Selling my vintage stuff on Etsy to diversify and pay less fees…Worth it or no

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Selling on Etsy

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• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by AdventureE.

Like anything, you have time into any platform you want to profit on. Some sellers here say they enjoy selling on Etsy. We personally feel like sales are much slower than on Etsy.

I would never choose a platform just because they have low fees. What’s more important is if the platform can bring buyers to you. Low fees dont matter if you dont sell anything.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Jay.

It depends. Etsy is a different animal than ebay or bonanza. If you are willing to put in time up front to learn how to create a good etsy listing it could be worth it. Besides lower selling fees you can also often ask more for the same item on etsy than on ebay because you have less competition for many things and shoppers on etsy don’t seem to shop around for best price.

The one big difference between ebay and etsy when creating an etsy listing is creating ‘tags’ (keyword phrases) and longer titles. There are plenty of resources both on the etsy forums and some posts I’ve made here that explain it. IMO if you don’t take the time to create proper etsy listings it is not worth listing there.

I started on Etsy and slowly moved over to eBay. It’s hard to compare, because I know so much more now than I did when I started selling online, but I feel like honest-to-goodness full-time quit-your-day-job success on Etsy depends more on things like compelling photos, terrific narratives, social networking on the site itself, and personal branding than it does on simply having a good assortment of decent items. On eBay, it’s been my experience that there’s vastly less need to spend time crafting your personal brand and doing things on the “marketing” end. The fees are higher on eBay, and the prices for some items might be slightly lower, but the number of people shopping the sites can’t really be compared, and I’ve done way better on eBay than I ever did on Etsy (although, again, I know a lot more now than I did then.)

Overall, I’d say it depends on what you’re selling and how — or even if — you want to tell your personal story as part of your shop. For me, being able to list items quickly without the need for evocative narratives, magazine-quality photos, and other marketing/branding requirements has been key as I’ve tried to balance online selling with other obligations. But it would be interesting to hear from people who have gone the other way, because my perception of what’s required could be warped. Sue/OMFUG, we need your story!

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Habnab.

Thanks for your perspective, Habnab. Your comment solidifies my decision to not try out etsy anytime soon. I simply don’t enjoy and am not very good at creating evocative narratives and magazine-quality photos.

I know Sue/OMFUG has been happier on Etsy — so don’t let me scare you away entirely. I’ll see if she can come tell her story. But, for me, eBay has been the better fit.

Sue reports that she’s still selling on both sites, and that Etsy is slow at the moment as well!

MileHigh,

To me, those sound like things I’d try on ebay, on auction, with the interesting stories in the description. While I know some sellers do pretty well on etsy with “guy stuff”,I think etsy buyers skew female, ebay has long skewed more male than female.

But that’s just my opinion, and I’m no expert on etsy or militaria.

MileHigh: I can confirm what a lot of folks say above. It is more for vintage items, with nicer buyers, and is more of an antique store feel. Much slower though. We cross post certain items onto Etsy and look for extra sales there, but everything goes on eBay first.

A little bit off the topic but I just found this guy on YouTube selling my kind of vintage decor on Etsy full time. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnFCkmrV4w2E7cCQ9pQX5RQ He’s doing free “included” shipping on Etsy and gets items super cheap. I occasionally shop on Etsy and don’t remember ever seeing shipping included, so that would be a way to stand out I would think. He gets some sales of multiple items (rare on Ebay) and if it goes international, buyer pays shipping on top of his price. Goal is $2 or less into $30. Intriguing business model for someone who has plentiful sourcing at good prices.

Interesting video (I listened while working, peeking every once in a while). I find it interesting that he is doing this full time but only has a goal of listing 20-30 items per week. Considering the lower STR on Etsy (though he may be killing it more than us), I would be interested in seeing his ASP (if he ever shows it).

At 30 items per week listed, then sales could get to 30 items per week.
At $100 ASP (high), then that is $3,000 per week Total Revenue.
At $50 ASP, that is $1,500 Total Revenue.
At $30 ASP, that is $900 Total Revenue.

He said his 2017 was total sales of 616 items (so that is 11-12 items sold per week):
At $100 ASP (high), then that is $61,600 Annual Total Revenue.
At $50 ASP, that is $30,800 Annual Total Revenue.
At $30 ASP, that is $18,840 Annual Total Revenue.

