Is Etsy the same type of thing as e-bay (except just for handmade items)? Do a lot of members of quiltboard use etsy? If so, how successful have you been? Just curious. Thank you.

I know there are some here who list things there. I don't know whether they are actually making money or not . My opinion only- there seems to be so much "stuff" there that it is hard to find things.

I had the same problem as Moonpi -- difficult to find things. I heard that they list the biggest sellers first in any search. Don't know if that's true but, if so, I don't know how people starting out get any product exposure there. It's not an auction site; it's a sales site for mostly handmade items including artwork, jewelry, etc.

Thanks for your replies. I don't plan on putting anything on the site. I have just seen others say they had stuff on there. I went to the site to check it out, but was a bit overwhelmed.

I am overwhelmed whenever I go there too... It is hard to find what I am looking for.

I have a store with 7 items listed. I haven't sold a thing. They don't neccesarily list the most popular items first, but the most recently posted, and at any given time there are so many new items posted that they move lowers on the list quickly. I have never gotten anything there myself because I too find it overwhelming. In my opinion there are a lot of uggly things. A lot is handmade but many is not. Vintage items can be posted for sale, but they figure anything that is over 20 years old is vintage. Do that mean that I am vintage?

I have over 150 items listed on Etsy all the time. I sell very well there and it keeps me very busy. I have the same amount on Ebay and that also keeps me very busy. However I like Etsy much better and the fees are not nearly as much as Ebay.

I tried Etsy - my problem was that I did not have enough stuff done to REALLY put on and I did not keep up with it - my goal for 2010 is to sew, sew, sew and get enough items ready to begin going to our Green Market here in town and to renew my Etsy shop and have tons of stuff on there - I will just update posts daily and hopefully that will help.

Ha Ha.If that's the case, I guess I am vintage too. And I'm not even thirty yet. But I do see your point. People seem to think since something is 'old' it is automatically worth something.

I have a store... have sold 11 things. I am not on nearly enough as others are. I work full-time and do this on the side. I suppose if I updated everyday and made stuff constantly, I might do better. The fees are reasonable and it isn't an auction like ebay. You set the price and that is it. If they want it, they pay that price. I would say there is about 10 things posted every 5 seconds. It is very busy and overwelming.

I never update items unless it sold.

I meant updated as in put new stuff on everyday. It just takes a while to put on one item. I would have to sit for an entire day just to put stuff on.

I have bought two things from one person on Etsy. I went to the site already knowing what I wanted, and then found the ones I liked best from the choices.

I loved the items I bought from the woman, but she's in Canada and the shipping time took FORRRRRRREVERRRR. LOL

I have an etsy shop and only have been able to list a few items,but have done well. It is easy to find things if you are specific in your search. For example "Christmas Table runners" "wall quilts" "qulted totes"...

I am considering creating a site on ETSY as well. I just haev so mnay things sitting around not getting any use..because I love to make things. I buy from there often..sometimes even if it is just to get an idea..anything from sugar cookies to jewelry.
We haev plaenty of people that come into tehe shop and make their living from ETSY....so I don't really know.

I'm considering setting up a shop on Etsy as well. I haven't bought anything from there, but mostly because everything I see is already something I can make. Everything seems to be fairly simple patterns, which is great for the person making them because they can make more things faster. My patterns tend to be a bit more complicated, whether it's because of the fabric choices or the pattern, or because I'm anal and can't help myself. :oops: I'm wondering how well they would do since the fancier the pattern the more I woud charge. I figure there's nothing to do but give it a try, though it'll probably be a couple of months. Between the holidays, birthdays, and my sister's upcoming wedding, I'm a bit strapped for time. I'd love to hear how others are doing and what they think of Etsy & will be watching this thread closely.

do you pay a percentage to Etsy? How does it work? I know that many are leaving ebay due to fee increases.

I did understand that you have to pay etsy for every listed item, even if it's not sold yet. Is that true?

My problem with etsy is that it's is hard to search for something and in special the european sellers...

For now I only sell my homemade items on my blog.
www.maksitaksi.blogspot.nl

Buyers can leave me a message there and then I contact them. They can chose there one colours and fabrics, I make everything they want for each buyer.

