Our eBay Story     by awelldressedbullet

#4114 in Business
1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 5 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

Our eBay Story

After we got our website up and running in August 2001, I thought we would try eBay to augment our sales. I signed up in preparation for the upcoming Christmas holidays, but we were rather disappointed with the results.

Although a successful transaction, we sold only one Bullet Pen. I left eBay, which I thought was for good.

The Learning Curve 

But the following Christmas season (2002), I decided to give it one more try. I'm very stubborn and don't like to not succeed at something.

This time I did more research (which is an absolute must) and also found the eBay Discussion Boards, a great place to learn from other Sellers how eBay worked.

I learned everything I had done wrong the year before; simple things like not having a ME page or a well written listing explaining the important things like a more detailed Terms of Sale just to name a few.

The previous year I had not been aware of these Discussion Boards and the wealth of knowledge that other established eBay Sellers shared. Don't ask me why I never did this, I spent the time and effort researching about setting up a website and online selling for almost four months. But at least now I was prepared!

In December 2002, transaction by transaction our sales slowly increased and we decided to stay.

Opening our eBay Store 

Our main sales have always, and will always, be our website. After selling on eBay for a couple of years, we had around 200 successful transactions, a very low number when compared to our website. The additional sales on eBay were nice to have, but I wanted more and I knew it could be done.

In 2005, we had around 100 items on our website and it was always difficult trying to choose which items to list on eBay. I had always kept our fixed price listings to a reasonable number due to the listing costs.

I started to read about eBay Stores and wondered if this might work for us better. I browsed the eBay Stores Discussion Board for several months. I decided in August 2005 to open an eBay Store and spent the month adding listings and preparing our store and custom pages.

The Outcome 

I found the answer to increasing our sales on eBay, for us it was definitely to open an eBay Store. With our entire product line listed on eBay, buyers could now browse through our store and decide on what they would like to purchase vs. me choosing a few items to list.

Since September 2005, our sales have continued to increase, we now have well over 1,300 transactions. I am now pleased with the additional sales we receive through eBay.

An eBay Store doesn't work for everyone, but it was perfect for us. And the one thing I have learned over the past couple of years is that eBay customers like to buy on eBay. And the buying habits of our eBay customers is completely different that our website customers.

Thinking of Opening an eBay Store? 

If you are thinking of opening an eBay Store, perhaps review some of the tutorials I have on this that may help you decide, along with a couple of helpful ones to get your Store off to a good start.

featured lens Kathy's eBay Tutorials

This lens includes all my eBay Tutorials.  As new topics are completed they will be added here. Be sure to check back from time to time.

A few things from our eBay Store 

Feed is from our Fixed Price Core Listings

Drop by our eBay Store to see all our unique products.

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eBay

Our eBay Squidbids Lensography 

featured lens Lensography of our EBAY SQUIDBIDS Lenses

This lensography contains a list of 13 of our eBay Squidbids lenses for items in our eBay Store for your shopping convenience. Be sure to drop by and check out all our unique products!

Be sure to check out our website lens 

featured lens A Well Dressed Bullet Official Website

Our website offers you custom handmade Belt Buckles, Bolo Ties, Bullet Pens, Card Guard Protectors, Clocks, Keepsake Urns, Key Chains, Shotgun Wedding Bar & Party Lights, Zipper Pulls and so much more. Unique gift ideas for hunters, rifle, handgun...

eBay Store Discussion Board 

Always an interesting read!

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eBay Canada Store Discussion Board 

A much quieter Board

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eBay Store Poll 

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Guestbook Feedback 

mudderspudder

What cool and unique items you have in your ebay store! This lens is another great informative tool for fellow ebay sellers. Thanks!

Posted February 14, 2008
EvieJewelry

5 star lens. saw you on Squidoo discussion boards. lots of great information. Check us out for great jewelry.

Posted November 10, 2007