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Hi, The Vstore operation is pretty decent. I have the free version of it and when I first started with it, I couldnt believe how much I was allowed to do with it being a free store. They have a pay by month version that will open up other features and alot more.

The drawback of the free store is that it's going to be a (.vstore.ca) instead of a .com kinda store. Ive never done a thing to promote the store other than submit it to some search engines and link it to what ever I can and its been a little over a year and it has almost 3000 links around the web. Not alot but not bad for never paying a dime to promote it.

It is really easy to sign up and then customize. However, when it comes to your payment, shipping, etc, you will need to know how to set them all up. It's not like ecrater where it is all set up for you. You will have to get a postal ID for shipping and Set up a Paypal IPN module and the whole works. It really is going to literally be your store from top to bottom.

The only things you wont be able to change with the free store are the ads on the right and the basic store layout on the top, left, and right. but you can put whatever you want in the middle. You can change quite a bit though considering it's free. I would suggest getting the free one and if you like how that works then maybe going for the pay site which will open alot of new doors.

Vstore has a live helpdesk plus lots of tutorials to help ya get going and lots of promotional tools if you want them. These vstores are becoming quite popular too. I run into them more and more on the web all the time. I also get alot of visitors to my store everyday also but I dont have alot of items and I also dont get targeted visits. I dont care if you get a million visits a day, if they arent looking for what you have, it wont matter how many you get..lol. Also Vstore has an auction site as well. Just go to
www.vstore.ca or www.vstore.com and look around and you can get a better idea of what its all about. Hope this helps
Last edited by westvatexan
It took me a little while to figure out what I needed to do when it came to the paypal module. But finally after reading and reading I went with a paypal premier account which can also be used as a merchant account. I didnt need all the extras that come with the business account and I didnt need the added expense either..lol.

Most sales I get, they either pay from their paypal account or with credit card through paypal or money orders. I get alot of inquiries and I would say half of them are from other countries. Some of them think I am a wholesaler and want to order multiple quantities...lol.

I dont know how in the world they get that idea from my site, but they do...they will email me and ask for 12 of this item or 12 of that item. It makes me wish I had 12 of them..lol but unfortunatly multiple quantities are hard to come by with vintage collectibles..lolol.
I have looked at Vstore but hesitate to jump in. I noticed that you have many different things on your site....do you buy them from Vstore and they send them to you, or do you send the buyer's name to Vstore and they take care of the shipping? I guess what I'm asking is if they are "drop shippers"...

I couldn't find anything about their prices for items....do you find that out once you are signed up with them?

And last but not least, your site looks great...professional...way above what I could do. Do they help with the design, etc?

Thanks for your help!

TENNISNTRAINS
jEANEB
Hi again,
1. The Vstore like I have is a (vstore.ca) - You can put anything you want on it and sell it for whatever price you like, except items of a pornographic nature. Vstore does not supply products for my kind of store but they will direct you on the admin pages to drop shippers and wholesalers if you desire. As far as the design of it, it is basically the same for all of them only you can choose different colors and buttons and such.

There is a forum for helping you get rolling and plenty of tutorials also. When your setting it up, it kind of explains what you need to do for each step but some things get a little detailed and you will have to look deeper into it in the help pages or forums and such. In any case you will have to set it up yourself top to bottom as far as shipping methods, credit cards, payment modules, taxes, emails, the works. You can literally change or modify just about every aspect of the store including window sizes, product displays, language, currency, just about everything, except its principal layout design.

For example in the general layout the first pages column reads Home in the top left. Now, even though you cannot change the shape of that column header you can change the wording. Like instead of home you can change it to Main or anything you like. See what I mean? Its the same throughout the whole design. You can change almost everything in the store front.

2. If you went to (vstore.com) then you were looking at a whole different ballgame. - vstore.com is a different version of the vstore. It's super simple. You just open a store and its your job to promote it and make the sales. Vstore provides & ships the products for you and you get a commission from the sale. I dont have one of the new vstore.com stores like this one, so I didnt look into it to much. Im pretty sure thats the bulk of how it works though from all I have read about it anyway.

