The focus of our eBay store is toy soldiers, period figures and everything related.

This website, however, has a narrower focus. It exists to give a little break to my friends.

I buy jumbo lots from the auction houses. If I bid on 40 to 50 lots, I hope to win 5 or 10 of them. I pay the bid price, a house premium and shipping. That is my cost of goods sold for that item.

When I re-sell, I base the selling price on the market. We all have gotten good at searching eBay "sold" listings to find market value.

The piece of the pie I get to keep is the difference between cost of goods sold and the selling price minus fees.

Over the years eBay has raised fees and they have applied fees to every element of a transaction. I pay fees on the sale price, the shipping cost, even on the sales tax paid by customers. Plus there is a standing fixed fee for an eBay store.

Because of all the above, 20% of every dollar Merricourt takes in goes to eBay.

On this website, fees are only 4% on item price and shipping. That goes to Paypal.

The little break for my friends is this. Prices here will be 10% to 15% less than what I would price on eBay. I would rather see you get a discount than pay fees to eBay.