning, lots. I don't want to have a store anymore to wait on buyers. It's listing at auction 1 or 2 times then out. I am only asking if people in my situation would list heavily and not get wrapped up in paying 35cents each when going over the 250 limit.
bonanza125
·Jul 10, 2026 at 10:18 PMYou can't go wrong with either way you decide if your motivate is to get rid of. If your motivate is to profit then that's a different story.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 11:04 PMMy motivation is to clear out my extensive backlog and if that stops being fun I will figure what to do then. It's hard to remember how much I paid for most of the stuff because some dates back to covid and were in storage! But I think I"m doing OK.
It's not really a money issue more like keeping my hand in a business I had for so long. So I guess if the money isn't really the point and I have f un listing the answer would be to list as much as I want and if I use up my 250 freebies that would be fine.
reallynicestamps
·3 weeks agoYou don't need a Store to have Fixed Price listings. My non-store account have the 250 Free Listings as Fixed Price or as Auction. Personally I prefer Fixed Price. YMMV.
onefootflipper
·Jul 10, 2026 at 9:45 PMkeziak, I no longer understand what you are trying to accomplish. You seem to simultaneously want to light everything on fire, but don't actually want to take anyone's advice or lower your prices. You only tried a pretty mild markdown on your store for a few days before raising the prices back up to full and then later ending all the listings.
Now you are reduplicating all your work trying to lot everything up in auctions. While simultaneously trying to let people cherry pick it for $1 each. Why?
I suggest immediately buying a store again with the month to month payment and putting all your listings back up before they are gone out of inactive listings.
Then pick a markdown strategy, ANY MARKDOWN STRATEGY, and STICK TO IT.
If you want out in a period of months and not years then I suggest putting it all back up and then using the bulk editor and lowering the price of everything by $1 every single day with a minimum price of $3. When you have nothing left in your store but $3 items then end the listings, close the store, and start disposing of whatever is left.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 9:57 PMI made the decision to end my store as of June 1st to avoid the annual renewal. I got plenty of advice here to hire someone to haul away my FP books because they were overpriced. Before I do that I just want to give them a shot at selling them off to some dealer(s) . In a way it will be fun to see what goes that way.
Over on the auction side only with the non-store do I get 250 free auctions a month and I am using that to burn through my backlog and listing auctions of lots. It's interesting to see how those go. IN fact I am having more fun these days than when I had 2300 store listings. Some weeks I make as much from way fewer listings as I did many weeks when I had that store. So that is fun in the sense of having something in my life that I can work on and succeed.
My question is whether to limit my auctions to 250/month or just keep listing hard and paying 35 cents for some. I have a list here just for listing on Sunday, Osprey books, White Dwarf magazines. Mike Shayne magazines, D& D books, Fairyloot and etc.
onefootflipper
·Jul 10, 2026 at 10:03 PMYou don't have to have an annual store subscription, you can make it month to month. I had my second store on month to month while I wound it down.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 10:11 PMYes I know. I ended my yearly subscription so I would not be penalized if closing it during the year. The monthly store is an option but no free auctions so that is a deal breaker for me right now.
reallynicestamps
·3 weeks agoMy Store account has both options, but only about 25 of the 1000 are Free Auction listings for some reason.
sin-n-dex
·Jul 10, 2026 at 9:35 PMI run token auctions and when I use up my 500 auction listings and list more, it charges me, but then refunds me if they sell. It's only if I list a bunch of stuff that doesn't sell that it's going to hurt the wallet. If you're able to auction your books and sell every one, I would list all that you can in the month.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 9:44 PMI'm not familiar with the refund if they sell. That is something I need to look into. My sell-through is better than I hoped when I starting only listing auctions but not everything sells.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 9:48 PMI looked it up, it is for stores.
sin-n-dex
·Jul 10, 2026 at 9:56 PMSorry, I guess that won't work then. I sell 99 cent items at auction and have a few regulars that buy almost everything, so I'm pretty certain every one I list will sell (unless it's something worth less than 99 cents). I stopped concerning myself with the limit on auction listings when I noticed I was being refunded after they sold.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 10:10 PMI like having the 250 auctions for a non store, it's great! Since I am in books and media I rarely got free auctions with the store. I have a ton of inventory not good for selling singly so I am lotting up. A few exceptions here and there and for noir magazines. It's fun to see what sells but it's not everything all the time.
slippinjimmy
·Jul 10, 2026 at 11:03 PM@keziak
If you want more free AUCTION listings start up a new account (or many new accounts).
You will initially be restricted in the number of listings but if you contact eBay and have them link your new account(s) to your existing account you will probably be able to get an immediate increase in your limits (and maybe do away with payout holds).
I gave up my Store a long time ago and went with multiple accounts instead. I use the secondary accounts to list "non-sellers" and reserve my primary account for the good stuff.
I am not the only one doing this there are a number of board regulars who do the same thing, some with two accounts and a few with 4 or more.
It works best if you use a different browser for each account, that way you can always be logged in to all the accounts, no need to log out / log in.
keziak
OP3 weeks agothat's an Idea. I had 2 accounts some years ago and gave it up for reasons I do not recall. Maybe because of using different browsers.
kibble-net
·Jul 10, 2026 at 8:29 PMI'd stick to the free 250 and lot up as many items as possible. It's hard to justify paying 35 cents to list a $1 item. But if you have a lot of 20 books, then it's more worthwhile.
You absolutely need to be making at least a few dollars of profit per sale to pay for the cost of your TIME.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 8:39 PMYes I said I am auctioning lots with the exception of noir books which I hope to sell in 1 to 2 listings then out.
tobaccocardyahoo
·Jul 10, 2026 at 8:24 PMIn the past, it was commonplace for sellers to pay the listing fees and lose money due to having paid them. The free listings and stores were attractive because sell through rates for many items were abominable.
There is no way that I would pay a listing fee to list a $1 book. I would never list anything for a dollar. I might even trash it rather then spend the gas to bring a box of books to Goodwill, if I was not planning to be in their neighborhood.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 8:37 PMWhat I meant is that buying my books will be inticing to some because I will charge a dollar and some dealers buy books as low value online as $4 so everything has profit unless you consider FBA fees But that is their system. Of course I would not list $1 books here.
tobaccocardyahoo
·Jul 10, 2026 at 8:41 PMYour further explanation does nothing to change my opinion that you are wasting your time listing these books.
These are books which are not worth the risk of having a customer, and will not return enough based on hours expended to be an alternative to a minimum wage job.
Time to cut your losses and enjoy the summer.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 8:56 PMI'm not listing anything anymore in my former inventory, the books are just sitting there. I expect I will get hundreds based I want I know about local dealers (like the ones who shop at the bookstore every day and staff tell me they only buy cheap books because they pay cash not credit). Also when I was buying on Marketplace there was stiff competition for books.
Anyway it may be a waste of time to open up my inventory but I am curious how it goes.
The question on my mind right now is whether to carefully list my "lots" as many as 250 a month or ignore that limit and just keep listing as much as I can. I am selling a lot, have many repeat customers monitoring what I list.
christworks
·Jul 10, 2026 at 10:08 PMSomeone can't sell if you don't list it.
I agree with @tobaccocardyahoo , whether you should list these things is another matter. I wouldn't. I'd donate them or toss them. If the books have library cards in them, pull the cards and sell those. They bring in more than worthless books.
keziak
OPJul 10, 2026 at 10:50 PMI'll report back about how it goes. IT may be a complete washout but I do not know how many of the books would be worth even just $1. It will all depend on the FBA scanners.