When to open an eBay store?

I've been reading posts on the discussion boards and seems to be there is a lot of debate on this subject. When is a store beneficial? Most of the boards' resident experts say that having 100 items is a rule of thumb. I disagree. I think the time that you decide that it would benefit you to open an eBay store is when you have regular inventory and you are ready to start marketing your eBay sales. If you are an eBay person who is occasional and just list items here and there, or even for other people on a regular basis and your items don't have a consistent theme, you don't need a store. Even if you have hundreds of random items. You need a store when you are wanting to market to a certain customer base. Say for instance, handmade boutique baby clothes. Someone who is a part time seamstress and has a few items listed on eBay on a regular basis and is willing to do special orders should have an eBay store. Why? It is only $16 a month and it brings lots of lookers. This is a specialty item that could be listed in the store for only 11 cents a month. This seller could create a beautiful listing for a custom made product and set the availability to 10 or something and just let it roll from one month to the next. Over time, this same seller might run several auctions for already made merchandise and through marketing techniques, sell several of the custom made store listing items as well.
Of course, everyone has to decide for themselves whether the $16 is worth it, I guess the main thing would be to figure out if you can earn back the $16 in sales.

Are YOU ready?