Shows that you REALLY have to have low cash flow needs to get started when going full time, or you have to be running strong before you go full time. And especially when growing. Growth can kill a business. Sounds counter intuitive, but you can grow yourself to death.

Now that we have a photographer that we are keeping fed, we are purchasing more as well as spending more for his labor. We planned on a 4 month hole in net income for this growth. This is why I forecast…

But after that 4 month hole…we should be growing well. Gonna be a tight summer, but I’m really looking forward to Q4, and definitely 2019.

Don’t get me wrong. I really like his stuff and will check some more out to see how he is doing at Etsy (he is kicking our butt on Etsy!!!). There is always a lot to learn from other people. I just love to see how numbers shake out and how different people run their businesses to fit their needs.

I agree. Great look into another business on a different platform.

I think that it is also interesting to me to see someone at such a different stage in life and with much different needs. Seeing a single (assuming!) guy with low requirements and what he needs vs. Veronica and I with a mortgage, 2 kids, and goals for other businesses.

Hard to remember what it was like for us back then!

Yes, kids are SO pricey but worth it of course! I think he has a partner so they probably share expenses too.
I really like Youtubers like this who narrate while they share sales – getting specific about what sells quickly, what is not worth handling and shipping if you can find merchandise easily, showing marks, trying other platforms, etc. Plus, no annoying pet baby talk. I’m thinking a lot lately about my pricing and moving stuff out. I’m getting .25 cent listing warnings now…somehow makes me pause vs. the old .20 cents.

Agree on the kids! Worth it all!

I am also like you, I like the folks that get into the details (even if those details are letting others know what we are looking for!).

I think the one thing that most people never show…what it really takes to do this full time. You need to have a low burn rate to start. Veronica and I are doing our best, but we still have a good sized burn rate (way more than Jay and Ryanne!)

You need to either spend a lot of time grinding out solid volume on low to mid-level items, or you need to have great access to high return items (which usually also requires higher capital), or both. Preferably both. I love the home runs (and Veronica is killing it lately), but they are not easy to find. So it takes work and solid processes to get the bread and butter items to provide the income.

You need to be able to handle the swings and the seasonality of this business. Yesterday, one of the worst sales days in as long as I can remember. $108 in sales (and that includes shipping). Today? $489 already. And I know summer is coming (I look at summer like Jon Snow looks at Winter).

The reason I love this site is the reason I found this site. Jay and Ryanne post numbers. When I was running my numbers before I quit a nice career (that I was hating), I did a search on what resellers are really making. Found Scavenger Life and have been here ever since.

There are so many that show X and Y, but I know that they are making very little on those items. The real money they are making would have to be somewhere else. Jay and Ryanne are authentic in what they are doing. A lot of others are not showing their full numbers…or haven’t seen that wall yet.

Christine, thanks for sharing that Youtuber. I’m always looking for good ones who aren’t all about the hustle and hype. One question — what do you mean by “goal is $2 or less into $30”?

OP, I’d absolutely put any military items on eBay rather than Etsy. No question.

Habnab, I think she means spend $2 or less and sell for $30 or more.
ie, turn $2 “into” $30.

Hi, just thought I’d add my 2 cents in re: selling on Etsy.

I’ve been selling vintage stuff obtained from thrift stores as well as craft stuff on Etsy since October 2016. Up until around October of 2017 Etsy was pretty good for me, I didn’t have a large number of items listed (way under 100) and I had sales consistently.

Around the last quarter of 2017 (at least I believe it was around then) Etsy added a feature where the seller could pay a $ amount ($ amount chosen by the seller) daily to promote your listings (ad fees). Promotion meant your listings would be shown on the top of the page even if the buyer searched for “lowest price first”.

Even though my listings had more than doubled to hundreds of items by then my sales tanked. I did try buying ads, but I didn’t want to spend a lot since I list at the lower end and I am not selling high dollar items. The ads only run each day until the dollar amount you chose to spend per day runs out, which is pretty quick. So that didn’t help my sales at all, but I still had to pay the ad fees, even though no sales resulted. So I quit that test pretty quick.

In May of 2017 my Etsy sales were equal to my eBay sales but since October of 2017 my eBay sales have way outpaced Etsy. This May my eBay sales were 10 x my Etsy sales. So from my experience I would say eBay is a much better platform to sell on, even for vintage stuff.