Ebay Store pros and cons...
Coin Finder
Posts: 7,525 ✭✭✭✭✭
I'm thinking about opening one. Selling coins on regular ebay is so darn expensive. What do you guys and gals think? Is it better? How much is it?
THanks!
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Comments
There are pros. And there are cons. The cons make you feel dirty. The pros make you feel like coming back for more.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
The big advantage is final value fees. You get more free listings as part of your package, but I'm not sure that is such a bargain unless you are a volume lister. But the eBay fees are only 6.15% instead of 10%, that adds up.
You do also get the quarterly bonus of a shipping supply credit.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
250 Free auction listing per month.
250 Free Fixed price listing per month.
Almost 4% off on all seller fees.
$25.00 of free shipping suplies every three months.
Cost about $20.00 per month.
So you can see I bought into the program.
I buy in and opt out at my convenience. When I plan on hitting ebay hard I opt in,,,,,after that spree I opt out. Seems to work for me as there are not any requirements keeping me from do just that.
bob
and an extra 10% after the 6.15% if you maintain top rated seller status.
High dollar items or high volume make it definitely worth it.
If you understand what is coming, then you can duck. If not, then you get sucker-punched. - Martin Armstrong
It's a matter of mathematics.......exp. I just sold a coin, on ebay, for $2150. The FVF's would come to $193.50. With my ebay store dicount, the FVF's come to $119.01. A savings of $74.49. That more than offsets the monthly price I pay for my ebay store. Use the ebay fee calculator to determine if an ebay store is right for you:
https://fees.ebay.com/feeweb/feecalculator
I only sell less than 100 items per year but selling price is high so it is worth for me to have a store. For example I sold a coin for 8500 last month, my fee is only 250 instead of 10% 850 without a store, plus I get a lot of free listing from ebay.
Quite interesting. While I do not sell, on ebay or anywhere, I have a friend who has had an ebay store for many years (not coins) and has made an excellent living with that business. He liked it and did a good volume. Daily trips to the Post Office... he had it down to a science. He recently retired but has said he misses it. Cheers, RickO
The major problem on ebay is scammers...Regardless of what you are selling there are people out there shopping ebay with only one thing in mind and that is how to scam you... Ebay and paypal will not stand up for or help the seller PERIOD>
The buyer can come up with the most outrageous reason or outright lie and your money will be gone and probably your item also.
If you can deal with this on a monthly basis or you think it won't happen to you then by all means give it a shot.
JMHO
Have a good Xmas
Bob
Lordmarcovan, WTCG, YogiBerraFan, Phoenin21, LindeDad, Coll3ctor, blue594, robkoll, Mike Dixon, BloodMan, Flakthat and others.
I have had a store for some time, and also have a 2nd id that is not a store. I run a business for fun off the store and it helps me for taxes to keep track of what I sell, expenses, etc. I ship 4 - 5 packages a day, so a regular site with 50 listings will not cut it.
The other one I kind of refer to it as the garage sale, clearing out odds and ends, stuff from various family estates I have wound up with, college text books my son does not need, stuff my other son or daughter gives to dad to get rid of for them, etc. It is not much, typically about 20 things a month, about $600 a month, but that is all cash in the pocket, so to speak, of stuff that would have brought $50 at a garage sale.
Sometimes there are winners, for example, a beat to snot old French horn. I took it to a musical instrument repair shop, and they offered $50 for it. Did a little on line research, seemed to be worth more, put it up on ebay, and offers came fast and furious. One person stated he had a degree in music instrument repair, had been repairing instruments for 30+ years, and would take the instrument as is, and no matter what, it would not come back to me. He offered $975 through ebay, and I accepted the offer, so everything would be legit, shipped it off, and that was the last I heard of it. so even after fees of $101, and actually made $10 on shipping, I was about $$830 better than selling it locally.
Ebay is getting more and more stuff; if you have nice salable material you may have some success. I know a dealer who quadrupled his listings without getting much increased sales.
eBay store saves you on final value fees.
eBay store allows you to advertise your wares to the world with a storefront.
I made the move a year ago and my sales are way, way up this year.
Thanks everyone! I have a plan for the new year and your comments have helped both pro and con.
Plus the free shipping shipping supplies ($100 a year) are a nice extra ....
Yep, forgot about that perk. I get the free bubble mailer envelopes each quarter.
If you understand what is coming, then you can duck. If not, then you get sucker-punched. - Martin Armstrong
In round numbers you need to sell about 500 dollars per month of items to break even. 500 x 10%= $50.
500 x 6.15%= 30.75 plus 20 dollars for the annual store plan =$50.75. If you go with the pay by month store rate at 25 you need to sell $550 per month to break even.
As mentioned you also can get 100 shipping envelopes free every quarter- that saves at least 5 dollars a month versus buying basic kraft yellow envelopes in bulk. And the eBay envelopes are good quality.
