Newbie on eCRATER with Questions

[noladiscountshop]

We were actually concerned about the postage as you stated for buying multiple items and giving a shipping discount and then it goes into priority mail and then we lose money. It's hard to start and we're trying to learn as much as we can to limit mistakes by selling on a new site.

We don't mind at all and accept any and all advice and recommendations. It is good to learn from others mistakes and might help us not lose too much money as a newbie. We would welcome continuous advice even after we open a store because it's won't hurt us to hear suggestions even then. Thanks again for your suggestions.

[MoonwishesStore]

Postage costs are why I use the matrix. My orders if for multiple items, the matrix has been terrific. Never had a problem with having the right postage come out since I started here around 8-9 years ago.

From what it looks like you have for categories and items that what will be for sale, I would think that the matrix would be great for you as well. At least your stuff looks pretty lightweight. I use my matrix to add how many items have sold. I sell mostly patterns and they weigh about 2-4 ounces in general although some can go higher up to 6-8 ounces. In those cases I put the weight as 2 instead of one on the listing. So if someone buys 2 lightweight and one heavyweight patterns, the matrix will see I've sold 4 items and the postage comes out for that. Since first class mail changed it is basically the same price from 4-8 ounces is all the same, it is even easier. The matrix doesn't even have to be about actual weight it can be set up for amounts of items and the amount of the items it decided by you depending on how much they might actually weigh.

When I have enough items that I estimate would hit 1 pound and thus priority mail, I have that postage cost as my final price for US buyers. Nobody that buys from me pays for more than the cost of a flat rate Priority envelope even if I sell 30 patterns or a 1000 - don't I wish. The way I figure it the more I sell in one bunch, the less PP fees to pay. Instead of paying PP fees times 30 orders (which is just $9 for the basic 30 cent fee alone) So actually if you have your matrix set up correctly, you will come out ahead on postage/fees altogether. I sold 27 patterns once and the postage ran me, at that time, $10 and change instead of 27 x $2.25 ($60.75) or whatever first class was then if selling them individually. It would have cost me a whole lot more selling them individually - one of the huge reasons I love multi-item orders. In this instance saved around $50+! It is important to look at the whole picture!

[noladiscountshop]

Yeah, we'll have to check into all of this and more. There is so much to do and so little time. We appreciate your kindness in sharing your knowledge of eCRATER.

[ABC149]

Hi from anorher new ecrater member with a question. When I enrolled, I opted for a short eCrater web name because I do not type well. Having to type in ABCEstateStuff on a frequent basis was unnerving. However, I found that AOL automatically types in my username for me, leaving only the password for me to type. I have not yet posted any items for sale and MaggietheCatsMeows suggestion that it is important for the store’s name to be descriptively specific kind of hit home. Maggie also said if you want to change your store name, just open up a new store with the more appropriate name and then close the old one. My concern is that a second store cannot use the same email address as the first store according to eCrater rules. I like the email service (AOL) that I set up specifically for eCrater. Should I not close ABC149 and then reapply for ABCEstateStuff?

[SammysSupplies]

Hi ABC, becasue you haven't set up your store yet, just close it and open up a new account. Good luck selling!

Nola, I do my shipping the same way Moonwishes does. If everything is light weight, it is a very easy way to go.

[noladiscountshop]

Thanks again for the great advice. We wish we heard about the name suggestion earlier as we already had this name on Ebay. In addiition, we also created an email address with that name as well. Unfortunately, we are stuck with our name.

[noladiscountshop]

GOOGLE ATTRIBUTES

We are totally confused about google attributes. We are trying to list a Mardi Gras Doubloon. What would we put as our google attributes. We tried putting up descriptive terms, but they didn't accept them and it didn't work. Our two items are:

1) MARY HOPKIN'S "THOSE WERE THE DAYS" MARDI GRAS DOUBLOON GENE RASKIN BORIS FOMIN

2) SHOW BOAT NEW ORLEANS MARDI GRAS DOUBLOON FERBER KERN OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II

Can anyone help us with google attributes? Thanks for your assistance.

[SammysSupplies]

You could put size, material and color and identifier_exists false. I was answering ABC's question about store names.

[MoonwishesStore]

[noladiscountshop]

We sell Mardi Gras doubloons and Mardi Gras beads, postcards, brochures, and other items. Are there some items that you can't really put google attributes? Thanks again for y'alls assistance.

[MoonwishesStore]

Did you look at the list of attributes on the listing page? Click on the blue question mark next to where you put descriptions. Those are the attributes you can use. You might have to investigate who made your items, etc. Once you have investigated things, you can then resort to using identifier_exists:false if needed, but there must be some attributes that you can use.


A few observations if you don't mind, you call these new. They couldn't be as they were used in a parade and apparently thrown off floats and could have landed anywhere and even if caught, they are still used. Also typing in all caps is considered shouting on line and is actually hard to read.

[noladiscountshop]

You give great advice. You're definitely correct about the all caps being considered shouting. We just cut and paste from Ebay and unfortunately, it'll be hard to adjust at this time. It would be tons of typing that we don't have time to do now. We can change it once we have put up all of our items though.

Also, y'all can correct us if we are wrong. Our understanding is that Google attributes assist your item to be seen in the google marketplace more or in a more appropriate area. The more you have than the more your item can be seen if they are applicable to your product. Is that correct? Also, if you don't put any, then is that ok?

Thanks again everyone for your assistance.

[MoonwishesStore]

Without google attributes, your items will not be seen in google shopping. Other than that, I'm not positive what effect they have and they are only pertinent to google. Your items will still be seen in your store and in the eCRATER marketplace. If you don't want to use attributes, that is your decision, but even though we are not listing on google, we don't get paid by google, we have no contract with google, they still get to poke their noses into our businesses and the more you can make google happy the better. We don't always know what they are looking for and what they will do to us for the information.

The biggest thing you have to remember about eCRATER, is that they don't advertise. We are responsible for doing our own promoting and marketing. That is a big job. You have to make it into a habit.

Since you currently only have two items listed on eCRATER, I'm not sure where the tons of typing would come from. My thoughts are fix it at the beginning and as you list it and then you don't have to go back. At one point we were allowed boilerplate and then about two years later (for me) it was banned. For years now I'm still running into listings that need it deleted and fixed! I just deleted it on one listing this morning!

[SammysSupplies]

For the coins
color.....silver tone
material....plastic
size.....1inch
identifier_exists.....false

At the very least least, the last one, if you don't have any of the upc stuff.

[noladiscountshop]

Y'all are awesome! We think we understand it better. The Ecrater manual and blue question mark didn't explain it as good as y'all. The example you presented helped. Also, the explanation about google attributes and google shopping and eCRATER marketplace helped too. We actually have more items like more than 500 and we finally realized that we need to save our write-ups for Ebay so we won't have to rewrite them over. However, we used the all caps in the description of all of them. We will retype them after we list all of our items per your recommendation.

Finally, we didn't understand what this means: identifier_exists.....false

Thanks again for y'alls assistance. It's been helpful.