Just closed my Ebay store...

usmc1986

Well, that's it! I just closed my Ebay store. I refuse to pay any increased fees! GreedBay at it's finest!! I wonder how many more will close? I can only imagine that this fee hike will lessen profit rather than boost it. Anyone else out there have any comments? Feel free to chime in with your two cents worth.....

Dan

Stone193

Dan

I think their strategy is working.

Isn't that what they expected?

On those staying...

If one sells a card for 100 bucks and shoot the moon on cost - paypal etc. - so lets say before they made 94 bucks. And now 88 bucks?

Still a good payday - and where can anyone get this kind of exposure for their stuff?

mike

calleocho

Stone,

You are assuming that that $100 card was obtained at no cost...

A more realistic scenario would that they got the card for 80 dollars and sold it for 100..

With the previous fee structure they would have netted 14 bucks ..not bad considering the time and effort ...under the new fees ..they only make 8 bucks ...a big drop.

Not many people have a bunch of 100 dollar cards that they got for a few bucks back in the day ...most people would buy something cheap and try to make a small profit ...like getting it for 80 and getting a 25% increase before fees by selling at 100.

iamthegreatcornholio

yeah, or in other words, a card has to appreciate 10-12% before you break-even due to the increased exit costs.

Stone193

<< <i>You are assuming that that $100 card was obtained at no cost... >>


Calle

No I wasn't - we could scenario this to death with respect to inventory cost.

If someone paid 80 bucks for a card and only expects to pull 100? That looks like the quick flip type items and they move fast.

One looks at the inventory and prices the item accordingly.

I'm just stating my opinion - it's only one of hundreds here.

I don't sell but am in business - the people in business see this differently from the guy here who works for someone else and has an ebay store to pick up some extra spending money.

Of course you will be disappointed with the slight decrease in profit. But, what's the alternative?

Boycott? That hurts the ebay store guy more than ebay.

My suspicion? The ones doing OK with a store - adjust.

The ones doing bad with a store - close.

I would give anything to be able to work with the constraints that are part of the ebay store scenario.

mike

Boopotts

The one great benefit to all this is that it should clear out a lot of the worthless, overpriced crap that crowds the Ebay store search results, and should also force more sellers to price their desirable stuff at a price that will move it. That 2 cents Ebay charges for the insertion fee probably doesn't even cover the cost of hosting the auction for 30 days-- where they make their money is in the FVF. But if so much stuff is priced at a point that it cannot sell then these listings do Ebay no good at all-- and they don't help the customer either, since all they do is either a) clog search results, or b) occasionally fleece some guy who doesn't know any better.

I say just get rid of all that BS. You got a box of 1993 Panini Stickers, and want to put it in your Ebay store? Then price it to MOVE, or get it the hell out of there. My feeling on Ebay stores is that they're just fine for hosting stuff so long as it's listed at more or less the average price that said item will sell for at auction-- but they're not doing anyone any good if the owner is looking to toss a bunch of crap in there at huge mark ups and hope something sells.

EagleEyeKid

I think since the induction of Ebay stores (can't remember when it first started); I've only purchased 1 item. Even with that, I had to haggle a bit to get the seller to dump the state sales tax charge and we had a deal of $8.00 with shipping. This was an item that I didn't see much and at the time was beginning to pick up and roughly ends at about $35 now. I myself have no interest for items in Ebay stores. The prices are just way too high that it's just a turn off. It's like .10 cent listing day every day.

RobBobGolf

I don't sell but am in business - the people in business see this differently from the guy here who works for someone else and has an ebay store to pick up some extra spending money.
Agreed, like I said before, this is not the end of the world. The consumer ends up paying in the long run, because most business' will just pass along the added costs.

That 2 cents Ebay charges for the insertion fee probably doesn't even cover the cost of hosting the auction for 30 days-- where they make their money is in the FVF.
Even at .05 this is a BARGAIN, as you say, where the heck else can your reach millions of people for a nickel? The FVF gets factored in your asking price to reach your desired profit level. It's really quite simple.

