I get your question, I think some folks did not. You are asking why you can't set a minimum dollar order of multiple 99 cent items, not that eBay should say you can only list an item for $2 or more. I go to stamp websites where it's $10 minimum order, you'd like to be able to do that.
I am in a similar collectors market, I sell covers to stamp collectors. In this kind of market the big thing is the number of followers you have, who then order on a regular basis. The big stamp sellers I benchmarked had thousands of followers. So things like penny auctions work for them. I only have 256 followers, and already my business is 30-40% repeat customers. And they order multiple items weekly to monthly.
I also fish in the low end of the collectibles field, with that same goal of people buying multiple items. I started out with 99 cent items, then once I learned about Send Offers, I raised my minimum to $1.29. That allowed me to offer 20% off on an item and still get $1.04 It didn't seem to affect sales at all.
Recently I moved my minimum to $1.39 per item (I upgrade listings the extra 10 cents when I do Sell Similar on them), and reduced my offer to 12% which gives me $1.14 for that once 99 cent item. Again, people seem to love a sale no matter how little! I run impromptu sales of 10%-15%-20% off multiple item sales. I have a coupon codes I give to people for discounts other times. I had a guy message me that he wanted to buy a dozen items, so I sent him a code for 15% off his order. He ordered 15 items this morning.
I do not do free shipping. I charge $1 shipping in USA, no matter how much you buy. I get $1.50 for International, with an extra quarter per item. When folks order a single item for $1.39-$1.99 they pay that dollar shipping. If they buy a dozen items, I'm still covered. If they buy 50 (which some do) I'm happy to kick in for postage!
As a stamp dealer, I buy my postage for 50-60% off face value. I don't mean the counterfeit Chinese stamps. I buy them from stamp dealers who bought large collections. So my cost to ship a single First day cover is 3 cents for the envelope, 3 cents for the filler card with my thank you stamp on it, my postage average out to 40 cents. I don't care about eBay shipping or tracking. Nor do most of the competitors. Add in the 30 cents for eBay transaction, and I'm at 76 cents total cost. Right now the eBay 14% is another 30 cents putting me at $1.06 per order. When I started offering the $1 postage 3 years ago I was making a few cent... postage has gone up quite a bit1
I don't rely 100% on the $1.39 items. I have a bunch of $1.99 items, and as of the first of this year I started concentrating on higher priced sets of items, which can run $4.99 to $100 or more.
You do need to benchmark your closest competitors. If you see one making a killing on penny auctions, you will find he has 6000 followers! In the meantime set up a plan like mine that allows you to make a few dollars! This is slow in the summer but I'm at $1232 the past 30 days. My goal is $2000 a month during the indoor months.
I do have some ideas on how to improve your business, but that was not the question. I did look at your inventory, your store and what's shown under ended items. If you'd like me to share my thoughts, let me know.
Sending America's collectibles where they belong, one auction at a time!
albertabrightalberta | Volunteer Community Mentor
