posted on March 13, 2008 12:21:29 PM new
Just from a cursory look in two categories, it may be because everything I saw was severely overpriced .... so it may be parking forever.
posted on March 13, 2008 12:47:13 PM new
Ebay has overpriced stuff as well. This is a storefront not an auction. I sold a few thousand dollars last year, so I am pleased with it.
posted on March 13, 2008 12:49:05 PM new
Ecrater is definitely the place to go if you're looking for counterfeit Tiffany jewelry. I laughed when I saw the sellers had smudged out the Tiffany logo -- they think that'll keep them from getting sued.
fLufF
-- Now updated daily. Jewelry news, views and pretty baubles for those with low impulse control.
posted on March 13, 2008 01:53:11 PM new
I have no self-control. When one of these eBay alternatives gets mentioned here, I have to look and there goes an afternoon of poking around having a laugh. I like the idea of no fees, because these eCrater "sellers" are going to need that option. Sure, I might want to buy the 625.00 emerald ring from the seller who is also offering the .01 Disney World tickets (they also offer a domain name for $1000; of course, the name is not in the listing, so who knows what it is). Another seller wants $500 for a domain name mushing together eBay and PayPal components. Yeah, like that one is gonna fly once the lawyers get through with them. I will admit, there were some very good prices on LV handbags. Maybe I'll start my Christmas shopping early.
posted on March 13, 2008 04:29:41 PM new
damariscotta
There are tons of nonsense auctions or items for sale EVERYWHERE. What about the guy selling his science project for a million dollars (time machine). I could go on and on, but I won't.
I have sold $167.00 today on ecrater (no, that certainly does not happen everyday), but I am pleased. I am not saying that ecrater will take anything away from ebay. I am sure you probably couldn't support a family off of it, but it works for me. I do not have to pay bills or worry about that DH does that for me, so it is just some "play money" for me.
posted on March 13, 2008 08:19:09 PM new
3 full weeks...still not back to the numbers they were at BEFORE the INCREASE(boycott)....gas prices may help online...but it will be cancelled out with the postal increase approaching
posted on March 13, 2008 09:04:55 PM new
I agree with deichen. ecrater has been wonderful as a seller. I sell many slow moving items there and don't go broke doing so like on ebay.
birgittaw doesn't quite get it. Yes, ecrater is a parking lot for items. But it allows sellers to have their slower moving items listed on the internet without costing them an arm and a leg. If eBay was their only option, they'd be broke in a month.
posted on March 13, 2008 09:36:57 PM new
Thank you ST0NEC0LD613. If naysayers don't want to bother with ecrater that is their choice. Have you had a good day there? I have sold 4 things today and that has never happened to me, in one day there! $140.00! and no fees except paypal. Oh, and yes GREAT prices for my items because I am NOT a bargain basement.
edited to correct spelling.
[ edited by deichen on Mar 13, 2008 09:37 PM ]
posted on March 13, 2008 09:46:35 PM new
A quick question: Do you have to have a "store" to sell on eCrater? If not, can you park an item for as long as you want? (Asking these questions before I take the time to look at the site.)
_____________________
posted on March 13, 2008 10:59:14 PM new
It's possible that the naysayers are doing a little basic research, to wit:
Where are the raves from thrilled eCrater buyers? Answer: there aren't any, not that I could find. I ran a bunch of searches:
i found a great deal on ecrater
buy it on ecrater
cheap on ecrater
The results are almost all articles from sellers who have eCrater domains.
I see no evidence that eCrater is drawing buyers. It has an Alexa rank of 17,519 (with Alexa, lower numbers are better) but there is no way to differentiate seller from buyer traffic. Only one store on ecrater (starauctions.ecrater.com, a purveyor of MAC makeup samples) gets more than 1% of the total traffic; most stores get considerably less.
If you have a compelling product that can't be readily found elsewhere, eCrater might work.
In my prowls through sterling silver jewelry sellers, I found one seller who had two transaction comments and one seller who had one. Granted I did not look at every single listing.
