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A few weeks ago I signed up for Sixbit with the main intention of using it to cross-post eligible items from my eBay store to Etsy. I have close to 1700 items on eBay and now have cross-posted about 130 items to Etsy. However, I have yet to make a single sale on Etsy. Granted, I started with the most expensive stuff in my eBay store, but I have also cross-posted some of my less-expensive (sub-$100) merchandise. I sell mainly obscure vintage items on eBay: old electronics, ephemera, jackets, trucker hats, and basically a little bit of everything (although very few clothing items). I am getting some “favorites” on my items on Etsy, but I’m assuming that’s the equivalent of a “watcher” on eBay and just as worthless.
Has anyone had success on Etsy with these types of vintage items? How long does it usually take to make a first sale on Etsy? And does it pick up after you have some positive feedback from buyers? I’m an experienced eBay person, but totally a newb on Etsy.
To cross-list with Sixbit is $100 monthly (along with the relatively small listing fees required on Etsy), so I don’t really want to waste money if this is a dead end with the kind of stuff I like to sell. My initial thought was to try this experiment for 4 months (when the Etsy listings expire), then see if it is worth it going forward.
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I started cross-posting some clothing to Etsy but never had any sales (I had very few items in my store so I’m sure that’s part of it). Etsy seller newsletter stated a few weeks ago that best selling categories this year have become home decor and kitchen related things. It seems to me due to the pandemic anything hobby/decor/kitchen related may be worth it over clothing at this time.
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After posting this, I got my first sale last night. Hopefully it’s the start of an additional viable income stream.
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Our personally experience with Etsy has been the same: few sales. I’ve heard its good to list on etsy for the holidays and some sellers swear by etsy.
I think you make money where you put your time. Put your time into Etsy, you’ll likely do well. We simply cant do well on multiple platforms. Not enough time in the day.
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Here’s an update:
I signed up for Sixbit and began cross-posting on Etsy on 10/5. On 10/22 I finally made my first sale. Didn’t sell anything else on Etsy in October, but by November things picked up and by the end of the month, Etsy accounted for 13% of my revenue and about the same for my expenses. So far for December, Etsy has accounted for 11% of revenue and 13% of expenses. I have 409 listings on Etsy now, compared to 1655 on eBay (roughly 25% of my inventory).
In total to date, I’ve now made 21 sales on Etsy for about $1600 in revenue. Of course, I had one sale for about $500 total with shipping, so that did make a significant portion of my total sales and may skew things a bit.
As far as the time I’ve spent listing on Etsy, once I got used to Sixbit and learned some of the tricks (such as bulk changing some of the fields for similar items), it’s really pretty quick. You can automatically bring over the photos, title, and description, as well as quantity to list and price from eBay. Maybe takes a minute or less per listing. Sometimes it might take up to 3 minutes if I try to add all the tags they allow.
While the final value type fees on Etsy are actually a bit lower than eBay (about 8% on Etsy), they also advertise on Google Shopping, Bing, etc, and if it sells through one of those channels, they charge an additional 15% fee (so far, 6 of the 21 items I have sold have been via external ads).
To account for this, I usually up my prices at least 15%, but on a few occasions I’ve sold items on Etsy for significantly more than eBay. For example, I had a hat that was sitting on eBay for a couple years that I had at $9.99, but listed on Etsy for $29.99 and it sold for that price. Seems like buyers on that site are generally willing to pay more. I’m still experimenting with different categories to see what generally will and won’t sell on Etsy versus eBay. I’m sure some of the items I sold on Etsy would have also sold on eBay, but a good portion of my Etsy sales were items that have been sitting on eBay for a year or more.
Overall, I think the experiment has been a success thus far. I was really only expecting to make enough profit on Etsy to cover the $100/month Sixbit fee, but so far it has greatly exceeded my expectations. Now I’m curious to see if the Etsy will totally die after the holidays or if my sales stay steady.
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Here’s my 6-month update. Sales numbers and fees do not include shipping and returns are already removed from the totals. I charge for shipping, so it’s generally a wash.
01-2021
Sales: $1,289
Fees: $202
Profit: $1,087
02-2021
Sales: $573
Fees: $174
Profit: $399
03-2021
Sales: $1,184
Fees: $185
Profit: $999
04-2021
Sales: $1,271
Fees: $267
Profit: $1,004
05-2021
Sales: $908
Fees: $171
Profit: $737
06-2021 (thru 6-9)
Sales: $709
Fees: $102
Profit: $607
2021 Total Profit: $4833
Well, that’s my 2021 stats so far. I currently have about 78o listings on Etsy, compared to 1650 on eBay. I don’t see Etsy ever surpassing eBay for me, but it is nice to have an additional income source. It generally only takes a minute or less of time to cross-post to Etsy using Sixbit, so I’d say the time investment is worth it.
