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Should I Open an eBay Store? Pros and Cons?
gemint
Posts: 6,069 ✭✭✭✭✭
Looking for advice. I’ve never owned a store and pretty much rely on my 50 free listings a month. I’ve shied away from opening a store due to my work schedule. I need to be able to control when I close auctions to ensure I can ship in a timely manner.
Due to the lockdown, it temporarily gives me more freedom to pack and ship since I’m working from home. I have a lot of inventory that I’d like to get in front of potential buyers. Does it make sense to open a store and list a few thousand items for a
month or two and then close it down again? For those of you who have a store, what are the pluses and minuses you’ve seen compared to when you just used the monthly freebies to list without having the store?
Thanks.
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I started selling regularly about 3 years ago on ebay. My goal was to significantly downsize and refocus my collection, to which I would put the money raised towards another huge purchase. I started by using the 50 free listings they gave me each month and selling at auction. I quickly realized, I wasn't getting what I wanted for my stuff (I didn't have anything too rare, and easily findable) so I switched to BIN/BO after a few months so I could get what I thought it was worth. Back then, you could select weather to auto relist or not in your setup, so by running BIN/BO for a month, I could list more each month. When something sold, I knew how many more I could list until I hit my 50. Then I somehow got into a roll of getting additional promo amounts every month, usually a couple of hundred per month which was great.
I ended up switching to a store a year ago. A couple of factors that went into my decision...One, I had way more inventory than I thought, and at the current rate I was listing at with only the free listing, it would've taken me many years to sell everything. So I wanted to get the 1000 listings/month to help it go quicker. Another reason was that ebay changed to auto relist everything, instead of allowing you to choose if/which you wanted to auto relist or not. I couldn't have 250 free promo listings one month, and then the next, only get 100 additional. I would've had to pay listing fees on those extra 150 holdovers from the previous month when those auto relisted. I like to ship the same day/next day, but I knew we were going to be going on a few longer vacations and didn't want to have to end everything I had while I was gone, and then relist them all when I got back. So I really wanted to be able to put myself on "vacation" so you don't get dinged for late shipping..which you can only do if you have a store.
Another thing to consider is that you have to subscribe for a year. If you cancel before your 11th month, you have to pay a cancellation fee that is determined by how far you are from your year. So if you open a store, and cancel after 2 months, you'll have to pay a larger fee than if you canceled after say 10 months. I don't know what the fee structure is since I haven't cancelled my store yet.
After having my store for about a year, I've been very happy with the results. I bought the 1000 listings a month version, and usually have around 850-900 active.
I did the same as OP. I relied on the free listings but now during the shutdown opened a store to get more free listings since that's all I can do at home is sell stuff from around the house.
Thanks for the feedback. With the store, do you still have to ship in a day to qualify for the lower FVF’s? Having to run to the PO every day isn’t too appealing for me. Especially living in an area that’s up there in terms of Covid infections.
To get additional discounts you do have to have your items marked as 1 day shipping, as well as accept returns. I don't want to get backed into a corner if something comes up, so I don't have mine as 1 day shipping, although I do ship within that time frame. I also don't technically accept returns, but everyone knows you can return anything on ebay for any reason and the seller has to accept them back.
How much does a store cost per month?
I use the basic store. Yearly subscription. If I go over the 100 listings eBay charges 30 cents for each additional listing. I am always over 100. You would be surprised how fast 100 listings can go. I don't want to upgrade to the 250 listing store. Not only for the $14 a month increase over what I currently pay but I don't get close to 200 listings so it would be a waste for me. Plus, if I go over my 100 listings with the 30 cent listing fee I can still list an additional 30 listings and only pay $9 penalty. It works for me.
How much is the basic store?
If you pay a whole year up front It comes to $4.95 a month and you get 100 listings.
What I don't remember is if you still get the free 50 when you open a store subscription to make it 150 total, or if you just get the 100 the store offers.
Just 100 listings. Any "Free" listings are gone. Also, correction on my math. If I wanted to upgrade to the next level store it is 21.95 for 17 dollar difference and not 14. I am very happy with the basic store.
Thanks for clarifying.
So, for free you can have 50 listings, and for $4.95 (if paid yearly) you can have another 50 listings, which in essence makes those additional 50 listings cost 10 cents each. Any listing created past the allotted 100 cost 30 cents each.
Or you can spend $21.95 (if paid yearly) and get 250 listings (200 listings above the original free 50) thus making the extra 200 listings cost 11 cents each. Any listing created past the allotted 250 cost 25 cents each.
157 listings looks to be the breaking point on where you should be using the $21.95 store. $4.95 for 100 + 56 X $0.30 = $16.80 for a total of $21.75. The 157th listing would put your cost at $22.05
Ultimately the deciding factor will be how many listings you think you need on a monthly basis.
Thanks guys. I have been listing stuff as I am getting rid of a large (and apparently semi-worthless) portion of my collection.
Being retired gives me the time to do it.
Good analysis Nick! The other thing to factor in is that the final value fees go from 10% to 9.25% with the Basic Store, so if my math is right, you save another $7.50 per $1000 of sales. They also offer some kind of $25 credit quarterly towards ebay shipping supplies, whatever that is. Assuming that reduces your shipping supply costs some amount, it begins to add up.
Does anyone know if the top-rated seller discounts (10% off final value fees) is still valid for stores (i.e. FVF would go from 9.25% to 8.25%)?
Not much is.
I forgot to mention that eBay takes 12% on media mail sales. Which sucks because I sell a lot of books, records and CD's. They get their money from you one way or another.