Meantime, I don't give much credence to statements made when it is impossible to verify the claims. If I say something about my eBay sales, everyone knows my selling ID. You can even look it up on Terapeak and find out a lot about my business: sellthrough, average price realized, and so on. In fact, I urge you to do it. I'm pretty proud of how I stack up against the big guys in my category.
So, Stone and Deichen, where's the beef?
fLufF
-- Now updated daily. Jewelry news, views and pretty baubles for those with low impulse control.
posted on March 14, 2008 04:45:36 AM new
I certainly would welcome more options as a buyer or seller, but when you are going against the entrenched market king, you need to have some compelling marketing purpose.
Right now, it looks as is if, for sellers, eCrater is offering a no-cost option. Now, rule number one is: If we are not charging fees, it is because we know we can't get anyone to pay them. Perhaps this will change with their "premium placement" or whatever it is they have in mind.
For buyers, the benefits are less clear. To begin with, is the traffic to this site driven by the store owners? I had never even heard of this site until reading about it here. "Sort of like eBay" will not be a great advertising slogan.
And yes, I know internet business names are about as meaningful as band names, but eCrater? I mean, isn't a crater a hole in the ground? Who knows, may come to pass.
posted on March 14, 2008 05:03:25 AM new
I opened a niche store there, just soft drink industry ads. I moved most of my ebay customers over there, cheaper prices for them and they just email me want lists. I post their want lists over there and it costs nothing to list or sell. I've been pretty happy with it.
As for feedback, I think I had one person leave it. The others just don't seem to care.
posted on March 14, 2008 05:44:29 AM new
Fluffy,
What proof do you think I can provide you? I am very happy there, like I said before my income does not have to support, in any way, my family. It is EXTRA and I have sold $2, 411.00 last year on ecrater and so far this year - $577.00. That is great for me. IT WORKS for me and so no proof is necessary. I doubt it would work for you, you obviously are a big player on ebay and sell very sought after items. My items are unique, out of stock and much lower priced (on most items) and they don't appeal to everyone. I know that isn't your cup of tea, but I am doing fine. I have made several contributions to my life, of items that I would not have felt comfortable buying using "family" money, such as a wonderful, beautiful artwork by the artist PINO, and yes, I bought an original (not a print or giclee). That I bought with saved money, from my sales (saved for a few years). Like I said, I doubt it would work for you.
I am just trying to defend the ridiculous remarks about "the junk" that everyone is trying to say - when ebay has plenty of that - and we all know that.
Roadsmith:
Yes, you would need a store and then if you like, you can "park" something there. You really have no maintance, once you set it up. IMO, why not? As an alternative.
[ edited by deichen on Mar 14, 2008 05:45 AM ]
posted on March 14, 2008 08:11:28 AM new
As a potential buyer, eCrater drove me crazy last night because their search is so simpleminded.
For example, you cannot do a search that excludes a word.
I wanted to exclude all items that had "designer" in the title -- and there are a lot of them -- because that's one word the Tiffany counterfeiters often put in their titles.
You can't do it on eCrater. But they felt it was really important to let you indicate you wanted to search "sex stuff" or not.
Not ready for prime time.
fLufF
-- Now updated daily. Jewelry news, views and pretty baubles for those with low impulse control.
posted on March 14, 2008 08:48:16 AM new
Oh, I absolutely get it. My point was that the increased number of listings may be a function of items parked and not sold.
I looked at antiques -- furniture and textiles was all that was there, and just about all of it priced way over retail in store or show. No reason for me to even bother going back.
It certainly may be functional for some categories, but not for the ones I'm interested in.
Parking slow moving items? Well, there are times when slow moving items just need to move, or else your potential profit is eaten up by time and tied up capital. But everyone's business plan is different, so that may not matter to some.
And I agree with the search as Fluffy noted. I got "file not found" when trying to put in some kind of specific sorts.
posted on March 14, 2008 09:13:51 AM newYou could tell us how to find your eCrater store, for starters.
