Why Etsy is a Good Place to Buy Handmade Goods: Ebay Alternative
That might sound discouraging if your idea of "handmade items" are crummy little birdhouses that your artistically challenged neighbor made from sticky popsicle sticks. If that's the case, you might be surprised by the sheer diversity and quality of all the handmade items you can find on Etsy. Yes, you can certainly find cheesy things that looked like they were carelessly thrown together, but there are also a lot of high quality goods to be found. You can find beautiful glass pendants, pottery, and even furniture on Etsy. Other things you can find include:
Sculptures
Paintings
Clothing
Purses and handbags
Bookmarks
Greeting cards
Hats
Buttons
Dolls
Masks
Journals
Beads
Soap
Blankets
Toys
That's far from an exhaustive list of all the things you can buy on Etsy. With a little searching, you can find some pretty amazing stuff that you would have a hard time finding anywhere else.
Because Etsy takes a very small cut from the transactions, artists and crafters have the freedom to charge more competitive prices for their work. It's not uncommon for retailers to take as much as 50% from the sale price, which is part of why handmade items can cost so much; the retailer's cut has to be factored into the final price of the item. Fortunately, Etsy's fees are tiny by comparison.
One of the things Etsy does have in common with eBay is that it has its own feedback system. Feedback and seller ratings are taken just as seriously on Etsy as they are on eBay. Sellers depend on good feedback for their reputation, and bad feedback will leave an ugly black mark on their record. If you decide to buy something from a seller who has a lot of good feedbacks, you can be pretty confident that you'll have a good experience. That's why it's more than just good manners to leave feedback-- it helps everyone.
There is a downside to Etsy, though. Since it's a fairly new site that's getting new members all the time, it's experiencing some growing pains. There have been brief times when the whole site went down for maintenance. Hopefully that will become less and less of an issue as Etsy matures.
Published by Victoria Neely
I'm a freelance writer who loves to write about web 2.0 technologies such as Squidoo, and am also fond of gardening and cooking meals from scratch. View profile
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9 Comments
Post a CommentVery nice article. I have opened a shop with Art Fire. It is very similar to Etsy but the fees are lower. It is brand new but growing! Check it out if you get the chance. www.artfire.com
The best alternative to Ebay that I have found is Silkfair (silkfair.com). I was able to import all ebay and Etsy listings so I could set up shop quickly. Customer service is great, seller community very supportive, site working beautifully and my problems eliminated. If you are a seller, rejecting ebay, or a shopper looking for a fun, unique, boutique-style shopping experience, try it. Here's to better sales (and better sites to sell from) in 2009!
If you want to know how much Less Fees (and % of Sellers Total Profit) that ETSY charges Sellers as opposed to eBay Inc., Please check out this new free online eBay & ALTERNATIVES Fee & Profit CALCULATOR here:
www.pheebay.com/1/?eBayALTERNATIVESPheeCalculator
Note: This Realistic calculator is more accurate than others because it takes into consideration non-perfect Sell Through Rates which other calculators do not do.
If questions, click on the Calculator's Discussion Link.
If you like it, please let others know about it. :)
I just started selling "art" on etsy and having so much fun doing it !
I hadn't even thought of selling anything on ebay .... etsy is from far closer to who I am.
www.matilou.etsy.com
And getting worse every day. If you're under 60 it's not the site for you.
I haven't been on eBay in a while, but yeah, there's a clear difference between the eBay/Etsy cultures. Although I think part of it is because eBay has been around a long time and is just so dang BIG. Frankly, I don't even know about other auction sites apart from eBay. Etsy can focus much more tightly on a good community centered on crafts and art.
Honest sellers and a rigorous team that roots out any dishonesty make Etsy the model eBay should be following. Reasonable shipping costs, too. And those sellers who overprice their goods don't get purchased since the buying attitude is more reasonable. People trying to make a decent living doing crafts, not gouge people with marginal products. (Can you tell I cancelled my eBay account for a reason?!)
Joshua: The community is getting bigger all the time. :) My experience with Etsy has been positive so far. But like anything, you have to do a lot of promotion to get your items to sell. I haven't promoted my shop at all for a while, and the sales reflect that. The sellers who go all out to list something new in their shop every day and promote their goods seem to do quite well.
I just stumbled across Etsy and am thinking of selling some paintings there. It looks like a good place, there is a lot of positive feedback in the forums.