Power Sellers Unite

BigT · Joined: 13 Mar 2005 Posts: 305

I am celebrating FIVE years on eCRATER this month!

March 2005

It was the wee hours of the morning (that's when I do most of my best work) and I was in the forum of SpareDollar (used to be an ebay listing service, merged with InkFrog now) when another online seller was posting about ecrater.com. Members of that forum had lots of questions and Dimiti (owner of ecrater.com) join in the forum to talk to us about the site. He added categories as we suggested them and everything!
At the time my concern was a category for Big and Tall Mens Clothing and guess what .. Dimitri created one! I was happy! I signed up and opened 3 stores.
I was leary. I spent way too many hours planning for and setting up a store at a site called Waggle Pop (turned out to be the first WP) and after spending months preparing for that site it closed within a week! The experience did give me alot of knowledge regarding SEO and meta tag and even how to name your store. BUT I didn't want to end up in that position again! After chatting with Dimitri in the forum and getting a better understanding of his plans for this site I was ready to go for it!

Today, I personally own, 5 stores on ecrater. I am part owner of 13 others on ecrater.com. I have a few other stores online but eCRATER.com is my home. This site is the best.

Many things have changed since I arrived here 5 years ago. I remember going to forums all over the internet trying to help other sellers get started on ecrater.com, see at that time, ecrater.com did not have a forum or instructions or manuals or anything. The forum opened up on February 24, 2006!

In my opinion the best thing is the copy feature to create new listings. That makes listing so much easier! Now if we could get a bulk editor

I actually came here with a plan. I own my domain names and forwarded them to my stores on ecrater.com. My thought was that way all the promoting I do will never be wasted should I move my stores. Well, over the years my plan has been altered. I have no plan to leave this site and I certainly have no worries that it's going to disappear into the night.

Of course, it's nice that ecrater.com does not charge anyone for their services. Heck, they won't even accept donations! I do feel guilty about that so I volunteer on the site. I am a mod on the forum as well as a category mod. I feel that together we have all made this site grow and to be the best it can be.

Thank you Dimitri! It's be a great 5 years!

love2shop · Joined: 31 Mar 2008 Posts: 680

CONGRATS!!!!!! BigT. I've only been there a little over a year, but you're right about it being a great site. My sales are increasing every week, and the customers have been great as well, so far.

I, like many on the site, would love to see certain new features, but you can't beat free, so I have NO complaints. Heck, I'm impressed with being able to have 10 pictures. I really belive this has helped my sale.

I hope you have continued success! A BIG thanks to Dimitri for a great site, and too all the folks that volunteer their time to make eCrater what it is today.

elpereles · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1478 Location: Puerto Rico

Thanks eCrater and his creator.

I'm not a big seller, but wanted to sell extra items of my collection. I began with eBay, but the insertion fees were too much for me. Then I found Yahoo Auctions and try it for some months after it dies. Then searching from alternatives like Yahoo Auctions. I found the PSU forum and from this forum I found eCrater.

I began in eCrater and other alternatives since summer of 2007. And from all of then, eCrater is the only one that never fail to me.

mugzinnys · Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 56

Congratulations BigT you are an inspiration to us all.
Also Thanks for all the help that you have giving me as a Moderator at eCRATER.
I still can't see how you can run all your clothing stores and still find time to be a eCRATER Moderator helping all the Newbies and Established Store owners in so many areas of store development.
I am going on my third year, which will be May of this year, for my third year
with eCRATER.

http://mugzinnys.ecrater.com

BigT · Joined: 13 Mar 2005 Posts: 305

tHANKS EVERYONE!

bgnagn1 · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 683

I've been at Ecrater for almost 4 years and it just keeps getting better.

I know someone personally that is closing their ebay store before the end of March. I'm convinced leaving ebay was the best move I ever made.

I'll be posting my 5 year and 10 year anniversary at Ecrater when the time gets here. I'll be here as long as they are here.

Thanks Dimitri and all the crew!!!

ebaykiller09 · Joined: 10 Oct 2009 Posts: 20

Let's not be delusional here. Most all of Ecraters success is due to the Google feed and Ebay's incompetence. If Google every decides it want to take over the sales and shut off the feed, Ecrater is done. However, as of now they are one of the only 4 options that will create sales. Those being Ebay, Amazon, Ecrater and to a smaller degree Craigslist.
For someone to make a real run at Ebay, they have to create a new dynamic in the way online retail/auction operate. With increased bandwidth and more and more webcams maybe an auction sales site offering video of the object you intend to buy, Certainly not a new idea, but one that would catch on if the site made it simple, easy and free.

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4780

Big T,

Congratulations on your five years with eCrater.

To be honest, I don't think I even knew of eCrater five years ago. But then again, I wasn't aware of many of the sites I now know of, thanks to the folks here at PSU.