Well, most people google my stuff (looking for something they once had, ect... and I am on the top of the google list for many of my unique items. If you are asking what my store is called - the answer is no. Sorry, no pictures, no private information. I do not ask for any of your private information and deichen is unique - I am not that anywhere else and it isn't my name in real life, either.
posted on March 14, 2008 09:25:09 AM newprivate information
You're engaged in the business of selling things to the general public (not just your friends) yet the name of your business is, you say, private information, as is the very nature of the items you're selling.
Ho-kay.
fLufF
-- Now updated daily. Jewelry news, views and pretty baubles for those with low impulse control.
posted on March 14, 2008 09:29:59 AM new
"As a potential buyer, eCrater drove me crazy last night because their search is so simpleminded."
It's even worse - you can't go to a specific category, and do a search within that category. For example, I went to music, tried a Pink Floyd search, and ended up with all sorts of stuff.
A million listings is irrelevant if there are no buyers - it's just spinning your wheels. I looked at the Blu Ray category (which is a hot category) and there are 57 listings on ecrater - there are 25,000 worthless sportscards though.
I remember when bidville went live, and I tried them out, and I actually made a few bucks too - but just a few. Even if I increased my listings, I didn't sell more. The buyers weren't there, and they had a lost of listings too. The cheap or free part is attractive, but without buyers, what is the point.
Now I know people will say I make sales there - good for you. Other sellers are good customers. It's not at least for now though a reasonable alternative for someone actually making a living doing this. It's fine for a hobby seller though.
posted on March 14, 2008 09:43:21 AM newYou're engaged in the business of selling things to the general public (not just your friends) yet the name of your business is, you say, private information, as is the very nature of the items you're selling. Ho-kay.
How funny! I am doing fine, I don't need your business and I prefer to keep my chats and conversations apart from my business. I doubt it will hurt me, to "keep private". My enquiring minds want to know!
I remember a few years ago when dimview posted here and alot of the members here were doing everything they could to guess his identity. Why, what does it matter? I also remember when someone posted a post about you buying a bra with one of your id's and then posted a link. Well, it really wasn't any of our business, was it?
edited because I can't seem to get the html right!
[ edited by deichen on Mar 14, 2008 09:44 AM ]
[ edited by deichen on Mar 14, 2008 09:44 AM ]
posted on March 14, 2008 09:46:37 AM newThe cheap or free part is attractive, but without buyers, what is the point.
Precisely. "Free" isn't free.
If it takes me an hour to list twelve items on eCrater and I could have done the same twelve items on eBay in the same amount of time, I've lost money. My eBay sellthrough is about 66%, so I've lost the sale of eight items while using eCrater's free listing.
I'm guessing it's either hobby sellers there or people who are lousy at math.
fLufF
-- Now updated daily. Jewelry news, views and pretty baubles for those with low impulse control.
posted on March 14, 2008 09:54:50 AM new
I am mostly a hobby seller, so what??? Hey, some need to work and some don't. It is fine if you do and fine if you don't. And congrats on your sell-thru. Mine was never that high on ebay, but then you sell stuff everyone wants, right?
Oh and by the way, I am not a newbie, I have been on this chat forever and on ebay since 1998, I have sold on ebay, yahoo, epier, bidbay (what a joke), bidville and on ecrater. Like I said before ecrater DOES NOT sound like a viable alternative for you, fluffy, but it works for some of us. What is your problem with that? Meow
posted on March 14, 2008 10:50:19 AM new
Hey, you got people to look at eCrater by bringing it up here. So some of us looked, and didn't like (or at least had questions about it). Easiest way to avoid arguing over something is to not start a post in a public forum.
(I'm in a small town on the coast of Maine, but it is personal, and I can't tell you where.
posted on March 14, 2008 01:46:12 PM newDo you have to have a "store" to sell on eCrater?
Basically ecrater is a store. You get your own web domain.
It's even worse - you can't go to a specific category, and do a search within that category
ecrater isn't eBay. It doesn't work like eBay. Your ecrater is basically a webstore. Your items show in search engines. However, if you go directly to my website, then there is absolutely catagory search.
