Article on my eBay Store
 

I guarantee there is a lot more to it than what is in the following article, but there are some tips in here for people considering a part-time homesteading business selling over eBay:

http://www.thefabricator.com/ArtScul...le.cfm?ID=1355

Nice article ken, thanks.

Ken (and other ebayers) have you experienced a drastic drop in sales over the last several months? I'm trying to figure out if it is just what I'm carrying in my store or if it is something that is happening to everyone.

Nice article!

I recently finished auctioning off some stuff, and didn't do as well as usual, but had chalked it up to not offering Paypal therefore no credit card sales. However upon discussing this with several friends, they've said their sales have dropped off also and they do offer PayPal.

By the way, nice article Ken.

Dawn

eBay has recently changed the way that their search functionality works, which brought our eBay sales down from $300 a day to less than $50.

Could you elaborate a little on that?

We were power sellers a couple of years ago... pulling in 3-4k a month, but we managed to wean ourselves off of ebay as our business grew. I've got to auction some leftover product soon, and I've been wondering how ebay has changed over the last couple of years. I've been out of the loop, so to speak.

Thanks,
Judy

eBay had promised that stores would be included in search when they increased the monthly cost for having a store. After they implemented the change to the search, they found out that people would rather buy from an eBay store than from an auction. Since that was cutting into sales from auctions, eBay did an abrupt change and removed stores from search. Here is a thread from their stores board:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.js...=1144358697472

I'd like to point out that our sales in our store have never rebounded to the February level, and that other eBay store owners are also having similar problems.

According to the eBay boards, other sellers, who do not have eBay stores, but who do auctions, are also having a similarily slow time... Of course, YMMV depending on your items. I feel that Ken is fortunate in having a relatively unique product for his eBay business. If you are interested, here is a link to our store: http://stores.ebay.com/Two-Harbors-Records-and-CDs

May has also been a slow month for me across the board. Was last year also. I think a couple of factors are at play:

1. Having to pay for proms.

2. Expenses assocated with high school graduations.

3. Summer vacation/camps funding needs.

4. Price of gas going up steeply.

I basically sell toys for men and it is funded by discretionary spending. As the economy cools down due to higher prices for a lot of things, I expect my sales to also do so.

I try to diversity my offerings. Right now whole pig BBQ spits are picking up some of the slack.

Ah ha! February is when everything went downhill dramatically for me. I went from doing a GREAT business to dang near nothing. Thanks for the link! Who the heck do we complain to and what would be the best way to go about it. I finally closed my store last month. Perhaps the fact that I have quit selling on ebay may incline someone to listen a wee bit(not holding my breath though).

Reading between the lines what eBay said was: As the result of the expanded store search feature our revenue decreased, thereby resulting in our reverting back to the old method.

My business really dropped off at the end of Feb too??? Not only did sales dwindle to near nothing the fees went up again and I am spending 15.00 more per month for my very limited auction listings! And yet if I dont keep some auction listings out there no one will see my knobs and such. I have been making some small sales off my website but I sure miss that ebay income.

eBay's traffic and revenue actually went up as a result of putting stores in search. However, their goal of auction sales went down. As a result, they removed stores from search.

There are LOTS of people complaining on the eBay boards. There is talk of a class action lawsuit against eBay, since they promised owners of stores that they would appear in search. eBay is countering by saying that they will try to have stores in search for the holiday season.

We've been selling on eBay since 1998, but I think that eBay is relying too much on their "metrics" and not enough on customer service. So, I've been looking for other work lately. I would like to be able to earn a living without having to deal with flaky eBay. DH is spending more and more time to list the same number of items, replacing mysteriously missing gallery images, and downloading TurboLister updates.

Thanks for the information, folks. Personally, if they are charging store owners more, I don't know why it would not be beneficial for them to keep them in searches. Of course, when did eBay ever do anything that made a lot of sense.

I threw up about 28 auctions about 3 weeks ago just to test the waters, and had about 50% sell through. Back in the day, I was selling about 90% of everything I put up.

I have a lot of stuff to clear out of my storage areas, so I think I'll throw some more up when we return from our 2 week vending adventure at Wakarusa & Bonnaroo.

