Ideas to help increase sales and listings!

I was just thinking that today too. Relisting an item should be free, not have to pay fees for an item that does not sell.

yeh, seems it is only free, if you sell it on the Second re-listing, after that it is not. I even tried Amazon.com, they have a - List it for 90 Days - till it sells and no FEE untill it Sells, then they take out thier cut $$. BUT, <sigh> Amazon does not have the traffic Ebay has. I sold zilch. Bummer :-(

What I think is a TOTALLY scam is that I pay 15.95 for a store and then they charge me the regular rate
to put an item up for auction! And if I don't put an item up on auction, no one sees my store! Buyers have
to specifically click on ebay store to find stuff. Does every buyer know that? Hum.

I have a store that I put stuff in for a little while to see if it sells from my store, I do list auctions tho on a popular line of clothing that usually, almost always sells for me, I promote my auctions on the groups Share Your Wares, threads on several selling groups, I also get to promote my store on there too. I really do work for the money little money I make here but it is worth it to me as the extra cash has come in handy when my fulltime job pay doesn't stretch til next pay day.

Yes, I am a social worker that makes low pay, we are the best people int the world to come to for help, but the pay is low, guess I have always been one who works hard for low pay, even here on E-Bay. But I love my work, and E-Bay, wouldn't trade it for the world.

So, when the going gets tough the tough get going.

Yeh, allot of people though, do Not know they can click on several links on your listing pages to see other items, including stores. I get people all the time e-mailing me asking, - what all are you selling??? - when all they had to do, was click on - see seller's other items - LOL and the word -STORE- I think, for Ebay's Image -from a Buyer's point of view, esp. a Newbie - is inappropriate, it scares people away, like - Store..oh no way, I want a discount on Ebay, if I wanna go to a store, I'll go to Kmart.- LOL... maybe the word - Inventory - would be better understood by buyers. and I think If you have a Store on Ebay, then your Listing Fees should be cut by 50% at least..right??

I think that another, any other, online auction should be poising themselves to make a stab at ebay. It seems that the only sellers who get any attention here are the powerseller's. And this whole issue of not running the stores through ebay search engines...is CRAZY!

There's a rumble just starting to be heard from us little seller's, and I think it would be imperative for ebay to heed the warning. Do they want to be left with only their powersellers for a source of revenue, as we little guy's move on? I would venture to say all us "little guy's" paying all these listing, relisting, shipping & handling charges, and whatever else they can contrive, is the major source of their revenue. I have to wonder what the percentage of actual sales are as compared to unsold items. Just take a stroll through various listings and click on "seller's other items." The majority with say...30 active listings will have one, maybe two bids, and the lucky ones will have three or four. In essence, many of us are simply paying our listing fees with our sales...if we're lucky.

I personally think ebay has lost it's vision. It's all about taking a bite anywhere they can, such as relisting fees and paypal charges on Shipping & Handling. Enough is enough, and like I said, somebody will make a move and ebay will be wondering what hit them. Plain & simple...greed will soon choke this eBeast to death.

Enough of my ranting...

Hi cybersherrie, You have brought up some great points here. I totally agree with you. the cool incentives for sellers are few and far between. I used to list a lot more on auction than I do now. I put most of my inventory in my store which like ozarkmama4 said was a good thing when they had the stores show up on the item searches. ever since they changed back to the original way, my store sales have dropped off considerably. I feel it is more of a gamble when it comes to selling. it has made me fine tune my approach for how and what and when I list things. I am not saying that I dont like selling here, I do, its just that we could use a few changes for "the people" and things could be a lot more fun again. Thanks for giving me a place to vent a little. Happy ebaying everyone!!!!

Just doing my Taxes for the first half. I noticed sales were good in Jan - Feb then slumped terribly, in 2006. but all together 2006 really stinks compared to 2005! It will be a shame if Ebay turns into a Dealers only market, instead of an online Fleamarket, LOL. Not that I don't like to buy some new products at Bargain Prices, I mean that's cool too, infact I have ventured into the Close-Out and Second - Blems purchases of new products to resell. But it was more fun to sell a variety of Misc. stuff I picked up here and there. I started out as a buyer, went crazy, then the next year went into selling as well. Ebay used to be allot of fun. provided me, not with a big second income, but enough cash to cover holidays, occasions etc. But not this past year. not even enough to fill my gas tank a week. LOL I think Ebay is cool because you can find anything and everything. But if they do not try to make it easier for the little sellers, I do hope somebody out there starts something similar, and less complications and fees. I mean Ebay charges for everything, gallery, page design, buy now, reserve, more than one catagory..good grief..it has just become more complex to list, and more pricey. Hey EBAY how about running about a Big Christmas in July Special!!!??? and make it a Biggy!!!! At least one listing special a month would help tremendously! Right??? Remember when the Day after Christmas used to be FREE Day??? LOL I not only loved to List but loved to Shop too, there was So Much Stuff!! this past year it was what? 10 cents, or something wasn't it? You can't tell me that a special doesn't help Everybody all the way around, Ebay, sellers, buyers, paypal, the postal service..LOL Now's your chance to not only complain but suggest ideas..and let's hope Ebay is listening! Have a Great Day Ebayer Friendz!

I agree with most of what has been said here including the stuff about new sellers and star ones!It is really hard to get started here and then you have all the fee's but I am sure tht wont deter all new sellers away from e bay.I do wish they (e bay) would hae more sellr sales.Discounted listing fees and free relist no matter what but what can you do other that complain and hope it will get you somewhere. I als fee if you have a store you should not have to pay full listing fee's you are already guaranteeing e bay a monthly payment right? I strongly agree that a special does help everyoe all around!!!!Hope you are hearing us E BAY.

Yes I do like EBAY and plan to try to stick it out as long as I can... I am not saying they are ALL bad. but since they have changed the way you can get ideas and feedbacks to them, I mean now you have to fill out a form that designates and specific item or buyer problem, it is like they don't wanna hear general feedback anymore from us, like they'll do what they wanna do, which I hope is not the case that that is why they created these discussion boards so maybe they can see what thier members are saying. so for now my buying and selling will be kept to a minimum. which effects the cycle, as many others will do, which then effects profit, and will eventually be felt by Ebay...maybe.

There should be no charge to the seller to relist if an item is not sold. To Ebay...that is just GOOD business!!!

Good idea chloeintx54, about finding other ways to advertise. I do have a website where I made a -window- to my ebay seller page, where I can use keywords however I want and it gets listed on Google and I have been attracting allot of people that way, my server is a very lieneint one, you can do almost what ever you want, -Lowesthosting- I also just tried Craig's List. well I had a few bites but all were -Cons-... saying can I send you a money order?? which they warn you about.. I said nope just either do cash in person at a nuetral public location OR if you really want it shipped it has to be Paypal. yes I would have to go Paypal, and fees but except for big ticket items Craig's list is free. However, you could go US Postal Money order. that way when you take it to be shipped, you still have possession of the item, use the MO as payment at the postal branch they will be able to determine if it is legit right there, and if it is not, you still have your merchandise.