No nuggets, I left those in the crapper this morning, but I do have a view!
I personally don't see the overall benefit of stores.

1. 99% of them seem to overcharge for shipping.
2. 90% have their items priced MUCH higher than similar items that are up for regular auction. Do a search on the term "merp" and you'll see exactly what I mean.
3. 99% of the deals people put in stores are gone in seconds.

The result is that a lot of people subconsciously attach high prices with eBay stores, I would guess. I know I do. I don't even LOOK at the eBay stores listed on the bottom of every single piece of correspondence eBay sends.

I think the ONLY benefit is the reduced admin.
The reason why auctions sometimes go higher is bidding frenzy, which you don't get with an eBay store. Not to mention that an auctionstarting at 99 cents has at least a chance of being a steal, whereas with a store you have a fixed price.

megnelwil wrote:This thread has probably been done to death before but I couldn't find anything after an, admittedly, quick search.

Ebay shops, is it true the US rate for listings is still $0.06 across the board? Or did US sellers also get shafted in the last round of Ebay price rises? My average listing cost is now working out at $0.14 provided I don't add any bells and whistles. That's every 30 days. And then if an item sells my Ebay fees are averaging 9%, knock that above 11% when Paypal fees are added.

This would be okay if Ebay provided any sort of promotion for shops. But everything is geared towards auction and BIN - obvious from their point of view but not much help for sellers who are paying them regular fees. Anyone else feel this is a one-sided bargain? I know the point of Ebay is the large audience. But if shop inventory is all but invisible until after a bidder has over-spent on an item he could have bought in a store for a tenner less and in better condition, are shop sellers really getting access to that audience? I don't think so, unless I'm missing something. Fine if the search didn't have to be customised to make shop inventory appear - you could criticise the buyer for not being thorough. But how many buyers perform a search assuming ALL items will be returned?

Anyway, rant over and now a begging note. Has anyone got any good tactics - aside from sacrificing items to auction, which is the way it seems right now - to get a little coverage? Once people do come through the door they buy. But it's getting them there in the first place. I don't think Ebay are doing sellers or buyers any favours with their current policies. I know they're in it to make money, as with any business, but are we missing a little give and take here? I ask because I'll have the opportunity to speak to some of their senior people soon and I want to bring this up with them.

Views? Secret nuggets?

Ok, I feel somewhat qualified to answer as I have had a store for several years and have done mostly auctions up to that point.  Here's my view/ 2 cents worth...maybe some others can also weigh in on the pros and cons (Centerstage just recently went to a off ebay site http://www.centerstagerpgs.com/catalog/index.php
so maybe he can give us some insights also).

Anyway listings are 5 cents generally, with an extra cent if you include gallery (I have this for about half my listings), over $24.99 it is 10/11 cents a listing.  This is a pretty good value seeing as the average auction runs 35 cents to a buck and only lasts a week.  Yes you pay more (typically 9-10 percent) but IMO it evens out since you are paying less on listing fees, you can list 100 items for what it takes you to list one item up for auction.

The reason shop owners get "shafted" is rather ironic. Ebay stores had become TOO successful and ebay was losing money.  Ebay benefits from an auction frenzy that causes an item to jump way beyond it's expected price (witness their lax enforcement of shilling, and series of commercials about "shop victoriously" where they encourage willy nilly bidding frenzy).  In contrast a store setting has a "set" price that you can compare with other prices, and purchase at your leisure, even though it may be more than the auction price it is much, much more convenient for the buyer.

Problem started when the ebay store fees were something like 3 cents across the board for any item no matter the price.  Unscrupulous resellers began carrying thousands of items of "phantom" inventory, a system pushed by several "get rich quick" books and videos. Basically, the system was to list EVERYTHING in stock at another large online retailer (say, Walden or Barnes & Noble) and then when the order came you on ebay, the reseller would order the item off the larger online seller, then have the item shipped to them, then mark up the item to make a profit and ship to the buyer. Great in theory, because the reseller was out NOTHING until the ebay buyer paid for the item in full. The problems however were many. First, often the item was out of stock at the larger retailer, and after a long wait the reseller would inform the buyer of this; second, the shipping/handling charges were jacked up so the reseller could make a profit off basically being the middle man; third, transactions using this method took way too long (often 3-4 weeks) since the reseller was at the mercy of Waldens or whoever for them to ship the item before THEY could ship it. These type of resellers gave ebay a bad rep and caused a lot of complaints as a result (plus made ebay much less money than an auction would)

