dbest
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posted on December 15, 2004 12:14:39 PM new
It has finally come. We all expected it to happen sooner or later. FLD was a boom for ebay. It suckered many people into the bidding frenzy. Now since ebay is more orderly and not so much an auction as a business selling venture there is no more need to give away Free Listings. In recent years as sell thru rates have generaly droped many have resorted to list only on year end promotions. There are a huge number who wait for that day and ebay has taken notice. They want to elimate this crowd or convert them to their machine. The elimanation of FLD this year will mark the turning point for all these free loaders, will they cave in and start listing like they did in 2000 or go the way of the Flea Markets? I believe Ebay will be willing to let the listings sag a little and try to rid itself of FLDs as a means to increase stock value. It is all a game of power and money.
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eauctionmgnt
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posted on December 15, 2004 12:38:17 PM new
many have resorted to list only on year end promotions
dbest... you're the only one I've heard of that follows this practice. Can you cite any examples of others? Most people see eBays fees as a legitimate business expense. They are providing a service that is worth paying for. Free Listing Day has always been a REWARD for all the sellers who list reguarly throughout the year as a kind of "thank you" from eBay. If there are others like you who only list during Free Listing Days... it's an abuse of the system. If free listing day is eliminated and eBay loses "sellers" like yourself... I'm sure it will not be a great loss to them financially. While I would personally appreciate and take advantage of a FLD if it is offered this year... it won't change my listing strategy any if it doesn't happen.
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neglus
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posted on December 15, 2004 12:39:39 PM new
LOL well if it isn't good ol' dbest! Back just im time for FLD yearnings!
It has always been about power and money. Did you really think that FLD was a gift from our beneficent Mother Meg at ebay?
FLD doesn't mean as much as it used to - to me anyway. Everyday is almost FLD with ebay stores - in fact BETTER than FLD because the listings stay around 24/7/365 and not just when the market is glutted with listings.
I hope you opened an ebay store, dbest, instead of saving all your stuff for a FLD that comes only at the pleasure of the ebay gods!
**********************************
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "...holy sh@#...what a ride!"
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards
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tomwiii
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posted on December 15, 2004 01:57:19 PM new
As Ralphie paddles upstream, I confess that we NEVER list during a feeBay FLD -- always seems so FUBAR (nay! dare I say: SNAFU?) to me...
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Roadsmith
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posted on December 15, 2004 01:58:40 PM new
dbest: Have you heard something official about the end of FLD from Ebay that the rest of us haven't?
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sthoemke
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posted on December 15, 2004 02:01:27 PM new
I think eBay will have at least 1 FLD per year - eBay makes good money on Final Value Fees, and many sellers tend to relist items listed on FLD.
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dbest
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posted on December 15, 2004 02:06:34 PM new
Come on Neglus what is your opinion of Ebay doing away with FLD. All good things will have to come to an end. The ebay stores does not work for most people, nobody ever goes there. We will see.
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toasted36
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posted on December 15, 2004 02:19:12 PM new
dbest why not go list at overstock instead of eBay. They are having a free listing day today
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neglus
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posted on December 15, 2004 02:40:19 PM new
I take advantage of every herring ebay throws at me - I would LOVE a FLD but I would never DEPEND on it. My sell through during FLD and even the 1/2 price FP listing days is terrible!
I have come to look at events like this as advertising - having more listings draws more people to my store and other auctions. I really benefitted from the 11/30 50% off FP sale. My FP sales weren't all that wonderful, but my total sales that week were double my usual sales.
"The ebay stores does not work for most people, nobody ever goes there." You are wrong about that. I agree that ebay stores did not work all that well until March 2004 when results began to appear on regular searches..since then they have been great!
**********************************
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "...holy sh@#...what a ride!"
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards
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eauctionmgnt
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posted on December 15, 2004 02:50:00 PM new
The ebay stores does not work for most people, nobody ever goes there.