I think since the induction of Ebay stores (can't remember when it first started); I've only purchased 1 item.
Well I for one have found many set fillers priced somewhere around average core listing prices. I make a point to do searches in the stores for set fillers every 30 days, it has helped me a lot in the past finding graded commons.

I sell a lot of items for 9.99 in my store. Old fees = .02 + .80 (.82) New fese .05 + 1.00 (1.05) net difference +.23. Should I increase my S&H from 3.79 to 3.99 I really don't think anyone will notice and I am fine making 3 cents less per item. My belief is that "handling" should cover your listing/FVF/PayPal fees. So I guess thats my 3 cents worth usmc1986.

RichG

I've only bought a few items from ebay stores because most of the items I see are grossly over priced compared to average selling ebay price for the same item. most people on the ebay powerseller board feel that people are willing to pay a premium for items that they can buy now. I have attempted to explain to them that they are correct that most buyers will pay a SMALL premium to buy a product now, but if I'm going to pay well over the average ebay selling price for an item, I'm going to get that item at a hobby store so I can take it home instantly.

I've also expalined to the ebay powersellers that when I think of ebay, I think of auctions and not stores!

Most of those powersellers are hard core ebayers and do ebay for a living, so i'm not liked very much over there. It boils down to me against them. However, I love it!
Rich

SDavid

I've also only bought one card from a store because of the outrageous prices. If store sellers now increase the prices of their cards even more to cover the added fees, then I definately won't be buying anything from them, and they should expect to lose some of their previous customers who were willing the pay the extra amount. Also, if this move forces more sellers to use auctions, then buyers will have more options and it should result in LOWER prices for a lot of items. The exceptions would be rare/oddball issues and really low end cards that no one lists in auctions because of the listing fees.

I have bought supplies from ebay stores and I found those prices to be pretty much in line with auction prices. I think a lot of the ebay card stores were just relisting cards they bought from auctions, and trying to get an extra 20% for the luxury of a buy it now option. That business model is going to be tough to maintain now.

SDavid

Of course you will be disappointed with the slight decrease in profit. But, what's the alternative?

One option is strictly using auctions. There are also several board members who have successful web sites, and they use auctions to drive customers toward those sites. That requires a higher inventory than most ebay store sellers can carry, but it can work. From reading the reactions on ebay's boards, a lot of sellers were already doing that to some extent and will now carry even less of their inventory on ebay. Another option is moving to China. I just read that China's sellers can list for free? Might not be worth it though, lol.

If ebay just wanted to just clean out the stores that weren't turning over inventory (which I believe is what they claimed), I think they should have developed a fee system that rewards sellers for hitting certain sales levels. They could then credit those sellers at the end of the month when the fees are due. It would have been a way to get rid of the unsuccessful stores without hurting the stores that were generating a lot of business.

usmc1986

In my ebay store, I priced things to move. Usually between 30-40% of value. I also only charged $2 for shipping for an unlimited number of cards bought. I really strived to help the buyer add to his/her collection while not gouging them with extra unnecessary costs. I guess it is really not that big of an issue for some sellers, but for me, I'm just tired of increased fees. Don't you think that the bigger a company gets, the more they can afford to pass on savings to it's members?

glmueller

Going to git rid of mine, also.

calleocho

I like Ebay stores...I often find a bigger selection of the cards im looking for.

I dont buy as often as i would like because some of the prices are often quite high.

But i have often found dealers who are willing to work with price...so a fair deal can be had.

I dont have an ebay store ...so it doesnt really affect me directly.

But i could see how some sellers will either be less flexible on prices or will increase their S&H.

I usually buy vintage graded cards...the dealer has to pay to buy the card, have it graded and then pay the fees...it gets rough.

I would rather have a marketplace that allows dealers to flourish rather than a marketplace where they are getting sqeezed all the time to make a profit.

This would to dealers being more selective with their inventories and it could lead to a smaller amount of avaible cards.