Ebay is not an option for me. They have a high fee but my biggest concern is that you have to make a selleraccount for every single country you want to sell on... For example, if I want to sell in the Netherlands, in the UK and in Italy I have make three accounts ebay.nl, on ebay.de and on ebay.it. I don't want that.

So thats why I consider to open a Etsy shop, if I have figured out how things work on Etsy.

Etsy fees are 20cents per item to list...cant beat that

Thanks Riversong. :)

O dear! That means I'm vintage too :shock: :lol: :lol:

What happens when you are twice or three times vintage? :shock:

Wow! You are one hard working lady. I looked at just a little of your stuff. Your prices are very reasonable. Hard to know what to order. Those 100 hearts with iron-on are neat. You could iron them on everything, including your envelopes!
Thank you!

Than you are double- or tripple-vintage lady...:)) :lol: Getting older doesn't bother me at all. :D

It makes me eccentric :D:D:D

I don't sell a LOT there, but like eBay, it's good advertising. I get queries about special orders from people who see my work there.

It's cheap and the search function is really considerably better than eBay's once you know how to use it.

Loretta -

Etsy is similar to eBay in some ways. You "list" things as you do on eBay, but it's all direct sale instead of bidding/auctions. The listings cost 20 cents each and are good for a couple months. They are easy to renew if they expire.

Etsy hosts your pictures. For eBay, I host my pictures on photobucket or my own website and write an html "page" for the listing. That means I can have different fonts and plenty of pictures, etc. Pictures are what sell quilts. Etsy is more basic - you can only write plain text.

Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Glory-Quilts-Aqu...item19b8660192

Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php...ng_id=16865873

The final value fees are lower than eBay's, too, and the payment options aren't so rigid. I find etsy very easy to use, but it's not as "nice" an option for listing something like quilts.

One advantage to etsy is that I can list a $2000 quilt for 20 cents, just as I can a $50 quilt. On ebay, your listing fees go up with the sales price.

Good post...etsy is a very interesting site to visit, but you could spend literally hours looking at the "stores". I like the idea of buying through a blog...but as a well and truly "post vintage" type (jurassic eccentric perhaps?), I would rather buy person to person, via a market or arts stall or maybe a local artisan group (we have two here in our town).

I have a shop on Etsy where I sell reusable sandwich baggies and a few vintage items. I just opened in August and have 90 sales! I have a twitter account that I use for my primary advertising, which brings in tons of item views. My average monthly bill for Etsy is about $18, which isn't too bad.

The secret to success on there is to relist items often, however it costs $.20 each time you relist an item. This brings your items back to the front page of the category and when someone searches for a word that is included in your tags. That's the other secret-- use as many words as possible to describe your items in your tags!

Here's the link to my shop if you'd like to look!

www.bellsandunicorns.etsy.com

Maride, I'm an antique, long past vintage. Ebay does the same thing...I think over 20 years is vintage there also, so they tell me. I have to check this Etsy site out. I know sometimes there are so many things on a site that it is hard to choose and seems like everyone has things they want to sell. I wish them all well no matter what they do.

Here's some links to various quilts I found on the site--->

Hemming House Twin Quilt by PiecesOfPine
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php...age=2&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

Safari Flower Rag Quilt by LovemRagged
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php...ng_id=37769893

Flower Boxes Quilt by Mountain Home Quilts
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php...age=7&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

Ok so how many of you have now opened up an Etsy shop? I want to see them! :-)

My sister and her husband sell on Etsy. My brother in law does pottery (absolutely gorgeous) and my sister makes jewelry and does very well. (Her jewelry are treasures). They have no problems at all. Edie

One of the ladies I work with sells fabric, both on eBay and Etsy. For her, Etsy is relatively new, within the last year or so; she's been on Ebay for quite a long time.

The vast majority of her sales come from eBay. She says anything from Etsy is just "an extra". Since she's already created all the advertising text for eBay, it's fairly easy to duplicate the listings in Etsy, since all the "thinking work" has already been done.

For what it's worth...

I agree with you. I sell on ebay.