Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on Etsy › Does "list it and forget it work" on Etsy?
Tagged: etsy, list it and forget it
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jbrownfield63.
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11/22/2016 at 5:24 am #6314
I understand that some eBayers sell the same kind of vintage items on Etsy with success. But does the “list it and forget it work” on Etsy as it does for eBay?
If you listed 2000 items on Etsy, would stuff sell over time? Could you create an Etsy store that made $2-$4k a month this way like you can on eBay?
Or is it a different market because it’s a smaller buying population?
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11/22/2016 at 7:15 am #6322
I think LIFI absolutely works on Etsy, as long as like Ebay you are constantly “feeding the beast”. Etsy seems to be a place where you can get a higher price for your item but you have to wait a little longer for it to sell.
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11/22/2016 at 7:23 am #6323
Do you guys also sell on Etsy? If so, how many items do you have listed? How do you divide your time between listing on both platforms?
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11/22/2016 at 9:45 am #6336
@ AmazingTaste, Omfug and anyone else that has an Etsy Store producing Sales and Profits from the Etsy venue … On the topic of Etsy. We had 6 antique booths which we closed down months ago. It was a second income stream but a poor business model for making a larger amount of profit for the time invested. So we closed all of them, built storage shelves at our home office and pulled all 2,000 +/- items back here. So we currently have approx. 700 items listed in the Ebay store and also minus what has sold this year. The discussion with my wife and I was it would be nice to replace those booths with a second income stream. We do have a Bonanza store that was easy to set up and populate due to the easy transport and synch over of the Ebay store with Bonanza but sales are very slow there.
So with that being said we started discussing creating an Etsy Store and having all of our inventory listed concurrently in both stores at the same time. We have already started photographing our items with props and curating the photos in an artistic fashion. Wife does fairly well with that. So the big question is how do you see as the best way to do about getting an Etsy Store set-up to be like an Ebay Store Clone to serve as a second income stream source. BTW .. all of our items are interior decorator, vintage type of inventory. Art, glass, crystal, brass, ceramic, pottery, figurines, music boxes, mugs, etc., etc.
Sort of a “To Do” list to go about creating and setting up on a first thing to do, second thing, and so on. I know this is a big question but now being saved in this forum it would be a great guideline for me and many future members contemplating this move. Which is what I think Jay’s root interest is.
mike collins @ MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
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11/22/2016 at 9:28 am #6334
Thank you Jay for getting us back “on topic”. All the political stuff is a waste of my time. I usually bookmark hundreds of questions with tips and answers for my future use in helping me to run my businesses successfully. This forum seemed to be designed, built and used successfully, IMHO just for that. For the last several days I have not bookmarked but a few posts and deleted almost everything posted. Just a waste of space as far as the real purpose of this forum goes. Any real questions about business, taxes, inventory systems or Ebay business just got buried. Did anybody help the member who was asking what Temple or regions his rubbing came from? No, but we did get a bunch of political statements.
By the way, I don’t think he even has a rubbing, but I would need a few answers to a couple of my questions to substantiate that I think he has a block print [done and inked planographically]. I will see if I can find his question and answer him amid all this political muck.
Yes Etsy has a whole lot more interest to me than Rep. vs. Dem. Period.
Doesn’t someone want to know “how to ship a hat”? LMAO … will post an Etsy question with Amazing Taste response.
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11/22/2016 at 10:02 am #6338
We do sell on Etsy also. I don’t have much listed there right now but when I can get it to at least 50 items I can count on about 1 item a week selling. They always sell for more than they are listed for on Ebay (we cross-list), and the fees there are less. The time is the biggest issue. It is hard.
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11/22/2016 at 10:19 am #6341
Hey AT .. So using a very rough exstrapolation .. 50 items = 4 per month or 8 per month for 100 listings. Then with the current 700 hundred listings we have in the Ebay store that would, very roughly, project out to about 56 items +/- a month and for fun say $10-$15 per item projects out to roughly $700 to $840 +/-. Not bad.
So sign up for an account, create Etsy store using whatever tools they have available, get logos, banners, whatever set up, and then set preferences and policies, tie in our PayPal account and preferred email addresses. Then [drum roll :-)], just click copy and paste Ebay items [photos, title and Descriptions], into the appropriate areas within Etsy? Do this by selecting one Ebay item at a time, and pasting them into Etsy and then hit save and we are good to go. Then just repeat this 699 more times? Is it really this easy? Seems like all it will really take is time. Guess Etsy doesn’t have a way to “BULK” transfer listings like Bonanza.