For the reseller what a great way to run a business, you could have 10,000 items listed and only spend $300 listing fees in your store. Awhile back Ebay noticed it's auction revenue was going way down, the store concept had become far too successful. So they finally instituted a price increase across the board, immediately putting most of the vapor inventory resellers out of business (instead of $300 a month with the new prices costs would jump to $1000 or more a monthy).  Unfortunately people like me were caught in the middle.  The truth is that auctions are not the most profitable way to sell on ebay unless you have truly rare or unique items.  A D&D module that sells for $15 in your store will often go for for less than $5 in an auction (or even less if that week you don't have two people who both equally want that item and bid against each other, a circumstance that is more luck than anything else).

And shop inventory is available in a search, it's just that you have to SCROLL DOWN after the auction listings are delivered, so for the lazy or newbie ebay bidder he may never notice this and not buy an item cheaper than the auction price. Not long ago an ebay auction went for over $100 on an item I had in my store for $25....and the buyer was an Acaeum member!!!  So yes you do have to be slightly more sophisticated than the average buyer to make sure you are getting the best deal.

The real value of stores for me is being able to list an item considered a "common" module, so that a buyer interested in many items at once doesn't have to wait until he finds out he wins multiple auctions to simply buy them all at once and have one set shipping fee.  Many, many surveys have shown time and again while ebay buyers WILL participate in a auction frenzy the vast majority still prefer to pay a set price and buy the item outright without all the hassle of waiting seven days to win an item and then at the last minute find out someone sniped you. Often my best sales are when someone on the Acaeum lists a bunch of auctions, the day after they are over I get a flood of buys from people who have lost out! With a store listing the buyer may pay more but is paying for convenience, which cannot be overestmated.  Just the last two months I have had multiple $200+ orders to European buyers who obviously enjoyed the convenience of simply ordering items from the store instead of waiting weeks or months to win the exact auctions they needed.

I would say as a general rule I almost completely shun auctions now unless the item is unique, or rare, or unsusual. I literally lose money on auctions and they are just not worth my time except as a promotion tool.  As for suggestions, if you were selling, I would auction perhaps 20-50 items a week to bring attention to your listings, as well as cultivate reputations places like here and Dragonsfoot which are your target audience, and seek out other online forums where gamers gather and post links to your store. Also try to carry items that no other resellers have at that time in their ebay stores, so your listing is the only one that pops up when searches are done....even if the price is what you consider "too high" the search will bring up your item, and perhaps get the buyer searching your other listings.  Also I would make sure I had a variety of listings in many different categories, not just games, as someone buying, say, a paperback or comic or cd might see the cross promotions and decide to poke around in your store a bit.

Mike B.

I sell mostly miniatures in my ebay store.  rarely do I auction anything these days (although I just had a successful auction for some rare minis).  I find I have lots of multiple and return buyers.

Best part is there is no stress on if the item will meet the value of what you expect.
Conversly I almost never buy from Ebay stores

Interesting

Later Guys

I also sell mostly minis, and I can't do the store thing for a couple of reasons.  I have a full-time job and 20 to 30 auctions keep me plenty busy.  I have a long list of regular customers and everything evens out in the end money-wise.  On some sales I make a huge profit and on others the buyer gets a steal.

The other major factor in my decision to not have a store is that, with auctions, I know when the sale is complete.  I can send out invoices all at once.  Yeah, the payments come in here and there, but mostly the day after the auction.  I don't have to constantly check my e-mail to give good service.

If Ebay became my job, I'd probably have a store.  I usually don't buy from stores and patiently keep working away at auctions until I get a good deal.  

