Is Etsy any good?

[ShinyLauren]

I've been selling on Etsy for a while, but I only sell probably one piece per month and always to the USA. I think my stuff is priced pretty high for Etsy, so I struggle to compete with resellers who charge a lot less.

[medusa]

effing resellers! why does etsy tolerate them?

[ps_bond]

Because they pay their bills, which seems to be the sole concern.

[medusa]

but why set up as an artisan store in the first place? I've been seriously tempted by folksy but hear it's very very clunky to list and I know as a buyer it's a nightmare to search on.

[mizgeorge]

but why set up as an artisan store in the first place? I've been seriously tempted by folksy but hear it's very very clunky to list and I know as a buyer it's a nightmare to search on.

It's not just that, the name alone puts me off. Makes me feel I should be sitting in my hovel with a spinning wheel and a pot of something unspeakable bubbling on the open hearth next to me...

[caroleallen]

Notonthehighstreet is absolutely amazing. I've been to a get-together with Noths at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden today. There were hundreds of Noths sellers there who were mostly all really happy with their sales. This Christmas Noths expect to have more sales in just one week in November than they had in the whole of 2009. They predict 6,000,000 sales over Christmas. It's been so good for me that I'm giving up craft fairs altogether next year and am in a bit of a panic about Christmas. I've had to take on an assistant to help out. It's hard to get in but I'd recommend everyone to try if they have products which are different from other products that are already on there.

[JonLendrum]

This has been an interesting read, im very much new to making jewellery and am wondering what paths to take to maybe one day sell. Ive just been giving my stuff away, but recently had a work colleague want to pay me for some simple studs. But this raised a feeling inside me where i felt really bad and guilty charging someone for a piece of jewellery. I couldn't give them a price and got very sheepish about how much i could make them for.how do you value jewellery? I feel really guilty about marking up prices in order to actually make money rather than working at a loss.

[caroleallen]

I still find it difficult to sell to friends Jon. You need to try selling to the public really.

[pearlescence]

I agree with everything George and everyone else has said. Selling is the hard part, whether you sell in person at fairs, use a sales platform like Etsy (or even eBay!) or build your own website. That being so, it is still much easier to get sales than say, 15 years ago, thanks to the web and growing international thinking. (which also allows stupendous sourcing possibilities). There's also Amazon, which periodically phones and tries to recruit me, but their cut is so big that it just isn't worth it
Develop a USP. Be as unusual and unique as you can be.
Agree also that selling to friends is difficult. Not only is pricing a dilemma (normal price or mates rates for someone you know only a bit...) but it is invariably the piece which inexplicably falls apart after three days.

[medusa]

It's not just that, the name alone puts me off. Makes me feel I should be sitting in my hovel with a spinning wheel and a pot of something unspeakable bubbling on the open hearth next to me...

thank you for the first full on laugh of the day!

I do get what you mean about the name, but I think Folksy's issues go deeper than that. They could push themselves as a decent alternative to Etsy which is getting more and more like ebay every day, but until they get their search facility sorted out I can't see them going anywhere. They do seem like nice people though, I had contacted them about selling my stuff there and they were very responsive and clear.