I actually had the Ebay store before I built this site (the site was just a static page with a picture of me and a couple trucks). I built the site while I built my store on Ebay and once I got the site up, I started replying to EBay customers from the
mike@rc-monster.com address and linking my site in my emails. Ater about 5-8 months, the site started outperforming Ebay, so I let the Ebay store trickle away to whatever is in there now (I don't even know to be honest - I rarely check on it, and only sell an item here or there - the only thing I have done to the Ebay store is remove items).
Ebay is cumbersome and expensive. By the time you pay listing fees, picture fees, final value fees, etc. it eats up some $. Then, you have to relist when something comes back in stock. Here, i enter inventory once, but I don't have to relist anything(just add more inventory), and no final value fees(though the cost to maintain the site is like a rent payment - in the end, the site is easier to maintain and grow). It is also not possible to have a forum on Ebay, and don't you think this is a nice little forum and site we have here? :)