Then lastly just watch all sales so we can un-list them on Ebay so we don’t have an Ebay listing that could sell and we no longer have the item Do I seem to have the jist of the whole process or correct me in areas I may have missed. mike in Atl
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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11/22/2016 at 11:58 am #6360
Yes, in theory that would be the math. The biggest thing with Etsy is the “tags”. For each listing you have to create tags. Those tags are what Etsy uses to determine if your listing will show in search results or not. I would do a little research into Etsy tags, watch some videos, read some blogs that sort of thing. It is kind of hard to get the hang of but once you do it is easy. If I were to ever hire help it would be to duplicate listings into Etsy. It really is just a matter of time.
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11/22/2016 at 12:40 pm #6363
Got ‘cha. Thanks for all the input, Cyndi. I have designed and uploaded a few web site for others before and have used meta tags in the creation of their pages. Fairly familiar. Just like the keywords only they can be multiple words or short phrases also. Sort of an alternative / alternate keywords to what is used in the title.
Glad that in theory the income projection is an acceptable “hypothesis”. At this point and time and Etsy store makes a whole lot more sense than creating a Shopify or Magento type store, using our own domain. Without a brand name recognition driving traffic to one’s own domain is a time consuming and daunting task. The shared e-commerce “marketplace” model is much better for getting quicker traffic and sales. Plus we are older and “long term” planning is not much of a consideration to us as is quicker sales and profits. The built in traffic of Ebay and Etsy is a better short term approach which will allow us to concentrate on those points for the time being. mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
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11/22/2016 at 10:05 am #6339
MDC we use the same photos for Etsy that we do for Ebay. Just copy and paste.
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11/23/2016 at 11:38 am #6421
I have 380 items on etsy and sell about 7 items per week, right now my sales on etsy are much better than ebay but I have more stuff on etsy since the fees are a little cheaper. I sell mostly collectibles, the etsy buyer is younger than the ebay buyer and they like funkier things–yes the 1990’s is “vintage” for them, LOL. I don’t curate my photographs, don’t know if that hurts me or not, I only cross post maybe 30% on ebay because I think that my buyers like slightly different things although not always– things like most antique photographs, certain types of vintage clothing, and MCM home decor go on both stores. As for SEO, it is not that difficult you just need to think like a buyer doing a search–general terms are better than specific usually. I also pay for etsy promotions, I have mine set at .5 per click for a total of $1.50 per day, this adds a few dollars a week to my fees but has paid off in sales. so I feel that the cost is worth it.
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12/05/2016 at 10:23 am #7171
Thanks, Omfug — I will look into the Etsy promotions. I love selling on Etsy, and need to get in the habit of listing all my vintage items there. I only have about 20 items listed on Etsy currently and I sell about 2 items a month. I just sold a vintage pitcher on Etsy for $400 that had been on ebay for a couple of months as $500 OBO with no offers. That was exciting.
Etsy is better than ebay in terms of fees. Though in total I’ve only sold about 25 items, I’ve never had a return. I feel like buyers are even less likely to return Etsy items than they are to return Ebay items. There’s definitely a buyer-seller trust element on Etsy, maybe like in the older days of ebay. But the Etsy customer service for sellers isn’t that great, if you do need them.
In 2017, I want to build up my Etsy presence. This is silly, but I’m a bit embarrassed to tell people I sell on ebay — it just seems a little cheesy. I am full of pride to be an Etsy seller, though. 🙂 It’s just a little bit cooler. (I know, I’m silly!)
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12/05/2016 at 12:01 pm #7187
I think Etsy still has the “cool” factor. It’s cool to be a seller on Etsy. Like working at an elegant design store.
eBay is all about being a scavenger. It’s like working at a big open flea market.
Amazon is being a middle manager at a faceless supply warehouse.
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12/07/2016 at 10:36 am #7484
I sell both on Etsy and Ebay. My Etsy store is a LIAF store, I have automatic renewals turned on.
The cool thing about Etsy is that $.20 is for a 3 month listing (a bit less than the cost of Ebay with a basic store).
But what is shocking is the difference in final value fees. Last month my Etsy bill was…
Listing fees: $10.40
Transaction fees: $51.43
Renew fees: $0.40
Renew Expired fees: $18.00
Renew Sold fees: $1.00
Shipping labels: $290.63 (most of these were paid by the buyers)
U-PIC Parcel Insurance: $4.80
Other: $0.00
Fees = $376.66So my total listing fees were $28.80
My “final value fees” were $51.43
My revenue was $1,403.37 (that is pure amount of items sold)According to my bookkeeper I make much more on my Etsy sales than I do Ebay with all the other fees that are charged.
