Store Inventory Fees go up again.

[youreinthebook]

I have rarely before read such long-winded weasel language to explain and justify price hikes. Apparently Store Inventory items are so VIBRANT that eBay can't afford to keep them at the current rates. Huh?!?

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200607.shtml#2006-07-19134256

[funkywatch_com]

Why not add 10 cents to the price of the item and see what happens? If/when you sell your item you will recoup the price difference?

Add an incentive like 'Free shipping on 2nd and 3rd item' it doesn't cost you anything more really...

It pisses me too but we have to find ways to adapt else someone else will take our spot. No one at ebay will cry if we quit.

eric

[teodoro1872]

I opened my EB Store recently. I am in a wait and see mode. I see way too many 1 cent or 99 cents auction from Hong Kong in Ebay.com and Ebay.ca. As a customer I get a headache just trying to sort through these auctions but as a Seller I see how some auctions just overrun other peoples' listings.

We can guess all we want for EB's decision to increase store fees. However, it is also our choice to stay and sell in EB or seek other online alternatives. EB was a small company once and there is no reason to think of another EB type phenomena just waiting to happen around the corner.

[thetickletrunk]

http://www.ebayuniversity.com/features/ebay_live_2006/#

There is a pretty good eBay Stores 101 Class there to watch for those interested.

[vesivus]

Why not add 10 cents to the price of the item and see what happens? If/when you sell your item you will recoup the price difference?

Add an incentive like 'Free shipping on 2nd and 3rd item' it doesn't cost you anything more really...

It pisses me too but we have to find ways to adapt else someone else will take our spot. No one at ebay will cry if we quit.

eric

Hello Eric.

Well, we have been slowly increasing prices, but we happen to deal in a lot of product that is highly competitive (unfortunately). We lose customers everytime we do this.

Eventually the market will weed out those that are realizing they're not making money, but its like a hydra -- for every one that goes away, it seems that 2 take their place, until they realize THEY aren't making money, and then the next 4 arrive, etc.

I'm not complaining -- this is a reality of the business I've chosen. All I'm saying is that the narrow view that 'cheap' products shouldn't be listed on eBay is just that -- very limiting and narrow.

John

[systemagic]

Consignment Stores.

Most of my store inventory (as opposed to the regular merchandise listed at auction)is comprised of individual items, garnered at garage sales, flea markets and even consignment stores. I generally do pretty well. Ninety to ninety-five percent of the collectibles that I find sell for a very good R.O.I. at auction. The remaining 5-10% goes into the store and generally does OK over time but it adds up. I'm actually having an extraordinary summer selling about $100/day largely of store items many of which have been listed as long as 3 and 4 years. To some extent I'm saddened that this is going to end.
I know most of the consignment store owners by their first names in the Lower Mainland by virtue of having been a customer for several years. I know all of the antique store owners in New Westminster where many advertised with me when I published my own publication and one store, a 50's store on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, invited me to be a picker for them a few years ago.
I've started removing my eBay store items and walking them into the door of my nearest local consignment store. I make less, about 50% of their sales price but, for example, I just removed 23 books from my store listings. I would have made about $20 USD on these books on eBay and now will make, instead, about $10 CAD. I paid $1 or $2 for each of them however so I can't lose and here's the big deal...
No photographing, no writing, no Turbo Lister, bo emails, no packaging, no post office, no collections, and no paying eBay through the nose. I just carry the merchandise into the store, and, later on, go pick up my money. It's so much easier! I feel like a huge weight has been lifted.
Ironically the merchandise that the consignment store is getting is my better used merchandise leaving the junkiest stuff in my eBay store. I imagine that I'll be donating these items to the Sally Ann. I don't know yet if my eBay store will play any significant role in the future.
Right now, the way I see it, I'll list each stand-alone item at auction jut once. Twice if I feel it has any promise. Then off to the consignment store it goes! Better cash flow and very very little work.

One thing's certain: If the plan was for us to list our store items at auction instead - that's just not going to happen.

[tea_past_times]

One thing's certain: If the plan was for us to list our store items at auction instead - that's just not going to happen.

You said it, all my would have been store inventory stuff is booked for a live auction in the 3rd week of September. It's NOT GOING TO GET LISTED IN EBAY AUCTION AT 7 TIMES THE STORE LISTING FEE.