This is an urban legend. I've had over 60,000 transactions on eBay in the last 20 years. Not only are my problem customers less than 20. I've never been scammed.
Furthermore, I had 2 transactions this year where the eBay PAID THE BUYER so I didn't have to. Once when the buyer's return package got lost and once on an overseas shipment that the buyer complained was late.
I'm not saying that scams never happen but they are MUCH rarer than you think. And IF YOU OBEY THE EBAY RULES, eBay will stand behind you on outright scams.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Trust me it is not an urban legend ! I know personally to the tune of approx 1900 dollars and my son who does thousands of dollars a month on ebay has been ripped off more than me.
I've given up and closed my account on ebay and paypal but my Son tells me it's still a constant thing...he has more patience than I do.
You apparently are a lucky man.
Bob
PS, you say to OBEY the rules, well then what do you think happens when you sell a coin to a buyer then the buyer files for a refund stating that he received a broken watch instead of a coin. What happens is Paypal refunds his money under the " item sent not as described clause, or whatever way they word it.".. Those ae the RULES....
Lordmarcovan, WTCG, YogiBerraFan, Phoenin21, LindeDad, Coll3ctor, blue594, robkoll, Mike Dixon, BloodMan, Flakthat and others.
Again, rarer than you suggest with your "monthly basis"
Those problems are also not endemic to eBay. If you charge a coin from Heritage or GC or even your local coin store, you can always file a charge back and more often than not the credit card company sides with the buyer not the seller. In fact, on charge backs, PayPal gets out of the way of the credit card companies (if involved) and will NOT intercede at all and lets the credit card company handle it.
This is a retail problem not an eBay problem. Ask Walmart how many times they get "scammed" per year. Every person who ever stole a credit card and charged something with it stuck the seller with the bill, not the credit card company. Those problems predate eBay.
eBay actually does offer a modicum of "seller protection". It's not as terrific as eBay makes it sound, but they do pay off sometimes.
I had someone in India try to scam me on a proof set. I followed all the rules, documented everything and PayPal and the credit card company sided with me. As I already said, twice this year eBay paid off a customer complaint at no cost to me. One seemed a scam of sorts. One seemed like an honest case of confusion. But I was protected.
I also did once get scammed by someone who claimed to get a box of newspaper instead of a box of silver. Postal insurance paid off in that case.
I do NOT BELIEVE that these problems are more common on eBay than anywhere else in retail and I would like to see statistics that prove otherwise.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Paypal seller protection absolutely works, and yes even for CC chragebacks.
I get the Ebay logo tissue. The cat like to play with the stuff.
I use bubble wrap for shipments.
I sell some of my coins on eBay every once in a while. eBay charges money based off of how much the item sells for. Plus you have shipping, plus you have papal fees. So when it all gets down to the bottom of it, you sell your coin for less than what it is worth.
I LOVE old coins.
By that odd reckoning every coin store and auction house in the country sells coins for less than they are worth
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Not unless there is a bidding war going on over it and it sells for more than the real value.
I LOVE old coins.
What matters is where you BUY the coin as to where the current market value is.
Decided to give it a go for a year. I don't do a ton of volume but I think I'll clear $500 most months easily and maybe will get some more views this way.
Thanks for all the info in the thread everyone.
Almost by definition, the auction price is the REAL VALUE as it is the price someone was willing to pay for the coin.
Your original post started by subtracting business costs (ebay fees) from sale price and calling that "less than real value". By that definition, netting less than 100% of sale price is ALWAYS "less than real value". So the ONLY time you would get "real value" is by selling it directly yourself. Even then, you potentially have taxes to pay, shipping, etc. So you are getting less than "real value".
eBay fees are simply business costs. Generally, far LOWER than either auction fees (buyer or seller fees) and cheaper than paying rent, utilities, advertising etc. on a brick and mortar store.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
I think one potential issues is that the sellers referring to PayPal or eBay backing them and even paying out to scammers is that it seems they do high volume. So yes, those sellers with a very long history with a lot of revenue are more likely to get PayPal/eBay's backing than a smaller seller.
I do a fairly large volume of PayPal transactions for non-coin e-commerce business. There was a buyer who issued a chargeback on a credit card processed through PayPal claiming they never bought the item. We had delivery confirmation showing it delivered to their home address. PayPal recommended to the credit card company to not allow the chargeback. But the credit card issued a refund the buyer and we were out the product and the money. I didn't expect PayPal to refund any money to me, and they didn't. Of note, going through non-eBay channels is a little different and in theory provides less protection.
So I guess in summary, scammers are everywhere and PayPal/eBay may or may not help you out depending on the scenario. As a seller it's a tradeoff between maximizing sales and minimizing scammers. If you accept gold bars, in person only, you avoid most scammers. You also avoid most customers. Sadly, dealing with scammers is a fact of business.