Dear eBay Queen:
I’ve been selling full time for about six months. I am thinking maybe I need a store. Can you tell me the difference between an eBay store, online store and just listing my stuff for 30 days on eBay?
I really would like to make a go of this, and support my family. My sales are increasing each month. I would appreciate any tips you can give me.
Trina
Dear Trina:
There are drastic differences between an eBay store and an eCommerce store. An eBay store is hosted on eBay and must abide by the rules of eBay. An eCommerce store is hosted by the hosting provider of your choice, and you choose the rules, payment options etc. An eBay store can cost you anywhere from $19.99 to $199.99 per month. An ecommerce store can cost you as little as $15.95 a month, up to hundreds of dollars per month. A buyer can search for your item on search engines either way.
The difference between an eBay store and just listing your things for 30 days on eBay are all financial in my opinion.
Subscription fees
| Store type | Monthly subscription fee | Yearly subscription fee |
| Basic | $19.95 per month | $15.95 per month |
| Premium | $59.95 per month | $49.95 per month |
| Anchor | $199.95 per month | $179.95 per month |
When you sell on eBay as a seller, you receive 50 free listings a month. As a person with a store you receive more free listings, and get a discount on insertion fees.
| Store type | Number of free insertion fee listings per month | Auction-style insertion fees | Fixed price insertion fees for Books, DVDs & Movies, Music, Video Games | Fixed price insertion fees for other categories |
| Basic | 150 | $0.25 | $0.05 | $0.20 |
| Premium | 500 | $0.15 | $0.05 | $0.10 |
| Anchor | 2,500 | $0.10 | $0.05 | $0.05 |
You also receive lower final value fees if you have a store.
I don’t think it would hurt to open an eBay store. How many listing do you normally put on eBay per month? If you list over 75-100 I’d start with the basic store. If you list anything over 200 I’d try the premium store. It may seem like a lot to list 500 items, but it might be just what you need to push you to list more and sell more.
Dear eBay Queen:
I’m not sure what to do. I had a buyer make an offer for 3 different counted cross stitch kits I have for sale. I accepted one of the offers, and countered on the other two. She accepted, and I sent her an invoice for all 3 items. Shipping is slightly over 1.5 lbs, so I gave her a quote for exact priority mail shipping. She messaged this back to me:
“I was not expecting shipping to be so high! Could you knock $6.00 off of this? I really feel like you are robbing me! I want to have a good feeling about this, and I don’t. Please let me know if you’ll take the $6.00 off.”
I’m not sure what to say! It seems like if I don’t do it, she’ll leave me a negative. I’m not ripping her off, I’m charging exact shipping, which is $8.95! What should I do?
Diane
Dear Diane:
I would message her and perhaps send a link to the USPS website that shows how much shipping is, and how you are charging her the exact amount, then I would ask her if she would like for you to cancel all three transactions. If she declines the cancellation, I would call eBay and see if they might give you a suggestion on what to do if she leaves a negative, or dings your stars.
The other option is to give in, and discount the shipping by six dollars. I don’t recommend doing that. I believe it teaches buyers bad behavior, and they could ding your stars or give you a negative anyway.
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