The store like the one I have (vstore.ca) will most likely take the average person a couple of days messing with it to get it all set up but its your store and you can do what you want with it. The vstore.com store wont take any time at all to set up but you dont have freedom to do what you like. Hope this helps explain it a little better.

P.S. - Warning, dont stare at my new Freaky Baby avatar or it will hypnotize you....lolol.
quote:
P.S. - Warning, dont stare at my new Freaky Baby avatar or it will hypnotize you....lolol.


Tooo late....I'm in love!!!!

I think I'll give Vstore a try....is there a way to put a link on my Ebay auctions? Or will Ebay have a snit fit? I've had some items listed on HiBidder but have never had a sale so am not putting new items on. Unfortunately, Ebay is the only auction site that most people are familiar with so thought if I provided a link on a couple of Ebay auctions, "lookers" might drop by.

I'm tempted to try the drop shipper route since most of the items I have are miscellaneous items of clothing and odds and ends of my husband's train collection. Not enough to fill a store unless I go on a massive garage sale hunt. Having access to products would be important to me.

I once bought some things on line from what I now feel was a drop shipper and not a "it is sitting in my front room" seller. One was a lot of 6 men's pants...all of them were defective, open seams, the brad buttons on the fly were missing and they smelled! The other sale was for fruit dehydrators...I bought 6 and planned to give them to my children for Christmas. They came in boxes held together with duct tape, at least one or two of the shelves in most of them were broken...I was able to salvage enough to make two complete dehydrators. I sent photos of them to the seller and my monies were immedately refunded. However, it left a sour taste in my mouth and have shyed away from being involved in anything that I haven't personally inspected for myself.

jeaneb
Last edited by tennisntrains
Hi tennis, You can put a link on your ebay listings to your about me page and then on your about me page have a link to an outside ebay store. I have always had a link on my listings to my store through my about me page.

Here check out one of my listings and scroll down past the accepting payments part and click on the link that says visit my collectibles site and you will see.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6635...TRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

My next auctions are going to have my store banner on my listings linked to my about me page. From everything I have read, I wont be breaking any rules in doing so. I guess I will find out..lol

If you do open a vstore like mine it will have in its tools a tool for making it easy for letting google crawl your site for search submission. Alot of people dont know that the other big search engines copy alot of what google has in its engine. So if you submit to google then your store is also gonna end up on alot of other search engines eventually.

But in any case submit your store to as many search engines and free link exchanges as you can find and another good thing to do is join the "The Rail" community. You can check that out by going to

http://therail.com/cgi/station

its free and it will bring you some visitors.
Last edited by westvatexan
Holy Cow! I just filled out the requested information for Vstore, and suddenly I have a store!! However, I haven't a clue what to do next. I think I missed a step somewhere...

I don't think this kind of store is what I had in mind....I wanted to sell some of the items that I've got sitting around the house, and according to the agreement, I can't sell anything other than what shows up in my store...

I'm really confused!!!!!

This is my Store...

http://jeansjeans.vstoremarket.com/

I wanted to have a site on vstore.ca, not vstore.com but can't find it.....

Tennisntrains
Last edited by tennisntrains
quote:
Originally posted by tennisntrains:
Holy Cow! I just filled out the requested information for Vstore, and suddenly I have a store!! However, I haven't a clue what to do next.

LOL, rut ro tennis ,you went to vstore.com and opened one of the stores like I was telling you about where they supply the products and all you gotta do is promote and sell and get a commission from the sale. Welcome to your new store..lol. Im sure you can opt out of the store anytime you like.

You have to go to www.vstore.ca to get a store like mine. It may be down today, I havent been able to get on my store today at all..this is only the second time since Ive had it that this has happened and its been over a year. I havent been reading the forums they may have posted something about it but I didnt see it.
quote:
Originally posted by eWonders:
DANG JEAN JEAN!!!!

Thats a cool store, for just signing up. All that stock. Did it cost $$$$ I want one too.


To tell the truth, I'm still in shock!!! I clicked on Vstore.com instead of Vstore.ca, filled out the information, clicked on activate my store, and wow! all of a sudden I'm a store owner.

I don't know where the stock came from, but I think I am now a middle man between all these items and whoever buys them. It's scarey since I know nothing about any of them....heaven help anyone who writes to me with questions!!!!


