Hey Mark! I have tried both etsy and ebay. I have had some inquiries about some things, but nothing has yet to sell. I think there is just too much competition on those websites.

 

Sometimes etsy gets a little crowded with content. For instance, a search for "wood cutting board" brings up 4,176 hits. I see etsy as a place to show off my work, not expecting to make a sale. I hand out my card to people at craft shows with a link to etsy, and those are the people that tend to buy from etsy. I do get the very occasional random sale from there, but its very rare

 

I have bought from both Ebay and Etsy many times. I just bought a poster from this person on Etsy. I am doing a frame for it now in the shop. Hopefully it will be a Christmas present for my wife.

This person has 3481 sales with a feedback rating of 100%.
I don't know anything about selling but I expect you have to give people what they want. That is the magic bullet I guess. I cruise the "wood" sections on Ebay and Etsy to get ideas and I see many winners and losers.

Good luck and don't give up…........................

 

I like to see an Ebay alternative.
Unfortuanately, there really aren't any.
It's the chicken and the egg thing.
Buyers comes first or is it the sellers? Need both to get a new site going.

 

I have heard of alot of people selling on etsy and making good money. Problem is, as I see it, etsy is more of a place to sell lower priced items. Things I want to sell would not do good there. I found this article awhile back and it does share some interesting facts about etsy.

 

Redryder, I looked at the site on that link and I see why her work is selling. It's because she's using the work of others. The poster in the link is from a Beetles song. You think she's paid Michael Jackson's estate for the rights to use the Beetles in her merchandise? She also has lyrics from all kinds of songs as well as movies and TV shows. I notice she has her own copyright notice on there, I wonder if she is respecting everybody elses copyright?

 

A big deal for me has been just networking in general. no matter the site you use the most important thing is getting people to know it exists at all. just as junebug has demonstrated. One of the things i have worked at for many months now has been trying to build a reputation. every time I made anything (no matter how simple) i would post it on facebook and would frequent different conventions with some of my work (swords at anime conventions, armor at Renaissance fairs, etc.) Realistically i dont make much from those items since they are complex to produce but when I hand out business cards i have links to pictures of all my work.

so far my results are hit and miss but I have gotten some projects this way

that being said i think ebay is slightly better to get sales since it is more direct but etsy looks more professional

 

Interesting article. The average price of items selling on Etsy is $18. The things I have on there are several times more than that. I'm thinking it is probably not the best place to sell what I'm making. I think I will go ahead and give E-Bay stores a try. The only thing I don't like is they have a monthly fee, but it's only $15 for their smallest store. If I sold enough to have one of their bigger stores I would gladly pay the fee.

 

I should add to this that I can't badmouth Etsy too much right now, because I only have a few items on it and they are more expensive items. I just kind of thought by now I would have at least had some inquires by message or some other contact.

 

There are a hundred and one excuses why someone can not sell there product.

How bout this guy 386 wood carvings with 100% positive feedback and most sales well over $100. ea., selling since the end of 2009.

or this guy selling 166 items with 100% pos feedback since only the middle of 2011.

you know this guy, 45 sales, 100% pos feedback, no cheap stuff here

How bout this guy selling turned bowls. Who would buy those? 379 sales, 100% pos feedback, most of them he is selling are hundreds of dollars each.

And on and on. Most of the people bad mouthing the Etsy site say the site is too crowded. Which usually means the stuff they are selling is over priced and or the same old dull stuff. As they say, excuses are like…........well you know. There seems to be two kinds of sellers out there, those who can't make it because of one excuse or the other or the ones who sell them left and right and make no excuses.

Just a buyer…......Just my 2cents

 

I'm not making excuses Redryder, just trying to find out how to do it better.

 

I think the biggest issue is not so much the site, but the marketing. Be it Etsy, Ebay, or a store hosted on your own website, how are you driving people to your product? (Personally I have no idea and am still trying to figure this out)

 

Make a viable product.'

When you do, promotional venue relevance decreases.

...a core law of selling, more or less. CNC capacity is not
big advantage these days.

