Fuzzy Logic - Opening a store

[julieo459]

I do not have a store and have been taking advantage of the ebay listings specials for the past year - It has worked out well. Even though I have been passed over for the last 3 specials I still get my 50 Free .com and .c for a total of 100 free listings per month.

Here is my math. If I open a basic store at $19.95/month, I get 150 free listings. The thing is that to compare the cost, I need to subtract the 100 free listings that I would be getting anyway as a non-store. I am then left with 50 "free". $19.95 per month divided by 50 = .40 per listing. So if I go with a store, I am paying .40 for the extra "free" listings.

I can do the same with the premium Store  - 500 free listings minus the 100 that I would get anyway, therefore 400 "free listings". 59.96  divided by 400 equals about .15 cents a listing.

Hope everyone can follow me.  Most of my postcards sell for about $4.00 each, so it takes a while to cover the cost of a store.

Any bets on whether there will be any more free listing days?

[pocomocomputing]

1) eBay.ca has Canada Post shipping options. eBay.com has USPS shipping options  So on eBay.com you must use the generic Flat Rate options.

Typical eBay.com shipping setup is (Under Flat Rate shipping, no calculated shipping since no Canada Post shipping options)

Domestic (USA)

-Shipping from outside the USA (choice of economy, standard and expedited)

International (two separate entries)

- Select Canada only and use Standard Int'l (choice of economy, standard and expedited)

- Select Worldwide and use Standard Int'l (choice of economy, standard and expedited)

Note Expedited is a generic expedited used by eBay and nothing to do with Expedited Parcel by Canada Post.

Now I use the My eBay -> Account ->Shipping Preferences and block countries I do not ship to to control the World wide.  You can set up a general block there or a specific block for the listing. The list of blocked countries that you created on eBay.ca is the same as on eBay.com so no need to create it again.

Since you can only use Flat Rate shipping costs on eBay.com, you must use an estimate of the Expedited charges to the USA from Canada and the same within Canada. SO it gets a bit messy for this. What I do is try to list items on eBay.com that will go flat rate Small Packet USA Air or Light Packet USA Air (and hopefully one day Tracked Packet USA!!!). But this always leaves the problem of shipping within Canada and having to use Expedited Parcel. SO for Canada I use the highest cost from Vancouver to the Maritimes and hope no one in a remote location like the Yukon or NWT buys.

2) I asked this question once a couple of years ago and I was told it would be a duplicate. But not if it was listed with the other country excluded .So list on eBay.ca and exclude the USA and list on eBay.com and exclude Canada. Choose Worldwide on one site or the other.  I never tried this. Too complicated. Easier to change the title and description slightly to make it not a duplicate.

[pocomocomputing]

When listing on eBay.com with generic options, it is confusing a bit because you have to think differently as to what domestic means in the listing shipping options. Domestic refers to the site listed on which is the USA for eBay.com.

A seller needs to think about shipping FVFs carefully. It is based on the lowest of the first domestic shipping option or the actual shipping cost used for International shipping.  Now this is the USA  option, not the Canada option.