Closing An Ebay Store-Part Four-Final

This is the fourth and final installment of my “Closing an Ebay Store” series. Be sure to read parts one, two and three if you need to catch up.

As you may remember from the last post…dreamy music with a swirling camera effect…

I had decided to start listing 99 cent auctions to see if the titles I had remaining still had the ability to generate some decent closing prices.

Here’s how that went…

In a word-not well at all!

I ended up practically giving away an entire week’s worth of auctions at little more than the initial bid price of 99 cents. A few doubled or tripled that amount but for the most part, it didn’t turn out to be a good way to work the rest of the inventory.

Keep in mind, the books I’m selling are between 30-50 years old, have had one collector as an owner and are all in mint or near-mint condition. I have never had to compete with any other sellers on price because we were selling apples and oranges as far as my customers were concerned.

The problem is that almost all of my best customers have already bought all that they want or need from me. Couple that with a shrinking inventory and you can see why my popularity may be eroding. The recent rash of what I call “garage sale junk” where some other vendors are offering boxes of sub-par books for a low starting bid have only served to confuse buyers and muddy the waters.

What have I learned?

• I’ve learned on ebay a long time ago that a seller that is offering a “want” and not a “need” lives or dies on the breadth of his or her product selection.
• When the economic news is not good, people tend to stick closer to their needs.
• Limited selection causes limited traffic which keeps auction prices too low.
• I DO have a choice of how I want to sell the remainder of my collection!

What will I do?

• I have moved the rest of my inventory to my store where listing fees are much lower.
• I will look to the store to pay its fees and myself.
• I will close down the store the first month it is unable to do this and look for a buyer off of ebay.

So, that’s it!

I have enjoyed the time I’ve had selling these wonderful books on ebay and I have made some great friends as well. As busy as I am right now, my day still seems a little empty when I don’t have 20-30 books to relist.

This feeling will pass I’m sure…

The good news is I’m making sales at much closer to what the books are worth(and not just to me)to people I know will treasure them.

I want to end by thanking everybody who took the time to read this series. I hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me.

Finally, thank you to all of my great customers. You definitely raised the bar by which all other customers will be judged.

Best,

[tags]ebay store,childrens books,ebay, store[/tags]