WAHM Blog

Is Etsy gaining the attention of eBay crafters? With the cost of eBay auction selling going up non-stop, many crafters are finding Etsy a great alternative.

If you currently sell anything handmade on eBay auctions, you may want to take a look at what Etsy can offer your business. Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. No matter if you make custom scrapbook pages, baby shopping cart covers, boutique clothing, or jewelry, if you make it, Etsy can help you sell it!

Very similar to eBay auctions, however there is no bidding. Sellers elect their set selling price. There is a feedback system, stores and support, all without the huge ebay fees!

I really like Etsy. I have purchased all kinds of things and especially like the idea when I shop there I am helping women and work at home moms support their families!

How do Etsy fees work?
When you list an item there is a $0.20 (USD) fee per quantity of one. This covers an item listing period of four months. For example, if I list a scarf (and there’s only 1 in stock) it’ll cost 20 cents for 4 months. If you gave the listing a quantity of 3, it would cost 60 cents. When an item sells, there’s a flat 3.5% fee on the final sale price (not including shipping). All fees are in US dollars. All listings are created equal, with 5 images included in the price.

As you can see there are no buy it now fees and the listing fee is much cheaper than ebay fees.

Is there a fee to get started (open a shop)?
Getting your shop is free. There’s no setup fee and no monthly fee. This alone can save sellers merging to Etsy from eBay. NO store fees!

What items can be sold Etsy?
You can sell anything that is handmade or, a bit more loosely put, hand-assembled or hand-altered. For example, screen-printed shirts are OK. A custom-built computer is OK, as long as you’re making the case and not buying prefab. Furniture is OK as long as it’s nothing mass-produced (yes, you can use power tools to build it). If your human hands put some love into the object, odds are you can sell it on Etsy. Reselling of handmade items is not allowed.

If you are looking for a way to sell products you make or looking for a way to profit more, I highly recommend looking into Etsy. http://www.etsy.com

Are you currently selling on Etsy? What has your experience been? Or have you purchased items from Etsy?

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Last week I wrote about eBay stopping digital products from being sold on ebay. I was a bit worried, as I know many eBay store owners who do sell digital items. I was not sure how they would sell their products and was a bit concerned.
Well, it looks like there is a work around for the no eBay digital products! Ebay stated that any digital downloadable products must be advertised as a classified ad and no longer as an auction.

I was over at eBay a few days ago and was surprised to see MANY ebooks still being sold on eBay.

So, if eBay has a policy against digital products being sold, how are those auctions live? 

Well, it looks like if you sell digital items on eBay, as long as the customer can not download the item right after purchase, you can still sell! Yep, thats right. eBay digital sellers must now manually send the link to the products or the files to their customers instead of using the automatic downloads.

So either eBay is not enforcing the no digital products for sale or they are going to have to create some new type of rule to stop anything digital at all from being sold on ebay.

If you are wondering how I know, I actually took the time to purchase a .99 ebook to see how the process worked. A few hours after my purchase my seller sent me an email with the link to download the ebook!

I am not sure what eBay thinks about that but it is being done.

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I got an email today from a close friend who has an online eBay business. She has had an eBay store for almost 5 years now and does very well. Within the last 3 days she has had12 emails from scammers about her auctions (wanting to pay her off eBay) and had three fraudulent purchases.

It looks like there are some new Nigerian scams except they have moved to eBay now. The scammers are purchasing high ticket items from stolen eBay accounts and paying from stolen Paypal accounts.

All of them had a “story” as to why the items need to be shipped to Nigeria or to addresses not on the paypal account. This is SCARY for eBay business owners.

I am wondering if any of you eBay business owners are experiencing the same issues?

I can see this being a huge problem for eBay sellers. Not only due to the amount of products that will be mailed and payments taken back from Paypal, but also it is going to create allot more work for eBay sellers if they have to keep relisting items because they are being bought from scammers.

With the Ebay seller fee’s continuing to increase, I am afraid that the eBay store owners are going to be loosing even more money due to these scammers.  I am sure eBay is aware of these issues, however I also know it is impossible to catch them all before it is to late.

If you have an Ebay store or sell on eBay, please make sure you only ship to confirmed addresses and try to avoid any out of country transactions if possible. Most of the eBay scams involve out of country deals. Also, remember if someone emails you asking to purchase your items off eBay, it should raise a red flag!

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