The Energon Pub

Not sure if I'm posting this in the best place, but saw someone say in an older thread that Crave questions are probably best on the Toys forum, so here goes. I've been skeptical about Crave since I first saw it advertised on Seibertron.com, but considering how ridiculous Ebay is getting with fees--now charging on shipping, which is like a tax on a tax--I'm looking for alternatives.

So, I'd like to hear from people who've actually used it for buying and selling. What's your experience been? Problems you've run across? What exactly happens after you click "allow" when you get the Facebook prompt if you try to use it? Will they then have access to all your friends' info, and so on?

Questions for buyers: All I see on Crave.com about commissions is that you'll pay them. No explanation of what the commission is. That strikes me as very strange. If I'm buying something, I want to know the full cost up front, and I can't imagine anyone else feeling otherwise. So, when you buy, what do you pay? Is the commission always the same percentage, or is it variable? Are you obligated to buy if you click "buy" just to find out the commission? How does the checkout process work? How do you receive tracking info from the seller and such?

Questions for sellers: What payment system do you use? Are you still getting charged fees for whichever one you use, even though Crave itself is not charging you a fee? If so, how much are those fees? How do you ensure you're getting enough to cover the cost of shipping (since you don't know exactly where it will get shipped when you list and costs can vary a bit)?

Question for all: What are the potential security holes you see in the system? And finally, besides Amazon, what other alternatives would you recommend looking into?

1. The facebook feature just allows users to contact eachother. Like most facebook run apps, they cannot access your information or post anything unless you allow them to. For example, off crave, you can share "good deals" to your friends through FB.

2. I love crave- great prices, good buyers, extremely secure, etc. No problems so far.

3. The commission is like 1-2 dollars at most. I am sure it is based on percentage, but it really is not significant enough to the point of being a bother. Checkout is run through paypal- you use their system, and tracking is sent directly to your account. Tracking and progress is also emailed to you by crave, and it shows up on your crave profile.

4. Paypal is the payment for sellers. For fees, its the typical tiny paypal fee if I recall, unless they send as a gift. I'm 99% sure when I sold on crave, the site itself did not charge me. For shipping, give a rough estimate of figure size and list the shipping price as so. You can go over, and then refund the buyer later.

5. Security is something I can not expertly judge, but I can say that crave does a damn good job at it.

theraffia wrote:3. The commission is like 1-2 dollars at most. I am sure it is based on percentage, but it really is not significant enough to the point of being a bother.

The "Crave Commission" seems to be 10%, which the buyer pays.

Ok, so before I go any further, anyone else want to chime in with some thoughts? There must be more than 2 Seibertron users who've tried it out...right?

Every dealing I had with them minus one has been perfect. I shipped a Warpath and Thundercracker to a buyer and he received them but something went wrong with the tracking numbers so I still haven't been paid. Crave is aware of it and correcting it as we speak. Poundpay is what you need to receive payment and they provide you with all the steps needed. I've bought 16 different figures from the site and sold 4. So having one bad tracking number mess up once in 20 times says a lot. Sellers can ask whatever they want for a figure and charge whatever they want for shipping. It's up to you to find the best deal. For example: one guy was selling a legends figure for $7 and charging $3 for shipping, you have to post actual pictures of the item for sale and he forgot to take off the $3.99 sticker prior to photographing it.
So it is a wonderful service that can let you get some great deals. I always use it to price shop since I'm a cheap person. The facebook tie in is nice because I've had people interested in my figures for sale contact me and see about shipping to Canada and other such things. I was able to use it to make sure that the guy who bought from me actually got what he paid for. Click the link in my signature and watch the video on the homepage about how crave works if you haven't already.

I have only ever sold on there, but I have finished 6 transactions and have another in process. I have not had a problem yet, and everything has gone really smoothly. My only concern is the time gap for payment. As a seller on eBay (my rating is 448, so I have done a lot) you get paid right away, but at Crave you have to wait around a week. Not bad if you are just listing stuff you want to sell anytime, but it sucks if you need the cash quickly. Also, my first sale was an Armada Unicron, so it was nerve racking having a $50 item out without getting anything for it for a week.

The no fees for seller is a great win, and it helps keep you competitive without taking a loss.

No problems with Crave spamming up my facebook either, which I like.

I honestly prefer it to eBay as a seller. Haven't bought anything yet, but there really isn't anything major I am looking for.

Thanks for your opinions everyone. I gave it a shot and bought something last night to get a buyer's experience. Once that's done, I'll be listing things as a seller. Slightly off topic, but I'm fed up with Ebay, with its new fees on shipping costs and increasingly ridiculous selling policies.

For example, I just had a slew of sold items last week, but three buyers still haven't paid. Moreover, they have invalid phone numbers in their profiles so I can't contact them other than by email. After three reminders, only one responded and said they'd pay yesterday, but didn't. I've filed unpaid item reports on all three. The worst part about it is there's no way to give them negative feedback anymore--or protect yourself from jerks like those, since all of their feedback is automatically "positive" as a buyer. (One has a positive rating of 1--but the feedback comment is that they never paid.) I sent Ebay a nice "angry" email about it all. Talking about odds, 3 out of 7 items going unpaid in one week says a lot--about just how unreliable Ebay is. Yeah, I've had lots of auctions with no problem (both buying and selling). But their policies are getting more and more conducive to buyers rampantly abusing the service, and sellers getting screwed.

And a couple years ago I ran into a similar problem, where they delisted an auction of mine because I described it as "like new" in the title. They said that's "search and browse manipulation" because I used the word "new". Um, but it WAS like new. I didn't say it was NEW. Any idiot knows the difference, and will see it immediately in the search results if that's how they find it. Nope. They don't care. Nevermind that marketers all over the world, including theirs, try to present their products in the best possible light. To the point where Ebay calls its latest fee hikes "reduced fees." So, they're allowed to lie, but I'm not allowed to tell the truth?

And the potential for buyers to bypass Paypal with Poundpay at Crave sounds promising. I'd love it if Ebay never sees a dime from any Crave sales I make. The delay of payment at Crave might seem inconvenient, but it's the same way Amazon and Half.com (unfortunately, swallowed and destroyed by Ebay) have always worked. And waiting a few days to actually get money is a lot better than instantly getting nothing and having to wait a week to relist.

Thanks for sharing your experience, mate. So you have no reservations about opening a PoundPay account and giving them your bank account details?

nickh wrote:Thanks for sharing your experience, mate. So you have no reservations about opening a PoundPay account and giving them your bank account details?

You don't have to, you can just give them your paypal account email. Poundpay does not have access to my checking.

I've never sold anything on crave yet but i do have a lot of figures im looking to offload. So i might give it a shot. But buying from them is fantastic. Its faster than ebay and the crave employees themselves are very friendly. Especially cole and erin, since those are the two Ive spoken with. Maybe Kabe...im not entirely sure though if ive talked to him in the past or not.

I have stuff listed there, haven;t bought anything yet.

Only had one sale so far but it went smoothly, little weird waiting to get payed.

So other than that I like it and screw ebay fee's.................they are going to lose their business at this rate.