Advice from Meg

Been gone the 3 days since my computer died. So I bought a new 2.5 gig computer and refired fire fox and now back online and starting to cruise at lightening speed.

Since reading this thread here and written in another location, I have put my store on vacation for a couple hours. Will give a report if there is any action to report.

Thanks for the constant info on this Donna.

It does stand to reason that ebay has the ability to control various aspects of their internal venues and set up what gets displayed and not displayed. It also stands to reason that they would set things up to display 25.00 and higher had weed out all the 1.00 items. Imagine the meg. space these kind of stores eat up. Ebay the huge search engine can speedily redirect searches to the new returns it wants customers seeing and potentially buying.

This type of search control may become the wave of the future with all kinds of engine and index searching, including google.

Again thanks Donna on the vacation info.

The thing is, they build us up for one thing, then do another. All this sidestepping and "SURPRISE" tactics need to stop.

I think they would just be so much better off by shooting straight with us all. If they want to phase out the lower-end stores, then tell us and let us deal with it from the get-go.

I opted out of EE some time ago. I had one hit and one sales the entire duration. I put my store on vacation for 2 hours. We'll see. You figure what do you have to lose when 75% of your sales come from your store and you're going to have to remove most of it next month anyway.

The amazing thing, reading Megs chitchat with the big stock brokers about the millions/billions for this and that is quite clear about one thing.

They look out for nothing but the bottom line profits for themselves and their investors and "we are the cow that gets milked for it".

There will never be anything you can call stability or the good ole days with ebay. Things are changing and Meg doesn't even know the outcome of it. They will push buttons of change anytime they want and "see what will happen with the bottom profit line".

So do what is smart, useful and has some sense of meaning and purpose, protecting yourself to help smooth out "your bottom line of profit".

Remember one thing, Meg and ebay could have been any one of us, if we had been in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.

Being a refugee from a big corporation, I recognize doublespeak and weasel words when I hear them. "Core" means where the profits come from.

Its fairly obvious they are using the profits, or actually overcharges, from the auctions to fund business ventures that have very little in common with Ebay. Does Skype really need to be integrated with Ebay?

I sell mostly vintage car parts, each part is unique and takes some research and a different auction desription. Then each part requires a unique shipping box, sometimes large. This takes alot of time. I've seen my profits dwindle the last several years with the fee increases - which is a big reason I am here using Auctiva to offset the picture listing and scheduling fees (THANKS!). Then Paypal takes a big bite. With the increases in shipping, customers also think they are getting hosed (I charge actual shipping rates). I've had to raise my reserve or starting bids to make up for the Ebay fees. No one, sellers or customers are winning here except EBay. At least for awhile. Ebay is just begging for competition, the backdoor is wideopen and a big breeze is sweeping in. I can see some smart guys, like Auctiva, offer an auction type listing format for niche markets and clean Ebays clock in that market, mostly from much lower fees. For instance, offer auctions for antiques, glassware or even vintage auto parts - integrate them with existing websites or forums.

Ebay is just not paying attention to their cash cow, its only got so much milk. If they LOWERED the fees they'd get alot more listings and make more money.

In my biz, there's all kinds of crap mixed in the reqular auctions that get in the way of searching for hardcore car parts, usually cheap overseas stuff like car covers, stereo systems, chrome headlight covers, etc that use spam keywords. These are not usually store items. That's the real problem for the "Ebay Experience."

Well that's my rant and my two cents - forgot now with fee increases its now three cents.

To me this just seems like another step toward what I was saying all along. I dont think they want to get rid of low end stores. I think they just want to get control over the tiny listing amounts with the sharked shipping charges. Many, many sellers were starting at .99 cents for a $25 item and charging $35 shipping. Thats insane! But it was being done all across the board. So basically they are saying if your items start price is too low, your not going to get the exposure you would get if you listed it correctly. I mean I could be way off..but they said they were going to take steps to get rid of the sharked shippers and this one action alone would certainly make you want to straighten up and fly right. I dont know, maybe Im delusional..lol

Thank you all so much for your comments!

Each one of you had very vital input that has given me something to "chew" on so to speak.

All VERY good comments. I'd like to see this discussion keep going as new thoughts come to mind.

Thanks again,
Donna

quote:

Originally posted by Westvatexan:
I dont know, maybe Im delusional..lol

Well, since you're asking!
<laughing>

I'm getting scads of hits from your site..Don't know if it's bringing sales, but your sites bringing in hits.

