Ebay Boycott Week is Winding Down...who is Victorious?

As most of you might know, this past week Ebay buyers and sellers have been boycotting in protest to the many recent announcements of changes. Although the numbers at Ebay have fluctuated up and down all week long, I believe the true impact to be what the numbers can't tell you.

Who is Victorious? I believe the victory this week belongs to the many buyers and sellers who have not only boycotted Ebay but have actually started to buy and sell at other alternative sites, such as Ecrater and Ebid. They have cut the apron strings from the "Big Bad Bay" and gone out on their own.

I had read post after post on such forums as PowerSellers Unite and Ecrater, from sellers AND buyers alike; sellers who have either moved their products to another site or created their own website and buyers who have searched and bought products from sites for the 1st time. Alternative sites, have seen their sites grow 3x's their size in this week. These people, my friends, are the real winners. They are the VICTORIOUS!

I have had buyers email me after they bought my product, telling me how happy they were to find what they were looking for, WITHOUT having to look at Ebay.

I have shared stories with other sellers. At the beginning of the week, I listening to their fears, hearing the uncertainty in their future. By the end of the week, many of them were already receiving sales in their new "habitat", their tone was a sigh of relief, their conclusion..Yes, it can be done. There is life after eBay!

On the short term it does not seem like the boycott has impacted ebay at all. But Ebay better be careful on their shrug of the shoulders attitude because the effects of Ebay's new business module, is still yet to be felt. Those who haven't jumped ship, are waiting until May. Those who already have, are taking their customer base with them. It shall be a long year for Ebay...

Reflections of an Online Seller

I remember, just a little over 7 years ago, we began selling on ebay. I still reminiscence over my first auction sold, my first item to be involved in a bidding war, the first time one of my auctions ended for triple the profit. Oh what great few years those were.
Now the last year on ebay, totally different story. I was stressing over how many auctions were closing without bids, how it wasn't even worth selling anything less than $5 anymore and how uch of my profit was being eaten up by fees from both Paypal and Ebay.
But don't get me wrong. I am not bitter over my years at ebay. If anything, I am wiser and more experienced. This couldn't have come about if I hadn't sold on ebay.

Now I have my own store, Fun Cool Collectibles, and again, the new found fun and glory is back again! The anxiously waiting on the first sale, the adrenalin rush of my first sale, the ability to say "100% full profit" when someone paid using Google Checkout! Life is good again. Now my confidence is back up at its level and I expect, yes EXPECT, to have at least one sale a day. I imagine I would have tons more if I had the time to fully apply myself. But, for now, it works. I look forward to this new year and new sales. The possibilities are many, my goals in full view.

So, how do you feel about your business? Care to give eCrater a try? Hope you are sharing in the excitement.

Our Business Success at eCrater Marketplace

The end of January will mark our 6 month anniversary of our Fun Cool Collectibles store in the eCrater Marketplace. We had a very successful holiday sales season and feel good about the months to come. Our sales are creeping up to the 300 mark, we should reach it before the end of the month.
For those of you looking for an alternative to eBay, I encourage you to check out eCrater. As a totally free alternative site for setting up your shop, you have nothing to lose. eCrater offers automatic Google feeds and simplifies the options of Google Checkout and has recently added Google Analytics for optimizing and tracking your webstores performance.

We are averaging almost 3,000 pageviews and over 100 new unique visitors a day. We have been fine tuning our keywords and applying our SEO knowledge to make these numbers grow. Places like Squidoo, USfreeads, MSN live Spaces have helped us spread the word of our store. Forums like TSSIF, eCrater and Auction Sellers Motivators help us through the exchange of ideas and marketing tips. Whereas so many other people report a decline in visitors after the holidays, we can report only a slight decline. More importantly, we've experienced a steady flow of customers throughout these first weeks of January.

Our biggest sellers so far: Nightmare before Christmas merchandise, Disney merchandise and Rock Band clothing and accessories. But that's not all we carry! We also have Hello Kitty, Trick fairy, Emily the Strange, Invader Zim, and Skelanimals in stock.With over 800 items in stock and growing, we have something for everyone!

Oh and don't forget to check out our After Christmas Sale going on now until January 31,2008

Whether you already have your own online store or are looking to open one and are looking to exchange ideas. Please feel free to contact us. We would love to reach out and network with you!