[thetickletrunk]

I hear ya tea_past_times! I took several items from my store, and sold them at the towns yardsale and its all gone now 🙂

I refused to auction them! eBay loses, as I got more for those items than I had them listed for in my eBay store, THANKS EBAY! :)

[systemagic]

Here's a link re. eBay store strategies. It's limited to on-line strategies but is quite informative. http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y206/m07/abu0171/s02

The part about Bill Cobb recomending calling customer support is actually quite funny. There's a man with a tight understanding of eBay operations.

While real world markets naturally occilate, like a sine wave, corporations are pressured to keep their share price pointing, unnaturally, eternally upward. A particularly unimaginative board will only see the short-term gains possible by canibalizing their sales force. There are certainly better long-term strategies.

Marty

[systemagic]

Based on the past perfomance of the last 2 years what do you think eBay's board will decide to do to increase the price of eBay's shares in the future?

Diversify or be eaten alive.

[teaser777]

YOU KNOW I WOULDN'T MIND THE PRICE INCREASES SO MUCH IF WE WERE BACK IN APRIL WHEN THEY LET BUY IT NOW STORE ITEMS SHOW UP AFTER THE AUCTION ITEMS MY SALES AND STORE HITS WERE 200% HIGHER THAN THEY ARE NOW
SO WHAT IT COME DOWN TO IS MR COBB WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR US DIEHARD STORE PEOPLE THAT JUSTIFIES THE RATE INCREASES?
I WAS RUNNING OVER 10,000 ITEMS NOW I'M DOWN TO 8500 AND I'LL KEEP REDUCING MY INVENTORY TILL I CAN FIGURE OUT ANOTHER WAY TO GO

[sk76batman]

I had about 400 listings for Pet Supplies until this morning. I have ended all listings except for a very few; am liquidating the inventories and NOT paying 500% fee increases PLUS increased FVF's any longer. I really enjoyed my eBay hobby and all the people with whom I have been doing business since January. It's too bad eBay is forcing closures of small hobby businesses which make small but steady profits. I'm working for me, not eBay

[ryder68]

Just a thought or my 2 bits, Maybe offer buyers a 2% discount if sending payment by money order. As a seller, you are up 1% (based on percentage differential), your customer is getting a break and Paypal (owned by Ebay) is out 3%. At least this way some fees are removed and we all know every little bit helps.

[morteli]

I personally think it is disgusting for a Corporation (eBay) with over one billion (yes billion with a "B") in revenue during the last quarter, decides to increase its fees by 500% to its customers who are keeping them in business. I plan to "Boycott" eBay for several weeks, by first closing my store, and then not listing any auctions for a two week period starting on August 22nd. I would rather do nothing than work for eBay and earn nothing. If we all did this, perhaps eBay may sit up and take notice. Let's see $1,000,000,000 divided by 90 days=$x per day. Multiply $x by 15 days = $y. Golly, that's a hell of a lot of money. How is Cobb going to explain that to the shareholders.

[systemagic]

EBay is offering a 10 cent store-to-auction promotion that ends just as the new store fee rate increases take affect. I wondered if they'd do this at about this time but expected them to start, rather than end, at that time. Store-to-auction promotions are one of the few benefits left to operating a store. I'm quite pleased with the ending time. I don't think I'll relist anything into the store for the balance of August and then I'll be very selective, and paced, about what goes back in after that.

On a related note - I'm very happy! On Friday I was telling some freinds how I sure would like to sell something that attracts a four-figure price only having achieved low three-figure prices to date. Then, on Saturday, I wandered in, quite late, to an upscale estate sale. The woman who had lived there had been an extraordinary patron of the arts. I picked up two items for $170. One was an end table that had been recreated by a Vancouver artist named Linda Varo. Apparently people line up to buy her work. It looks like something out of the Beetlejuice movie. The other piece is an abstract plaster sculpture that's really really ugly. I thought that it showed some kind of extraordinary talent, however, in balance, form, and genuine anguish. Brilliant really. I brought it home and friends and family thought that I was nuts. They had me wondering whether I'd brought home some magic beans. I've looked into it a bit now, however, and it turns out that it's a museum piece from the Cleveland Museum of Art. I'm told that the pieces could both be worth thousands. The way that this relates to this thread is that it's quite likely, with my recent store-fee-driven exploration into alternative bricks-and-mortar venues, that eBay will never see these items.