So my boyfriend who is my sidekick in setting up my
online store has been super busy with his own online projects for the past few months. Needless to say, I am still store-less and still considering my options. I decided to go and check out the
eBay Store situation. I used to have an eBay store back in 2007 and it didn't seem to bring the traffic or sales I was looking for. They claim they have improved the exposure given to those selling in an eBay store. I almost fainted when I calculated how much it would cost for me to open a store up. I have been looking at the free
shopping cart software programs before now because I don't need a host. My boyfriend has plenty of space on his
server for my little site.
So here is the cost of an eBay Store:
Subscription fees
Store level | Fee |
Basic | $15.95 / month |
Premium | $49.95 / month |
Anchor | $299.95 / month |
|
This is to just have the store. Here is what you get for each one:
http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/Subscriptions.html
But then...
Insertion fees
Price | 30-day duration | Good 'Til Cancelled* |
$1.00 - $24.99** | $0.03 | $0.03 / 30 days |
$25.00 - $199.99 | $0.05 | $0.05 / 30 days |
$200.00 and above | $0.10 | $0.10 / 30 days |
|
You pay for each item every month. Yes it may not be much but what if you have a thousand items! Oh but that is not all. When you sell your product you then pay:
Final value fees
Price | Final value fee |
Item not sold | No fee |
$1.00 - $25.00 | 12.00% of the closing price |
$25.01 - $100.00 | 12.00% of the initial $25.00 ($3.00), plus 8.00% of the remaining closing value balance |
$100.01 - $1,000.00 | 12.00% of the initial $25.00 ($3.00), plus 8.00% of the initial $25.01 – $100.00 ($6.00), plus 4.00% of the remaining closing value balance $100.01 – $1,000.00 |
Over $1,000.01 | 12.00% of the initial $25.00 ($3.00), plus 8.00% of the initial $25.01 – $100.00 ($6.00), plus 4.00% of the initial $100.01 – $1,000.00 ($36.00), plus 2.00% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01-closing value) |
|
In conclusion, I feel that an eBay Store is kinda a rip-off unless you have an already established customer base and guaranteed sales or have a few items you sell and they have a large profit margin.
If you don't you would be better off paying for a shopping cart software like
3-D Cart and getting automatic exposure all over the internet for your products.
