Over the past week I’ve been setting up an online store and testing out various APIs trying to decide which are more functional. I decided to accept checks/money orders and PayPal. How could I go wrong with accepting PayPal? It is pretty sweet. You fill up your shopping cart and when you’re ready to check out you go to a PayPal log in screen. They supposedly have good encryption, which I cannot afford currently, and this was a good method to keep customers information secure. Once the payment is complete the customer is sent back to the store and shows them the confirmation information. The good thing about this would have to be I do not have to worry about keeping customer’s private financial information on my server. The best API I’ve found is that from USPS. It calculates the shipping costs for various shipping rates based upon the customers address in real time. This lets me charge the least amount possible for shipping without having to worry about dipping into the sale cost to cover shipping. The most difficulties I’m having is taking images of the NES games. I have to do it in direct sunlight or else there is a horrible glare on the game cart from the camera’s flash. This wouldn’t be an issue if it hadn’t been cloudy/snowing forever. I’ve only managed to get a small percentage of the items I have into the inventory. Another idea I’ve been playing with is vintage cola bottles. What better way to relive a game from 1988 than to pop open a not-so-fresh bottle of vintage RC Cola from the 80s while playing Godzilla for NES. Now, if I can find vintage beef jerky and tear jerkers I may be able to relive my childhood.

Follow the link to view the online store: TangyPop.com/store