I mentioned in the last issue that I had fixed an issue and was now going to be able to cross-post all of my Shopify store inventory to eBay. That is done and now my
Patchblanket.com eBay Store has just under 17,000 live items for sale. I don't know the totals anymore but that probably puts it in in the top 3 of all Boy Scout memorabilia stores on eBay.
Vintage Scouting Memorabilia On eBay
When I told my wife about this night during the dog walk her first question was how much does that cost. YES that's the sticking point folks. To have that many items listed on eBay it costs me $600 before I've sold the first patch. OUCH! No wonder this is not something that many other dealers are willing to run with.
But those fees also explain why I am playing with other eBay accounts. After 10k listings in your anchor store there are no more discounts to be had. So by starting other accounts I'm able to run auctions, have a different strategy, and most important of all keep fees down. For example in my OApatch account I'm starting 500 first run OA auctions this week because that eBay subscription gives that me that many free each month.
In my Five Dollar Patch Store I'm selling a collection of trail patches this week. I also get a number of free auctions on that account so I put everything at auction to start with. Things that don't sell after a few runs will get rolled over into the store at the $5 price point.
This strategy of multiple stores is not really new to me or anybody else that is a dealer on eBay. Lots of guys have multiple accounts. My oldest one was started in 2010. That Patchsniper account is just shy of 3K on the feedback scale. This week I'm running some auctions to turn over old inventory in the store.
My ultimate goal would be to put all these 20k+ eBay listings under one roof. But for that to happen eBay would have to treat the USA like it does sellers in some other countries where they have a store subscription that offers an unlimited listing plan for a reasonable price. So other than moving to Germany or Australia I'll just keep playing this game.
Keep Calm And Scout On,
Jason Spangler Hot Finds Newsletter
In Charlotte, North Carolina I have an antique mall booth that is filled with nothing but Scouting stuff. I call this location my clearance center because I've marked down everything to move. A lot of what you will find there are items that are too bulky to easily ship from an Internet store. The booth is located in The Sleepy Poet which is a well established antique mall on South Blvd in Charlotte. The mall is open 7-days/week year round. So the next time you are in the area come check it out.
