I've Closed My eBay Store

I can't believe that I haven't written anything since the middle of August but I have been so incredibly busy!

I started the eBay store and tried it for 2 months and decided I wasn't making enough money from it to justify the time I put in. If I added it up I think I probably made about 50 cents an hour. So exactly 2 months later I closed it.

I had this bright idea to open up an online bookstore through the eBay Store. I bought out a yard sale that had approximately 5,000 books and for 3 weeks I did nothing but research, type, list, wrap, and pack.

The only problem with opening a eBay Book Store is I didn't do enough research on my competition. The competition for a used bookstore is fierce on eBay. There are several book peddlers, and many books are going for next to nothing. If you want to compete you have to sell your books for next to nothing. By the time I figured this out I was exhausted from all the work I had been doing.

I sorted all the books by categories, I had books in my garage (still do), I had books in my kitchen, in my dinning room, in my living room, in my family room, in my office, in the spare bedroom and in our utility trailer. They were sitting in piles on the pool table and around the inside perimeter of the basement.

I researched each book because one of the books I sold was a 1st edition Ray Bradbury book, it sold for $214 so I felt I had to check out each book before I decided what to do with it. After researching each book, I took boxes to my flea market booths, I gave some to a local thrift store, I packed them in lots and sold them on eBay. I've gotten rid of most of them, I probably have about 300 left and hopefully next week will have a new home for them as well.

I did make some money but I sure earned it with my time. I will continue to sell on eBay through the regular auctions but the eBay store is gone! I'm already starting something new, well, a couple of new flea market booths. One is in a brand new flea market and the other is in a well established flea market. I have been yard sailing, and attending more auctions lately to get enough inventory to spread between all the booths. I have to overstock to get through the winter months as the yard sale season is about over.

I've been seriously considering buying another building and opening another flea market / antique store. I sold a very successful business because I was so burnt out on it but I can't seem to get it out of my system! I think everybody that buys and sells knows what I'm talking about.

My eBay Store - Madison Place Flea Market

The on-going saga of my eBay Store hasn't gotten much better. This is day eleven and I'm not impressed by the quantity of items sold out of the store. It is very dissapointing!

In just this short time that I've had the eBay store open I've already learned that the dollar items I thought I could unload aren't selling any better than they did in my flea market booth. AS a matter of fact they are not worth the time and effort to list them. Once they run their 30 days I'll take the $1 items off and bundle them up. For example, the books I can sell by the box so I'll try to sell them by the box load. I'll just donate the rest of it to a local thrift store and list better quality items. I'm not sure if that will help the situation but I'm gonna try.

Check out Madison Place Flea Market at http://www.stores.ebay.com/madison-place-fleamarket

My eBay Store - Madison Place Flea Market

This is the 6th day I've had my eBay store open. Today I sold 3 items from the store and 3 items (out of 7) from the online auctions I had running. I definately need to put items with more value in the store as I only made $4 which brings me up to $14 in 6 days out of the eBay Store Sales. I won't be getting rich any time soon I'm thinking.

I've added more inventory tonight so check it out.
http://www.stores.ebay.com/madison-place-fleamarket

I'm going to Arkansas for the weekend, Bargains Galore on 64 started today, I hope they save me some - bargains that is. Bargains Galore on 64 is a couple hundred miles of yard sales, unfortunatly, I have to work tomorrow so I won't get there until the last day of the sales. It's about a 3 hour drive but we thought we'd go find what we can and have some fun along the way. We are planning on leaving tomorrow night and getting a motel room so Saturday morning we can get an early start.

I'll try to get a bunch of pictures, I always find weird and unusual items but also many beautiful things as well.

Wish me luck! I'm outta here!

My Ebay Store - Madison Place Flea Market

Today is the 5th day my ebay store has been open and not one sale for the whole day. I have found that eBay store visiability is very low. The eBay store advertising though the eBay site is almost non-exsistent. A logo and perhaps, if you are lucky, your store items are listed after the auction style items, however, this is not always the case.

In order for any profit to be made sales have to be made. If nobody sees your store, sales will not be made. This is something I really wish eBay would work on, as it could be profitibale for everybody all the way around.

Advertising on your own through your own website or blog is about the only recourse we have to get the word out that we are e-store owners. I'm going to try various online bullentin boards as well, however, I feel that option would be more successful if I had one specific items or catagory in my store inventory instead of a hodge-podge selection.

I have regular eBay auctions ending tomorrow so I will have sales, I'll just have to wait and see what the store situation does. If anybody has any ideas or suggestions I've left a link to the store so you can check it out, don't heisitate to email me!

http://www.stores.ebay.com/madison-place-fleamarket

My eBay Store - Madison Place Flea Market

This past weekend I decided to open an eBay Store. I have lots of books, inexpensive items and old inventory that has alternated between being in a flea market booth and being housed inside a cardboard box so I decided to put that type of stuff in my eBay store.

I use to own a flea market called Madison Place Flea Market and Antiques and have been selling on eBay since 1999 under the name madisonplace. I think I'll just stick with that name for my eBay store, it seems a lot eaiser than trying to change every thing. I sold the building about 5 years ago and the new owners put in a pawn shop and named it something totally different so I guess it's kosher to keep the old name.

I took the cheapest eBay store option which is $15.95 a month plus 3 cents per listing. You get 5 pages of items which amounts to 125 items. If a item sells I have to pay an additional 12% of the selling price. The store is very easy to set up, for dummies like me you just have to pick the quick set up and pick your colors then start listing.

I'm not sure I'm going to like this store inventory option. Unlike the eBay auctions where people bid or not, with the inventory option everything you list has a buy it now price. Your inventory stays in the store for 30 days unless it sells. If a item doesn't sell you have the option to pay 3 cents per listing for every thirty days that you keep an item listed. Of course you also have to pay the $15.95 monthly store fee every month.

It seems like I've spent hours at the computer (maybe 12 all together). I guess I really had thoughts of my email being filled with sales. So far I've only sold a few books and made about $10, of course it's only been 4 days.

My goal is to try this for 2 months and then decide if the store is profitable enough to keep open. During this first four days I really have my doubts but I'm trying to stay positive. One thing I already learned is I will have to list more expensive inventory in the store as the $1 and $2 items take to much time to list and not enough profit. I'll be working on that in the next few weeks.

If you have a minute check out my eBay store and tell me what you think, any advice or information from you fellow eBayers would be appreciated.

Check out my eBay Store: http://www.stores.ebay.com/Madison-Place-Flea-Market