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Chances are, if you're new to eBay and want to sell, you've been poking around in all the help pages and at eBay University. You haven't? Go there now, and come back and read this later! Nothing beats finding out firsthand from the folks here how to "do eBay".
Now that you've toured the help and learning, you may be considering opening a store. Well, curb that burning enthusiasm, because you need to get out your low-tech PDA and do some figuring. Get a pencil and paper, then go check out the pages on eBay fees. Write down the monthly cost for a store, the costs for listing and selling an item (including your final value - what it actually sold for) plus any extras you think you might need (or guess you can't live without).
Get a fresh sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side, list those costs (on a given item) for a simple auction or Buy It Now. On the other side, list the same costs for a store. Remember to add the monthly fee for the store, which you DON'T pay for the first side's sales. You can figure out a cost-per-item by totalling up the store's fees (including eBay's cut when you sell it) and dividing by the number of items you want to sell in a month.
Now it's time to take inventory. What do you have to sell NOW? What do you want it to sell for? Remember, shipping and handling are separate fees. You can feel free to charge a FAIR amount for S & H - no gouging. That's a no-no! Now, figure out what it'll cost you to list and sell the item in a store. Pretend each item owes you rent for its place in your storefront. If it's not gonna pay its share of the rent at the price it'll sell for, that's a red light!
Keep in mind, the amount of stuff you have to sell will make a visual impression if you put it into a store. Got less than a dozen items? Imagine walking into a shop that has 11 items for sale - your 11 items, and nothing else. Not a great sign, is it? It's more like a small table at a flea market - so limit your overhead (the cost of doing business) accordingly.
Contrariwise, if you have a ton of eBooks under $10.00, listing them in a store format can be very economical. I can currently list an eBook in my store valued at $9.95, with a listing pic and subtitle, for 30 days for 8 cents! My final value fee will be $1.00, but calculate the fee for a listing with BIN, gallery pic and subtitle, plus the 5.25% eBay will collect when you sell.
You can put up auction or fixed price listings in the general area of eBay that will feature your store and its categories in each listing. Sure, it's more expensive to list a $.99 item in a BUY IT NOW format on the main thoroughfare, but you can drive traffic to your store if the listing mentions other items or enhancements the customer might want.
Now think about what you're selling in terms of season. Do you even know if there's a seasonal demand for what you've got? Research it! At the time of this writing, it's the day after Christmas. For the rest of the week, people will be coming to eBay to spend Christmas money, eBay coupons or doing their shopping online because they're snowed in! Come January, things cool down a lot. January is traditionally the slowest retail selling month of the year.
You might consider a seasonal store. For example, open in September, closed by the end of December, if you're selling gifts for Christmas. Yes, you can do that, and there's no penalty for being a seasonal storefront. I've gotten some very strong opinions about doing business like this from veterans of eBay who learned the hard way to put up the "Closed for the Season" sign.
I've done both flea market selling, and had a brick-and-mortar storefront. I know for a fact that overhead will eat you alive if you don't control it. Your motto should be, "Never spend a single penny you cannot justify". This is a business, even if you're just doing it as a hobby. Your customers expect you to be businesslike - that includes staying in business, not going broke! Choose the format and timing of your sales to minimize your costs and maximize your exposure.
If you're a bit adventurous, you might consider looking into putting up stores in countries where the fees are lower, or even free. I got this info from a guy in the Netherlands:
"about your store-guide, you could consider adding a little something to it with ebay store fees for different ebay sites.
to change sites simply change the ebay.com into ebay.co.uk and you could compare
if we hadnt had a chinese store we would have a polish store as they are free whole year as well."
I hope this helps.
Vince
http://stores.ebay.com/Vince-Runza-Online/
http://vincerunzaonline.blogspot.com/
http://www.squidoo.com/vincerunzaonline/
Guide created: 12/26/06 (updated 10/03/09)
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