Ken, we sell artwork & lifestyle products, so our sales are affected by the economy as well. Luckily, I have a collector base for the artwork that makes sure I always sell through on those items at least.

My sales were not doing well either so I have stopped for the time being . What I did sell went for low prices . I think it has to do with the time of year . I did well in March and April though .

i gave up my store back in the fall. i kept getting offers for this program and that program and i never bit. i chose the cheapest route i could as my sales were both low volume and low priced items.

i just get the feeling if you don't "pay up" by engaging in the extras you somehow mysteriously get less exposure. i have no way to know for sure, maybe that is unfounded but it is how i felt at the time.

since then, my auction success has been pathetic. no matter what i sold or how much of it last year before september, i did well. after that, no matter what i tried it seemed to fail.

i think ebay over-charges for the small amount of storage space they are selling you. $.35 for the gallery is too much. one should also get at least three pictures not just one. i think the large and extra large picture options are both over-priced and insufficient. $1 for a flag or checkered flag icon is just stupid.

i thought of using another online auction service. i am sure they are growing in popularity as ebay customers are becoming angry.

and further more, lol, they need to chill out with the policing of "solicitation of business outside of ebay" and "circumvention of the ebay fee structure". they have created a "want it now" feature that is a good idea but the get paranoid when people contact one another discussing the items. if i have an item i am unsure will sell and i find a potential buyer, i want to be sure it will sell before i list it and waste the listing fee. i found it offensive to be accused of circumventing their fee structure while encouraging email contact in order to prepare an item for sale. i had a length of aluminum stock i offered to sell and offered to cut to custom length according to email requests. they thought i was scamming them. i don't scam...sometimes i give at my own expense...ask some folks on this forum :grump:.

Ken, that was a interesting article about you. So nice to see one of "our own" getting some attention for selling on eBay!!!

I am testing the waters on other sites, such as www.ibidfree.com, especially since it has the advantage of No Fees. But it is new, so I am trying to promote it on my own website as well. My website is only for my new stuff and I just wanted to sell my used items in my ebay store.

ebay has promised that it has something in the works to make it up to the stores. But I am tired of finally getting my sales to show a profit (in February), then they do something to affect it so badly, that my fees are more than my sales. I cannot afford to live that way. As we all know, our lifestyle depends on us being able to make our living from our homesteads. Maybe the fact that they are trying to promote eBay Express is also effecting the stores' sales.

katlupe

Has anyone here thought about Stormpay or blujay? I had been thinking about starting an ebay business but if ebay is messing around with everything then is it worth the trouble for me?????

Kelli

My observation/philiosophy is adding bells and whistles to your listing seldom result in justified in the final price. Whenever possible I just go with a standard, one photo listing. Two photos sometimes and seldom three or more unless it is advertising something related in my store.

Some people put so much 'flash' in their listings they take a very long time to load. I almost always lose patience and cancel the inquiry.

eBay's listing fees can REALLY add up for someone only using regular bidding or fixed priced auctions. I pretty well only use them for something really unique and to try to drive people to my store.

Fortunately about 90% of my eBay items no one else on eBay is selling, so I'm pretty well the only game in town in that regard. However, I am also aware of market saturation. There just aren't that many people interested in my main product line (blacksmithing-related items) and almost all of the items are not expendable, so you don't get repeat sales of the same item. However, I often get additional sales from past buyers.

If you are out there trying to compete with dozens of people selling the identical item then your only real advantage is a lower price (considering S&H also). A price war will likely result.

Back when I had a salvage grocery store I received hundreds of recently outdated hearing aid batteries. I was the first to offer them on eBay and sold just about all of them at a good price. Within six months there were lot of sellers and prices were about 10% of what I got. I did the same thing with recently outdated health/protein bars. I was selling them about about 50% of retail. Now you can get them for maybe 10% of retail (and sometimes less). Sort of like exotic/fad breeds. Be the first in the market and then have the ability to quit when the prices start dropping.

