Lynn’s eBay e-zine Volume II, issue number 11

I have also come up with some new strategies to cut down on eBay store costs and wanted to share those with you. I emailed Griff (Jim Griffin-Dean of eBay education) with some suggestions to help move eBay store merchandise. Read his reply below. Finally, my brother Lee and I have been working on an amazing event planned for August 29th and I will share a few of the details with you today.

The article is out and on newsstands. Patricia Greco from Good Housekeeping did a fabulous job! She really got the fact that it is all about my grandmother. I love how the article in the magazine says it is a Dream Job. Selling on eBay really is my dream job and I know it is the same for a lot of you also.

eBay has changed my life and I am so fortunate to be able to do what I do for a living. It isn’t work–it is play. Here is a link to the online article, but please buy the magazine–it is so much better in person!

The excerpt that I chose for the Good Housekeeping webpage was story #74 from Money Making Madness. I chose that story because I loved what one of my favorite eBayers emailed me about it. This comes from Michael Stern – userid: BlueFrog_NY —Thank you Michael!

#74 Antique Baby Doll

This is what Michael had to say about story #74 from Money Making Madness:

“This was by far my most favorite story. Right now I’m thinking about that scene in Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer when they end up in the land of the unwanted toys.

Too bad that the story takes place before eBay was invented. Surely, somebody out there in cyberspace would want a cowboy that rides an ostrich or a water gun that squirts jelly.

Anyway, the point I got out of the story was if the item is rare, valuable, but broken, it is still not a total loss and should not be discounted as selling material for eBay. You should try to sell it anyway because there is always somebody out there in cyberspace who can think outside the box when it comes to seeing the value of unusual rare items.”

Here is a photo of Michael and me at eBay Live in Vegas.

Ways to Lower your eBay Store Costs

I know that this is weighing very heavily on most of our minds this week as the eBay price increases go into effect. Each day as I evaluate my stock and where I will be placing it and at what prices–I have had to make some tough decisions.

Change #1:

I still put everything up for sale at auction first and don’t move anything into my store until I have tried it at least once at auction. But now, instead of trying it twice at auction (35 cents) I may just move it directly into my store. That 35 cents will now pay for almost 6 months in my eBay store. That six month exposure in my store is priceless and I have found that I am doing this with about 50% of my items. Once time up at auction and then right into my eBay store.

Change #2:

I used to list all of my similar items in separate auctions and separate store listings. I still believe that at auction–items should all be separate. Dutch auctions are too confusing (even for me)! Can you imagine how confusing they are for those little old ladies in Pasadena? Make it easy on your bidders and do not do multiple quantity auctions. However, when you move items into your store at a fixed price–the multiple quantity option makes more sense than ever.

I had 15 bowls by Williams Sonoma in the Montgolfiere pattern. They list on the Replacements web site for $54.99 each. I had tried them at auction in 15 separate auctions at $9.99 each and when they didn’t sell, I didn’t bother marking them down and trying them again at auction. It would have cost me $5.25 to relist them if they didn’t sell that second time.

So, I moved them directly into my eBay store as one store listing with the quantity at 15. That just saved me 14 auctions times 6 cents a month or 84 cents per month. That is huge!

Williams Sonoma Montgolfiere Bowl

The only downside with this type of listing is that a potential bidder will not know that I have 15 available–unless I put something to that effect in my title. However, as a recent teleseminar student of mine just found out, that can lead the customer to think he/she is bidding on all 15 and that can become a very serious issue.

I have not tried this technique with 2’s, 3’s or 4’s. I think I will continue to list those as individual store items.

Change #3:

I have said this before and I will say it again. One year in an eBay store is plenty of exposure. Especially, if the item has gone through one Christmas season. At that point, it is time to have a clearance sale and move those goods out or take them to charity.

I am trying to see if eBay can set up a global mark down for the stores. Just like they can automatically put up a note that says we are on vacation, they should be able to post a store clearance sale. This way, we wouldn’t have to manually change all the prices and wouldn’t be charged the higher final value fees if we take the discount after the purchase.

Here is a copy of an email that I sent to Griff today:

Griff,

I just wanted to say thank you for our interview in July–you are such a great host and it is always a wonderful experience.

Also, I am hoping that you can get these requests to the right person. The eBay store fee increases have really impacted a lot of us and I have two suggestions. The first would be having a global button (much like the on vacation feature) so that we could take 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50% off all our store fixed prices. This way we could run clearance sales easily without manually having to change prices. I think it would greatly benefit store owners and eBay.

Secondly, I always try my items at auction before moving them into my store. Usually two times at auction. I was thinking that eBay could offer some sort of incentive so that if we have tried the item at auction and it didn’t sell, we may get some form of rebate or lower fee for listing it in our stores.

Thanks for listening and for being such a great advocate for those of us in the trenches! Take care. Lynn

Griff is awesome and just emailed back an answer. Interesting and there is some hope!

Hi Lynn,

It’s always a pleasure to have you on the show and I look forward to more appearances in the future.

Although there is currently a Bulk Edit feature for eBay Store Items, it doesn’t offer a global percentage discount that would apply to all eBay listings. It is an interesting suggestion and I will definitely forward it to the appropriate product team but I would not expect any results right away. Changes of this depth usually take several months and are only implemented after a long review and approval process.

I can also forward your suggestion regarding a rebate for auction to store listings but, considering that our current goal is to balance the current number of Store and core items (with a heavy imbalance on the Store item end), this will probably not be considered this year. Not at least until the balance of inventory has been achieved.

regards,

Griff

Jim Griffith

Dean of Education

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eBay Inc

My automated six week ecourse is finally ready!

I am so excited to announce that my fully automated six week ecourse is finally ready to go! It is the same wonderful ecourse that you have heard so much about but you can start it when you are ready–not when it is convenient for me.