@73rhc wrote:
Other that the search privilege. I don't see the 20% being a make or break issue. Looking at your sold items. You've sold 34 items since March 16th. A very rough calculation is $1525 in sales. Many with free shipping. Let us assume that the others bring the total for the purpose of fee calculation to $1600. Because you have a store. The normal fvf should be 9% that equal $144. 20% of $144 is $28.80. And that's for three months. Does your eBay business hinge on $15 a month? And yes I'm aware of the store fees.
While I appreciate the clever analysis of my business, I'm afraid you're missing the point.
Think of the TRS discount as part of a pie chart in which each portion contributes to profitability (or viability). There are a number of sections such as TRS, US/Cdn currency exchange, COGS, expenses and supplies, shipping (label) discounts, even time invested, and on and on -- areas where a direct discount or benefit can be realized, or else the possibility of cutting costs to reduce losses.
The loss of one "pie slice" is a critical issue since its contribution must be made up from somewhere else unless significant changes are made. As eBay has become a less, shall we say, reliable and regular sales generator for my business than it once was, and Canada Post more challenging cost-wise, every portion of that pie chart is essential. Over the years it has become more difficult to cover one problem area using other available factors.
The pie chart as a whole is my map to maintaining my current selling strategies. Skew the pie chart, and my business plan has to be re-evaluated. Each section is a buffer of sorts. So yes, the TRS is an important component whose loss I can't afford to take lightly, especially if the Canadian dollar rises another 5% to 10% against the $US. Which is why I do everything I can within reason to maintain the TRS.
Taken together, these discounts or savings allow me to continue to offer my customers (the vast majority of whom are in the U.S.) subsidized shipping rates, upgrades and/or free shipping. They allow me to avoid charging for handling. They allow me to use quality shipping supplies and presentation rather than simply throwing things in a bare, re-purposed cereal box (important when one is selling garments or vintage items). Believe me, as a buyer I've received items packed that way -- it looks bad and makes a poor impression of the seller's care and service. All of these efforts help make my customers happy, which in turn helps me hold onto my TRS.
The search boost of TRS may or may not be what eBay claims it is, but I'd rather not find out how much lower I'd rank without it.
I know the majority of my competitors are American, so I'm already at a disadvantage. The fact that my important items almost always show up on page 1 or 2 of searches on .com is a critical component of my ability to remain competitive and still make a profit on eBay. Remove that and I'd be just another foreign seller on page 10.
I don't need any further handicaps from eBay -- I've had enough over the past 3 or 4 years that I've had to adjust to and rise above. The fact that I'm still able to hang on and make a profit here is not a testament to anything eBay has done to improve its site, its visitor stream or the functionality of its seller/buyer tools, but I'd say very much in spite of eBay. I'm actually amazed at having surmounted so many obstacles yet still remained viable here as a business. For how much longer is the question. I feel we got a totally unexpected reprieve with this year's Spring Seller Update. What we need is a few more "non-housecleaning" updates.
Yet (as I said earlier) the effort required to keep up on eBay -- and keep on top -- hasn't been commensurate with an increasing return. I've always maintained that I would have gladly put up with eBay's foibles, complexities and idiosyncrasies had all that effort actually resulted in booming sales. It hasn't. In fact, despite more effort over the past 2 years, and listing more items each month, my overall eBay income is down significantly. I used to easily average $2000 to $2300 every 3 months prior to 2013; now as you pointed out, my 3-month figures are closer to $1600. The gap represents not just lost revenue, but lost opportunities to expand my business.
I know this sounds like a harsh criticism of eBay, but bear in mind that I'm comparing my experience here to the ease, simplicity and functionality of selling on two other venues -- they're a world apart from eBay and I constantly find myself thinking eBay could learn a lesson or two from them. Just having a properly functioning site would be a start, but they can't even seem to manage that.
Since eBay now represents less than half my annual income, I don't need any further time-wasting and frustrating issues created by eBay itself that cut into my profits. There are indeed greener pastures, and lots of them to choose from. EBay needs to wake up and smell the coffee before it loses most of its traditional core of independent smaller sellers. Someday they may wish they had done more to make the millions of us "little guys" comfortable here once the big retailers have also moved on.