But I think the key to good store sales is reputation.  If people have a good buying experience, they will eventually make you a favorite seller and come back.  70% to 80% of my minis sales are repeat buyers.  Not that I'm going to go on and on and on about my feedback like some people we know!

megnelwil wrote:Thanks Mike (was hoping you'd chip in). I wasn't aware of the vapourware scam, another case of a few bad apples souring it for everyone. Agree totally on auctions, especially at present. Putting items out there is almost like throwing them away unless new ebayers happen to be on the prowl. Even with rare items nothing seems guaranteed. On occasion I've felt embarrassed at the lowly prices I've paid to take stuff off some peoples' hands  - that's the name of the game I suppose. Shop inventory doesn't display at the foot of the page when there are a lot of auction matches - or am I getting that wrong? Say if I put 'Cthulhu' into the main search, all I see is a small link at the foot of the results pointing to International sellers and then Shop sellers. I've noticed a new panel at the bottom of auction descriptions that informs the user of the category where identical items can be found, but no link is provided - not even to the category. This has to be a concious effort to play down the stores.

Do you really only pay one extra cent for gallery? I pay 14 cents extra if I select that option - which I have to do if I want to place any items as featured in the store. That's a 1400% price hike for UK sellers or am I missing a trick? So a mid priced item with gallery works out at around 28 cents for me to your 12 cents - that doesn't make me overjoyed and I wonder why UK prices are so much higher? Smaller market, less margin I suppose.

The one cent extra for gallery is for store listings only...auction listings cost an extra 15 cents...unless as you say UK store sellers are getting screwed.  Another example of nickel and diming the ebay seller, especially the newbie seller that might think they need all the bells and whistles like featured gallery, etc.

Shop inventory listings only show up with I believe less than 20 auction listings...so yes common searches like AD&D, D&D, Cthulhu, etc won't show your ebay store listings.  That's why it's also important to cross promotion so that if someone looks at or buys something from your store, they also see you have some letter modules and such.

Also everyone has the ablity to have a minimum bid so I never feel guilty if I happen to win something for 99 cents or whatever....

Mike B.

megnelwil wrote:

Time to get jumped on now - has anyone ever thought of an Acaeum Store? Where members could put their items up for sale or trade. A proper store, proper software. That would potentially be a big inventory packed with interesting stuff and this place already has a reputation so I could see it being a destination site within the collecting community. Members could still chuck items out on ebay as an advertising route to bringing people into the store. People would buy with a lot more confidence than they get from ebay. Something I've been thinking about for a while now and wondering why it hasn't already been done.

Geez, so pessimistic. I am not sure why someone would jump on you for that, but whatever.   Anyway, to answer your question, yes the idea of the Acaeum setting up an auction/storefront set up was was tossed around before about a year ago now:



viewtopic.php?t=5367&highlight=acaeum+auction+site

Thanks for the link BC. I read through and there's a strong theme of competition with ebay. I see it the other way, complementing ebay and vice versa.



All good points Ben, my thoughts revolve around my own experiences the last few months which are limited, trading on ebay, trading privately, buying lots. I've often noticed there is room for doing things just a little better, more conveniently, maybe tying up areas that aren't currently connected. And others here will have much greater experience to add in order to define the wider problems, pitfalls and possible solutions. I do have a fair few thoughts and suggestions which I'll jot down in the thread BC pointed at when I get a spare 5-500 mins. One thing though, any store involving Acaeum members does not necessarily have to be hosted right here. Maybe an Acaeum seal of approval would be enough, member participation would be the vital ingredient. I agree about the potential conflicts of interest and some of the related issues, but we already have a lot of people here who have ebay stores or private stores and are using ebay to drive traffic. That's my angle, bringing it all together to cut costs and improve/ enhance the user experience. Cutting ebay out is not the goal nor is it even possible, adding specialisation that would surely appeal to a close community is more along my line of thinking. I believe there's mileage in it if done right and for the right reasons.

Hold on, spoke too soon. You get a free gallery image so you also save the 15p that everyone automatically spends on 99p listings - right?. Mum and Dad will now be able to quickly see which toys and games to war over. What it means is if you now take advantage of something you never used but will now have to use because it's free, you break even. Provided your item doesn't sell for more than usual during the Christmas period. And if it does, well you have more but so does ebay and their increase is bigger. They've taken the Christmas period and transferred part of the seller's potential windfall into their own pockets. Good business but a lousy attitude to their bigger customers. It doesn't affect me as I only sell a few bits and pieces but I wonder if the larger sellers who were banking on a good Christmas know they've just been shafted?