Guess I'd better tell that to my bidder that just bought 20 ads from my eBay store ( makes it a $200 sale with about 80% of that as profit!!!)
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ccharned
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posted on December 15, 2004 03:12:01 PM new
the end of FLD, dbest? wouldn't matter a bit to me, as i no longer run auctions at all. everything is in the store, selling well. why would i want to list something on FLD, where it'll get lost in the flood of items listed then?
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fenix03
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posted on December 15, 2004 04:05:46 PM new
Neglus - don't bother  Why waste your time on someone who only lists when it's free and thinks we are all ebay employees? Do you think anything he says will possess anything close to relevence?
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
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chuckatcdcards
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posted on December 15, 2004 08:27:27 PM new
I hope that FLD continues. It is a great way to reduce unsold year end inventory. Since I am part time (6-8 months/yr); it is very effective for me in driving sell thru rate higher and minimizes selling cost/item at year end. I typically sell enough items on FLD to negate the need for an eBay store. With the ability to upload from imported items to batches on Vendio,the launch of thousands of items is simple. FLD is a gift from eBay that results in hundreds of dollars in listing fee savings for those that take full advantage of it.
ChuckatCDCards
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neglus
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posted on December 16, 2004 04:42:04 AM new
I know Fenix - it probably is hopeless! It just kills me to think of people sitting on all that unsold inventory for a YEAR in HOPES of a FLD!! That unsold inventory could be working for them ALL YEAR in an ebay store! Even if they tried an ebay store before March 2004 they should give it another try now - it's a whole new ball game!
My store sales make up a solid 25-30% of my monthly sales (they were just a blip in sales before March 2004). Running 4000 store items WITH gallery costs me $130/month and my sales are more than 10 x's that and my auction sales have increased too.
FLD is great and I will take advantge of it if they have one, but if I saved all my unsold inventory for FLD, my sales would be a fraction of the amount sold from my store during the past year (and my store is stocked solely with unsold aka "underappreciated" items).
Selling on ebay all boils down to having the right person find your item at the right time - having a well stocked store and making maximum use of promoting the store facilitates that. I would hate to depend on that "magic" happening during FLD week when there are a gazillion other items on the market.
**********************************
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "...holy sh@#...what a ride!"
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards
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chuckatcdcards
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posted on December 16, 2004 06:19:31 AM new
Hi Neglus
"One size doesn't fit all" An eBay store does not go on vacation a Vendio store does. I am retired and vacation alot and can just turn off the V store while gone. My V Store for now is doing fine. Sold 7 items this morning(1.25%FVF). I have no interest in feeding eBay anymore than I have to. The postcard game has about a 30% Sell thru for me which means it costs about $1/sale for listing+relist which I only do selectively. To reduce that cost I like FLD. If I sell the 800-900+ items I expect to if its offered this year that will effectively match my total postcards sold since September(I took 3 weeks off in October). That is my case makes FLD 50% of my total sales (your store gets you 35%).I also avoid the $150+/month that it would have cost me to run a 5000+ item store since September. ($600+ savings). My first week in January will be very busy(wife and married Daughter will help),then off to Vegas for a week and South for February/March. As I said, each of us have differing business models and strategies. Looking at my excel records my sell thru rate for 2000-2002 is at 85+%. I am not accumulating huge amounts of inventory that needs to be sold quickly and am in no hurry to sell everything off. I also use fixed price and other offers when they come up to continue to reduce inventory and selling costs. I will open an eBay store for selected items some day, but it just doesn't work for me now. Have a nice holiday.
