Power Sellers Unite

leelee145 · Joined: 11 Jan 2012 Posts: 7

I'm giving up on ebay & starting fresh. What site do you think is best? ecrater
Bonanza
or open up my own online store?

In your opinion which one is the easiest to use?

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

Now is time to face the truth. Your own sites and any Alternative site needs time and work. A lot of work and time in promotion. It is a try and error.

If you have duplicate items or items to sell in bulk. Made a store in both places. eCrater and Bonz are very different in set up and concept. eCrater gives you a personal independent space meanwhile Bonz has an eBay style site where you are part of the marketplace and "suppose" to have more connection between users (you know buyers are sellers and vice versa). To understand the style for example between my eCrater and my booth.

eCrater Store
http://elpereles.ecrater.com/

Bonz Booth
http://www.bonanza.com/booths/elpereles

luckyalive · Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 590

eCrater uses paypal. I contacted the guy that ran the site and he said they have no plans to offer anythin gother than paypal. Real strange if you set up a free site, but financially support your competition ebay through paypal.

Why on earth would I want to use PayPal on ecrater - you are back at square one with chargebacks and buyer fraud. I've also looked into Bonz. I passed on bonz - when you ask for simple changes that would be critical to selling to your site they argue with you instead of fixing it. If they posted 2 + 2 = 5 on their site they would argue with you about it not being 4 instead of fixing it.

Better of setting up your own web site if you specialize in something. You can buy hosting for like $5.00 a month or less. You control everything. No fees. No interferance.

Back when netfirms still offered free sites with ads I set up a free site offering for sell parts for a specific collectible from my huge collection. within a couple months I was on Google's 1st page result and on the 2nd page result if you used the plural spelling. I simply cross linked my site with other sites in the same hobby / colelctible.

Every site I've encountered has major problems with those setting up the site behind their desks and actual real world experience.

Just look at Etsy. I told them may times they need a shipping caluculator as putting actual shipping cost sin the listings is totally igonornat for so many many reasons. I told them if they did not want to this is it would be a simply matter for a seller to instead use their own shipping calculator form that sends data to USPS's web site - I used before eBay had their own calculator. Did Etsy listen, no because those at the top assume they know everything simply because they are at the top when in fact its the people down in thr trenches that know whats going on.

doulcefrance · Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 129

There is a place named www.vendio.com where you can have your very own, totally free store with shopping cart and you only decide which means of payment to accept. You may, if you wish, send your items to Google Shopping / Google Prpduct Search.
There is a mild learning curve and their customer service is fast and competent.
As with the other alts, you do your own promotion. It's your business.

http://www.stamp-boutique.com

wtcollectibles · Joined: 03 Dec 2010 Posts: 23

eCrater uses paypal. I contacted the guy that ran the site and he said they have no plans to offer anythin gother than paypal.

I'm not sure what guy you talked to, but Ecrater offers both PayPal and Google Checkout. I'm not getting into opinions of either, but your post made it sound as if Ecrater was PayPal only and I just wanted to clarify.
Becky

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17240 Location: Texas

Don't forget bluejay.com. Like ecrater, it's free, easy to use and allows it's sellers to use different online payment options (even money orders) with no hassles.
I tried bonzanle with NO success and soon closed my shop.

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

Oh, my God! Another attack of Payphobia. :roll: :lol:

Payment Methods in eCrater
Google Checkout
PayPal
Money Order
Cashier's Check
Personal Check
Cash On Delivery

Payment Methods in Bonanza
Paypal
Google Checkout
Amazon Checkout
Money Order (You need 3 feedback from buyers paying by PayPal or Google) :roll:

luckyalive, it isn't true they don't offer only PayPal, but it is true that eCrater isn't interesting for the moment to add other payment method.

caljackscollectibles · Joined: 08 Feb 2011 Posts: 251 Location: California

I've used both. But now only eCrater as I had hardly any sales on Bonanza. Besides eCrater is free and has very supportive forums. They just recently passed 2 million in orders. As has been said, just like having your own site, you need to promote, promote, promote. I've done that and have been successful. Also my listing appear in Google search, many within the 1st 5 listings. Unlike having your own site, they send things to search engines, have the PayPal and Google Checkout ready to use. You can also have stores in the UK and AU if you wish automatically.

caljackscollectibles · Joined: 08 Feb 2011 Posts: 251 Location: California

luckyalive wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")eCrater uses paypal. I contacted the guy that ran the site and he said they have no plans to offer anythin gother than paypal. Real strange if you set up a free site, but financially support your competition ebay through paypal.

Why on earth would I want to use PayPal on ecrater - you are back at square one with chargebacks and buyer fraud. I've also looked into Bonz. I passed on bonz - when you ask for simple changes that would be critical to selling to your site they argue with you instead of fixing it. If they posted 2 + 2 = 5 on their site they would argue with you about it not being 4 instead of fixing it.

Better of setting up your own web site if you specialize in something. You can buy hosting for like $5.00 a month or less. You control everything. No fees. No interferance.