I'm still trying to access vstore.ca but it seems to be down....I have a whole housefull of jeans and miscellaneous items that I wanted to sell...not cameras, videos and that whole list of things.

From what I read, if any of it sells, I will get a commission check every 3 months....I sincerely hope that this is not a scam and I end up owing Sony, Polaroid or a hundred other companies for their items..

Anybody else in the forum connected with vstore.com?

Jean
nah, its not a scam vstore is a legit outfit been around a good while. They are happy to pay you 2 to 10% commission on a sale. your making them money and you too if you make sales. They just want you to promote your store and sell their products so they can get fat and give you a small chunk for pushing their items. Its not a bad deal I guess, if you can generate sales..I mean heck you never have to buy a thing or ship anything...all you gotta do is get it sold.
I wouldnt worry about that freaky baby to much until its start talking to you...lolol.

Which store did you get the one like mine, or the one that has products on it already? I used froogle when I first started mine but it was free then. I think you may have to pay to submit to froogle now, not sure. Anyway, If you got a vstore like mine..if you go into admin there is a bunch of recommended links there for promotion..some of them cost ya but alot of them are free.

I wish you could have gotten a store a while back. I got onboard with a company called GotLinks back when they first started and it was free. Now its a nice successful company and you have to pay for it unless you were already there when they converted.

The best advice I can possibly give you first and foremost is use the vstore google tool and let google crawl your site for submission. Once you get onboard with google the other search engines will follow eventually and your products will end up on most of the others. However, it cant hurt to submit your site to as many free search engines as you can find.

If your really aggressive and dont mind paying for it. Targeted advertising is one of the best ways to go..there are alot of good reputable services out there that will bring customers to your store that are looking specifically for what you have. Targeted pay per click traffic is a good way to get the bussiness to your store. But I have yet to find any free targeted traffic and Im not ready to use my store to its potential yet, so Im not going to pay for traffic.

Another great way to get a little extra change in your pocket is to go to www.blogger.com and create your own blog. Once you get it created you can put Adsense Ads on it from google and then google will pay you everytime someone clicks on one of them.
You can also put adsense ads on your own website. I dont mean one like vstore...it has to be your very own website. Im pretty sure you can use them on yahoo geocities pages if you have one, but dont quote me on that.

Anyway, I wish you all the success in the world with your new store and I hope I have helped at least some.
I think I'm over my head with Vstore.ca....I don't know how to fill out the application and haven't a clue how to add my auction items to the site.

Its possible that, since I didn't grow up with computers, I'm in that black space where the over 60 age group finds itself....technicially challenged.

But, its a good day when you learn something new...hmmmm it seems I will have a whole bunch of good days ahead of me!!!

tennis
hi,

have had similar experience recently... was doing a survey about online dollar stores, and all of a sudden i had one! i mean, i did register for it and all, but it's a lot like tennis's vstore sounds... here's a lil summary in case anyone's interested...

just filled out the info and *poof* i had a store! they fill it with stuff, BUT you *can* add your own stuff in a 'store owner special' section. it's almost all dollar stuff, w/ section also for 'gifts 10 and under'... they are like vstore.com in that they supply the merch., and you are responsible for promoting etc. you get .25 for every $1 thing you sell, and $25 if someone opens their own store via your link. you can also copy their pics and post them on ebay; and remove any items from your store you want to sell on ebay for more. (by category or indiv. item). it's like a dropshipper in that if someone purchases something from you via your ebay sales, then you go to your store and order it, and they send it (w/ an invoice w/ no prices) to your buyer. (people can also buy direct in the dollar store)...in a bad way, it is also like a dropshipper in that you never know if you're getting what you order! which was my problem. i ordered some stuff i thought seemed worth more than $1, to check it out personally... several items had a diff. image or reversed images than what was showed in the store.. so if you list it on ebay w/o having it 'in hand', it's possible your customer will not be happy! but the quality of the items was not as bad as i was expecting, and everything was in good shape.
plus, i bought 17 things and got $4.25 in my account, so basically everything i got was .75 cents! and there's flat shipping, 3.95 no matter how much you order (which is good cuz i'll prolly just order stuff i like and that sells well in bulk, anyway).

you can't customize the store (you can pick btwn several layouts, tho), and it's 30/month after the first month. i haven't had the month yet, and have yet to decide what to do. tried listing it w/ search engine but don't know how results will add up.... no one's purchased anything yet, tho it does seem some peeps have been there. have yet to check out vstore, but i'm betting they have decent stuff... anyway, that's my 2 cents!! oh, btw, can you list stuff that's in your vstore on ebay, like i mentioned? just curious!
quote:
Originally posted by debkwek:
quote:
postal ID for shipping

I just opend a vstore.ca how do you set up postal ID for shipping?


