There have been issues with searches not working recently. My sales are about the same as this time last year on a sellthrough basis, but the last 2 weeks have been patchy - a few on the weekend, then nothing through the week, where normally I would expect to sell something every day, pretty much.

I think eBay are blaming the issues on upgrades done to the 3 major browsers recently, not their inability to stop fiddling with things, so it might be an idea just to use your 40 free until that is sorted before thinking about a store.