This guide was written before there was a change in the ebay store fees. However you can still read it and compare then and now.

There are some things to consider when opening an ebay store.

• Do you want to save on listing fees?
• Do you have lots of items to sell regularly?
• Do you have a lot of "buy it now" items?

I decided to open my ebay store about 2 years ago. I was a new seller and wanted to get the most of ebay. The listing fees for auction was killing me for the little things that I wanted to sell from around my house. You know, like my children's toys and stuff. I wanted to sell books and things that I know I can only get so much money for. Well, I can't take it anymore, I decided to satisfy my curiosity by signing up for the free trial, which was offered at that time.

I was so amazed when after listing a few things, my stuff sold and they weren't even on auction. I was really happy when one item sold and it paid for a month of the store fee.

I work full-time so I didn't really have a lot of time to lists. I started with only a few things. After a while, I decided I needed more items in my store. At one point, I have 100 items but I know other sellers have 1,000 items in their store. If only I have more time. I will plug along though, someday I'll get there. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Here's a sample of your listing fees for the store:

• Each item is 0.02 plus gallery picture 0.01 = 0.03 cents
• 10 items with gallery pictures = 30 cents
• 100 items with gallery pictures = $3.00
• 1000 items with gallery pictures = $ 30.00

If you maintain 100 inventory items a month, then your total store cost would be $15.95 plus $3.00 or $18.95 per month. That is not much compared opening a brick and mortar store. The FVF is higher for store items. Some items  may not come up on search but it is amazing how people find them.

I didn't have proper computer training so I was nervous on how I can make my store look like the other stores. Well, I went to tutorial and I just followed the instructions, somehow I managed and survived!

Canceling a listing doesn't hurt so much if the listing fee wasn't that expensive. I usually do this after the item has been sitting on the shelf for a long time. They go to my garage sale pile to sell locally.

If I can do it, you can do it too. Small business ebay sellers are special. They are a unique group of people who can make money out of nothing.  Don't wait any longer.

Check out my store:   Pinky's Corner

My logo is courtesy of motoxrush...a very helpful ebay member!

pinky

P.S. 08/04/06 Well, this guide was written before there was a change in ebay store fees. Since I am a low-cost item seller, it wasn't profitable anymore to have a store. I'm doing some auctions and I also have my own website.

From ebay:

Store Inventory Listings
For those of you who operate an eBay Store, we're making changes to Store Inventory listing fees, as well as to the on-site exposure we provide for this listing format.

We'll begin charging variable insertion fees for Store Inventory listings, as we do for core listings. Beginning Aug. 22, eBay.com Store Inventory format insertion fees will be tiered with an item's starting price.

These Store Inventory format insertion fees take effect Aug. 22, 2006.