Mimi Sews

I would like to start making baby quilts to sell on etsy. It seems like they are very popular there and are selling for $75-150 depending on the quilt. That seems like a lot of money to me. Twin and Queen quilts are selling for hundreds of dollars. Just wondering if anyone here sells quilts on etsy and if people are actually paying that kind of money for a quilt. Thanks for your replies. I'm going to be out for a while today, so I won't be able to respond until tonight.

ManiacQuilter2

My friend opened an Esty store and nothing sold. Don't know where you are finding your info and how accurate it is. I so think it is a little more professional place to sell finished quilts. The quilters who may have success might have a blog or some other prominence on the internet.

ptquilts

You say the quilts are selling for $X on Etsy. But that is what sellers are ASKING for them. On Etsy you have no way of knowing what they sold for, like you do on Ebay. People can ask whatever they want, doesn't mean they get that price.

If you sell on Etsy you need to put a lot of work into getting yourself known there. If you just list something and then sit back and do nothing, you will likely not get any action.

quiltingcandy

A friend of ours was selling purses/bags on Esty. They were beautiful and well made, but not many sold because people have to find them. And you are competing with people all over the US and Canada. (Actually the entire world but don't believe too many people overseas will want to pay the postage.)

Not sure where you live in Alaska but made if you contacted a local store that sells local items may be very interested. One place in Oregon used to sell quillows made by a local quilter. She had several other items made by the local person.

Bree123

I was interested in selling on etsy at one time so I started tracking what actually sold -- you can look that up under the seller's profile. Most of what sells on etsy are small Quilted Items like table runners, placemats, coasters & some tiny wall art... items in the $5-25 range. Of the quilts that do sell, they're almost always $50-75 (usually $50) and some of the quilts at that price are Queen or King sized quilts. The ones that sell tend to be hand quilted and many were also hand pieced. Personally, when I added up the cost for me to make a crib sized quilt (I do all hand applique & embroidery, but FMQ by machine), I could barely cover my own costs for a small crib quilt at $50 (fabric, batting, thread, needles, electricity to run sewing machine & washer/dryer ... plus wear-and-tear on other items that eventually need maintenance/replacing like pins, rotary blades, markers, my machine) much less make any money. Even if you were able to always buy the cheapest fabrics & batting on the market at 50% off, you're still looking at a minimum of $20 just for the basic items ... probably $25+ when you add in items that need to be replaced over time. So that leaves, at most, $25 for your time. Can you really cut, piece, quilt, bind, wash, market & ship a crib quilt -- even entirely by machine -- in 2 hours or less? Because otherwise you're better off applying for a minimum wage job. And that's assuming the thing actually sells when it's competing with items that people hand quilted & are selling for the same price.

If you still want to sell on etsy, go for it. It's not as bad of an option as other large online marketplaces. I've just personally found that other options like selling it at a quilt show, working with a more local merchant who only sells quilts (and takes a smaller cut of sales than etsy), or promoting it on my own tend to be MUCH more profitable than etsy every would.

ckcowl

I've never been on etsy. I do sell baby/ kids quilts for $125-$175. Generally by showing them off locally, as special orders and on the ( Quilts for Sale) website. I've not seen a lot of success on etsy when I've visited the site, so really don't know how it works. Maybe you could check the ut sellers contact/ profile page & ask questions there.

Neuras

That's the name of the website (quiltsforsale.com)? Thank you!

jjs56

http://www.quiltsforsale.ca/index.php

Mimi Sews

Thank you for your input, everyone. I was browsing etsy shops last night and saw quilts listed for large amounts of money, so I was curious about how well they sold on there. I figured it was too good to be true. I didn't realize you could check to see what items were sold by a certain seller...good to know. I guess I will explore my local market options.

Mimi Sews

Thank you for sharing!