Is It Worth Paying $25 A Month For An Ebay Store?

I'm considering it, so I can put a load of Buy-it-now's online that won't expire, and to tie in my ebay store name with my blog and Facebook names. Bit of a branding exercise I suppose.

I's appreciate any feedback from anyone with an ebay Store, re fees, benefits etc.

All comments will be greatly appreciated!

you can post buy it now on delcampe, with no expiry, FREE.

dvacet pìt

I already sell on Delcampe, and while I love buying there, selling is a chore. Delcampe just doesn't have the market coverage that ebay does, especially for better quality material.

bidStart is also very good.
Dva

Again, I buy on Bidstart, as thankfully (!) most sellers there use Scott, which is a bonus for British Commonwealth collectors. I know of all the options, but the bulk of my sales are on ebay, which despite it's faults is the best selling platform available. I'd love to hear from anyone who has an ebay store, but perhaps nobody on SC has one?

A few years age I stopped selling on ebay due to the fees.
to be fair to ebay I was getting good traffic but my lots were small
anywhere from $1.00-$10.00.
The thing that worries me most is the policies of disputes going to the Buyer ,with seemingly no recourse to the seller.
I admit that these stories are from online chats and not from personal experience.
David DJD

Thanks David.I must have been blessed! 750+ feedback, 100% positive, never a dispute. I do offer a no-quibble refund, and it's never been asked for. I see the fees as a cost of doing business, no more, no less.

I had an ebay store (small sized) years ago, but just for a month to try it out. I did not have the volume needed to support it.

To me, now, it seems a lot of sellers on ebay, the larger ones anyway, have stores of one sort or another. There must be a reason.

Some sellers have stores on ebay, Delcampe and BidStart, to name three, at the same time, possibly to cover most markets, but also to list on ebay first, then if it doesn't sell, to list the unsold items on Delcampe or Bidstart because of the lower fees long term.

I think, from recent research of my own, that you would need at least 200-300 items listed per month (perhaps sold also) to warrant a small sized store now. (I wish they would go back to the yet smaller store that a lot of folks had a few years ago.)

Otherwise just using a listing too like Turbo Lister and a Listing Management tool like Selling Manager would help to streamline efficiency. I haven't tried either lately though.

When looking at trying something out on whichever site I look at the bigger more successful (more sales) sellers and see what they do over time, months and years if possible. If it works for them it might work for me.

Thanks for the great response Puzzler. I list on the UK site, as most of the items I sell appeal to that market. Listing fees are also much lower than on the Oz site. A store in Oz is $24.95, in the UK £13 ($20). My sales have been quite high and I've moved over 100 lots in the last two weeks, so your numbers seem to be on the money for wanting a store!

I see no one has mentioned one of the real benefits of running a store, that of building a focused clientele who will begin buying directly from you, bypassing a lot of problems, expenses, and uncertainties.

This, in turn, presupposes that you have stocks of related items in depth, not a continual hodge-podge of "stuff." A dozen faithful buyers are worth 100 transient buyers. This means offering a personalized selection (or working from a want list) to each buyer twice a month or so, and that buyer knowing he's getting first chance at desirable items; what these buyers don't take then gets listed in the store.

The final part of the equation suggests that you must be a diligent buyer to have attractive material to offer to your preferred customers; it doesn't work to "clean out the stamp closet" whereby 75% of your listings are of little or no interest to a clientele.

The "stamp closet" concept works for a store, but it's hit or miss, not nearly as profitable, and vastly more time-consuming.

=====
EDIT - 10 years on ebay, no store, perfect 100% Feedback of 2004; I have a store on bidStart, and it does OK, not great.

Great post Doug, thanks for taking the time. You back up my "branding" scenario. I've acquired quality material, and my sales over the last few months have shown that it sells, and it sells to repeat customers. I've been able to build up a picture of what certain customers are looking for, and can let them know when "their" material comes in. This is what prompted my enquiry. Servicing a customer in a bricks-and-mortar store is no different to servicing them in a virtual one! Oh, and I've bought from you and contributed to your 100% feedback!

I find a blog more cost effective.
There seems to be a lot of people on here who complain about ebay (and rightly so, it is costly and poorly run). Yet they continue to use it, this does not strike me as logical.
Personal opinion of course, but if I was unhappy with something I would not continue to use it and complain, I would seek out a worthy alternative.
Which I have done.
Personal opinion of course,
Henrietta

Hi Henrietta, thanks for posting. I love my blog, and may open it for sales, but I doubt that it would reach the buyers I want to reach. I find myself disagreeing with all the negativity about ebay, but again, that's personal opinion. Would it be possible to have your blog address please?

ebay has its problems, to be sure, but from a seller perspective, neither BidStart nor DelCampe can hold a candle to ebay in terms of the sell-through rate. I've tried BidStart for extended periods, but ultimately pulled the plug as it simply wasn't worth the effort.

I can not see the point of a $25 approx per month ebay store because of the listing costs if you are listing over 200 lots per month.

The cost of listing with a $50 approx store is at very good level by the sounds of your turnover.

The $150 approx store to me just does not fit the stamp seller.

How many listings per month should give you an answer to your store question.

I really think which ebay is another question that you need to get an answer too and is to me the all important one.

jubilee did you know ebay Aussie has had a change for the better but it still needs a lot of help!

jubilee,
Unfortunately Henrietta will not be able to reply to your message as; along with 50 or so other members of Y.S.C. she has been banned from this site.
I am the only one who is rejoining as the others cannot understand why SCF did not want us.