Comments on: eCRATER: An eBay Alternative

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:45:51 +0000

The thing with eCrater is that it is strictly a storefront. It makes a great alternative to eBay stores and Prostores, but not for the auction side of eBay. I’ve tried a few others, and my favorite so far is ebid. It’s got a great interface and really could be a great supplement if not a replacement to eBay eventually.

I assume you work for eBid?

By: ebid

ebid — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:06:09 +0000

The thing with eCrater is that it is strictly a storefront. It makes a great alternative to eBay stores and Prostores, but not for the auction side of eBay. I’ve tried a few others, and my favorite so far is ebid. It’s got a great interface and really could be a great supplement if not a replacement to eBay eventually.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:33:45 +0000

Thanks for the clarification Pat. I definitely plan on selling on eCrater in the future, and seeing that they are on the Google product searches is definitely a nice incentive.

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:30:48 +0000

I have been selling on eCrater.com since March 2005. Unlike eBay where you paid dearly and hope the eBay name brings you a buyer, on eCrater.com it’s up to the individual store owner to do their own promotions and get out there and find their customers. Comparing eBay and eCraters is like comparing apples and oranges. Sure, they are both places you can sell your products but that’s about the end of the comparison. One thing eCrater.com is not is an auction site! Everything is fixed price store listings – no best offers, no auctions.

One SUPER GREAT thing about eCrater.com is they do the feed to google of all the products on the site - 986,715 items at this time. The Google ranking on most stores is superb! This helps bring the shoppers to your items a great deal.
The forum community is full of great people willing to share ideas and help sellers get started.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:31:59 +0000

epiac1216 wrote:

@Ashley:

I liked the site which is cleaner and more intuitive than eBay. However, I was disappointed that two sellers that I selected were not offering their products outside the United States.

I’m sure a lot of business is out there, outside the U.S borders.

Regards,

Omar.-

Many sellers on eBay only sell within the United States as well simply because of the hassles that come with international shipping and customs. Just as eBay ended up opening up in other countries, if eCRATER catches on, I think they’ll end up in other countries as well.

Maggie wrote:

You got that right! After 9 years I’m so sick of selling on ebay. If you looked at my auction results you’d be thinking I make a lot, but after ebay and paypal get done taking out their fees I’m lucky if I get to keep even half of what I make selling, and then of course you have to deduct what we paid for it in the first place and all the time involved.

I already opened a store at ecrater and am starting my own website.

If anyone’s interested in finding where their favorite ebay sellers are going - and viewing how much the feebay fees are taking out of sellers pockets - come on over to PowerSellersUnite.com. It’s a free, and great informative site.

Wow, 9 years! I did it full time for a little over a year and that was enough.

By: skh.pcola

skh.pcola — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:23:19 +0000

Omar, if eCrater can reach critical mass, sellers will almost certainly _have_ to expand their customer base by selling/shipping ex-CONUS. I’d give it another several months to see how things shake out.

On a related note, I’ve been on eBay since ~1998, and don’t even like the “improvements” that they’ve made to the site, such as revisions of category structures. It seems that they continually change crap for…the sake of changing crap. Maybe all of those programming gazillionaires who work there have to justify their existence by tweaking features that already work fine. I don’t know. What I do know is that I no longer visit there as often as I used to, and selling a textbook on Half.com almost makes me feel as ripped off as selling it back to the bookstore, after I see the pittance that I get after fees are deducted.

By: epiac1216

epiac1216 — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:54:47 +0000

@Ashley:

I liked the site which is cleaner and more intuitive than eBay. However, I was disappointed that two sellers that I selected were not offering their products outside the United States.

I’m sure a lot of business is out there, outside the U.S borders.

Regards,

Omar.-

By: Amak

Amak — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:52:46 +0000

Looks very good. With eBay cranking up their fees and screwing sellers, I’m sure eCRATER will grow.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:05:36 +0000

You got that right! After 9 years I’m so sick of selling on ebay. If you looked at my auction results you’d be thinking I make a lot, but after ebay and paypal get done taking out their fees I’m lucky if I get to keep even half of what I make selling, and then of course you have to deduct what we paid for it in the first place and all the time involved.

I already opened a store at ecrater and am starting my own website.

If anyone’s interested in finding where their favorite ebay sellers are going - and viewing how much the feebay fees are taking out of sellers pockets - come on over to PowerSellersUnite.com. It’s a free, and great informative site.

By: Michael Dobrofsky

Michael Dobrofsky — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:44:44 +0000

It’s a shame eBay is so damn big, but we just need these types of sites to catch on and give them some competition so they don’t have so much power cos power corrupts Thanks, nice find.

By: The Guru

The Guru — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:01:06 +0000

Nice find! I like that they use Google Checkout. I have a client that is looking for an economical ecommerce option and this may be the way to go. I am going to be looking in to this some more.