Can I get 3 Basic store subscriptions instead of 1 Premium?

[geekymarty]

200 listings with Basic store at $20, 500 with Premium at $60 ... I fail to see the REAL advantages of getting a premium store if it doesn't even get you as many "free" listings as the "Basic" level money for money.

So can you sign up 3 basic stores instead and get 100 more listing per month for your money?

[pierrelebel]

ONE and only ONE store per User ID.

[reallynicestamps]

But you can have as many IDs as you like, although you need a different credit card for each one.

All your IDs can feed into the same Paypal account, however.

[pierrelebel]

... but new selling ID will need be under the "21 day hold" from PayPal.

Just not worth it unless you are expecting tens of thousands of transactions a year.

[geekymarty]

Well, with that many hoops to be able to pay "base fee" even if you scale up, I'm not sure eBay is a good place for e-business ... Pretty strange that you can't really scale up your operations over here unless you pay MORE per transaction ...

I'll go with "the river" then ... fixed $30 a month for unlimited listings, 15% on sale (which is actually less than eBay/Paypal combined when PP raise their fees in April), and they don't double dip on the shipping fees, you can even actually make a profit on their fixed shipping fees if your handling fees stay low (which eBay tends to think doesn't exist by always putting pressure on a free shipping system) ...

I fail to see why someone would sign up for an eBay store here today  if they need to list over 200 items when they do this simple comparison of the fees ... Unless it's close to impossible to sell on the river, which I highly doubt as many sellers seems to do very well over there ...

Thanks for the answers.

[pocomocomputing]

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@geekymarty wrote:

Well, with that many hoops to be able to pay "base fee" even if you scale up, I'm not sure eBay is a good place for e-business ... Pretty strange that you can't really scale up your operations over here unless you pay MORE per transaction ...

I'll go with "the river" then ... fixed $30 a month for unlimited listings, 15% on sale (which is actually less than eBay/PayPal combined when PP raise their fees in April), and they don't double dip on the shipping fees, you can even actually make a profit on their fixed shipping fees if your handling fees stay low (which eBay tends to think doesn't exist by always putting pressure on a free shipping system) ...

I fail to see why someone would sign up for an eBay store here today  if they need to list over 200 items when they do this simple comparison of the fees ... Unless it's close to impossible to sell on the river, which I highly doubt as many sellers seems to do very well over there ...

Thanks for the answers.

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If you have a basic eBay store with 200 free listings, you can actually list 200 free on eBay.ca and 200 on ebay.com for a total of 400 listings. A quirk in the eBay system that has been around for years. Same for a Premium store with 500 on each for 1,000 listings. Even a non-store gets 50 free on each site for 100 total.

Of course there are issue with listing on both sites. You can't combine sales if the sales for a buyer are on the two sites. And no Canada Post calculated shipping on eBay.com but flat rate shipping costs work well for many items where shipping costs are fixed for Small Packet or Light Packet.

Just remember that account selling limits may prevent you from using all free listings. A new seller gets the selling limits shown but old accounts do not. I called customer support on this old eBay ID to have the selling limits shown a few months back. I was just curious and never had problems listings as I never listed more that 100 items at the same time. I have a 150 monthly item limit (C$6,000 Total Sales) so it would never make sense for me to get a Premium store with 500 free listing monthly. I would have to build up sales that would increase my selling limits each month to use a Premium store. So I would have to start with a basic store with 200 free and work my way up over months to be able to use a Premium store. The same may apply to you so find out what your selling limits are before planning any store subscription.

And there are category limits as well. If you plan on selling much of the same type of item, category limits may only allow 1 or 2 items to sell. Computer and Consumer electronics categories are bad for scammers so the category limits are very low for new sellers. On another new eBay ID I have a limit on 1 item in a category in Consumer electronics. I have 50+ items to list there. I need to sell one item to list a few more. I will have to sell an item for $1 with free shipping to break that limit since the one item I have listed in that category has not sold.

Here is a link to selling limits:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/sellinglimits.html

 And then there are the PayPal 21 day holds. This hurts cash flow. If you use tracking and the item shows delivered, funds will be released after a couple of days after it show delivered so you might get your money for item in less than 21 days. Ironically, one you pay for a PayPal label, the shipping costs funds are released from hold. Not before, after. Otherwise, you wait 21 days for non-tracked shipments. The 21 day hold is a pita. If sales get high enough, the hold may be dropped after 90 days and 25 sales and $250 amount is met.