Also, on the pro side, I love using their shipping labels. I save a lot of money, especially priority mail services, rather than paying at the post office. That is a big savings at the end of the year. The only label I don't purchase is the media mail because the savings over paying at the post office is exactly one cent. That savings is not worth the cost of my ink cartridges. So for media mail I just copy and paste the buyers address and print that instead.
But this is no different than selling without a store and using the eBay shipping label creator. Right?
You are probably right. I have never used the label service prior to purchasing a store subscription. Either way it is very economical.
I typically range anywhere between 50-1200 listings or so at a given moment (varying wildly within that range), and have always calculated the financials out within that range as being more advantageous as a regular seller instead of a store. The between the Top Rated FVF discounts, the automatic 50 free per month, plus the regularity with which ebay sends out promo offers for certain quantities of zero-fee or $0.05 listings has always combined to beat the costs package of a store.
That may work, but with a big caveat; you have to have turnover. If a seller is going to use eBay as a high priced parking lot, then the monthly relists on so many items will be devastating.
Thanks again for all the inputs. As I contemplate, it doesn't seem like the store buys much of a benefit and locks me in to a one year commitment to get the lower price with minimal savings. I get a fair amount of 200 to 500 free listing offers, just not every month. I always use auction style format with a fair starting price around VCP average, taking into account the strength of the card and how long it's been since one sold as well as looking for anomalies that skew the pricing (e.g., expensive card wrongly listed as a common player). With that, I probably have a 20% sell through rate on average. Some items get multiple bids and sometimes an item will go for multiple times VCP for some reason. The main benefit I saw with the store was that I could list more items and I could let them sit there on the market longer to help cycle my inventory. My cards are pretty mainstream graded vintage post war, so there are always buyers. Just maybe not a buyer in the given week for the specific card I've listed.
Just curious - on accounts where you have the store, do you receive the promotional ebay bucks offers? I would imagine the seller accounts may not receive them, but I have always wondered if you lose those (to the extent you were receiving them in the first place).
You can avoid that situation by only doing auctions, either with or without BIN or BO attached to the auction. That way, you only relist when the promos come through as opposed to automatically upon completion. This way, you do not need turnover and the listings remain basically free. You'll have to relist incrementally in accordance with promo quantity, and remember that you have 90 days from when an unsold listing ends until the data is removed from your records such that the quick relisting option is eliminated for said item. As long as you stay on top of your manual relisting, you can play the system to get all free listings without recreating work and without worrying about turnover if you like. Top Rated will get promotions averaging approx. 1,000 free items over a period of 90 days, and sometimes will get more offered than that amount. They are usually either 50, 100, 200, 500 or 1000 at a time per offer, either free or $0.05.
P.S., remember you can make your auctions virtual BIN listings very easily by setting the opening bid price for at or near what your BIN would be if you like. Want a BIN OBO? Set your auction high and accept best offers. Want to make sure it sells instead? Set the opening bid lower but include a BIN option. Only thing you can't do is have an opening bid and both a BO and a BIN. An auction can only have one or the other attached, not both simultaneously.
As a side note, I received 2 separate "200 free listing" offers on March 31 (I do not have a store).
I'm contemplating selling off the vast majority of what I have as well. Any tips or recommendations on what has worked for you?
Thanks,
Jason
Personal Collection | Willie Woodburn | Legion of Doom
Hey gemmint, just saw this today: https://pages.ebay.com/upandrunning/
Might be the answer you are looking for, give it a try for 3 months, just remember to cancel :-).
A combination of Ebay, forums, and Facebook groups has worked well for me.
I have the store and got those as well. I think eBay is trying to help out with the Covid crisis hurting the economy. I am very appreciative of the bonus offers. I hope they continue into May. The bonuses that is and not the virus.
Including commons?
Jason
Personal Collection | Willie Woodburn | Legion of Doom
If you open an EBAY store and list items make sure you hit every drop down button they have or you may pay dearly in the end. If you list 1000 items and they make some mandatory change, you may have to change them individually. I had to do this on it's latest seller update. Stuff like UPC # with cards that makes no sense. Hank Aaron in title spells it out....WRONG. You have to also write Hank Aaron in the item specifics. It was awful.
If you’re really looking to just unload them and get cash I would just go to a dealer and see if they have any money at all most people don’t so are other than that yeah you could try eBay but I would open the store up first which cost you about 20 bucks a month that way you get your fees reduced and make sure that you classify the cards as being for a hobby not something else so that your tax to the right right from the other side of good luck
Best place to buy !
Bronze Associate member
Commons would be hard to sell no matter where you put them. You might get lucky here and there on Facebook groups of someone looking for bulk, but it's not all the time by any means. The biggest problem with bulk is shipping a bunch of commons. What has worked well for me is splitting the cost of a medium/large flat rate box with the buyer.
That’s a very interesting idea! Thanks for the suggestion!
Jason
Personal Collection | Willie Woodburn | Legion of Doom
Have you guys seen this offer:
https://pages.ebay.com/upandrunning/
Three months free and no final value fees? I'm trying to understand why I SHOULDN'T do this.
That's an interesting offer. Nobody has taken them up on this? I'll need to call them to see how/if it applies to my situation.
Never mind, I tried to do it and it turns out you have to essentially start from ground zero, starting with a new ID and so on. If it's not the case, I sure can't figure out how to do it using my current account and transfer my current listings.
Have you ever had a store before? You wouldn't be eligible then. But it wouldn't make sense if it requires a new ID since it also requires seller performance metrics to be good in order to qualify.
I agree 100%, so I am sure I am doing something wrong. But when I click on the link to register for the offer, it asks me for an email address and it won't accept mine because it says it's already in use, but I have never had a store.