Basic store subscription doubling in September

[sbmg2005]

Hi,

We have just read the changes that are coming in September 2012 regarding Basic Store Subscriptions (rising from $24.95 to $49.95)

Our sales on ebay have reduced so much over the last year or so that doubling our store subscription really isn't an option  (most of our sales come though our website).  My question is, if we close our store and take advantage of the 30 free listings per month, will we have to relist the stock we have in there now?  Or will it appear in our Unsold folder and we can just relist it from there?  Also, is there anything we'll miss out on by not having a store other than Good Till Cancelled listings?

Any help would be appreciated.

[comcol]

Totally agree!!. Making a third of the fees and they would still be mutil millionaires. Ebay is nothing but a rip off these days.

[star*mystyk]

but apart from the slight break on FVF, non-Power Sellers, store owners and businesses aren't able to list multiple quantity BIN's, nor use the variant listing format. Not sure if either of those will affect you, but they're the only other things I can think of.

So, if I close my Store I won't be able to do multiple quantity fixed price listings - it's only for store owners? Can non-store owners do BIN with best offer?

As we're also not allowed to list multiple identical listings that's rather annoying. I've two different items that I have at least 10-20 of.

I guess I'll have to list them now, before the changes happen.

I certainly won't be keeping my store open. The main reasons I liked having one was holiday settings, GTC, 30 day listings, multiple fixed price, and having everything neatly organised into categories.

I've had a store for as long as I can remember so don't remember what it's like without one.

[thesoulyearns]

Yes, non-store owners can have BIN with best offer. I have the 30-day free listings thing and at the moment 10-day listings are also free. You could also do a Second Chance Offer to the next highest bidder and get 2-3 of the same item sold from the one auction, depending on the number of bids.

[flashback_deals]

The sellers with thousands of listing wont be affected. Some charge a vfortune for secondhand stuff and thing everything is a rare find so they only have to sell a few and they get their profit

But smaller and hobby sellers who sell cheap items will get flushed out because of more fees and in the end, if you want something, instead of getting something say for $3, if the smaller traders are gone, these big sellers could charge $10, $20 or more for the same item, and if you really want it, you have to pay it making ebay an expensive buying experience

Smaller sellers on limits wont be able to afford to sell cheap items  now, and they cant raise prices to match the bigger sellers because of their higher feedback which means eBay flushes the smaller sellers out

[nicegreenpetticoats]

I read one comment the other day about how you can't find any cheap, weird and whacky items here anymore.

With fee hikes like this one there won't be too many of these gems or bargains to be had anymore, smaller store owners if they decide to brave the fees will have to raise prices to compensate.

Let ebay try to tell buyers how much they will enjoy paying more for their products, they keep telling sellers that buyers want all these reforms, but I'm not convinced.

It is getting to the point where you can buy brand new items at Kmart & BigW for less than what you can pick up secondhand here.

Jenny

[perfectly_dark007]

Ebay youve done a good job here of getting rid of your hobby sellers. I read the email as 'we didnt make as much money as we thought with our last fee change, so heres a doubled store fee. What are YOU going to do about it'

So yes, Ill be closing my store also. Its not big but a couple of hundred a month in ebay fees youve lost on me alone over a cash grab

[j*oono]

Around 90% of my sales are to the United States.  These other sites would just not work for me the way ebay does but the store cost will finish my little hobby store off now anyway.

[j*oono]

Thanks Soul.  I will take a look.

[shemagic]

will close my store also  paying 49.95  fro 24.95 is a joke  small time sellers can't make a profit most of the time with the changes and this will just end it for me.

[sarahs_bits]

It won't matter one bit to eBay if the majority of small/hobby sellers (like myself and many, many others) disappear, they want us gone anyway - it's practically in the wording of their email anyway :

"This new fee is aimed at allowing serious businesses on eBay to continue operating a Store, while individual sellers should consider taking advantage of the 30 free listings* available every month."

I think it also boils down to the fact that they won't spend the money on getting more support staff to help with the daily issues the site has as it as anyway (in relation to disagreements regarding FB and DSR's etc), so better to trim a few of us off and keep the larger monthly fee's they get from the big sellers and reduce seller complaints.  I don't know, it's all a bit sad really, I'm sure the combined total of what the smaller/low turnover stores generate is quite large, but obviously not large enough to be worth the hassle in their eyes.

I'm just going to see how it goes, I'll keep on doing what I'm doing and see if it's still financially viable to keep a store and if losing my TSR really has much of an impact.

Good luck everyone - sad times ahead methinks!