PS For a new seller, selling on eBay is way too complicated to figure out on your own. Just too much information to absorb and understand. Much information is there but reading and understanding what it means are hard to do. If I was anew seller on ebay, I would have given up trying to sell on ebay long ago. I know the rules are there to prevent scammers which was a problem in the past. It would take a year to build up a successful account on eBay for a new seller if they survived the defects from all the selling rules. I doubt any new seller would have the patience to wait out a stressful year of selling on ebay for limited sales results.

[geekymarty]

Wow. No wonder they split-up eBay and PayPal a few months ago ... I guess one of these 2 is going belly-up in a few years (or faster) ... guess which one it will be?

Still, with the history of eBay and the fact they're a giant, how come they can't adapt to an easy (and logical) system for e-business so they can survive? The simple misstep of not scaling the offer in a competitive commercial way versus the price they ask ($20 for 200 listings (or 400, whatever ... ) and $60 for 500 listings (or 1000...) ) goes to show how this thing seems to be run by amateurs still thinking they have the only offer out there? Even though I guess the bell rang already a few months ago since they decided to split both companies. Who's running the show around here? Time for change. Fast.

If you can't offer a platform that can scale POSITIVELY to the growth of a business (instead of negatively), don't be surprised to see your competition grab these customers. And to think your business is in a place where grabbing all these customers would be so easy (if you could SEE that your customers are actually the sellers and not the buyers. Let your customers take care of the buyers, they actually would like to see them back too you know!)

[dmil8030]

Hello 'geekymarty', 

<< So can you sign up 3 basic stores instead and get 100 more listing per month for your money?>>

Only if you have them on 3 separate IDs.  

You can have as many ebay IDs as you like and you do not need a credit card or paypal account on any of them.

All an ebay ID needs is a separate email address for each ID.

BUT, 

To buy from the site, it is necessary to have a paypal account or a credit card (or both).   That is, unless a buyer 

shops locally and buys from ebay but always picks the items up and pays cash.   Ebay earns money from every 

transaction and thus makes it extremely easy to buy.  

To sell on ebay, you have to have a paypal account, -- backed by either a bank account or a credit card.

You can add both, but it is not necessary to have both on a pp account to sell on ebay.  

You can have up to 8 ebay IDs connected to a single paypal account.  

<<with the history of eBay and the fact they're a giant, how come they can't adapt to an easy (and logical) system for

e-business so they can survive?>>

You've got to be kidding.  Considering the colossal size of the behemoth company ebay, what would make you think 

its survival would ever be an issue?  Disagreeable as you may find the fee system and the limits and holds on newbies, 

these are the things that have made ebay as big as it is.  

It is an expensive company to run, like all businesses seeks to maximize profit, and knows the best way to keep

buyers returning is to provide a safe shopping environment.  

By all means, try somewhere else, but you may find that the best thing to do for yourself is list a few items here, 

take advantage of "free listing" promos when you can, continue to offer great items at a reasonable price whilst offering 

excellent customer service, -- as that is how to work your way to that coveted Top Rated Seller status with all its 

discounts and perks.  

Ebay is not "double dipping" on the shipping fees.  The reason there are fees on shipping is because too many sellers

would list an item for 99 cents and charge $65 for shipping.  As such, ebay made no money on the sale.  

If your fees are 10% for your item price and 10% for the shipping, -- that's still only 10% of the intake, - not 20.

Moreover, if you print your label through paypal the discount you get from this will cover the fvf on shipping. 

Ebay didn't split with paypal because ebay is failing, but rather I suspect it has more to do with paypal wishing to 

involve itself at an expanded level without any perceived conflicts that may result from remaining owned by ebay.  

Haha, if anything were to sink ebay I'm more inclined to point the finger at that GSP  and not at any holds or fees  

placed on sellers.   But even that is unlikely to have any effect, although only time will reveal that one.  

Why not do an experiment?  List some things elsewhere if you must, but set up some first rate listings on ebay.

Some members here can help you with every step of the way.  Read up on ebay's selling policies and fees 

(starting with pocomo's link)  so that you don't make any expensive mistakes.  

Try it for, say, 6 months or a year.   Decide for yourself where you are happiest.  I'll bet you end up preferring ebay. 

Well, you won't know till you try, will ya.