eBay

mysistersclosetbyanita · ‎05-01-2017

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.

dtexley3 · ‎05-01-2017

You have to run the numbers. At 150 items you are paying .30 per item per month (assuming you are using 30day fixed or GTC listings) that's $45 a month if you relist expired items and add items to maintain the 150 items. Your basic store is $30 and you save a small percentage on the shipping with a store. That means if you maintain 150 item inventory, your saving $15 on listing fees and a little bit on shipping.

At about 225 items it starts to become a push for savings because some months are 31 days long and you'll incur 2 insertion fees on some items unless you wait 2 days before relisting.

I upgraded to a premium store because I had a lot of items that I wanted to list beyond 250, ran then numbers and determined the break even on the premium store was 430 items. As long as I have more than 430 items listed it makes sense to pay the extra $30 for the premium store.

Of course, his is all assuming you sell enough in a month to cover the store fee. If your sales are slow and you don't make what the store costs then it doesn't matter how many items you have listed....

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

pocomocomputing · ‎05-01-2017

@dtexley3 wrote:
You have to run the numbers. At 150 items you are paying .30 per item per month (assuming you are using 30day fixed or GTC listings) that's $45 a month if you relist expired items and add items to maintain the 150 items. Your basic store is $30 and you save a small percentage on the shipping with a store. That means if you maintain 150 item inventory, your saving $15 on listing fees and a little bit on shipping.

At about 225 items it starts to become a push for savings because some months are 31 days long and you'll incur 2 insertion fees on some items unless you wait 2 days before relisting.

I upgraded to a premium store because I had a lot of items that I wanted to list beyond 250, ran then numbers and determined the break even on the premium store was 430 items. As long as I have more than 430 items listed it makes sense to pay the extra $30 for the premium store.

Of course, his is all assuming you sell enough in a month to cover the store fee. If your sales are slow and you don't make what the store costs then it doesn't matter how many items you have listed....

I do not know where you are getting your store rates but the link for store rates is here.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/storefees.html

A non-store has 50 insertion free listings which can be any duration (GTC or non-GTC) so a seller would only pay for the additional 100 listings at 0.30 for $30. That $30 extra will more than pay for an Basic eBay store at $24.95 a month (no yearly contract, cancel anytime with no penalty) or $19.95 a month (yearly contract with penalty of early termination fees).

pocomocomputing · ‎05-01-2017

@mysistersclosetbyanita wrote:
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.

Here is the link to eBay store fees.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/storefees.html

Here is a link to the eBay store fee illustrator to check if a store would save you money in fees.

http://www.fees.ebay.com/feeweb/feeillustrator

At 150 listings a month, the savings in insertion fees would pay for the cost of the eBay store.

Non-store get 50 free listings, the additional 100 listings would cost $0.30 each for $30 a month in insertion fees alone. A Basic store is $24.95 a month (no contract, cancel anytime), $19.95 a month (year contract, early termination fee applies).

So a Basic store makes sense to have just on the $30 savings in insertion fees if you had 150 listings a month. You would also have some saving in Final value Fees on sales. Non-store has a flat 10% FVF fee while a store has a lower FVF rate of 9.15% to 4% depending on the eBay category the listing is in. So at least an additional FVF savings of 0.85%.

You will also get 250 free fixed price listings and 250 auction listings (in select categories) so there is room for growth.

Since you say that you are selling on and off taking breaks for months at a time, I would strongly suggest getting the monthly rate with no contract so that you can terminate at any time without penalty. Even though it costs $5 more a month for a no contract store, you would not have a penalty for cancelling the store.

Information on early terminations fees for cancelling a store yearly contract is here.

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

labs118 · ‎05-01-2017

Many will say the store fvf discount is good, not seeing it for what you sell
Now that our FVF% went up with the new 2017 sellers update clothes FVF is not a bargin
Some categories are still a decent discount but not yours.

If you do the monthly you'll get the $25.00 ebay shipping supply coupon, which will offset 1 month store cost per quarter
If you like the organization part of the store that's good
I love the vacation settings myself, hate ending all my items when I do vacations, or when live throws a curve ball my way.

You've had the store so your aware of the extra costs for buy it now on auctions & scheduled listings.
Keeping in mind that ebay doesn't really throw any promotions to store owners which is well posted on the selling board.

They go after the ones without stores, My buying ID only has every promo offered , my store ID None .
they say it's random but it is not.