Undercut CNC guitar hollow form suppliers for some quick
dough. Going rate is too much and buyer will flock
to a cheaper option. Just one clue… the product is functional
rather than aesthetic.

 

Sounds like you need to do some market research and both etsy and ebay are great opportunities for doing it. Experiment with different pictures, descriptions, and price points until you find a combinaion that works.

One of the first things TV shopping networks learned was to offer a limited quantity of any new product starting at a high price and then regularly lowering the price until they get the responses needed to justify adding the item to their ongoing lineup. Then, and only then, they could determine if the item would be profitable.

With etsy or ebay you can use the same process. Change the photo's, alter the description, and adjust the price until you get a decent respose rate. Then decide if it will generate a profit for you. And if you reach your lowest 'willing to sell at' price and have tried various ways to present the product without selling a few, move on to a different product.

The new product just may be a different size, finish, or style of the same item.

 

Limited success on etsy, none on eBay. I will say I haven't tried very hard either because I can only marginally keep up with my local business. Someday maybe.

Good luck

 

I am with REDRYDER. I looked up some of the items that I want to sell and found LOTS of sales on ETSY. Plus, you can download or print the extensive Sellers Handbook and get lots of advice. I doi not have any experience with EBAY.

 

Thanks for the advice. Like I said I don't have a lot on there yet and that's probably most of the reason I haven't sold anything. But I put a few household items on E-Bay (iPod dock and other non-working items) and had all kinds of interest and they always sold. I think for what I'm doing, eBay is probably a better venue for me than Etsy even if it does cost a little more.

 

I don't make things with the intent to sell them, but everything is for sale at the right price. I have sold a few things, and every time it has been from facebook

 

I buy a lot of original paintings off Etsy, never off Ebay. I don't know if that translates. They're both so populated that they're hard to browse. I buy vintage stuff off Ebay, novel stuff off Etsy. I'm not sure if that's helpful.

 

Seems I heard of someone on Ljs suggested "custommade.com"

 

Joe, of the things I have sold so far it's been through Facebook mostly to people I know.

Bertha, that helps, but I'm not selling original works of art. I think Etsy appears to be a good place for people to sell the unique art work. Somebody else posted some links to some successful people on Etsy and it's easy to see why some of them are doing so well. I'm not at their level, and for the one person I'm not going to get myself into trouble with copyright violations.

 

I know this is off topic but i wanted to say this:

because of this thread I have joined custommade.com like a1jim mentioned. In my opinion that is the best option for me since i was able to bid on commissions. I joined them about 2 weeks ago and literally on christmas eve i managed to bid on a a bunch of new projects in my area and am working on giving the client the sketches and estimates (an ironwood and stainless steel patio set if you are wondering.) For me this was a perfect fit since people would post a commission and i can respond to it or not if i feel it is within my abilities

its kind of a royal pain having to apply for their approval to join them but the back and forth emails were worth it

Mark if you want to get into online i think this is the best option i have seen so far

 

I will take a look at it. Sounds like at least for right now it may be above my level. Although I've been woodworking for a long time, it's just been an off and on hobby and I still have a lot to learn. I'd be a little nervous bidding on jobs unless it was something fairly simple. One nice thing about building an item and then selling it, is people see what they are getting before they buy it. When you build custom you run the risk of building stuff and then having them tell you it's not what they wanted and then you end up with a mess on your hands. But thanks for the info, I will look into it.

And by the way, I opened an E-Store and have already sold four items through it in two weeks. I sold nothing on Etsy. So I'm going to close out my Etsy page and move the last few items there over to eBay.

 

I have been on etsy for a year now and I have sold over 200 items , some only 3.00 dollars and some over 550.00 dollars. I was on ebay and never sold any thing,just dont figure. I have bought on ebay and got riped off and also got some good deals.
Chuck

 

I sell on both and they are very different items. Usually the things I sell on ebay are things that never sold on Etsy after six months, I discount them and off they go. You get what you put into it, though, which means it is an awful lot of work - but what isn't?