Considering ending my store subscription

[jockeydeuce]

When I opened my store years ago and the standard for a non store seller was 10 listings per month (if I remember correctly), the store made sense. I'm not a prolific seller though and struggle to maintain much over 100 items for sale at given time. Now that any seller can have 200 listings per month I don't see any reason to keep my subscription. Is there any reason anyone can think of for me to keep it??

Seems like good fiscal sense for someone with my volume.

[deeeight]

Well given you apparently have no items currently listed... seems like you don't need to pay for a subscription that's giving you no benefits anyway (other than that quartely shipping supplies coupon).

[jockeydeuce]

Well my listings aren't visible because I put my store on vacation mode while I sort out MP. That's rather irrelevant.

[femmefan1946]

But confusing.

The good points to a Store are;

• Lower FVF- about 9.1% instead of 10.2%
• Those quarterly coupons for shipping supplies
• If you use all your available listings, lower listing costs.
• Arranging your products into your own in-store categories.

The no longer useful points are:

• Any seller can use Time Away, so the Store-specific On Vacation is obsolete
• The shipping coupons reduce the cost of branded shipping supplies, which are overpriced to begin with. Still a good deal if you can use them, pointless if you take two years to go through a box of 100 poly envelopes.

The cons are:

• If you are using less than the number of listings available you are paying more to list with a Store than without.

If you are listing less than the 200 items a month, a Store is not useful to you.

[richardcm]

Be careful ending a store if it is on a yearly subscription. Penalties will be made depending on how many months left until the renewal date. There is a help page on the amounts charged for remaining months.

[jockeydeuce]

Those are my thoughts. The only con I can see to ending my subscription is the slight FVF increase. I've never used shipping supplies and I doubt I'll ever hit 200 listings. I can revisit the idea if that was to happen.

@richardcm

I believe I'm month to month, but I'll look into that. That's an interesting tidbit I wasn't aware of.

Thank you!

[fishing2carp.zaksauctions]

what supplies coupon are we talking about?  I opened a store and have never recieved anything about supplies yet????

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@fishing2carp.zaksauctions wrote:

what supplies coupon are we talking about?  I opened a store and have never recieved anything about supplies yet????

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With a basic store you qualify for a coupon every quarter for 35.00 from

https://www.ebay.ca/str/ebayshippingsuppliescanada

Next one should be available early July. Shipping is free. Tax is extra. You should get an email when it's available at either eBay mail or your personal mail that you have attached to eBay.

-Lotz

Link from 2019 explaining things in detail...For basic reference.

https://pages.ebay.ca/promo/2019/Shipping-supplies.html

[reallynicestamps]

Coupon isn't exactly what it is.

Roughly quarterly store subscribers get an offer for various branded shipping supplies: boxes, poly envelopes, bubble envelopes, tissue paper, packing tape.

The prices are ridiculous, but when you apply the promotion you can drop the price to reasonable even including the shipping and taxes.

How long have you had a store? If it's less than three months, you may not have received a promotion yet.

[deeeight]

They also don't put the coupon code in an obvious location. You need to click the summary option from the My Ebay tab at top right corner of browser, but only when on the ebay site your store account is on (ebay.ca, ebay.uk, ebay.com, etc). If you're account is on ebay.ca and you happen to go to summary on ebay.com it won't show you the code. They're only valid for the quarter they're issued in so if you don't use then, you lose them. As to the prices for the shipping supplies... compared to buying flat pack boxes in bulk at places like staples they're quite cheap for the quantities you can get. The packing tape rolls quality isn't the greatest, honestly you're better off with the rolls of clear tape from Costco in bulk but the airbubble jacket envelopes and boxes I find useful. I haven't had to buy packing boxes or bubble envelopes at retail prices in years. That they're delivered express to my door in a couple days is also useful.