Tactic for another store

[Anonymous]

I have one store on eBay with 400 listings and all is well.
Selling all kinds of stuff. That’s account #1

I have another account I use for buying but it’s new and only 5 feedbacks as a good payer. Never sold anything on it yet. This is account #2

In 12-18 months I want to open a specialty store – selling only Widgets.

What is the best way to proceed?

I was thinking of renaming my seller name on account #2 to OnlyWidgets and listed a few Widgets for sale – then in a a year converting it to a store.

Will account2 have the restrictions of a new store/new seller.

Any other way to do this?

Plan B is to say screw it – just keep listing everything on my current store and forget about a specialty store. Do they really matter for sales anyway??? I dunno!

[Jay]

what exactly is your goal? Are you trying to create a brand?

Personally, I find that no one buys on an “ebay store”. People are just doing searches and buy something relevant to their search at a good price. It doesnt matter if that widget is also sold in the same store as an old pair of shoes, garden shears, and a smoking pipe.

[Gompers]

You will never be able to build a “brand” on ebay so forget about that. The only “brands” that have some success are major retailers like, bestbuy, target, newegg, etc. Some big brands don’t even want you to know you are buying from them.

For example, Gamestop has a store on ebay, but you would never know it. Sams Club does as well, but nothing to indicate that. I bought something from them so that’s how I found out. Listing had no indication it was Sams Club / Walmart.

A second store is good if you “inherit” another store such as getting married and your new spouse has a store. No reason to throw away a store with good feedback and history.

A second store may also be good for selling low value items in which you DO NOT want to provide tracking. Therefore, you DO NOT care about TRS or potential TRS discounts.

[Ryanne]

agreed, someone emailed us today asking what they should name their store. answer? it doesnt matter. we liked naming our store, it was fun. but it doesnt matter. all that matters is that people find your items and buy them. which they’ll do if you have a good listing, good photos, good title and you answer questions and offers quickly. no secret, no branding.

[MyCottage]

I’m going to disagree, at least somewhat. I think a specialty store can have value and you can build a brand…but it depends on what you are selling. And what you are doing to stand out. I don’t think you have to be big. Just an example, if you are a real expert on certain pottery, for example, and you specialize in that, and maybe have an informative blog about it, you could probably build a real following on eBay.

For the typical Scavenger with a wide mix of merchandise, it wouldn’t be worth it.

[skydog]

At the risk of changing the subject…
We spend 4 months in FL during the winter. I usually fly home a couple of times to relist my “up north” inventory (300 items) so it doesn’t drop off (in 90 days). I also have about 100 items listed with me in FL, on 30 day listing. It becomes a balancing act-end the FL listings, then re-list (3 days) the north inventory, then fly back. The flying isn’t a problem, since I usually check the house and schedule appointments for my other business while up north, but juggling the listings is a hassle.

any better ideas?

[Anonymous]

((SkyDog: You can start a new message thread instead of replying to a current one. That really helps in keeping continuity of conversations. Create new topic about selling here: https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/forum/buying-and-selling/selling-on-ebay ))

As far as my purpose in a specialty store, I was thinking of maybe getting a customer that was browsing and not searching. As an example – those steampunk lamps: I watch a couple stores and look at all the cool lamps he builds as opposed to searching for “steampunk lamps”

But overall I agree that eBay is more than a software selling platform, it *IS* the store. More so than individual eBay stores.

The other reason is that eBay has no middle subscription level.
A Basic store (250 insertions) will soon be too low for me and a Premium Store (1000 insertions) will be too much

I wish they had a 500 insertions level and I think one way to make my own is to have two stores.

I hate the aggravation or two log in’s and two sets of stats, etc .. blah

Thanks for all your imput

[mp from tn]

I do have a pretty basic question about opening a second store. Do we need to create a separate eBay ID and use a different email, but still link the same Paypal account? Is there a way to move listings over (in bulk or one by one)? I would hate to have to end each item and create a totally new listing in a new store but I realize that might be the process. I can’t seem to find this info on the basic eBay help pages.

Thank you two (and everyone else in the forums) for all the info you regularly share!

[Jay]

We made a new eBay ID for our second store that uses a different email. I dont think you can create a second store under the same eBay ID. That’s a question to call eBay about.

As theMezz says, the paid subscription listing programs (Wordlister, Inkfrog, etc) will let you move items between stores. But this is not a default function in eBay. Without paying for those services, you have to just list new items.

[Anonymous]

Any one of the listing programs (i.e. inkfrog) will move your listings from one store to another store.

I *THINK* you need TWO ebay ID’s (jay????? Ryanne??????)

I have one store and a second regular account for buying stuff and both use the same paypal account, so I think 2 stores can use the same paypal account – but i wonder if that is wise to do.

[Author]

Posts