For Traktor: Questions about eBay Stores

[Consul]

Hey, Traktor! I'm hoping, since you opened an eBay Store for Megatar, that maybe you can help me with this.

So, my sisters want to open a web-store to sell their jewelry online, which leaves me with the task, as family IT guy, of making it happen. Yay. Anyway, I was looking into eBay Stores as a potential option, but after reading through their sales pitches, I'm left not actually knowing what each level buys me.

The first level says I get five custom pages. Does that mean I can post only five products? Or if I can do many products per page, do my product pages take up any of those custom pages?

Am I limited in how much bandwidth I draw in a month, like most hosts?

There really are a lot of questions they don't really answer.

Thank you very much for your time.

[traktor]

Hello, consul,

I am no expert on EBay. What I know is mainly by Trial and Error. I once bought a book called EBay for Dummies but that was for buying stuff. And there is another one called Starting an EBay Business for Dummies, also by the same writer, Patricia Collier, who has run a successful EBay Business.

When I'm studying something, my normal procedure is to find a really, really simple book, so as to see the forest, and then a rather detailed book also, so as to see the bark on the trees. In this case, I'd say that having *them* read the Starting an EBay Business would be a good first step.

I would also question the premise.

If *they* are the ones starting the business, then why are *you* doing the work? If it is because they know *nothing* about computers, then sure, show them how to send and receive an email, how to surf the web, etc.

However, EBay's success is due to it's being learnable, and their learning will be essential, unless you plan on doing all the work -- and there is quite a bit -- while they paint fingernails and go shopping. Kind of a lousy deal for you, I'd think, and I don't see how it helps them. It might be cheaper for you just to give them money, if that's to be the case. But if they can buy a gadget on EBay or buy a coffeepot on Amazon, then they can list an item on EBay. It will be slow at first, but it speeds up with practice.

However, if they're just asking you for advice. I've sent mine to you in a PM. But remember, I'm far from expert. Probably many others here will know as much about it as I do.