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!

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

I was very excited to read that Tim Burton would be making an "Alice in Wonderland" movie. It will have both live action and animation elements and will stay true to the original story essence, according to an interview with Tim Burton by Sci Fi Wire.

Set to start filming this May, the approximate release date is rumored to be 2010. Wondering if Johnny Depp will be part of this too? I can see him as the Cheshire cat perfectly!!!

Also be on the lookout for an extended new version of Burton's Frankenweenie. I always figured eventually he would come back to this film especially since Disney held back the reins on his vision the first time around.

Both movies are rumored to 3-D movies. I just hope Disney doesn't get on their high horses over Burton's darker imagery style. It's what makes "The Nightmare before Christmas" such a wonderful cult classic. Heck, it's what makes Tim Burton...Tim Burton.

What's New for 2008?

2007 has come and gone and now it's time to reflect and reorganize my goals and aspirations for the coming year. Our webstore, Fun Cool Collectibles is off to a booming start. I have spent alot of time researching my marketing choices and the addition of Google Analytics to the website has given me loads of information on where my customers are coming from.
Our biggest product line The Nightmare Before Christmas has been selling like hotcakes. We recently restocked and are proud to offer the highly coveted limited edition Nightmare Before Christmas Mayor's Car that was sold at Hot Topic (and now sold out)with a limited numbered run of 1500. This collectible is fetching a HOT price upwards to $100 and will surely climb as supply depletes. I am a proud owner of one #1213/1500, looks perfect on the shelf in my den among the new Nightmare snowglobes I got from The Disney Store this year.

Also, we have added new Nightmare Before Christmas clothing: shirts, sweatshirts and sneakers!

Love Invader Zim? We've also got those cute plush Gir slippers in stock!

And for all my goth friends out there...don't miss the Skelanimals Penguin Plush Slippers Simply gothic adorable!

I know one of my main goals, I am sure this applies to 99% of the people that sell online, is for this to become a main source of income with the means to support my family. It's not going to happen tomorrow but it is coming closer to a reality than it was 3 years ago.