The Energon Pub

[Red Convoy]

Crave News 1-20-2011: TF Marketplace Adds New Features


Greetings Seibertronians!
Today we’re bringing you another update from Crave (http://www.crave.com), the new 100% Transformers marketplace created by fans for fans. This week we have more great listings, and we have also added to the site to keep you up to date on what’s happening in the marketplace. You can now view the latest sales, fan photos, our top collectors, and their collections.


”What’s in it for the TF fandom?”
Features set up to benefit the fan community:

- Fan-created catalog & checklists of every Transformer released by Hasbro & Takara
- Easiest way to buy and sell TFs online
- Secure for buyers & sellers because Crave is in the middle of the transaction
- Selling is free!

Bonus -- If what you want isn’t currently for sale, add it to your want list on Crave & we’ll notify you when it gets put up for sale.

Here’s what some of our 65,000 fans are saying:

"I'm a TF collector and an experienced seller. On Crave I sold 9
items in the last month. It has been the simplest and best
marketplace for my products. The Crave team is trustworthy and on top
of every transaction. Try it out!" --Jason Carnley

"To my surprise, I found Crave incredibly easy to sell. I buy and sell
only on message boards and for a long time now eBay is no longer an
option. Crave is a breath of fresh air to the TF fandom. I will
definitely buy and sell again. Thank you for the service." –Robert Bautista

"I had a great experience with both purchases I've made through Crave.
Better than using eBay because it is so easy and safe. Try it out
and you'll see how much simpler the experience is." --Larry Carter Jr.


Recent Listing Highlights
The Crave community began developing the catalog back in June, but we just launched the marketplace in November. Thanks to fans like you, listings are growing each day. Take a look through the listings and let us know about your good finds.

A sample of series for sale on Crave:
1.Generation 1
2.Classics
3.Animated
4.Generations
5.Takara Henkei
6.Takara Binaltech
7.Takara Label Series
8.Takara Encore
9.Beast Era

And many more! If you have TFs to sell, come see how easy it is on Crave: click here for seller info.

A sampling of current listings on Crave:

Thrust
For sale by Carlos Mora
Series: Classics Series, Generations
Condition: Loose - Incomplete
Price: $12.00 (shipping included)


Tantrum
For sale by Jason Carnley
Series: Generation 1, G1 1986
Condition: Loose - Incomplete
Price: $25.00 (shipping included)


Headstrong
For sale by Ted Wink Daniel
Series: Generation 1, G1 1986
Condition: Loose - Incomplete
Price: $19.99


Arcee (Toys R Us exclusive)
For sale by Jason Tong
Series: Animated
Condition: Packaged - Sealed
Price: $25.00


Jetfire (war within)
For sale by Tommy Cheung
Series: Titanium
Condition: Packaged - Opened - Complete
Price: $30.00 (shipping included)


Swindle
For sale by Brandon Bucknor
Series: Alternators
Condition: Mint
Price: $35.00


Wreck-Gar
For sale by Tim Huynh
Series: Animated
Condition: Packaged - Sealed
Price: $25.00


Skywarp w/ Thunderclash
For sale by Andrew Goldberg
Series: Unicron Trilogy, Armada
Condition: Packaged - Sealed
Price: $42.00 (shipping included)



Masterpiece Skywarp
For sale by Christopher Delarulle
Series: Generation 1 (Takara), Masterpiece
Condition: Packaged - Sealed
Price: $45.00


Drift
For sale by Dhane Benjamin
Series: Classics Series, Generations
Condition: Packaged - Sealed
Price: $19.99 (shipping included)


We are tracking new feature requests, so please send us your feedback. Visit our Feedback tab on the site or email us (info@crave.com) with your suggestions.

You can also join 65,000 fellow Transfans where you can speak your mind on our Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/cravetransformers
Join today and you’ll be entered to win one of our Transformers giveaways.

Erin & Kabe, Crave founders

[Thunderboomer]

These guys are great and all, but if you're Canadian you're kind of SOL as they won't ship outside of the United States. I like what crave is doing but I'm not reaping any benefit from it.

[Goldbug794]

Thunderboomer,

I'm the community manager at Crave. Nice to meet you and thanks for the input. We are currently looking into making Crave available for both buyers and sellers in Canada and other countries. Stay tuned and we will let you know next week about our progress! Thanks again!

[MGrotusque]

I've seen some great deals on this site but not shipping to Canada is becoming an issue for me. I'm avoiding this site now until the situation is rectified.

[Goldbug794]

Monstergrotusque,

I totally understand your frustration, we want you to have access to our site and services as much as you do. Because we are a new company we need to ensure that we are complying with the laws and regulations of Canada as well as other countries we hope to do business in. We are working on this issue as fast as we can. As I told Thunderboomer above, we will have an update on our progress next week. If you have any additional thoughts or experience in this area we would love to talk to you one on one.

[ShardFenix]

Well I checked you guys out today and ended buying a complete but loose TFA Rodimus Minor for 16.20 including shipping. So far I am 90% satisfied with the experience. The other 10% comes with site navigation issues. I'm not sure why it is set up this way but I would love it if I could right-click and open these offers in a new page instead of checking then backtracking for each figure. I will keep this thread informed on the process until my figure arrives just as sort of a personal experience testimony.

[Goldbug794]

ShardFenix,

Thanks for this great feedback. We are aware of this problem and are planning on implementing changes. Please do keep us informed on your buying process as we love hearing about both the things we've done right as well as what we can do to improve your experience on Crave! Please message me so we can talk to you about other improvements you would like to see made to the site!

[Thunderboomer]

@Goldbug794

Great to hear! I've seen some stuff on there I'd really like to get. Keep us all updated and best wishes!