You will need to go here:

http://www.uspsprioritymail.com/et_regcert.html

and register with USPS they will then send you a user ID and a Password in your email you provide them. The registration is on the right side about half way down the USPS web page, you will see it. If I remember correctly after I got the shipping module all set up, it still would not work. The reason being was I had to call them to make it active.

Im sorry I do not remember that number. You can ask someone in the vstore forum and they will help you when you get to where you need to call them. As a matter of fact the people in the forum will help you with anything you need...they are very knowledgeable. Remember, you are setting this store up to your exact specifications and it will take some time to get used to all the modules and options.

Alot of the actual store features are set to default which is where they should be, but you will be in control of what actually goes on and how the store functions. It took me 2 or 3 days to get everything set up so dont get to frustrated. These are real stores and many of them are quite successful. I hope yours will be too.

One thing to note' When you get the store all set up and you think its ready for business, before you go active, test the store first to make sure everything is working properly. Make your self a fake test account and try to purchase a test product and go through the whole checkout process with the fake account. If you have no problems checking out then your ready to go.

I hope this helps!, William
quote:
Originally posted by tennisntrains:

Its possible that, since I didn't grow up with computers, I'm in that black space where the over 60 age group finds itself....technicially challenged.

tennis

LOL, I know what you mean. I feel that way sometimes too. There's so much stuff on the internet and on the market nowadays that I just cant seem to grasp or have no clue about. Drives me insane! I wouldnt know what to do with an IPOD if you put one in my hand, except stare at it...lol. I guess as long as it has an on/off button at least I can tinker with it, even if I havent a clue..lol
Hi, It will not let you purchase an Item with the same paypal account that your paying to. What I did was use my wifes paypal to buy a dummy product and then sent the amount back to her paypal.

I also wanted to mention to you that if you just want to charge a flat rate for shipping and dont want to use weight as a measure for prices. You wont need to get the usps ID. You can specify a flat rate shipping and make the price whatever you like in your shipping module.

If you have anymore problems, or questions, you would be better off to go on the vstore forums. It is very helpful and the people there would be more qualified to help you than I would. It has been over a year since I even messed with the modules in the store and my recollection of how everything works may not be as accurate as I remember it.

Fortunately, the things you have asked me so far I remember somewhat...Thats a miracle in itself...lolol. Its amazing what the brain retains...I had no idea I would even remember some of this stuff..lol

There have been alot of added features since when I first started, like the google crawling tool and other stuff. You will find all kinds of info about stuff in the vstore forums.

Hope this helps you! Smile
Hi, its me, ole Tennis the confused!

I finally opened a store! Its a .ca one from ecrater and although I did have some problems, the folks there were very helpful.

Its not the best one I've ever seen, but slowly but surely I'm learning.

Have a look at it Westvatexan....you're my inspiration and mentor!

I called it "Jean's Jeans" .... those great looking kids are from our "gene" pool Big Grin

http://jeansjeans.ecrater.com/
"But in any case submit your store to as many search engines and free link exchanges as you can find and another good thing to do is join the "The Rail" community"

Hi, I have been accepted by The Rail, but I don't know how to put the required html information onto my auction site.

Can you contact me at: jeanjb@cox.net and walk me through it.....

Thank you very much,

Jean
"I have been accepted by The Rail, but I don't know how to put the required html information onto my auction site."

Hi Westvatexan....you answered this question for me last week and I saved it in my "folder" .....but it was erased when I upgraded to Windows XP. In fact, all my saved folders and emails were wiped out. My computer person didn't know that XP would do some formatting that would cause things to disappear.

Anyway, if you kept a copy, would you please resend it....I would really appreciate it.

Thank you!!

Tennie

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