Thoughts on selling on Etsy? Ebay?

[rosekathleenr]

I'm a stay home mom that would like to continue to do so and to make some money doing what I absolutely LOVE doing...

I would love feedback from others about Etsy or Ebay. Does anyone here sell things on these? Pro's? Con's? What kind of things sell well? Don't sell well?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Kathy

[Sideshow Stamps]

Hi,
Awesome that you want to continue being a SAHM. Me too! I've had my rubber stamp business since 2000 and I've been selling on etsy 4 yrs, eBay 10 yrs, and artfire.com 2 years now. I highly recommend etsy and artfire. Set up an account with etsy first and then you can import everything you list to artfire free, and set up a store there as well. Artfire is very similar to etsy, except that they don't have listing fees, just a flat rate no matter how much you have listed, based on if you choose a basic or pro account. And they have so many wonderful tools to list and sell with ease! However, we sell more rubber stamps on etsy, but I think we get a lot of exposure on artfire because they list you on google stores and search engines, etc.
As far as eBay goes, not trying to be rude, just honest. I am so sick of eBay. They are greedy, complicated and just a big pain to deal with. We had a store there for years and had much success before they changed owners about 5 years ago, and slowly that just ruined our success there. They have all these rules and things that make it so hard to get ahead now. For instance they list your store on their searches based on how much money you make for them, higher profit making stores get listed at the top. So how can you make money if you can't be seen? Their fees have gone through the roof, to the point where you can only make a profit if you sell things that cost hundreds of dollars. Not exactly how much my rubber stamps sell for! They encourage you to offer free shipping so that they will get a cut of every bit of money you make, and they give benefits and credit and good scores to you if you do, and punish you if you don't. So how can you stay competitive if you have to add the cost of shipping into your $5.00 item? They force you to only use PayPal, which they own and get fees from and you absolutely can't accept cks or M.O.s Seriously, they monitor your listings... If you say you aren't responsible for items lost in the mail, they remove your listing, and you have to basically eat the loss. And they change their rules ALL THE TIME causing tons of wasted time fixing listings AGAIN, before the deadline. ETC. ETC. Needless to say we cancelled our store there a while back. It's up to you though, because we did have success there, a long time ago.
Like I said, try artfire and etsy, they are geared towards the handmade crafter, not towards the foriegn country mass produced junk seller, and there is so much love and support on those sites from all the other sellers.
Good luck with your venture!! It's been a blast and a blessing for me to stay home with my daughter!

[rosekathleenr]

Wow, this is great info! I heard that Ebay was more expensive, I guess they are! Thanks so much for the infomation! Congratulations on your stamp company, your stamps look really quality made and refreshingly different...awesome to stay home for your kids and do what you LOVE!

Kathy

[Monica K]

I have used Etsy (for a few months) and ebay (since 1999) and recommend Etsy more! First of all, Ebay just changed it's fees policies (again) and charges final value fees on the shipping cost too now. The average final value is about 9% of the total item, so that means almost 10% of all your shipping costs come out of your own pocket now! :( Also, you can not leave negative feedback for a buyer anymore, so if they are not a good buyer you can't do much about it!

I've found Etsy to be a much better environment in general too. The buyers are much more pleasant and it's definitely more suited for craft type of sales. I've also had more repeat buyers on Etsy than on eBay.

As far as what sells well, I think it doesn't necessarily matter what you sell so long as you have a clear niche and people know what to expect from you. I would definitely sell something that you're passionate about, not just what you think will sell well. If you're passionate about it then it will be more enjoyable for you and you will have more motivation to continue and improve. It seems that sellers that do well, sell a few specific items and then just have variations of those specific items. It's more confusing to the buyer when you have tons of different products in a bunch of categories.

Good luck!! It can be a nice way to make a little bit of extra money and it can be fun too!

[rosekathleenr]

Monica - Thanks for the information! I will definitely plan out exactly what I want to sell out of all the things I make and focus on doing a couple/few things well instead of a lot of variety. That's great advice to know! I Looks like it's 2-0 Etsy! Thanks!

