Any other great online auctions besides ebay?

Question for Ebay Sellers Using Ebay Stores and Auctions both--Which Has Greater Percent Sales Per Listing?

• I am considering opening an Ebay Store, but I want to weigh the benefits of doing such against the benefits of simply running auctions as I do now (a variety of stuff). I do moderately well on auctions, but I find the listing and relisting fees rather high. Does anyone have any data or insight on sell-through rates comparisons between Auctions and Stores? (Oh yes, I also sell on Amazon but with minimal inventory (usually higher end and rare books) and I find I only sell about a book every 3 months on there...any insights on minimum inventory to reach a workable sales stream would be appreciated too!)

• Answer:

  Hi – I am an established seller on eBay. eBay has been my full time job for 4 years, and I have sold over 12,000 items. i became a powerseller after 3 months of selling. I have experimented with many product lines including books, CDs, DVDs, sporting goods, cookware, household items, cosmetics, and children's items. My product line now is mainly clothing and shoes. I hae an eBay store. The fee for the store is $15 a month. Listing items in the store is about 5 cents for a 30-ay listing, 6 cents if you add a gallery photo. When I first get an item, I put most of them up on auction with a buy it now price. (Some go straight to store inventory.) According to my personal eBay sales reports, about 25% of my items sell on Buy It Now on auction. About 50% of my items sell on auction with bids. If the item does not sell through auction format, I move it to store inventory with a Best Offer option. The remaining 25% of my items sell that way, ususally within 45 days. I agree that putting everything on auction is expensive. I recommend that you put your best items on auction to drive shoppers to your store, and then they will see the inventory items. For example, I sell golf apparel. I put the best shirts on auction, and put shorts and other accessories in inventory. When bidders come in to look at the shirts, they will pick up some shorts or pants to match. This works especially well if you offer a shipping discount on multiple items. I also have a policy where I will combine shipping on items bought within a 7-day period - so that gives shoppers time to look around and see what else I add to the store. Another money saving tip - use an image hosting service like sellersourcebook or auctiva. SSB costs $8 a month, but you can upload up to 99 pictures of your item per listing, and you avoid all of the eBay 15 cents per picture fees. It can be a big money saver if you have alot of listings and want to show alot of photos of each item. (I show about 5 photos of each item.) I sell about 300 items a month. But of course, I am selling clothes, and everyone needs clothes! It may not work the same for books. I have a website developed for helping other sellers find success on eBay. There are free resources like my blog, newsletter with practical selling information, and work at home tips. You can sign up for the FREE newsletter. (There is also a link to my eBay store so you can see what I sell and read my feedback.) http://ebaysellingcoach.com/ Please email me directly if I can be of further help or answer any questions. Regards- [email protected]