Hope my site is doing the same for yours.
Donna

quote:

Originally posted by Jett:
Well that's my rant and my two cents - forgot now with fee increases its now three cents.

Yep..nice add on there..three cents!

Please continue to come around with your insightful posting style.

We're a nice group down here and it's good sometimes to shoot the shi* with other sellers and get their view on what's going on.

Nice to meet cha,
Donna

quote:

Originally posted by Daddyo:
Been gone the 3 days since my computer died. So I bought a new 2.5 gig computer and refired fire fox and now back online and starting to cruise at lightening speed.

Thanks for the constant info on this Donna.

It does stand to reason that ebay has the ability to control various aspects of their internal venues and set up what gets displayed and not displayed. It also stands to reason that they would set things up to display 25.00 and higher had weed out all the 1.00 items. Imagine the meg. space these kind of stores eat up. Ebay the huge search engine can speedily redirect searches to the new returns it wants customers seeing and potentially buying.

Again thanks Donna on the vacation info.

Ok..New Computer? WOOHOO!

Yep..already on the eBay Stores Boards someone mentioned that the indexing appeared highest to lowest in each category by default. That hasn't always been the norm for eBay..as far as I can remember.

There's much going on in the background and I can't wait to see after the big selling season is over how everything plays out and who will be left. I have heard on other sites that the Big Dogs will be pulling out. I'm not so sure..one that was rumored was Sharper Image. I don't know bout that..they mostly sell their refurbished items via their eBay store...so I don't know if they'll give it up or not or add a new section to their domain to sell refurbished. (I didn't check they may already have it so why not cut out the middleman with eBay)

Let us know how the reindexing goes for you.
Donna

quote:

Originally posted by Fatman:
I think they would just be so much better off by shooting straight with us all. If they want to phase out the lower-end stores, then tell us and let us deal with it from the get-go.

My Friend, Ain't gonna happen.

I've been trying to find a list of stores that have closed since the announcement. To see if it is the lower end stores or if it's the stores that had low pricing PLUS sky high shipping. This will end it for them. Items really need to be over 25.00 to make a store well worth having...don't you think?

Peace,
Donna

Over the past few years, I have mostly been a sporadic seller on ebay. I've found that I'm able to sell fairly okay in the home school market. Most items in this market range from $5.00 & up.

I've also been selling a bit of used clothing/shoes, and they have been going from $5.00 & up to around $15.00, which I am tickled with.

For the last year or so, I have been trying to find a niche market, and think I've finally found it, but the key to sales is based on a total order rather than an individual item. The individual item would start around $3.00 & head up from there. This item though would be only part of a set, or ensemble, which would need to be completed based on the customer's unique design & desire, and this would drive the total sale up at checkout.

I anticipate the average order to range between $15.00 and $150.00 (fairly big spread), but could be on the lower end due to repeat sales over time, rather than buying the whole package at once. I just feel that...well...I don't know. I can take the choice away from the customer and just sell completed sets, but feel this will really take me to a niche much smaller than I want.

From everyone's advice, I am in the process of doing the whole shebang with domain/site, working on eCrater, and all the other stuff. I'll probably still use ebay as a marketing tool, but would really love to be able to keep it up there as a major resource.

So yes, $25 is kinda sharp from my perspective.

I agree with Jett. Insomuch as the 'core' auction style listings are where eBay makes its greatest profit. Once sellers realized they could list so so or hard to sell items in their eBay Stores, instead of listing them over and over and over and over and over and well you get the point, eBay lost revenue. eBay makes its greatest profit from the 'failure' of auction style listings. That's correct, failure. eBay's bread and butter is 'relisting' using gallery and other 'optional' listing tools. Many, many sellers will relist an item to death hoping (like an addicted gambler) this will be the time it sells. I've done it myself! The truth is, for most items, if they can't/don't sell on by the second time (maybe as much as 3 or 4 times) around, something's wrong. Either the ad (lack of keywords) is poorly written, over priced, poor ending time or it is just an item no one wants. If you can't sell an item by the second to fouth time, get rid of it. I've gotten to the point where I know (with reasonable certainty) what will sell and what won't. That's why I'm doing the .99 cent sale tomorrow. I'm basically giving away the so so stuff (nice things) to make way for the really good stuff. If you can't get the good stuff you feel (95% sure) will sell, don't get it. Sure take a chance on 'some' things. Make that the exception and not the rule.

Then again, if sellers stopped using optional listing features. Stopped relisting their merchandise to death, eBay would have to raise core fees to compensate. Hmmm, on second thought, continue to use gallery and other optional listing features. Above all else, relist your merchandise to death. I mean, how much is too much anyway? Muwahahahaha!

quote:

Originally posted by Magie Noire:

Then again, if sellers stopped using optional listing features.