I also up my prices to sell on Etsy versus eBay, sometimes significantly. If I lowered them, maybe I would have more total sales, but I’m not sure. It seems like Etsy has different buyer demographics than eBay, attracting people with more disposable income. Clearly, the holidays are a much stronger time for Etsy (I only had about 400 listings in December, yet my sales numbers met or exceeded the other months when I had far more listings available for sale).
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@Zach – Thanks for sharing your numbers. I’ve been on the fence about getting sixbit for cross posting to Etsy and this is very helpful. Sounds like your store is similar to mine in content.
Which Sixbit level are you using?
Mike
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Zach,
I had thought about doing this, but then didn’t do it. But now with your post and numbers, I think I may consider it again. Here are my questions for you:
1. What types of items are you listing on Etsy? What is about your average price?
2. Do you now if clothing is still doing well on Etsty?
3. How much time do you think it took to get Six Bit working and for you to understand how to cross list with it?
4. I also have old electronics, is that doing well? I have things like VCR’s, Stereo equipment, CD changers, etc.
5. What categories or types of items are you seeing that sell well on Etsy? My ebay store has a lot of the same type of items that you mentioned above. Would be nice to know which ones are good sellers on Etsy,
6. Any tips you can give for other people thinking of using Six Bit to start cross-listing to Etsy.
Mark S
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I’m using the Enterprise Duo level of Sixbit for $100/month.
1. Etsy only allows you to sell either handmade stuff or vintage items over 20 years old, so I’m selling the latter. I sell a bit of everything (hats, jackets, art, ephemera, electronics, toys, video games, etc). With rare exception, I don’t sell glassware, silverware, shoes, clothing, or knicknacks.
For the 80 completed sales (those without a return or cancellation) I’ve had since I started on Etsy in October, my average sale price is $89. For comparison, my average eBay sold price for the same time period (among 715 non-returned/canceled sales) has been $58.
2. I can’t speak to how well vintage clothing sells on Etsy. I think I had a mistaken impression that clothing was a hot seller on Etsy, when in reality the main market on that platform is handmade/customized items (which might include clothing and accessories).
3. It probably took me a couple weeks to get fully used to listing on Sixbit. It’s a little bit of learning curve on how to post items and then how to edit them, set it up so your crossposted items are removed from the other channel when they sell, etc. When I have encountered issues, customer service is quick to respond to emails. They even implemented a feature I suggested for listing on Etsy, which was cool.
4. I wouldn’t say old electronics are a super hot item on Etsy. I have sold some of them and they can fetch a good price, but I don’t think that is the main thing people search for on Etsy.
5. In general, my sales have been fairly random as far as category. Mostly nostalgia items. I’ve sold a surprising number of old empty beer and soda cans, and hats. Stuff from the 80s and 90s seems to do well. Personally, the first thing I did was take my highest price items that were eligible (over 20 years old) and cross-posted them to Etsy (usually at a higher price). Then I moved down the price list of my eBay items. Now, I cross-post most things that are eligible since it doesn’t really take much more time while I’m setting up the eBay listing.
6. Tips:
Etsy;
a. Keep in mind that Etsy does not have store fees like eBay, but they do charge 20 cents per listing (which lists it for 4 months, so it is 5 cents a month).
b. I’ve found you get fewer low-ball offers on Etsy.
c. People on Etsy also don’t seem to get upset when you charge for shipping, even for small/light items.
Sixbit;
a. Use the inventory management features of Sixbit. I had to set up a few custom fields, which was pretty easy to do, and then I formatted my existing inventory in Excel to get it into Sixbit. They have an inventory field built in called “Storage Location,” which is where I put my main rooms where I store things (garage, basement, etc). When it is time to ship, you can print a pick list. I customized my pick list to include my custom fields (one to show which shelf something is on and another to show the bin it is stored). It groups everything by those Storage Locations, so I can go to my garage and find everything there, then head to my basement and pick up all the items in that location, then go to my utility room. Anyway, it makes shipping much easier once you get it set up.
b. I had to change the way I list when I went to Sixbit. I used to photograph everything at once and then edit the photos and create the listings later in eBay. Now, I write up each listing and set the price in Sixbit as I have the item in front of me and am taking the pictures. This makes it easier to note any faults with an item in the item condition. When done, I move the item directly to its final inventory location and input that into Sixbit (using the Storage Location and custom fields I mentioned previously) and then save it in Sixbit. Later, I edit the photos. Then, I simply open up those draft listings in Sixbit, attach the photos, and press submit. It front-loads the work, but also eliminates procrastination.
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