Re: Has anyone had luck with other auctions?
Unfortunately, I haven't, but I think at least for a while you'll be hard-pressed to beat the audience your items will have anywhere else. Also, there's nothing wrong with establishing an off-EBay relationship with an EBay customer after you've sold an item according to EBay's rules. (It's not all right to quit an auction to sell the auctioned item to that customer outside of EBay.) If you know that a customer collects something in particular, and they buy from you on EBay, you can offer to re-sell other items to that customer afterwards (with their permission is best).
You might try not accepting PayPal for a few lower-priced auctions. I still accept personal checks. I agree that the PayPal fees take quite a bite. It's hard to get by without paying less than a buck to EBay + PayPal.
The other option is to do a storefront. I don't know how much you sell, but break-even is about 40 items/month. The listing fee is much less with a storefront (2 cents) but you do pay $10/month+ for the privilege.
There are a lot of other options. People can buy an auction site script for $500 with most of the functionality of EBay -- you get JoeShmosAuctions.com. Depending on what you're selling, Yahoo! Auctions may be all right, and a little cheaper.
There are also FSBO sites that might be all right.
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