Ebay Stores And Page Hits

BaronofBop

BaronofBop

Registered Guest
I want to start a discussion on the pros and cons of an Ebay store. I thought I'd try one when Ebay was offering the first 30 days free. I liked the idea of dictating my price and not risking having a nice item go for pennies on the dollar of what it's worth, usually one bidder getting it at an opening bid price. I was initially happy as I started, a few page hits, a few sales. After allowing some time to go by, I've found that I get very few hits, and even fewer buyers. I've tried 50% off sales, I've reduced prices, and nothing seems to generate hits. Are you all seeing the same problems with less hits and few buyers or do I need to just be patient and wait until I get a presence that's more established?
I'm not asking for anyone to critique my store. In fact, I'd prefer this discussion to not get into specific details of pics, prices, but more along the lines of, is an Ebay store a viable outlet to sell vintage anymore, or should I look to other avenues to generate income.
Anyone care to begin?
 
I dropped my ebay store due to lack of sales and between the fees and such it got too expensive. I just ebay stuff I think wil sell.

As a store you dont do that well with their search engine. Not worth the fees...

-Chris
 
I closed my ebay store as well. I do believe that there are less buyers out there. Too many have been burned by poor sellers and the ebay experience in general. Many of the quality vintage sellers have left ebay as well so that is hurting the market as well. It has definitely changed, of that there is no doubt. I would look for alternative venues. I still plan on listing items on ebay occassionally but it will not be my main selling site.
 
I closed mine as well. It just wasn't profitable.

Then I tried just a few auctions to hopefully drive new customers to RubyLane, and that didnt work either. I think the last batch was one item sold out of 11, and even it was minimum bid. My listing & FV fees were more than the profit on the one sold item

I too am just done with ebay.

I agree with Chris & Carrie.. the sales just arent there anymore, and also recommend searching for an alternate venue or your own web site.

good luck to you!
von
vintagepretties on rubylane
 
eBay has been conducting seller surveys that suggest that they are considering putting stores back in search with higher (of course :angry22: ) store fees. Interesting discussion about it on the eBay stores board
http://tinyurl.com/5998yg

I still have my store, but am putting my best stuff on my website, which has been slow to take off, largely (I presume) because I'm not investing the needed time in promotion. I have never failed to at least cover my monthly fee, and some months do pretty well. I do get website hits from my eBay About Me page, although not many.

A few VFGers have eBay stores that are their primary focus - maybe they'll weigh in on whether they're seeing the need to make any adjustments.
 
Is there any one auction site that's doing well for anyone here other than Ebay?
And thanks for the input everyone.
 
My two cents as a buyer - I often search on ebay but they return auctions higher than the shops - when you get a large number of results, I just never make it down to the shops with BINs at the bottom - is that what you're talking about?

Also, I find that there are few bargains in the shop BINs, and I buy on ebay to snaffle a bargain :horny:

There are risks to buying on line, like most of us, I've had heaps of bad experiences so I'll only pay so much for something to counteract the downsides - and I find that increasingly sellers on ebay want too much for their goodies! Or maybe it's just that I'm too cheap - at least a third of the things in my shop have retail prices that are less than ebay. As a shop I have high overheads and have to sell a certain amount just to meet my costs, I don't have the luxury of pricing everything as much as I think it's worth, I would sit here day after day and maybe get a small number of sales. I'd rather sell lots at a cheaper price, but that means I have to buy at a cheaper price too!

Of course, I may have missed the point entirely - I look through ebayers shops all the time, especially my favourite VFGers but generally - no bargains, or very few.
 
Nicole,

This is exactly the type of input I'm looking for.
Because I've been away for a few years, I'm trying to see sales in the light of what Ebay was back then.
It simply is not the same place.
Stuff that went for big dollars then barely gets opening bids anymore.
I'll continue trying, but I will have to rethink my business plan.
Interesting discussion.
 
I do believe that there are less buyers out there. Too many have been burned by poor sellers and the ebay experience in general.
Click to expand...