Back when netfirms still offered free sites with ads I set up a free site offering for sell parts for a specific collectible from my huge collection. within a couple months I was on Google's 1st page result and on the 2nd page result if you used the plural spelling. I simply cross linked my site with other sites in the same hobby / colelctible.

Every site I've encountered has major problems with those setting up the site behind their desks and actual real world experience.

Just look at Etsy. I told them may times they need a shipping caluculator as putting actual shipping cost sin the listings is totally igonornat for so many many reasons. I told them if they did not want to this is it would be a simply matter for a seller to instead use their own shipping calculator form that sends data to USPS's web site - I used before eBay had their own calculator. Did Etsy listen, no because those at the top assume they know everything simply because they are at the top when in fact its the people down in thr trenches that know whats going on.

You are not correct re: ecrater only offering PayPal. I know I have 2 stores there and offer PayPal and Google Checkout.
Not sure what you mean by every site you've encountered has major problems with those setting up the site.... I found setting up store on eCrater quite easy. The only confusing thing was their shipping matrix, but the people on the forums are very helpful.

gahillbillies · Joined: 16 Jul 2006 Posts: 147

I offer paypal and google checkout in my ecrater store and I have two on Bonanza, one does very well the other is just starting.

luckyalive · Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 590

There is little difference between PayPal and Google checkout - they are both UNSECURE forms of payments for sellers. Amazon is also unsafe. Read the TOS of each service - chargebacks!

I contacted the owner of eCrater about adding a service that was free to sellers and secure in that no chargebacks could be made. These two services, at the time, were revolutionarymoneyexchange and ING Direct. Revolution has since been bought by American Express and turned into a unsafe form of payment - chargebacks. The guy at eCrater said they had no plans to add these services. Why on earth would I want to sell there then if every form of paymentthey offer is unsafe. Really sorry if I suggested paypal only, but in my mind PayPal, Google and Amazon payments are different flavors of PayPal - UNSAFE!

I hate to burst everyone's bubble but money orders are not safe. They are faked, they are stolen. USPS regularly publishes a list of stolen and missing money orders. USPS has a history of being SLOW with reporting bad money orders - even SEVERAL MONTHS later the PO can demand a return of their money and you will be forced to pay it back. Under certain circumstances they can demand their payment back up to 2 YEARS later!

Cashier's checks can be stolen and faked. You really going to be making phone calls across the country to talk to the banks in question to verfiy some informaiton about the instrument - what you hear on the phone is no guarantee its real by the way.

Personal checks, LOL. These are so bad for so many reasons. Get a bad check your bank will likely charge you a fee no matter if its your fault or not. Ever heard of "stop payment fraud" on checks? Buyer buys $100 item from you, then after he gets it he has the bank put a stop payment on the check. This of course will cost him a fee from the bank ($25 + / -), but who cares he just got $100 of goods from you plus shipping. LOL, you really going to try to sue him afterwards? Call law enforcement - they will have a hard time not laughing at you.

Bonz offers no safe payment methods!

Frankly why on earth are these alternate sites offer paypal in the first place? Fees from the paypal transactions are used to kill off these sites. Why would you want ebay to have access to your customer names and where you are doing business? Its like paying a spy to spy on you.

And then we haven't addressed the amount of time spent managing paper payments. Assuming you take checks and money orders, and assuming they are safe ( they are not), you'd have to come up wih some time period in which you consider them valid - as having "cleared the bank". Lets say this is 10 days (or maybe its 15 days?). Now say you've got 50 payments by check on various dates for recent orders - now you are going to have keep a calendar of when check payments are received and when they clear for 50 different orders, LOL. In the mean time the customer is getting more pissed.

The shipping matrix makes no sense at all! Reminds me of eBay.

The only things you want to place in listings is the item description, pictures, and item weight as these do not change - you'll never have to update the listing. The matrix requires you to enter current shipping rates - a big no no - you will need to change these later. The option to use USPS is highly defective as it says if results are not returned from USPS in 3 seconds the cost defaults to the matrix.

We even haven't addressed such things as Priority Mail - items above 1728 cubic inches and shipped to zone 5 and above are subject to a dimensional rate as opposed to strictly weight. Essentially you are penalized for a light package that weighs very little. So does the matrix address this - if not you stand to loose some bucks. And then their is the question of combinding items.

Matrix is way too complicated and waste of time.

Build your own form that sends package information to the usps web site. List weight in listing and have customer enter weight and their zip code in form. All you need to do is analyze the url of the USPS web site such as the example below:

OZ = originating zip code
DZ = destination zip code
P = pounds
and so forth....

http://postcalc.usps.com/MailServices.aspx?Country=Domestic&rect=True&M=6&OZ=50401&P=9&O=&DZ=50401&l=&h=&w=&g=

Then the only thing you may have to do is update your form should USPS change the input fields names or simlar items. Upload you new form to a web page and you are done. No grand master plan of shipping matrix involved.

Of course the best solution is to have a integrated USPS calculator that works all the time. But not every site can do this so one of your won is the next best bet.