Kathy

[Monica K]

Oh, I had one more thought, Kathy! You might want to consider selling supplies along with your handmade goods. This has a couple of benefits. You can get a discount on your own supplies because you're buying them in bulk, and you can make an additional profit on the extra supplies to supplement the income on the handmade goods too! For instance, if you are selling cards with twine on them, you might also want to sell twine in your shop too! Supplies seem to sell very well on Etsy!

[rosekathleenr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monica K

Oh, I had one more thought, Kathy! You might want to consider selling supplies along with your handmade goods. This has a couple of benefits. You can get a discount on your own supplies because you're buying them in bulk, and you can make an additional profit on the extra supplies to supplement the income on the handmade goods too! For instance, if you are selling cards with twine on them, you might also want to sell twine in your shop too! Supplies seem to sell very well on Etsy!

I noticed that when I was surfing around in there and wondered how they did selling them. It sounds like a great idea! I always said I could open up my own store with all the supplies I have...LOL...now I will! Thanks again! Kathy

[Sideshow Stamps]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosekathleenr

Wow, this is great info! I heard that Ebay was more expensive, I guess they are! Thanks so much for the infomation! Congratulations on your stamp company, your stamps look really quality made and refreshingly different...awesome to stay home for your kids and do what you LOVE!

Kathy

Thanks Kathy! Your compliments made my day! I agree with Monica K too, selling supplies has been great for us! I've tried selling my cards along with, but the rubber stamps, by far, sell much better. Let me know if you have any more questions! I'd love to help!
Oh, and etsy, with about 200 or so items listed, averages $25-40 a month depending on how much I sell, $0.20 per listing plus final value fees. And artfire is always a flat rate of $9.95 for my pro store. Good deals!
Plus I like how these places keep your listing up for 4 months, where as eBay was either a week, or only one month...

[rosekathleenr]

You're welcome! I'll definitely try selling supplies along with my things. I've been looking on Etsy and all the help info...wow, they have tons of info on there to help you out when you're just starting out! Awesome! Thanks again!

Kathy

[JoyceL]

I agree about the part on selling supplies on Etsy. So far I have only sold 2 pairs of earrings but much more shuttles. Maybe I can start selling the tons of dp and embellishments that I have but never get to use. Help to clear some space for more of my finish work :P

[michellesscrap]

You cannot beat the traffic you will get on ebay anywhere. After about 8 years selling on ebay, I was able to direct my customers and traffic to my own website. To the point where I don't have to sell on ebay at all if I don't wish to. It is marketing tool for sure. Sell on every site you can, more of an audience equals more sales and more traffic which is what you need when you are starting out. Supplies sell best on ebay out of all the sites mentioned but you must pick and choose what you sell.
I do want to mention you can accept money orders and checks on ebay, you just cannot advertise the fact that you do, but if you are asked by a customer you can say yes. Also, it does not matter where you sell you ARE responsible to get the package to the customer, rather USPS/UPS loses or damages the package, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure the customer gets what they pay for. So you should always get delivery confirmation on your packages and insurance if the package is expensive.
Not a huge fan of ebay, but use it for what it is good for.... growing your own business. Good luck.

[rosekathleenr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by michellesscrap

You cannot beat the traffic you will get on ebay anywhere. After about 8 years selling on ebay, I was able to direct my customers and traffic to my own website. To the point where I don't have to sell on ebay at all if I don't wish to. It is marketing tool for sure. Sell on every site you can, more of an audience equals more sales and more traffic which is what you need when you are starting out. Supplies sell best on ebay out of all the sites mentioned but you must pick and choose what you sell.
I do want to mention you can accept money orders and checks on ebay, you just cannot advertise the fact that you do, but if you are asked by a customer you can say yes. Also, it does not matter where you sell you ARE responsible to get the package to the customer, rather USPS/UPS loses or damages the package, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure the customer gets what they pay for. So you should always get delivery confirmation on your packages and insurance if the package is expensive.
Not a huge fan of ebay, but use it for what it is good for.... growing your own business. Good luck.

Thanks Michelle for your input. It's good to know the pro's and con's and the additional info I need to know. There's SO much to learn! I feel so clueless! I guess I'll start of slow and work towards diversifying.

Kathy

[rosekathleenr]

Are there any particular companies to order from that do bulk discounts? All I can think of is Dick Blick so far, but they don't have a lot of what I use. I do mostly paper crafting. Any suggestions?

Kathy