You have to decide what works best for you, this was the input I had for you

Good luck

victorjunkman55 · ‎05-01-2017

No one needs an eBay store to make good money here. Having a store does not Increase sales as eBay would have you believe. Sales on eBay are just not what they used to be. Good Luck to you.

pinkrose442savings2018 · ‎05-01-2017

My vote or suggestion goes parellel with yours...it's a basket to sell but not necessary to have to list over and over again...with the new trend it's harder to get sales that are complete without having 30 day return policy working against the seller, free shipping that if item is return is a negative in sells and lack of views recently it has been dead since January sale's have been slow. I'd say just stick with a line up and see how it goes. You can always start up a store if your sells increase.

victorjunkman55 · ‎05-01-2017

closed my store last year, Switched to flea market, Never been happier. Good Luck to you.

pinkrose442savings2018 · ‎05-01-2017

Yes I agree the whirl wind of eBay selling has stretch me inside out which has been a good thing and a bad thing. When I started on eBay I was very nieve with just learning each turn slowly...but now after three years I've got it and there's little for me to learn anymore because I see the full view of just how things are...but I also see there are REAL people both seller's and buyers and that is what keeps me going...some of my experiences had nothing to do with listing and running a store...it had to do with character of people I have dealt with...that to me is priceless. So anyone who read's this don't give up just read between the line's as you go. But bottom line for me NO Store!!! I might just visit a flea market.

mysistersclosetbyanita · ‎05-02-2017

Thanks to all that replied. I think there are good and bad aspects to having a store, and to measure the options is best. I did love the organizational end of it, but there are also drawbacks. I quit doing the 30 day returns after a really bad experience with a buyer. For a short time I did no returns, but now I am doing 14 days. I think that's as fair as one can be.

I can't wrap my mind around Ebay pushing sellers to give a 30 day return! You will get the unscrupulous buyer that works the system and buys, uses maybe once, then says there's a defect and demands a return with seller paying for all shipping. Thankfully, I believe there are not as many of them as the good buyers that want the item they've purchased and wouldn't dream of trying to scam someone.

I do know that it's hard for me to stay away from selling. I've been doing it so long and I guess I love it. I think I'm going to coast along for a bit longer without a store. I miss it, but I think for now, that's going to be my path.

To the OP that talked about flea markets, are you saying now that's the only way you sell? There are two flea markets in my area, although not really close to me. I've never tried that market. I do know some folks that follow all local yard sales buying, then taking the things they've bought to the flea markets. I believe they mostly are looking for antiques, tools, used toys, etc.

Again, thanks everyone!

carglv9 · ‎05-02-2017

I read all the replys with interest but I do not fit into any of the high-listers boxes so I will just tell you about me. I am retired and I wanted to make extra pocket money to put away in a eBay savings for my summer vacation. I do not list a huge amount of items but as a result I had good and bad weeks and months. So I got the offer from eBay to try the store for 3 months at a rate of $5 a month...how could I lose? Long story short...this is only my 5th week but I am listing twice what I used to because my sales have tripled!!! I have been getting many repeat customers because of the catagories! Makes sense because now they can see exactly what they want without wading through all my items of all sizes. And yes, because of quanity my profit line is much more. The question now is...do I really want a full time job again? Hmmmmm I guess I will deceide after my trial peroid.

pinkrose442savings2018 · ‎05-02-2017

That's awesome news...so glad you are reaping $ latch on to all of it...you are totally blessed...enjoy the journey...hope it works out well.

catwands · ‎05-03-2017

I agree. I just started up again and am only using the free listings. I got 2 offers for free listings last month on top of the 50 free per month. This month I got an offer of 500 free fixed or auction listings for free. The offer lasts the full month of May.

With getting free listing offers I see no need for a store. I see stores as a seller service that is not needed but how ebay makes money.

kaykeecorp · ‎05-04-2017

@carglv9 wrote:
I read all the replys with interest but I do not fit into any of the high-listers boxes so I will just tell you about me. I am retired and I wanted to make extra pocket money to put away in a eBay savings for my summer vacation. I do not list a huge amount of items but as a result I had good and bad weeks and months. So I got the offer from eBay to try the store for 3 months at a rate of $5 a month...how could I lose? Long story short...this is only my 5th week but I am listing twice what I used to because my sales have tripled!!! I have been getting many repeat customers because of the catagories! Makes sense because now they can see exactly what they want without wading through all my items of all sizes. And yes, because of quanity my profit line is much more. The question now is...do I really want a full time job again? Hmmmmm I guess I will deceide after my trial peroid.

Great story- thanks for posting

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