Just some brief suggestions:

1. The way you put in your title likely determines a very high percentage of your listing's potential. You have 55 spaces. Try to pack as many key words in as possible. For example, don't list Vanna Doll, but rather Vanna Doll White Wedding Dress Barbie-type New in Box. If you run short use standard terms, such as NIB for new in box or NOS for new old stock.

2. Category is of secondary importance. However, it should be the one in which the items will most likely sell, rather than the traditional one. For example, say I was listing a figurine of a farrier. I wouldn't list under the figurine category, but rather under the blacksmithing one - the group most likely to be interested in the item. My Dad use to say if you're going to go fishing, go to the lake stocked with fish.

3. Description counts. As far as I know the amount of space allowed for a description is unlimited. Go well out of your way to describe an item. At least to me, be honest by pointing out all of the potential damage or problems with it. Even here there is a probably of different people seeing damage differently. On a vase, what might seem like a flea bite to you may be a nick to someone else. In this regard, if you don't know what you are selling, be honest about it and say you have described it to the best of your ability and a potential buyer should ask for further details.

4. Photos COUNT. My observation is listings which don't add a gallery photo sell far less often than one which does. You always have the option of including in your listing you will send a potential buyer additional photographs if they request them.

Shipping and handling charges have been a frequent discussion on the forum in the past so I won't go into them here except to say my standard policy is actual shipping (as close anyway as I can get it) with a $1.00 handling fee per shipment (regardless of how many listings go into the same shipment). Actually, the $1.00 covers about 40-50% of my PayPal fees.

To me, probably the biggest aspect is to know the market for what you are selling. For example, it is difficult to sell arts and crafts type item on eBay. They are more something people want to pick up, look at and envision how they might fit in their decor. I've seen lots of blacksmiths try selling their finished products on eBay only to disappear. However, those are the folks I try to sell to.

I have made a concerted effort to hold down eBay listing fees. On the eBay sales commission and PayPal fees there isn't much you can do there. I could drop PayPal, but really, really, really don't want to go back to only accepting checks or money orders again so the PayPal cost is worth it to me. About 95% of my sales are paid for with PayPal within 24-hours of purchase. I've gotten the combined fees down to about 12% of gross. Goal is 10%, but I doubt I can get there without hurting sales.

For background, I have left feedback on virtually all of my sales and that number is now over 6,000.

Ken,
That was a very interesting link. Thank you for sharing it..and also..thank you for sharing your knowledge about e-bay selling.

Thank you..also..to everyone else who shared their experiences about e-bay.

This topic has been very insightful and helpful. I hope to use the experiences shared here to perhaps avoid costly mistakes when I start my own e-bay selling.

Thanks again....and have a great day.

So Ken, you automatically add a $! to each item for shipping as a handling fee, right?

Thanks in advance.

Kelli

No, my handling fee is $1.00 per shipment, not per item.

Gotcha! Thanks Ken!

Kelli

great article congrats...

Excellent article, Ken! :)

Thanks for the artcle.
Okay money saving tip. If you have ebay stores or alot of auctions on ebay, BUY a domain if you do not already have one.
Add all the pictures you want to your listings and link it in the description of your item.
That is what I do on all auctions,minimum of 5 640x400 close ups, detailed etc.
No fees at all for ebay photos.
Heck if it is an expensive Item I have even put up 1600x1280 jpgs, tho heck for dial up users, it drove the price.

Ken,
Thank you for all the info on ebay.
You look nothing like I what I expected!
I have an interest in smithing, and have been working on my first few small projects.
Would you care to share your ebay seller name, so I can see what you have? Maybe we can do some business!!
clove

eBay seller: scharabo
eBay store: Poor Boy Blacksmith Tools

I am trying to diversity from predominately blacksmiting-related items. For example I had now added some items made from horseshoes and some forged end items.

Ken-
Do you find that you get better prices for your items if the auction ends on a certain night, like Sunday?
Clove

I haven't noticed any particular better day pattern. Sunday night ending theory is that is when likely the most people would have time to surf. I have heard much the same about early Friday afternoon when office workers are winding down for the weekend.

Have also heard another theory sales go up after the 1st when people received their retirement checks, etc.

Today there are so many ways to access from so many places I doubt there much surging.