Selling crafts: etsy or...????

[alhrayth]

For the Xmas season I had prepared some stuff (necklaces, earrings, bracelets) that a friend of mine wanted to try to sell in her shop (an actual shop in my town). For various reasons (starting from the fact that I never got to see my stuff out in the shop, to the next door shop selling jewelry ) it is all still there (somewhere) and I wanted to try to sell them basically to just get rid of them - there's a limit on the number of beaded fabric bib necklaces with matching earrings that I can possibly wear.
But I can't decide where to list them... one of the most popular sites I know it's Etsy, but I also read quite a bit of bad stories about it so I'm not really sure... plus I'd have to open also a paypal account and I'm trying to work out how much I'd end up paying in fees if I sell something (and just to list my stuff).
Does anyone have any idea of other sites to check out?

[SmallFairy]

I only have positive experiences from Etsy, and so has all my friends around the globe who has tried it. It's cheap, you meet lots of friendly people, and it's easy to set up your store.
The Etsy fees are not big, drawback is there's fees on paypal also. I found that it was worth it though.
I never had any trouble buying or selling from Etsy, I would totally recommand it! (of course, there's ebay and stuff, but for crafting, Etsy is better, ebay is so huuuuuge, I feel I'm drowning in there)

[sbmeagain]

I sell at Etsy and Artfire. I cannot say enough GOOD about both of them. I have my own site as well. I sell vintage. Love it. It takes time building up a specialized business, and the support is here at both. I recommend both sites. Lots of help from both, and you don't have to worry about auctions!

[danceronice]

Etsy is fine, so long as you are 1. Patient and 2. a self-promoter! I make more per sale on eBay, but the fees are much lower and it's FAR easier to set up a self-brand thing on etsy. The fee on etsy is 20 cents per listing. Ebay's rates are fees plus percentages.

I'm always amazed when people don't already have PayPal..had it for years. I can't imagine doing on-line buisness without it.

[Stormy]

I agree with patience on Etsy, and you MUST be a good marketer. I have an Etsy shop for my jewelry and you need to promote the crap out of it, because you can't reply on people to come to you. Etsy is really glutted that way.

[danceronice]

I find Twitter's very helpful--lots of etsy sellers are on there and you will cross-promote each other. I do vintage items and steampunk jewelry so I follow a lot of people who are into steampunk--this week I was thrilled when #NancyOverbury included me in her Steampunk Tuesday tweet. There are LOTS of steampunk people who see that. And #etsycouponcode tweeted my free shipping code today. You can join Teams and create circles with people who have similar merchandise so you can attract business to each other.

[alhrayth]

Thank you girls for the feedback... you cheered me up a little!
I'm thinking I will definitely give it a try... at worst, I will loose the listing fees only, so that's not exactly a tragedy for a start...
I have never tried to sell anything online - so I have to look up more things, get an idea of the shipping fees and stuff, set up the paypal and calculate how much on earth should I price this stuff (at least I want to be sure I cover the postage and fees!)... wish me good luck!! And if you have any useful suggestion... send it my way!!

[danceronice]

For shipping, especially with etsy, it works better if you keep the costs LOW. I am willing to take a bath on some, or to tell people I will ship the slow way, but buyers HATE when they spend $1.99 on something and get stuck paying $10.95 because the seller will only do medium Priority Flat Rate boxes. (Now on some things I insist--I sold a 1960s Disneyland collector plate on eBay and said in the listing I would ONLY ship Priority and that insurance was included in my shipping charges where I normally only do that and tracking if the buyer asks for it and pays extra. But for an item that breakable I wasn't going to trust it would get there intact by the cheapest route possible.)

[skatemommy]

I sell a little on Etsy and a lot on Ebay. The pixel size of the picture that Etsy accepts is MUCH smaller than Ebay. The easiest way for me to get an acceptable size is to bring the photo up in Paintshop then email it to myself. It took me a long afternoon to figure this out that it gets compressed to an acceptable Etsy uploadable picture. Consequently, I charge a little more on Etsy because sometimes (my mom's hand knit dog sweaters) get more than one bid on Ebay. Good luck!

[Ania]

I have no useful information to contribute, but I wanted to say thank you all for helping me discover this website! I just bought a ton of cute hair clips for my daughter (+ some for gifts) for bargain prices (compared to what I pay on Amazon). The selection was unbelievable. If any of you make hair clips, let me know, I can be your regular (I'm addicted to buying them)

[Anita18]

Thank you girls for the feedback... you cheered me up a little!
I'm thinking I will definitely give it a try... at worst, I will loose the listing fees only, so that's not exactly a tragedy for a start...
I have never tried to sell anything online - so I have to look up more things, get an idea of the shipping fees and stuff, set up the paypal and calculate how much on earth should I price this stuff (at least I want to be sure I cover the postage and fees!)... wish me good luck!! And if you have any useful suggestion... send it my way!!

If you've never tried to sell anything online, lemme give you a tip in sales writing - be really creative in how you write the ads! Online, you can only go by pictures, and lighting and setup is VERY important in photography. The only way you can counteract a so-so photograph is by giving life to your product through your words.

I just moved and I managed to sell ALL of my okay-condition furniture on my company's employee e-boards (think Craigslist but only for employees) within 1 day of posting the ads because they were hilarious. (For example, the listing for my bed was posed as a breakup letter.) I even managed to sell two items that my roommate had tried to sell herself on the same boards but couldn't. And I got multiple buyers in one day.

Knowing what will sell is still important though (my seat rest is still on there, nobody apparently is in need of a seat rest..), and how you approach your audience is paramount.

My friend did notice how many Etsy sellers who worked in jewelry looked like they underpriced their work, a lot. Probably because Etsy is so crowded and the sellers think they can get any buyers is if they try to undercut everyone else...