Store? Or no? That is the question.

[mysistersclosetbyanita]

Morning all!    I've been doing this a long time,  and I've also left for periods of time,  for various reasons.   I quit,  again around the first of December.   I shut down my store,   sold off what I could,  gave away a lot,  and stored some.   By the first of March I was ready to come back.   That's just how I am.   I am 65 years old and sometimes I just have to have a break. 

I started back very slowly,  running a maxium of 40 items,  but I've built back up to close to 150.  Now comes the age old question of whether to reopen my store.   I know folks cannot tell me what to do,  it's my decision,  but I'd just like some input on people either loving or hating having a store.

Does it save money on fees?   I cannot seem to tell a difference,  but Ebay says it does.   I do like the organization part of having a store.    So,  ideas?  Input?   Thanks in advance. 

[poppyswag]

My experience is that I have never had a store and rarely get promotions. Seems like IDs with no activity get the promos.

Can you keep your name when you subscribe to a store?

[tellmemama]

I've been a seller here since 2000 and was absolutely dead set against ever having a store.  It seemed like a blatant money grab of guaranteed monthly subscription fees for ebay.  From the very beginning, I almost always had a full time job as a bar manager (even though I was matching my yearly bar salary in a couple of months selling on ebay.  Part time.)  Then two years ago my bar management job was phased out and the place closed.  The prospects of finding another place wanting to hire someone in his fifties were pretty slim.

So I started selling here full time.  Fortunately I have been able to keep the momentum going.  I switched from primarily auction format to fixed price.  At any given time, I have 200 to 500 active listings and a decent sell through rate.  Needless to say, I wasn't getting the free listing promotions very often so I was paying 30 cents each.  But it was ok since I am still making pretty good monthly sales (knock wood).

Recently my father in law developed health issues which will require us to travel to Florida to help out for a short while.  I was dreading the thought of canceling all of those listings and repaying the listing fees when we get back.  

Even though I hated the idea, I opened a month-to-month basic store three days ago and love it.  And the first three months are free.  When all is said and done, I'm getting 250 listings for a penny each and 250 free auctions if I want to use them.   Plus slightly reduced FVFs and all of the features available including vacation settings. 

A 100% no brainer for me.

[klassic*kids]

A basic store works well for me.  I use all 250 bins and 250 auctions and do not go over the allotment so never pay a penny in additional listing fees.  Even on slow months I make a decent profit wherein the $19.99/month cost doesn't hurt me.  I am actually saving money with it.

I also like having my own url and storefront, the vacation settings, markdown manager, and slight savings in FVF's.

I am a TRS but do not list all my listings with the parameters of 1-day handling, 30 day return.  But that has nothing to do with having a store or not.

[yuzuha]

As the others have said, there's no one universal answer to that question.  The only way you'll be able to find out whether having a store will work for you is to try it out for a little while.  For me, since I generally try to keep between 150-200 items listed, it pays for itself pretty quickly and ends up saving me money on listing fees.

[theloyalskeptic]

HEre's my 2 cents..

Mobile Shopping via iphone, etc...

Something like 75% + of shoppers use their phones exclusively to 

'browse' and or purchase on eBay, right? 

There is ABSOLUTELY no eBay STORE VISIBILITY on the Buyer's end of you having 

a eBay STORE presence. Period.

Zero. 

They don't know if you do or don't have a million items, until they take the time to 

microscopically search one of your listings for the faint linkl to 'See Seller's Other Items';

even then, clicking on that will only take them to the scrolling  list of your other items, 

with of course an option to Search within your custromized categories, etc. 

But really. 

How many people DO YOU KNOW that dig that deep into an average Seller's offerings?

I wish we could get the Store perks, somehow, without having to open and pay for a subscription to a

store that USED TO make sense but now, is antiquated and obsolete. 

That was probably more like 6 cents, my apologies...

Good luck! 

Welcome back!

TLS

[uncseniorsportsfan]

On this account a store is worth it from Sept-Jan,  but from Feb - Aug - not so much, so I often open and close a store.   It is the nature of what I am selling, and when the buyers are likely to purchase.  With 50 free listings per month, I can keep 100 listings active or in unsolds on ebay - the rest go to my moon store parking garage where listing is still free until I'm ready to re-open the store. 

My other collectibles  account has a wider variety of items --so I haven't closed the store so far - I just rotate inventory.