Selling on etsy...

[svleonard]

Does anypony on here sell on etsy?  I have crafts/collectibles I want to sell, but I'd rather avoid ebay.  What is your experience with etsy?  Is it profitable?  How much of a cut do they take? Fees, etc?

[ponylady]

I will give you a bump. I have only ever bought from Etsy so I have no idea on how they operate in terms of fee's and such.

[Rhini]

I really can't say enough good things about Etsy! I sell plush patterns through them, I believe it's $0.20 a listing (if you list multiple of the same item, it's still .20 no matter how many. So I can list say, 100 of the same pattern and it will still be .20), and I get charged $0.30 in paypal fees, which is very reasonable to me. Then depending on how much money you make, you get a bill every month. Mine is usually about $5-8 after selling at least $100 worth of merchandise It really is a pretty small fee in my mind that I happily pay for such ease and excellent service. The shops are really nice and it feels almost more like a social site at times, you can favorite stuff and shops and make lists of  your favorite items that you can share. I'm at several hundred transactions and have yet to have a problem 

[saply]

Are they still doing that thing where you have to have like... 20 unique items to open up a shop? (WAS that ever a thing? Or is my reading comprehension just that bad)

[Rhini]

Nope, I have 1 item and have had 2 unique items ever at most lol

[lovesbabysquirmy]

It takes a whole lot of self-driven exposure and driving traffic to your Etsy site for a store to really take off... or be featured in a blog or whatever.    Ebay has a lot of exposure so they don't need to "sell themselves".

[mermaid_splash]

I love Etsy and have been there for years with only one negative experience when a seller retaliated with negative feedback.  Other than that it is a fun friendly community.

[MoonHawke]

I have a shop on etsy, though I don't put a lot of items up, so I don't make much on it.

As already stated, they charge you twenty cents to list an item for 3 months. If you list multiples of the same item, they charge the same $.20, but will charge you it again for each additional one that sells. When you sell an item, etsy takes a cut, which is somewhere around 4% of what you charge for it. They won't take it out of what you're paid from the buyer, rather they invoice you every month (along with the listing fees).

If you use paypal, they take a fee as well.

My advice: take lots of photos and spend the time to really make them shine (this is what most people look at first, so it pays to take the time), make your write ups interesting and really sell yourself. Don't be afraid to relist items if they don't sell, but understand that listing a new item will appear under the search first which relisting won't do (get you to the top of the searches I mean). Do your math (for how much making an item costs you) and list accordingly, but also keep in mind what others are selling similar items for.

Lastly, understand that if you want your items to be seen (especially if you're selling something common), you're probably going to have to pay etsy a little bit in "advertising." You can set this budget, so you don't have to worry about ending a month with a huge bill. But it really does help. My views went up drastically even with a small budget of like $5 a month.

[Gypsy_Nights]

I have never used Etsy.com before but lately I've been thinking about selling my vintage ponies from it.  Since they have much lower final value fees than ebay.  I'm just worried they won't sell very fast.  That's part of the reason I use ebay.  They sell fast.  So I was wondering what past experience some of you may have had selling with Etsy or how many of you buy from it also?  Or were there any disapointments anyone found with it?
Thanks for any input!   

[ponylady]

I am going to merge your thread with the existing thread we have right now on the same topic.  There is lots of helpful info from members already posted that may help you out.

[Ginger]

A couple years ago I sold a lot of vintage items on Etsy and had success with it. I didn't advertise my shop one bit, but they were collectible items people searched for anyway. It took a while, months, but everything eventually sold.

The past couple months I got back into it and sold several ponies and even something I made! So far no issues at all, and Etsy's 3.5% + 20 cents is WAY better than ebay's 10%.