Now, Celestial members can open a store by filling in a store profile. Once a profile's been set up, they can add items to sell. These items will pop up in the search engine and the series list.
The way it works is that ACP will handle listing the items, and processing orders, but we will not handle payment or shipping. When all's said and done and it comes down to sending in the paypal payment, or shipping the costume, that's entirely up to the buyer and seller to figure out between them. We're making it easier to reach that final step, but we'll let them finish it.
This is also why we won't be charging buyer or seller fees, like other popular sites. While we still limit this feature only to Celestial members, which require a donation, I like to see it as just an added bonus for those members. The way we see it, if you're hardcore enough about cosplay to make a donation towards a pathetic site like ours, it's the least we could do to make tools to maximize your potential.
While we COULD be 100% the middle man, it's not practical at this time - it's busy enough managing the basic day-to-day things with the site. Taking on the responsibility of handling payments and making sure bad transactions don't happen would require me to clone myself, and the world would probably view that as an act of terrorism.
We've also provided two forms in your tools page to enter your measurements and mailing address. If you save this information with us, it will make it that much easier for when you purchase items from other cosplayers, since they can pull it up when viewing your order. There's also a form that buyers can fill out if they want a custom outfit.
Lastly, we've implemented a ratings system for users - works just like Ebay, at the end of every transaction the seller and buyer give you a rating. It's broken down into a buyer and seller rating, and you can also see their past orders and what comments were made on them. I'm still working on a way to see the ratings in the forum profiles, but for now you can at least see a seller's rating on their page.
Even as I say the store is up and running, I'm already thinking of things to add to it. Among those are:
1. Allowing the buyer and seller to respond to a rating comment once.
2. Setting up a commission gallery for those cosplayers who only do commissions
3. Having cosplayers be able to mark costumes in their regular gallery as "For Sale", without having to enter the information again in the store.
Hmm, I think that's it for now, if there are any questions please feel free to post them in this thread.