ChuckatCDCards
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chuckatcdcards
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posted on December 16, 2004 06:20:17 AM new
Hi Neglus
"One size doesn't fit all" An eBay store does not go on vacation a Vendio store does. I am retired and vacation alot and can just turn off the V store while gone. My V Store for now is doing fine. Sold 7 items this morning(1.25%FVF). I have no interest in feeding eBay anymore than I have to. The postcard game has about a 30% Sell thru for me which means it costs about $1/sale for listing+relist which I only do selectively. To reduce that cost I like FLD. If I sell the 800-900+ items I expect to if its offered this year that will effectively match my total postcards sold since September(I took 3 weeks off in October). That is my case makes FLD 50% of my total sales (your store gets you 35%).I also avoid the $150+/month that it would have cost me to run a 5000+ item store since September. ($600+ savings). My first week in January will be very busy(wife and married Daughter will help),then off to Vegas for a week and South for February/March. As I said, each of us have differing business models and strategies. Looking at my excel records my sell thru rate for 2000-2002 is at 85+%. I am not accumulating huge amounts of inventory that needs to be sold quickly and am in no hurry to sell everything off. I also use fixed price and other offers when they come up to continue to reduce inventory and selling costs. I will open an eBay store for selected items some day, but it just doesn't work for me now. Have a nice holiday.
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eauctionmgnt
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posted on December 16, 2004 06:48:20 AM new
chuckatcdcards...
Ummm... actually you CAN go on vacation with eBay stores. Just in time for the holidays, they released a Vacation settings section for store users. You have several options: you can close your store and have all the listings disappear from searches and can't be bought... and then they reappear after you've re-opened your store; or you can have a message appear at the top of all your listings (including fixed price and auction) saying you're on vacation; or you can put your own custom message at the top of all your eBay store pages. It's a great feature!
Like Neglus has said... a lot has changed with eBay stores over the past year. If you tried them before... you should try them again. It's a whole new ballgame!
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neglus
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posted on December 16, 2004 07:11:21 AM new
Chuck - I agree that what works for one person doesn't for another. You can turn the ebay store off and on now by the way. I have a VD store but all items are listed in my ebay store too so it's rather hard to tell how many sales generate from the VD source (some do because I am pretty sure my referral credits come from VD).
I don't know what type of cards you sell. I sell mostly US and foreign view cards. My average store inventory sales price is $6/card. Assuming yours is similar, the 900 items you sell on FLD will yield you $5,400 or thereabouts.
If you run an ebay store 8 months a year and enjoy sales of 10 x's your fees - or 1,500 a month, your cards would earn you $12,000. Subtract the listing fees of $1,200 and you are still looking at twice your FLD take. Something to consider anyway.
**********************************
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "...holy sh@#...what a ride!"
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards
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pelorus
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posted on December 16, 2004 07:58:43 AM new
FLD was what got me started on ebay, on Dec. 23, 1999.
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chuckatcdcards
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posted on December 16, 2004 09:23:25 AM new
Thanks for getting back on the Store and Ebay FLD discussion. I have been called several times by eBay this year about a store and have told them each time that the store format was not friendly for part time sellers because of vacations. Sounds like they have finally changed their stubborn ways. This is good and points me more strongly toward a store in the future. I just checked my Vendio store earnings and Direct sales and noted that I average about $300/month over my 6-8 month posting period. My total ytd was just under $3600. If I redo the math with neglus assumptions it looks like this. $5400 FLD+ 3600 V Store +900 (FLD no listing charge income-add $1 profit to $6/item)=$9900. The eBay store alone =$12000-1200=$10,800. This senario favors the store by $900. Its close. I will give the store a try again once I start back up in late March. I also have an advertising plan that I think will drive more to the much cheaper Vendio Store. If that works I may delay the eBay store or scale it back to higher demand items (those that will come up in searches) and specialty inventory.
ChuckatCDCards
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katiyana
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posted on December 16, 2004 09:44:14 AM new
I agree with Neglus - March 2004 is when eBay stores finally stepped up to the plate and began to product for me as well.
In 2003, it generated 18% of my gross sales - this year it'll be 55% give or take a couple points...
It won't do it on its own you have to work the system to produce, but it can produce.
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