posted on July 22, 2006 03:01:41 PM new
I'm definitely NOT leaving ebay...there are too many customers there. I am going to reduce my inventory from about 6000 to maybe 4000 or 4500 items. I sell a lot of inexpensive items, moving between 2000 and 2500 items a month. Eventually, I want to develop my own site (maybe through yahoo stores, the $100 option looks good) but that will take a lot of work and time. Ideally, I will have a store there with 5k-10k items, and ebay will have maybe 1k - I will use ebay to get customers, and move them with me. I feel I have to pursue this, this is the 2nd time I've changed my business plan because of ebay - last time was with the half closing drama. The thing is, if this does not work and if most of the listings are still store listings, what is to stop them from going to 10 cents or 15 cents per store listing? It certainly is a possibility, and while I could survive this price increase by making minor changes to my pricing, I think in the long run staying with ebay stores is a losing proposition, eventually they will make a change that will make it unprofitable for me.
posted on July 22, 2006 07:04:27 PM new
favorites4us is right,Meg was on CNBC saying she wants to bring back the magic of auction!
And she reiterated 83% of the active listings are store listings and they dont sell.
So the BOSS has spoken,Ebay can keep raising store fee until few stores can afford to stay!
posted on July 22, 2006 07:09:28 PM new
Take a look at Yahoo shop,you can set up a Yahoo shop for 39.95 and it now accepts Paypal so you dont need a merchant account.
39.95 for 40,000 items and final value fee of 1 1/2%.
It wont drive much traffic to your store unless you pay per click,but you dont have to spend time designing your website .
posted on July 22, 2006 07:30:19 PM new
Neglus ... Have you ever thought about taking the "junk" postcards and creat a wholesale lot listing to get rid of them? That's what I do with the crochet books that I know I can't sell individually, and have been very surprised at the amounts that they have closed for.
Just a thought ...
Although I have been avidly reading the discussions regarding the stores increase, I haven't had a chance to participate. I've been scanning and listing as much as possible. If as many people leave ebay that say they are going to, we should start to see auction prices and store sales jump. I want to be ready when it happens.
posted on July 22, 2006 07:35:09 PM new
I don't think that many people are really going to leave...There's always a lot of talk, and the people who don't sell anything may leave (though they would probably be the least affected assuming they had not so many listings) - I'll work on my own site, but my guess is 6 months from now I will still be doing business on ebay...it will take time to build that, it could even be a year with my lack of free time. I want to be ready for when they raise rates AGAIN to weed out more ebay stores. They clearly don't want stores, and will raise prices on them until they are more profitable for them, or until more people are doing auctions. I think with a 5 cent listing for items under $25, I can EASILY see that doubling to a dime in 6 months. For me, it is not so much about the increase, but the message they are sending...they don't want stores, but they don't want to get rid of them because they do bring in money.
posted on July 22, 2006 08:12:28 PM new
I blame all of this on DrArcane. He is afterall the revelator of mystical secrets and he should have seen this coming and warned us about it a long time ago and we would have had more time to prepare for it.
Alright now, everyone at the same time..........Thanks, DrArcane.
posted on July 22, 2006 08:29:32 PM new
I will be eliminating my store, but not auctions. I will use auctions to drive business to my store. I can see eBay eliminating stores altogether. I'd rather get my own site up and running now then have to scramble once eBay drops the axe.
posted on July 22, 2006 09:52:35 PM new
I'm not leaving Ebay either.
What I'm doing is cutting back store listings and rotating them through rather than working on having my entire inventory listed at one time.
Also, I have been communicating with Presto Store. It is similar to Yahoo in that it is a prefab deal. You get unlimited listings for $29.95 a month and NO FVF.
They answer the emails quickly and are easy to set up.
They also have some way (haven't figured it out yet though but will get back to it Monday) to upload from csv files (that's greek to me...I haven't got a clue what it means, something with Excel).
The sales rep encouraged me to list all my items there and rotate from there in and out of Ebay pointing all inquiries to my store there.
Anyway, it may not be the answer but I'm html challenged and they already have the SEO and the feeds (not that I'm relying on heavy traffic other than those I direct there myself). But, it is a start.
In the meantime, I will continue to list on Ebay. I WILL NOT SEND MORE ITEMS TO AUCTION, just less to store.
My records and other items I sell in lots will go to Yahoo.
[ edited by myfavorites4u on Jul 22, 2006 09:53 PM ]
posted on July 22, 2006 10:24:08 PM new
The same chatter about quiting ebay went around last year when they doubled the price of a simple monthly store fee and at other times when fees increased. I think doing rants on the message boards just helps get it out of your system. I had a store last year and closed it on the day the fees went up. But I was just putting in the store what didn't sell at auction so it didn't really affect me so much. I can see where you sellers that sell tons of stuff in your store will be a bigger fee burden.
I may be out of line here but the people they might want to get rid of in stores are the ones selling from China and such that are overdosing the market with cheap junk. Granted not all of it is so bad. Feebay could really crack down on the shipping gougers and get rid of a lot of crooks and ones using store as a way of avoiding fees.
I foresee an integrated shipping calculator that is required and weight is required and it will be a smart calculator knowing what items weigh. Well maybe I went a little off the wall there but I just bet they have already mulled it over.
**************
Well, aren't we a ray of sunshine.
[ edited by irked on Jul 22, 2006 10:26 PM ]
posted on July 22, 2006 11:06:04 PM newThe same chatter about quiting ebay went around last year when they doubled the price of a simple monthly store fee and at other times when fees increased.
Which isn't quite correct. The buzz was sellers were going to close their stores. Which some did.
This time, ebay is forcing the hand of many sellers to close their stores. That doesn't mean that those sellers are leaving Ebay. It will mean however, those same sellers will be listing a lot less on Ebay. It is hard to tell the numbers this early in the game, but you can bet that many sellers put their slower moving items in the stores as a way to keep them listed on the internet, even if ebay search did not find them.
Personally, I went in a different, but successful way with the free auction sites for my slow moving items and I suspect this will drive many other sellers to do the same. Sure, I will sell on Ebay, but I also will not be keeping hundreds or thousands of items listed there at any one time. But I sure can at the free sites.
posted on July 23, 2006 12:02:23 AM newthe people they might want to get rid of in stores are the ones selling from China and such that are overdosing the market with cheap junk.
You would be referring to the sellers occupying positions 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the Nortica 500.
(Actually, it's all the same company and it's all Chinese crap.)
posted on July 23, 2006 05:06:24 AM new
One thing is certain, eBay is not done with store increases. B Cobb mentioned that 83% store listings is too high. I would love to know what their target is (50%,25% ???). Until it is reached they will bleed the store sellers with additional fees. Therefore, I would prefer a faster exedus by sellers who sell stale unsold or low value inventory in stores. Quality and Rareity will never go out of style as long is reasonable demand exists.
I started my retreat months ago when the mess with SIS started. I once listed 350 (2004)items/week and had 6000 items(2006) in my eBay store. I currently have only 333 items with high sell thru in my store. I don't list auctions during the summer and plan on ramping up starting at 50/week in September. Vendio Store has 8000 listings. My goal continues to be to reduce unsold inventory and only list scarce/high quality items for new auctions only. I only do resell of unsold with eBay promotions. My sell thru for 1999- mid 2004 is 90%. The 10% not sold either gets sold in bulk auctions or are in Vendio store for gradual sell thru. I have never raised prices. Since eBay is not a job but a hobby for me I am satisfied to make less total profit while maintaining a fair/hour income . Chuck
