New ebid user wants to make sure he is doing things correctly

[All_My_Collections]

Okay, thank you!

[All_My_Collections]

I have another question, is eBid the kind of place where adding more items to my stores on top of the international shipping will bring more traffic and sales? I haven't made a sale yet and would like to.

[cheaver]

I have another question, is eBid the kind of place where adding more items to my stores on top of the international shipping will bring more traffic and sales? I haven't made a sale yet and would like to.

Greater variety of items = greater variety of potential customers. When I achieved both variety and bulk (for me bulk is now over 700 items) then the sales started coming in. Having said that setting up my 1st Store made a huge difference also.

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[cheaver]

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It might be helpful to you if I explain I am currently in the process of revamping my Stores.... thinking of closing one down & combining items from both into just the one.

One store gets more custom than the other.... so I shall focus more on that one.... whilst folk are shopping there they might as well see what other goodies I have there and then rather than have them wander off & maybe not finding my other Stores.

Just a thought. I see you have several stores but not much stock (as yet) in them? Maybe a better idea to combine & have all your goodies together?

as I said, just a thought.

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[HDLuckyLady]

I agree with Cheaver. More variety = more sales!

[All_My_Collections]

That is what I figured. I don't have much listed right now because come late January I will be returning from school and putting everything on a long vacation mode. I am sitting next to a box of stuff ready to be prepped to list, and take my word for it. I have A LOT more things to list. If I come home for a weekend I may open them up again for potential customers, but come summer time I plan on listing a lot.

I made a store for each of the general categories I sell in, would it be better if I just made one store for everything. I figured someone looking for a Pontiac Safari tail light lens wouldn't be interested in a Rugrats cassette tape, so I thought that keeping them separate would be better for the buyer. Also, do the store layouts and style look good. Anything I could/should add?

[HDLuckyLady]

The only thing don't like about separate stores is that if I'm on one of your store pages, I can't "obviously" get to your other stores; you have to look for the little "stores" button next to your name. I think it's a call that you will have to make.

Also, your store banner image tells nothing about what those stores sell. It might be better to put do a custom banner with some nice text and a background that tells what those stores are about.

In my opinion, I that that eBid should automatically have links to ALL your other stores on all store pages.

[All_My_Collections]

Maybe it is because I am viewing them myself, but under the store description on the left hand side is a place called "More Stores by Seller" and has the links to the other three stores.

I'll sleep on it and think about if one store is better than four.

[squern]

How sad for you. My best repeat Buyers were from Italy - they kept buying heaps of classical sheet music for guitar and there was never a single problem with either one of them for me.

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I've heard this about shipping to Italy, and I think it's a bit of folk-lore.

I have sold lots of stuff there, and never lost anything. In fact I've shipped to 49 different countries without major problems.
I haven't shipped to Africa, and I understand that there may be problems there, and Belarus is a bit iffy.

But losses can be claimed from the carrier anyway.

For Amcer 98:
As regards packaging; I hardly ever use boxes as they are too heavy. Lots of bubble-wrap, and a flexible plastic outer (rubbish sack or similar) make it well protected, and bounceable.

Estimating postage costs isn't necessarily difficult. Here in the UK we have weight bands - up to 100gms, up to 250 gms, up to 500 gms, and so on. When I list, I weigh the item. If it weighs 450 gms, it will go into the next band when packed, but if it weighs 300 gms it won't. I add a small amount on for packaging (20p).

If you are unsure what the packed weight will be, weigh it with a bit of packaging when you list. You get better at estimating how much the packaging will add to the weight.

International selling is easy, and it's a pity to limit yourself to the home country.

Hope that helps.

PS. The quoted costs of posting from the US look horrendous. From the UK to the US, I can post up to 100 gms for £3.80, or up to 250 gms for £4.75 (Royal Mail). Don't US Post have an equivalent?

[All_My_Collections]

I have just added international shipping, so it is not just to the US I sell to anymore. I did weigh each of them individually and used past experience on how much the packaging weighs when I set up the international shipping. For now I am leaving Italy off because I would like to actually have a consistent number of sales before I feel comfortable enough to start sending stuff to Italy.

As for postage, I think our equivalent would be first class postage. I used that for whatever was light enough, but for anything more than 13 ounces I needed to use something else.