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

luckyalive, ok lets made a summary. Your recommendation is a personal site. Ok, it is fine. But I'm confuse with your payment methods recommendation. So, what are your recommendations for Payment methods?

knappschiles · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4035 Location: Wi

Yah, Luckyalive, if you are so jaded about virtually ALL the sites and payment methods HOW ON EARTH ARE YOU ACTUALLY SELLING ANYTHING ???

The only safe method of payment using your criteria is CASH !!!

I've been selling since before 2000. The only times I've had any problems at all were 1 PP dispute when I was slow getting an order out. The customer closed the dispute the next day when the order arrived. And 2 complaints for bad / non-germinating seeds. Those complaints were in direct emails to me too. Not thru eBay or PP. I refunded both even tho the seed I sent was good but the Post Office probably x-rayed it to death.

Yes there are scammers out there. In some product categories more than others. Maybe I've just been lucky.

But I use my head and educate myself about the scams and don't answer vague emails asking me to send large quantities of stuff to Japan or Russia or Australia (seeds can't go to AU any more). I've had them all at one time or another.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Leelee,

eCrater is a great place to get started. You can get something up fairly quickly compared with learning how to do your own site. Eventually your own site is the way to go tho. While Blujay is also free, they have a hit and miss record of getting stuff into Google Products /Shopping or whatever Google is going to call it next week LOL. but if you don't care if things are "parked" Blujay is a nice site in that you can make your listing using HTML which you can't do at eCrater.

For me Bonanza has been hit and miss. I've been there 3 years now. The first year sales were great. Since then, so-so. Because they have a FVF that has a minimum rather than a % as eBay does, I deleted my lowest priced items as the fee was just too much on a $1 item.

I use PP and Google Checkout and money orders at all 3 places. At the moment my own site is only set-up for PP but I hope to change the cart this summer so I can have both PP and GC.

Carol

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

knappschiles, thanks for remember the Blujay's HTML option and that In Bonanza you can't sell low price items thanks to its minimum $0.50 fee.

It is one of the reasons that I never made a good push posting items in Bonanza.

luckyalive · Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 590

"luckyalive, ok lets made a summary. Your recommendation is a personal site. Ok, it is fine. But I'm confuse with your payment methods recommendation. So, what are your recommendations for Payment methods?"

The only safe payment method to date is ING Direct Person2Person. Bank transfer. No credit cards. No chargebacks. Free. FDIC insured. Free savings, business accounts. ING Direct handles all of PayPal's oversea money transfers by the way. Referral fees up to $500.00

"Yah, Luckyalive, if you are so jaded about virtually ALL the sites and payment methods HOW ON EARTH ARE YOU ACTUALLY SELLING ANYTHING ??? "

I've conducted several hundred test auctions since returning to eBay. Mostly items selling for several hundred dollars a below. Amazon is used for books. Books are moved to eBay after several months if unsold or initially placed on eBay if they would go better there. Yet both of the payment methods used by eBay and Amazon are totally unsafe. My selling or not selling there does not change the facts - nor does it change the facts about the safety of any other payment source.

Prior to leaving eBay for some time the current fad fraud on ebay was for bidders to cancel their payment after they got their tracking number. No chargeback involved - simply cancel the payment. eBay's response was this was not techinically possible because they have "security" in place to prevent this.

"But I use my head and educate myself about the scams and don't answer vague emails asking me to send large quantities of stuff to Japan or Russia or Australia (seeds can't go to AU any more). I've had them all at one time or another. "

No amount of education will protect you against fradulent chargebacks. Sorry, we are not talking about stupidity on my part. Even the bidders who previously tried to steal their items by cancelling their payment did not get their items. I had UPS and USPS pull them out of their system and send them back. They made the mistake of cancelling their payment before they got the item and assumed once it was shipped they would get it no matter once. I was out the shipping - of course USPS charges a fee for this now.

From google various articles on eBay's seller and buyer protection one can easily determine that these are not worth anything.

Sales outside the country are completely out of question now with PayPal. Sad, because I had good luck selling items to Japanese collectors. Even sold an item to a foreign embassy in China for an exhibit on educaiton and children. not any more. Just google paypal for examples. Western Europe was also good for colelctibles. Eastern Europe (after Soviet break up) and Australia was good for 1960s - 70s NOS car parts.

"eCrater is a great place to get started. You can get something up fairly quickly compared with learning how to do your own site."

It looked promising and I'd like to see it grow, but it offers NO safe way for sellers to accept money. Why do they refuse to allow sellers to offer ING Direct? People keep complaining about no alternatives to PayPal, but they will do nothing to fix that.

The shipping matrix is completely ignorant and makes the site unusable. Why can't eCrater build a USPS interface that works. eCraters faq says their USPS interface defaults to the matrix if results can't be returned from USPS servers in 3 seconds so its frankly unreliable. I can build a small software application in a few minutes that submits information to the USPS servers and retrieves the information, parses it, and displays the results, but this site can't. Considering I am self taught that does not bide well for eCrater's business capabilities.