I finally opened an Etsy shop

[AllegroRondo]

what a change from EBay! the listing fees are much much lower, the ability to personalize is much easier, and the other people there are MUCH more freindly and supportive. Even if I dont sell anything, Im only out 20cents per item listed. Not bad at all.

anyway, feel free to check it out:
http://www.allegroarts.etsy.com

[Bjornsdotter]

1. Great!

I've bookmarked your link for holiday shopping. Best of luck!

:toast:

[AllegroRondo]

4. I hadnt even thought about holiday stuff yet

may main focus now is to slowly add more items, but I'll get there.

But last year for Halloween I made dangling spider earrings using black seed beads. Maybe I should make more of those.

[Joanne98]

10. I make earrings. Do u have a link to a pattern for those?

[AllegroRondo]

11. no, its just something I made up.

You use two large black beads for the body, and 4 wires through one of them to make legs. Then put black seed beads on the wire legs and glue them in place. Tie on red seed beads for eyes, and black thread for the web.

[Joanne98]

12. Thankyou so much AllegroRondo

[eridani]

2. Looking good!

Toes Etsy build in the option of enlarging the thumbnails? The enlarged pics give really good detail.

[AllegroRondo]

3. yes, you can enlarge 2 ways

if you click on the thumbnail, that pic becomes the "main" pic and fills the window. If you click on the main pic, it opens in a separate window at full size.

[eridani]

5. But you don't have to set that up, right?

Assuming it comes built in with Etsy.

[AllegroRondo]

6. correct, its all built in to the website

Actually, I just looked, and to get the full size pic you click on the magnifying glass symbol in the lower right corner of the main picture. It opens a new window with that pic.

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. Just went over to Etsy...Thanks!

Never knew about that site! I sell on ebay, mostly a variety of vintage items, but have froem tiuem to time sold some of my oil pastels and decoupaged/hand painted items (small furniture, art as functional decor).

How well do items sell om Etsy?
Is there a way to check on completed items to get a sense of saleability of different items?
Do they get a lot of Internet traffic?

It looks like a great venue for selling! Would really love to know more!

Thanks in advance for more info/input frem anyone re: Etsy!:hi:


(also just registered there as NellyGirl ;) )

[AllegroRondo]

8. I just started there, but heres my take on it

Etsy is only for handmade items, so you wont see the thousands of mass-produced crap listings like eBay. They certainly do not get the amount of traffic of eBay, but the people who go there are looking for quality handmade items, not the lowest possible price. So you can get decent prices for items, in fact they recommend that you *dont* try to lower your prices to attract business, as that implies you have low quality or are just trying to unload your stock.
You can view sold items on a by-store basis, so if you find a store you like, click on "sold items" to see what has sold and for how much.

Good points:
setting up a store is free
forums to talk with other users
low fees - you can list an item for 4 months for only 20 cents, and after a sale they get 3.5% of the final price.
you dont need to know about HTML or graphics, the site handles most of that for you.
users are good at self policing, such as alerting admins when people try to resell stuff they didnt make or infringe on copyrights.

[Whoa_Nelly]

9. Thanks for the info!

I've already spent quite a bit of time exploring Etsy since yesterday when I read your post.

I did see some people are selling premade/assemble-yourself furniture, as well as some vintage ceramics, toys, etc. I like that there are so many great deals on ephemera as am always looking for the unusual to spark a new idea for my furniture art.

Will keep checking in at Etsy. Am sure will eventually list as a seller, but will probably build some feedback as a buyer first.

Thanks, again! :hi:

[Katherine Brengle]

13. Very nice!

[la la]

14. good job,

I have had a few things up on etsy--but never any sales. Mine is jewelry, as well- but boring stuff. I should put up some of my others-

I'm sure etsy will be better for you than ebay---where there is so much beading and jewelry, and the costs higher- any sales are pretty much a loss.

Speaking of loss--do you notice that non-artists/beaders, etc., have no clue the time and $ put into your work? No clue---they would rather buy mass produced dreck from China --which is another PITA I won't get into ---it's too late.

Anyway---great luck on your shop- you have beautiful items and good prices, as well.

[AllegroRondo]

15. I've had 2 sales already!

both seem to be just random buyers. Not that Im complaining!

From what I've seen, it looks like good pics are a must have. I've been taking and re-taking pics for the last few weeks, trying to get some good ones.

[gizmonic]

16. Very lovely, Allegro!

Very lovely indeed :)

I'm in the process of setting up my own etsy store but I'm having a heap of trouble setting up my banner.

How did you set up yours?

I read Etsy's FAQ's regarding the banner size (768 x 100) I resized the image I wanted but when I upload it, it's still too big.

Perhaps I'm missing a step somewhere....:shrug:

[AllegroRondo]

17. Banner help

I just used the windows paint program, and imported a picture of some of my jewelry, then added words. Simple, but it works.
I've also heard that you can use PowerPoint and save direct to JPG from there, but I havent tried that yet.

Make sure the banner is 760 x 120.
Make sure its saved as a jpg file. I've heard that some cameras may use a slightly different format, and it helps if you open the picture you want to use in paint, and save it to jpg from there.

What will you be selling? Be sure to post a link when you open your store!

[NotGivingUp]

18. Very nice stuff....and photos are nice, too! n/t

[AllegroRondo]

19. Good photos seem to be key at Etsy

I've been working to make mine better, and finally have some techniques that seem to work.