Christmas is Over and The New Year Is Here

Wow, it is hard to believe that the New Year is here, and that we have to start discounting stuff that we couldn't sell for the Christmas rush! I figure we should just about sell everything that did not sell for Christmas. January should be discount month. We have lots of merchandise that should sell in the next month.

We have brought in a lot of Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise, which I have been putting up over the last week or so. It is so hard to list merchandise during the Christmas/New Years period because of the constant distractions - Dinners, friends dropping by, going out to visit friends, etc. I also had the misfortune of stepping on some glass and getting four stitches in the bottom of my foot.

I think that business in 2010 is going to be busier. Everybody is talking about the economy being better, and that is a good sign. The Dow is back well over 10,000. The stock exchange is generally a good indicator of how well the economy is doing. The general business state of mind is more positive, which will help to stimulate the economy. So 2010 is going to be a busy year. It looks exciting. I am really positive about 2010!

We are clearing out a lot of merchandise at Fun Cool Collectibles We see 2010 as being a turning point in our business! So, visit us during our New Years Sales, and buy some great merchandise.

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!