[Rated X]

OK no disrespect to the people at Crave, but you got a dude trying to sell a Generations Thrust missing the wings and blasters for $12.00 (the price of a new one) This figure is still sitting on Target shelves all over the USA.

I think the people at Crave should have a "Reality Police" to inspect the sales prices and issue warnings to price gougers, based on the general value of figures. Of course this should only be enforced on people selling figures less then a year old. Off the wall prices on new general retail figures make any site look bad for supporting such nonsense.

Just an idea, no offense to anyone.

[ShardFenix]

I see what you're saying, but then crave works the same as ebay in a way. People are allowed to set their own price. If it never sells then thats their fault. The only I saw that I had an issue with was a 2008 Deluxe Cheetor. The seller listed it as Loose, Complete then in the note section conveniently mentions that it no longer has the bladed discs. They should check for things like that. But as far as pricing goes it is a capitalist economy. I know for the figures i have bought from them, i compared them to the prices i would pay at other online retailers first.

[FflawSuperior]

Wait, what's the new feature? That you can view pictures now? That's hardly a feature, that's pretty much an expected part of almost any website. The site has the same problems/complaints it had before.

'Feedback' tab doesn't appear to exist, Facebook crammed down your throat /hard/, prices are equal to, or costlier than eBay (not to mention that BUYER pays fee's), search is turrible (almost entire pages filled with blank auctions with no pictures, and the 'price range' they go 50-250$! (example) Then you go and find out the 50$ was sold, and there is nothing else but the 250$ in actuality; so it meant 50 & 250, not 50-250), having to wait for flash or HTML to load is annoying (also can't 'open in new tab', have to click thru one item at a time...Myeah..and shipping cost isn't shown until nearly the last step in buying process.

So combined with the misleading 'price range', tedious 'search', slow website coding (Running an overpriced alienware laptop on a broadband connection :v), inability to look at more than one figure at a time, and impossible to know the final price you have to pay until you've almost purchased the item...Imma stick to eBay. Yeah.

Prices alone will keep me on eBay, but everything else are cherries on top.

[ShardFenix]

the buyer's fee is 10% of the item fee. other than that prices are cheaper than on places like BBTS. it just involves searching like ebay

[FflawSuperior]

the buyer's fee is 10% of the item fee. other than that prices are cheaper than on places like BBTS. it just involves searching like ebay

That may be true, but BBTS is a retail setting, not an auction setting.

I mean, anyone can go to Kmart.com for the recent (2009-2011) figures. They carry Movie2/Nest, HFTD, genrations, and RTS. TRU still carries all that, and animated (exclusives too).

I came complain a bit about eBay too, but it pretty much succeeds in key areas Crave fails.

Also, I know the 10% buyers fee, but that doesn't give you the final price until you're near the last step.

[ShardFenix]

I dont want this to sound rude but 10% is pretty simple to figure out. Just move the decimal one spot to the left. like $12.00 becomes $1.200 see easy. And Crave is not an auction site either though. Its a marketplace. the prices are set by the sellers only. yes anyone can go to kmart or walmart or TRU. But not everyone has those nearby or they dont carry figures they need. like my tru has been out of rodimus minor for months and show no signs of getting him back in. So I found one for 12.00. not bad i dont think. i found oil slick for 5 and said...nice.

Now crave isnt all hunky dory, i agree the buyers price should be more in your face and not tacked on at the very end. i originally thought it was tax. so it should be clearer. and the navigation is still a bit off but they did say they were working on it. One thing we all need to remember is they are still relatively knew compared to the other sites we frequent. Give them time to get adjusted and settle in and im sure we will all be using crave more often. or at least checking for things there just in case.

[FflawSuperior]

I dont want this to sound rude but 10% is pretty simple to figure out. Just move the decimal one spot to the left. like $12.00 becomes $1.200 see easy. And Crave is not an auction site either though. Its a marketplace. the prices are set by the sellers only. yes anyone can go to kmart or walmart or TRU. But not everyone has those nearby or they dont carry figures they need. like my tru has been out of rodimus minor for months and show no signs of getting him back in. So I found one for 12.00. not bad i dont think. i found oil slick for 5 and said...nice.

Now crave isnt all hunky dory, i agree the buyers price should be more in your face and not tacked on at the very end. i originally thought it was tax. so it should be clearer. and the navigation is still a bit off but they did say they were working on it. One thing we all need to remember is they are still relatively knew compared to the other sites we frequent. Give them time to get adjusted and settle in and im sure we will all be using crave more often. or at least checking for things there just in case.

You aren't being rude, you just aren't reading what I'm saying. The final price. Item price + shipping + other costs, literally the 'final' price you see before you pay. So a 10$ item gets 1$ added on as a fee, and 5$ added for shipping = A final price of 16$

Also note that I said Kmart.COM, and contextually that would include TRU.com too. Not the actual brick & mortar stores.

I've yet to be satisfied enough to use Crave, but I've explored it fairly extensively, and always fallback on eBay. Mostly for better prices, and not having to pay a fee to buy. I'm a seller on eBay too, still not seeing a reason to change or even parallel sell.

[ShardFenix]

wow ive never paid shipping of five dollars for anything from there. you most love somewhere pretty out of the way.

[FflawSuperior]

wow ive never paid shipping of five dollars for anything from there. you most love somewhere pretty out of the way.

I'm really not going to go about repeating myself after every post.

And I live in California, near LA.

[ShardFenix]

Well I just got my first figure through Crave which I ordered on 1/21/11. 3 days later it's in my hands and I couldn't be happier. So far I'm totally satisfied with this service. Now I'm just waiting on my Rodimus Minor figure. But it's safe to say I think I will continue using this marketplace. Now for a suggestion, add a Seller Feedback option that way we can rate our experiences with different sellers.