Carrie, I could not agree more with you--you are dead on with this! I believe that so many buyers have been burned by lazy or unethical vintage sellers on eBay that they simply are not willing to shell out good money anymore, or are just not buying on eBay any longer. I know I have been burned big time by a few sellers, but fortunately, have been able to work out acceptable dealings with all but one seller. Still, I got junk, but at least in most cases was able to return it or get a refund of some sort. Myself, I now buy on eBay mostly for resale and not for my personal vintage wear. And, alas, based on my past experience, I daresay I am now one of those who refuses to pay really good $$ for eBay purchases, unless I've done business with the seller before, or it is someone from the VFG.

The buyers that do continue to buy, or new buyers coming in to eBay just want a bargain. They've heard, "Oh, yeah, you can get that cheap on eBay."

For a very long while, eBay was the perfect venue for vintage clothing, collectibles, etc. But those days are gone, I fear. I am trying now to only list those items that are "trendy" on eBay; otherwise, I assume I simply will not get a good price on them!
 
Originally posted by lovely_rita
I do believe that there are less buyers out there. Too many have been burned by poor sellers and the ebay experience in general.
Click to expand...

Carrie, I could not agree more with you--you are dead on with this! I believe that so many buyers have been burned by lazy or unethical vintage sellers on eBay that they simply are not willing to shell out good money anymore,
Click to expand...

It really burns me up when I see listings like this. It's so apparent when someone has gone to the thrift store, found a rag and lists it without a good description or condition.
That's why I believe in what you all in the VFG stand for.
It used to amaze me when I'd get an email stating that the item is so much nicer than they expected. What did they expect, garbage? I guess when they got burned with garbage in the past, they are amazed when someone actually describes an item accurately.
That also explains why established sellers will get a much better price for comparable items. They have earned the trust of the buyers. I'm going to keep plugging along and hopefully I will garner that type of trust and confidence in my items.
 
I, too, get buyers all the time who say, "Much better than expected, so much nicer in person, blah, blah, blah...." In fact, I was going to post this with my last post, but forgot, so I'm really glad you brought it up, BaronofBop! It is exactly as if they were expecting crap, or something merely "OK," rather than something exceptionally nice!

What I can't "get" is how some sellers throw up one or two out-of-focus photos, no detail shots, barely any description to speak of, a generic condition statement (i.e., "great condition"), and actually sell stuff... Then they get ticked off when you get the item, and you complain because it's a piece of crap. Some sellers know how to "work" the system--they put in the briefest of brief descriptions "e-mail with any questions," then tell you it's your fault that you didn't bother to e-mail and ask if the thing had moth holes in it! Or they show lots of pictures, none of which show much of anything, then say that "well, didn't you look at the pictures?" Grrrrrr......

The best we honest, detailed-to-a-fault sellers can do is just, as you say, keep plugging along. But, it behooves all of us to find other online venues besides eBay. The best thing that could happen is if 2 or 3 of the newer online sites take off, and we don't need eBay any longer!
 
I know I'm just one buyer... but I have to say I love eBay stores and despite the problems with eBay that sellers have (that I'm very sympathetic to!) it remains my primary shopping destination for vintage.

Like many devoted buyers, I read my eras-of-choice categories for 'newly listed' essentially every day and always take the time to click on the link for the Stores. Then I go to my Fav Stores next and look at all their newly listed.

Becoming a Fav of mine does have a lot to do with a selection that is updated regularly - because then it's rewarding for me to do the almost-daily check-up. Also you can become a Fav by excelling at some niche (like stockings or Tiki). And if you're an awesome person when I happen to make a first purchase from you, then I am easily hooked in :)
 
Chiming in a little late here, Baronofpop, but I love my eBay store and I depend on it for my survival. On average, I usually sell around 70-90 items a month from my store-format sales. (It's slow though, right now.) For me this winds up being around 65-70% of all my online sales. So, for the low monthly store fee, this is a good deal for my business.

I have not looked at your store, I feel the number of listings in it seems to be what makes it a success or not. I find I need 100+ listings to make an acceptable number of sales, and 300 items or more seems to be the "magic number" that I need to really get by, to put food on the table, so to speak. (I'm trying for 400 right now!)

Also I highly recommend listing new items constantly. As laughingmagpie mentioned, the variety makes it fun for buyers to check back regularly. I *try* to list something every day, in reality sometimes it's 4-5 days a week that I list, but getting new sets of eyes looking, and things starting and ending frequently, is key.

An eBay store may not be for everyone. I see it as a near-perfect outlet for volume vintage sales.

Jen
 
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