Here Here!

Thumbs up!
Donna

quote:

Originally posted by Suthrnjewl:

quote:

Originally posted by Westvatexan:
I dont know, maybe Im delusional..lol

Well, since you're asking!
<laughing>

I'm getting scads of hits from your site..Don't know if it's bringing sales, but your sites bringing in hits.

Hope my site is doing the same for yours.
Donna

Well, I am glad to hear that Donna. Yes I have have been getting decent traffic for a new site since about 5 days after I started it. Ive already had one sale and I also had my fist sale from the ecrater "thevintagestore" the other day..I was shocked because I havent promoted it at all..lol I know they enter you into froogle automatically so I guess it came from there.

I dont know how many visits your site has brought me yet..I do not have that type of tracker installed yet. But I do have tracking on the links on my site so I know how many people have clicked your link. One thing I will say is that linking to your site has definately improved my search ranking. I have been diligently looking for some low cost decent advertising, no luck yet!

I have also been choosing link partners wisely..I am trying to get category specific links. So I have been refusing alot of people wanting to link with me..I know it will take longer to build my links thus longer to build search rankings..but at least they will be the right kind of links...and not links to some roofing materials site...lolol

If you know of any low cost people out there that will take care of doing the advertising for me..let me know..I just dont have that much time to do it so Im willing to pay if its cost effective. I can do it myself..but I would rather not..Thanks!!

Duh!!!!!!!!! Just figured out something....

In store inventory, the new listing fees:

Up to $25.00, 5 cents listing, 10% FVF

$25.01 to $100, 10 cents listing, 7% FVF.

So...its kinda a waste to list items from about $18 to $25.01, actually costs more in total fees than items priced over $25.01.

Also there is this statement below the chart:

"Please note that for current listings, the new final value fees will apply only after these listings are renewed."

Now does that mean the old FVF will hold for listings already on EBay before Aug 22 - like Aug 21?

Note Ebay's link to the "fee changes overview" is not working as I write this.

Jeff, thats the way I read it. If you list some store items on aug.21 for 30 days, they will have the old fees. All items listed on the first second of the new day aug.22 will have the new fee rate.

Jett,

My first inclination was to close my store before the first of August.

But after much debating back and forth..I came to the conclusion that I'm loading up my store through 11:59pm August 21. And will let those ads rock n roll until they end.

At that point all of my auctions that are under $25.00 in my store will be no more. It's not cost effective.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do after September comes around. Close store or keep it open.

I COULD keep it open for the cross selling purpose and categorization along with only putting into my store items that are above 25.00. With the holiday season coming upon us and eBay's selling time bumping to high gear...
15.00 bucks for a store isn't much in the scheme of things.

OR....

I MIGHT close up my longest running store out of four eBay IDs and just run auctions.

Who knows? All I know is I'm not bending over for eBay. <smile> Nothing less than 25.00 gets put into my stores if it stays open.

If you have a store..load er up with the old fee's staying intact until midnight of the 21st.

My Best,
Donna

quote:

Originally posted by Daddyo:
Jeff, thats the way I read it. If you list some store items on aug.21 for 30 days, they will have the old fees. All items listed on the first second of the new day aug.22 will have the new fee rate.

Did you get my email Daddyo?

Well for the kind of stuff I sell, in many cases sort of obscure 50's and 60's car parts, the chance that a guy is watching for that one week out of a year for that one part is a semi-longshot and it makes very good sense to keep one store just for exposure. But after Aug the prices do have to go up.

For these old car parts, anything under $25 is kinda a waste anyway with the time it takes to research, take pictures, describe, answer questions, invoice, pack and ship. These are really just lost leaders - hoping folks will email for other parts or maybe 1 out of 10 parts goes to someone who is mad at their money and its runs up to a small lottery amount.

One thing that is really kinda surprising this summer, I'm actually selling stuff. This didn't happen the previous two summers. Admittedly its the second or third tier parts and I'm keeping the prices down. You just never know about auctions or Ebay, its a surprise every time.

quote:

Originally posted by Jett:
You just never know about auctions or Ebay, its a surprise every time.

Have you considered opening a free ecrater store?

You don't have anything to lose and if your keywords and meta tags are strong..you could very easilly sell your items without the middleman fee's?

www.ecrater.com

I have several stores and I sell from those stores, too.

Check them out Jett.

My Best,
Donna