eBay-Basics-Course

Lynn Dralle is an experienced eBay PowerSeller, Author and Teacher. Here she shares her tips from her experience selling on eBay.

I have to be honest, I thought that the eBay stores were only for selling merchandise that you had in quantity.

I would only put commodity items in my eBay store, like Royal Copenhagen Christmas Plates, glass prisms and my auction tracking tools. I never thought that I could sell unique one-of-a-kind items in my store. I thought those things were only good for the auction format. About six months ago, I found out something that helped my business and will also help yours !

The eBay stores are awesome ! What I am going to teach you here can add a big chunk to your monthly sales. We have increased our eBay sales by $500 to $1,000 each month by utilizing the store !

When you have tried an item at online auction once or twice and it hasn't sold, don't be discouraged. I used to give up and give the item to charity. No more ! Now I list it in my eBay store at anywhere from $4.99 to $499.00 and it only costs 3 cents per item each month. That 3 cents also includes a gallery photo.

I use the “Good Until Cancelled” feature, and that way, eBay automatically keeps it in the store until it sells or you pull it out. We have about 2,000 items in our store, and it only costs us $60 each month to list them. That $60 investment brings in $500 to $1,000 each month—a huge return on investment !

Every day we get at least one (and often more) emails that say "end of transaction"-- this means that another item has sold. It is really exciting. Stuff we thought would never sell has now found a home.

Some tips for managing your store items :-

• Only use one photo (unless you are hosting your own photos). eBay will charge 15 cents for each photo after the first one. This can really add up.
  
  
• Always use the gallery feature. It is only 1 cent per item for the stores.
  
  
• Choose a basic store for $9.95-$15.95 each month unless you have a lot of items. If you have a lot of items (like we do), it may be worth it to move up to the featured store at $49.95 per month. I was told by eBay store services that this would bring my items up higher in the searches. We just upgraded last month, so I have not made my final decision. I will need to look at sales data over a three-month period and see if there is any significant change.
  
  
• Offer a shipping discount for buying multiple items. Many times, an auction shopper will add on an item from the store just because a $9.99 item that normally would cost $16.99 with shipping is now only $10.99 (because we only charge an extra $1 for each item—as long as they are small).