Starter vs Basic

[barginbin71]

Hi, I've had the starter store for awhile now. I'm wondering since my listings average 280 to 300 should I drop to basic? Right now I paid $21 a month and I get an extra 1000 listings which I never use. Does anyone have a starter store do you get anything extra besides what they show for listings? 

[chapeau-noir]

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@barginbin71 wrote:

Hi, I've had the starter store for awhile now. I'm wondering since my listings average 280 to 300 should I drop to basic? Right now I paid $21 a month and I get an extra 1000 listings which I never use. Does anyone have a starter store do you get anything extra besides what they show for listings? 

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@barginbin71  I'm a little confused about your post - you said 'drop to basic' - did you mean drop to starter as you seem to be paying Basic subscription rates and having the 'extra 1000 listings'. 

IAC, I have a starter store.  If I listed more than the small number I have now, I would upgrade to basic.  You do get some extras with basic that you don't with starter - a small shipping supplies allowance quarterly and I think access to Terapeak.  If you are wondering about a starter store, that's a really basic affair that mostly gives me one place to have my listings in categories and a bit of branding.  I tend to be a niche seller who has repeat buyers who actually shop my store so it works for me.

[redmodelt]

You don't need a store to sell on eBay. With that few listings why not just drop the store and save the $21? When looking at vacation or time away, I don't see anything that specifies just store; https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling-tools/time-away?id=5137&st=12&pos=2&query=Time%20Away&inte...

[barginbin71]

Thank you. Yes I tried to correct it and won't let me correct I have a basic store. I know my friend who didn't have a store at all or a while ago she would get extra listings sometimes. I'm just not sure it's worth it to pay $21?

[chapeau-noir · Accepted solution]

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@barginbin71 wrote:

Thank you. Yes I tried to correct it and won't let me correct I have a basic store. I know my friend who didn't have a store at all or a while ago she would get extra listings sometimes. I'm just not sure it's worth it to pay $21?

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A starter store is only $5/month, and again, it's just that - a sort of beginner store.  I actually used to have a Premium store and many more listings, but with GTC was able to really cut listing costs without losing sales (don't know why I didn't switch to that ages ago, or at least 30 day listings) and went to Basic.  Now I don't even need the Basic and went to Starter because I'm not listing as much here as I used to.

If you go to Starter or just not have a store, you will be paying extra for listings as you have over 300 listings at this time.  Free listing specials are kind of a thing of the past and in any case is something I would never depend on.

eh - keep forgetting to tag @barginbin71 

[redmodelt]

I am pretty sure you will have to wait till your contract is up to close the store. https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/ebay-stores/close-ebay-store?id=4091&st=12&pos=2&query=Close%20an%...

At some point, if you do close your store, you can always reopen again if you find it was working better for you.

[sodelight]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@barginbin71 wrote:

Hi, I've had the starter store for awhile now. I'm wondering since my listings average 280 to 300 should I drop to basic? Right now I paid $21 a month and I get an extra 1000 listings which I never use. Does anyone have a starter store do you get anything extra besides what they show for listings? 

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@barginbin71  I'm a little confused about your post - you said 'drop to basic' - did you mean drop to starter as you seem to be paying Basic subscription rates and having the 'extra 1000 listings'. 

IAC, I have a starter store.  If I listed more than the small number I have now, I would upgrade to basic.  You do get some extras with basic that you don't with starter - a small shipping supplies allowance quarterly and I think access to Terapeak.  If you are wondering about a starter store, that's a really basic affair that mostly gives me one place to have my listings in categories and a bit of branding.  I tend to be a niche seller who has repeat buyers who actually shop my store so it works for me.

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@barginbin71 

Tearapeak is free to all sellers now. You receive 250 free listings without a store. You may want to reconsider your need for a basic store if your not using much more than 250 listings. Unless you enjoy the sale options and the $25 for shipping supplies. The fvf savings only makes an impact after you've achieved about $3000 in sales in most categories.

[johnrj1226]

Without a store sellers receive 100 free listing/month - used to be 50/mth.  Haven't see the  time limited extra free listing promos  in a while.

[chapeau-noir]

@sodelight  Thanks for the info about Terapeak - I knew access was in the pipeline but wasn't sure if it was finally open to everyone. 

[pikabo-icu]

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@johnrj1226 wrote:

Without a store sellers receive 100 free listing/month - used to be 50/mth.  Haven't see the  time limited extra free listing promos  in a while.

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It was 200 without a store; it now says after MP 250. I didn't even realize we got extra.. Yay

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2021-spring/financials.html 

eBay Store subscription level	Zero insertion fee listing allotments before April 1, 2021	New zero insertion fee allotments for sellers when eBay manages your payments*
Non-Store Sellers	200 Auction + Fixed Price listings	250 Auction + Fixed Price listings
Starter	250 Auction + Fixed Price listings	No change
Basic	350 Fixed Price listings	1,000 Fixed Price listings
Premium	1,000 Fixed Price listings	10,000 Fixed Price listings
Anchor	10,000 Fixed Price listings	25,000 Fixed Price listings
Enterprise	100,000 Fixed Price listings	No change

[chapeau-noir]

I'm one who has no problems paying some listing fees if I run out of listings - but I calculated how much in extra listing fees that would entail.  When I went from Premium to Basic I had dropped to about 300 listings at a time - not a lot but still enough to put me over the 'free' listings threshold for Basic - I sure didn't need all of those extra listings, and found that I still saved about $20/mo going from Premium to Basic even paying for extra listings.  Going from Basic to Starter involved more thinking about if I needed a store at all - I decided I wanted the little footprint because of what I sell.

One reason I keep the starter store (I forgot to mention this) is being able to run sales.

ETA:  "Time Away" is now available to everyone so that is no longer something to factor in.

[sodelight]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

@sodelight  Thanks for the info about Terapeak - I knew access was in the pipeline but wasn't sure if it was finally open to everyone. 

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You're very welcome!

Store owners often don't realize changes that impact non store owners. ebay may not send them the same emails. They only see changes to their store level in their selling page. This is why some still think non store receive only 100 freebies. I was surprised they raised it to 250 for MP, which nearly everyone is now or will be by years end.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@redmodelt wrote:

I am pretty sure you will have to wait till your contract is up to close the store. https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/ebay-stores/close-ebay-store?id=4091&st=12&pos=2&query=Close%20an%...

At some point, if you do close your store, you can always reopen again if you find it was working better for you.

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Sellers can cancel or downgrade their store subscription at any time. The change will take effect on the first day of the next calendar month. If the store subscription was at the annual rate, then the seller will be charged an "early termination fee" based on the number of months left in the subscription.

http://pages.ebay.com/stores/subscriptionterms.html

[katzrul15]

Remember too, the free listings are only in certain categories, etc.

You have 317 current listings - if you downgrade stores, were you going to pare down the number of listings?

The extra charged listings can add up quickly, etc. 

[barginbin71]

Wow thanks for the info.