Letter to the Editor - Ecommerce Bytes blog

[lastade-designs]

Here is my letter I wrote about Ecrater. Feel free to lealve comments on their blog -
https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/letters/blog.pl?/pl/2021/12/1640276971.html

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

I would like to have commented on your letter but ecommercebites is one of the sites that for some reason decided not to know me no matter how many times I filled out their forms etc. Tried to work it out with the editor but nothing worked. Life is too short. I've had the same problem with Pinterest and my sister. None have been resolved. My bank periodically disowns me too.

[lastade-designs]

You are right Maggie, life is too short! Sorry you could not log in to the site and are having trouble with Pinterest and your sister.

I was almost not going to submit my essay because I didn't want to hear all the complaints about eCrater when there is so much good about it. I just wanted to make people aware there is an alternative for sellers, mainly like me that sell in a niche or the ones that sell unique things, where you don't have a bunch of hassle to be in control of your own business.

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

Like you I've been in this business for many years and while many sites have started out equitable and easy to use, they begin tweaking as new tools and tricks are developed and every tweak means the sellers have to edit their listings which takes a lot of time if you have large amounts of inventory. Often the amount of edits takes so much time you can't do anything else. The strong point about eCRATER is that tweaks are few and far between or else they are so minor that we don't notice. That's why I stay with eCRATER.

[MoonwishesStore]

After being on ecommercebytes since they were auction bytes I somehow got kicked off and couldn't get back on as well.

[MoonwishesStore]

I wish I could have replied to your post. I had over 5000 sales here. Chicago48 was here as Wizbiz or something like that. She started the same time I did, never bulked up her store. Claimed at one point to specialize in shoes but hadn't sold any in a year and a half and was asking for suggestions!!! I tried along with several other to give her some sound advice but she didn't want me telling her anything. Since she left here she has popped all around the different selling sites and never seems to stay anywhere for very long.

I bring this up as we see the comments that people make, but they rarely give the back story of what was happening when they were here. One of her last visits here was to ask how to get a pen mark out of a pocket of a like new man's shirt.

It is the same thing when they so their survey yearly. I can just about name each of the unhappy ex-ecrater sellers and I remember what they were going through when they were here. Kicking up a fuss because we aren't eBay, or Amazon or whatever. Never wanting to take any advice. Not everyone can sell online and unfortunately many sellers don't recognize this. They blame the site and not the fact that they are trying to sell yard sale rejects. Or even when encouraged to, they don't write good titles/listings nor take decent photos. One of the reason I am here still even as a moderator when I'm not selling, is I still want to give newbies the help they need if they want it.

We were intermittently without internet for about a week and a half, but I think we got it solved. Then I had my first cold in over 20 years. Haven't had one since we got married 20 years ago. Boy did it knock me for a loop. I miss being here!

[MoonwishesStore]

I got to read last night's ecommercebytes newsletter today and as usual it was full of stuff regarding eBay and all the things they do or don't do to sellers. I remember the relief of coming here and closing my store there. I literally physically felt better. I didn't have problems for years with Amazon, but from the beginning of the pandemic they were taking down my listings because according to them I had priced the item too high even though I had sold multiple copies of the same pattern for several years at the same prices. I wondered what their shareholders would have said if they knew that Amazon was tossing listings off the sites that were priced at $10 and allowing the same item to be sold for $1-2? There would have been no profit in that for Amazon or the seller.

While I have not been able to comment on the newsletter for about a year or so, I realized that I was getting tired of almost every post being concerned with eBay and Amazon, Occasionally some of the other sites and rarely eCRATER. And those that did comment about eCRATER even with several positive posts, always those who had a rough time here gave enough negative comments that might distract people. I have seen so many sellers state that nothing sells on eCRATER and as I would correct them with actual numbers, they hung onto their theory of nothing sells here.

I wish there was a way to counteract that type of thinking. I'm not sure what would work however. Some newbies only come for a month or less and don't read the rules or at least doesn't figure that the rules are for them, so they join up and almost immediately get suspended Then there are those that ask for help and we give it and they never use any of our suggestions. After being away for about 2.5 months and coming back and trying to catch up on posts, I was seeing. Even posts I had made several months back, I checked on how the seller was doing and no a single change had instituted and of course not much in the way of sales either. It is sad. Many very much need the extra income and this is one of the good places to come.

My good news for the day is our fridge died this weekend, lost a lot in the freezer. Thankfully after my FIL died last year and my MIL went to live with my BIL she gave us her fridge, washer and dryer. Thankfully we didn't have to go buy a new fridge. My son came over to help juggle the old one out and the new one in. The good news is she didn't have a icemaker like my old one did. We are on a well so our filter to the icemaker needed replaced within the first month of using it (we filet all our drinking and cooking water). This means I get more freezer space and hopefully a more organized freezer.

[lastade-designs]