The Costs of Running an eBay Store

Naturally, opening an eBay Store costs money. (eBay isn't in this for the betterment of mankind, after all.) You pay a monthly fee to be an eBay Store merchant, choosing from three subscription levels, as shown in Table 27.1.

Table 27.1. eBay Stores Subscription Levels

Level	Fee	Features
Basic	$15.95/month	Store listed in every category directory where you have items listed; position based on number of items listed; receive monthly store reports; send 100 emails a month to buyers; create five customizable pages; free subscription to eBay Selling Manager
Featured	$49.95/month	All features of Basic, plus Store rotated through a special featured section on the eBay Stores home page; Store receives priority placement in Related Stores section of search and listings pages; Store featured within the top-level category pages where you have items listed cross-sell products on view item pages; receive more detailed monthly reports; create 10 customizable pages; send 1,000 emails a month to buyers; and you get a free subscription to Selling Manager Pro and $30/month to spend on the eBay Keywords program
Anchor	$499.95/month	All features of Featured, plus premium placement in Related Stores section of search and listings pages; your store logo rotates through category directory pages (1 million impressions); send 4,000 emails a month to buyers; create 15 customizable pages; and you get dedicated 24-hour live customer support and $100/month to spend on the eBay Keywords program

You also have to pay eBay for each item you list and each item you selljust as in a normal auction. The difference is you're not listing for a (relatively short) auction; you're listing for longer-term inventory.

The insertion fees associated with an eBay Store are relatively simple. You pay 5 cents per month for items priced from $0.01 to $24.99, and 10 cents per month for items priced over $25.00. That's not as cheap as it used to be (the old listing fee was 2 cents per month across the board), but it's still not bad, compared to listings on the main eBay site.

In addition, for every item you sell in your eBay Store, eBay charges a final value fee. Table 27.2 lists these selling charges.

Table 27.2. eBay Stores Final Value Fees

Closing Value	Fee
$0.01$25.00	10%
$25.01$100.00	10% of the initial $25, plus 7% of the remaining balance
$100.01$1,000.00	10% on the first $25 plus 7% on the part between $25 and$100, plus 5% on the remaining balance
Over $1,000.01	10% on the first $25 plus 7% on the part between $25 and$100, plus 5% on the part between $100 and $1,000 plus 3% on the remaining balance

eBay Stores also offers a full assortment of listing upgrades, just like the ones you can use in regular eBay auctions. These enhancementsGallery, bold, highlight, and so onare priced according to the length of your listing. You can also offer multiples of the same item in Dutch auction format.