Working on my site, asking for Input

[Link]

Hello fellow Pandora Community,


Since the Premium Pandoras have been announced I also stated that I was starting my own site in the US dedicated to serving the Pandora community. While the que hasn't been moving as fast everyone would have hoped in the last Two Months™, it appears we are in the eye of the storm.


While right now I do not have extra Pandora to sell, I am anxiously awaiting and at the same time attempting to gear up my shoppe. I've been learning Drupal over the last few weeks and have run into a few issues regarding checkout with Google Checkout (something I need because I won't use PayPal). If anyone has any insight here it would be appreciated and I am working on it slowly but surely.


I am hoping to be selling Westone earbud headphones but am not sure on that, still waiting to hear from them. Voltaic Systems has given me access to their inventory regarding Solar Charging/backup battery solutions. Currently I have Pelican cases in stock ready to ship, 0910 SD card wallet, 1040 Hard Shelled Case for the Pandora alone in Black, Red, Yellow, and Blue (mainly stock of black), 1120 Hard Shelled case for Pandora and some accessories like extra battery/box and ear buds and other USB type cables. These are ready to ship, I'm just at a loss on figuring out how to get this shopping cart setup.


One way or the other I'll get this working. I just wanted to start a discussion once again and see if people will support this type of site in future months once I have Pandora's to sell with some sweet accessories to protect and maximize the value of such a fine piece of technology.


I look forward to your thoughts!


EDIT: Have made some progress on the site, took a photo of my Pandora lid for my Favicon and site logo which now works. Last issue I'm running into is Google Checkout, but no worries tonight, I will continue on this tomorrow night.


EDIT2: Done, site up, shopping cart working.

 

[Blue Protoman]

A link would help. *rimshot*

 

[Link]

Check my signature.

 

[Blue Protoman]

How I missed that, I'll never know. I'll check it out!

 

[Link]

What is a good price point for USB cables to sell?


2-3$ sound good per cable? I have many different varieties.

 

[emcee]

Why is the logo upside down?

 

[Blue Protoman]

USB to mini USB, I assume?


They'd probably have to be cheaper if so; I bet most of the Pandora community already owns at least one from their cell phones or something.

 

[Link]

Why is the logo upside down?

Just a crop of a closed Pandora lid.

 

[Link]

USB to mini USB, I assume?


They'd probably have to be cheaper if so; I bet most of the Pandora community already owns at least one from their cell phones or something.

What I have:


60" Type A Male to Type A Female


60" Type A Male to Mini 8 Pin


60" Type A Male to Type A Male


60" Type A Male to Micro 5 Pin


60" Type A Male to Mini 5 Pin


USB mini 5 pin & USB extension adaptors


30" Retractable Type A Male to Type A Female

 

[Blue Protoman]

I think you'd be better off showing pictures. After the words "Male" and "Female", I get lost. :mellow:

 

[emcee]

Why is the logo upside down?

Just a crop of a closed Pandora lid.

You can still flip it around.

 

[Asiyura]

Or use the vector version that was made long ago


I think I still have it somewhere.


EDIT: There, found it. It's not the standard colors, but it should be fairly simple to change with InkScape.


(Oh well, the forum doesn't allow the display of SVG images, just click on the image to get access to the vector version)

 

[Link]

Or use the vector version that was made long ago


I think I still have it somewhere.


EDIT: There, found it. It's not the standard colors, but it should be fairly simple to change with InkScape.


(Oh well, the forum doesn't allow the display of SVG images, just click on the image to get access to the vector version)

Thanks for that, as wierd as it may sound, I like the upside down logo and did it on purpose because I'm not Open Pandora, but since its open source, I figured flip the logo, keep it simple.

 

[Alec]

Not to sound negative, but why would you expect people to buy from your shop rather than, say, Amazon? On Amazon all the items you currently sell are at least five dollars cheaper...

 

[Link]

The 1040 case on Amazon doesn't have padding. This padding is $5.


Amazon will not be stocking Pandoras.


I also plan on offering a discount on Pandoras for people who buy multiple items once I have the Pandoras I've ordered.


Also while going through the purchase flow on several of the "cheap" Pelican cases on Amazon, I've found people charging $20 shipping on an 1120. Some of these places are charging more for shipping a Pelican 1040 than the price of the Pelican 1040 itself.


Everything I ship will be US Priority Mail, insured with Delivery Confirmation and I don't plan on making a profit on shipping and handling.


Last thing I want to mention is that I could also put my goods up on Amazon but I truthfully don't like doing business with them unless I absolutely have to, just like PayPal or Ebay or any other US corporation that fails to pay taxes.


When I bought my GP2X I bought it from the GP2X Store here in the US. They seem to have fallen off the scene and just selling mainstream gaming stuff. My intent when I was buying extra Pandora's was to stoke out a few friends that couldn't afford to preorder, then it progressed to me wanting to give the team some extra cash flow when things were looking tough during the nub rework.


Way back in 1998-2000 I was a Powerseller on Ebay, started small and by the end was selling 10K a month of electronics that I never touched. I ran into some health issues that prevented me from running auctions and stopped putting them up.


I don't plan on putting any of my shoppe on Ebay or Amazon, I just want to take care of a community in the US who own Pandoras.

 

[Alec]

... which is why the 1040 is $10 cheaper on amazon


But I guess if you're going to make discounts with selling the Pandoras, it might balance out if you count shipping and handling, so I guess that that makes sense.