I do not list the same items on Ebay and Etsy. That would FREAK me out and make it much harder to keep my stores as a part time job.
Hope that helps!
Tara
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
Tara Jacobsen.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
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12/07/2016 at 5:03 pm #7560
Etsy is a different sort of animal for sure.
I only Cross list on Etsy if I have multiples of something, and then that something has to ‘fit’ Esty, not just vintage, but like cool or funky dumb.
I find that Etsy is a good choice for an item that is saturated on Ebay.
I agree, sales can take more time, though you tend to get a better price, fees for sure are lower.Etsy Story:
I like vintage keys, the sturdy flat ornate type, not the skeleton, most come in brass.
I even collected keys for a while, without buy & sell in mind, but actually collected them. Imagine, collecting and even with the disease.
Finally the buy & sell bug hit and infected the precious corner of my tidy little key collecting mind.
Idea! List on Etsy at a high price nobody will pay and enjoy your keys in that cool Etsy format online, as well as enjoy them in your hand! Yes, be a curator of old keys sir! Point being, no guilt, they are listed for sale with built in out of range pricing!
Problem is they sell! So now I find myself sourcing Ebay for large lots of keys, selling individually on Etsy by the piece or in very small lots!
Its a perpetual collection since I tend to find most of the rare keys eventually after I sell them. Some I don’t find again, but I’m not loosing any sleep because I have bills to pay!Etsy is always $there$ for me when Ebay sales are slow.
I always have 300+ items on Etsy, and don’t mind making occasional sales of even $6.oo! The buyer is appreciative, no drama ever, hopefully never, and it’s fun. I even include a Thank you card with my Etsy items sold.
Etsy has become the hobby that makes me some real money. Ebay is becoming the beast I think about leaving work for.
As for list it and forget it, well, I don’t even do that on Ebay. I like to see my items every 30 days, maybe relist as sell similar, or change something up to keep pace with prices and trends. Same for Etsy, only its every 3 months (or is it 4?)
My meanderings without apology. After all, I’m an Etsy seller,
Tom -
12/08/2016 at 2:12 am #7585
Thank goodness for etsy this Christmas is all I have to say–I have more items than ever on ebay and sales are slow, slow, slow. I have been selling consistently on etsy. I sold a $125 item on etsy this morning in fact.
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12/08/2016 at 7:16 am #7590
I hear you sister!! If I didn’t have both I would be having a lean sales month. It is by having both that I am pulling together a pretty darn fine month!!!
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12/08/2016 at 1:51 pm #7622
Hi Jay,
Getting back to this. I do believe the list and forget works with eBay. I have some limitations with storage, and with a full time job find it difficult to really hunker down and get 1,000 or more items listed. I also have success with consignment in my area so that is also factor. I just can’t forget somebody else’s stuff, no matter how chill they are! So I have never tried for myself. I do however have this gut feeling that Etsy may be harder to pull off with the List and Forget. It would be cool to hear from someone making a living on Etsy that way!
I do want to thank you and Ryanne however as I have applied the Principals of List and Forget to some degree. I have priced items up, use make an offer much more, and let items sit much longer. My listings have double because of this and I enjoy a pipeline of sorts.
I have found some Ferrari key chains for example. If this were a couple of years ago, I would have listed them for $20.00 each, and been happy to get that. I went crazy, listed each at $300 make an offer and got $200 for one, $100 for another.
Would not have happened pre Scavenger Life immersing.-
12/08/2016 at 4:22 pm #7644
I wish more scavengers would be patient on eBay. But I guess that’s the free market. If someone is willing to sell an item for less, that’s their right.
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12/08/2016 at 5:06 pm #7660
Hi Jay,
Yes! We would all do better if we were more patient! I know what happens sometimes is sellers need cash now so they fire sale or relist low. Problem is, like you have stated in the Pod, is that it still takes time to sell those unusuals. Also, it is easier to go into your active listings and tweak them (mark them down!), rather than listing, to generate sales that seldom come, and when they do, the net profit is low. You feel like you are doing work by avoiding the real work, listing! There it is again! Just list. I’ve lived this and I’m still seeing my way out completely! List and forget helps to eliminate this false work that mostly hurts your bottom line. Not quite there yet. Keep preaching it brother!
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12/14/2016 at 10:55 pm #8144
I love that Bonanza auto-imports eBay listings and also deactivates an item when it sells on eBay. Etsy doesn’t sync as nicely with Bonanza. You have to import Etsy listings manually to Bonanza, and also manually deactivate/delete items once they sell.
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