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Does anyone sell through etsy? If so, has your sales been good? I have been debating on whether I want to using etsy during my "off" (non-Christmas) season.

I don't sell but I do buy from there. I have purchased from about 3 people who post/used to post on this board.

I sell and buy off of etsy... It's not going to pay the bills.
It's 20 cents for each item that's to be sold. It stays there for 4 months(i think) might only be 3... then when you sell there's a percentage to pay. but you have the control through paypal.

and what's the alternative?

you put everything in a box and don't sell any of it!
Once you get use to it, it's very user friendly. Easy to share too.
follow the rules. i love the edit button... Mu user name GourdSilly...
I haven't used everything they have to offer and i'm still learning. good luck, i'll help more if I can.
Melinda

Thanks for the replies. I only participate in Christmas craft shows but love crafting. Forgive my stupid questions but do all payments run through paypal or can they pay by credit card?

I believe that you can use just a CC...because they ask when you pay your rent if you want to pay through PP or use a CC...

Christmas items get a lot of hits through out the yr too... I leave mine up all yr long... plus if you think about it, you have a scrape book of all of your creations as well... you do have to upload pics of your items.
Melinda

How do the sellers pay you? Guess I am missing something.

Hi. I have a shop on Etsy but right now I'm 'under construction'. lol With the cost of postage going up yet again I'm considering just selling for the holidays instead of year 'round. I just don't have the energy to haul boxes of stuff to craft fairs & bazaars anymore so Etsy is a good alternative.

You'll make what you put into it. I've sold a number of items but I don't spend time promoting my shop. The more you promote yourself, the better your sales will be.

When you pay your Etsy fees you can use either a CC or PayPal but you are required to set up a PayPal acct when opening your store (just like Ebay). When someone purchases an item from you, their money, whether they used a CC or their PayPal acct, is directly deposited into YOUR PayPal acct. I always have some money in my PayPal acct so I just use that every few months to pay my Etsy fees. They make it very easy and user friendly.
Also be aware that when you open a PayPal acct you are required to connect it to a bank acct. I had an acct that wasn't being used and wasn't connected to my other bank accts so I use that.

Good luck!

p.s. I use priority mail through USPS to mail my items for several reasons.....

1.it's cheaper to print my own mailing labels at home. When I take it to the post office I just have to drop it off, no waiting for anything.

2. on the USPS site you can order mailing boxes, as many as you want, for FREE. They don't charge you anything, not even shipping and they deliver them right to your door

3. I am in an area where they will actually pick up my shipments going out at my doorstep at no extra cost instead of driving to the post office.

4. Speed of delivery of my items to my customer.

So do your homework before you choose your shipping method to find out which one will work best for you.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rainee,

glad you clarified this...

I too use an account that's not connected to our house one... it's just for on line things... and as long as i have activity once a month, it's FREE... it came with a debit card too... which is great...

you can start an account with them without posting anything, until you're ready... pick a good name, they recommend that if you use 2words or more, they need to be join, but you can Capitalized the second word... like my GourdSilly.... instead of running them into each other, does this make sense... I read all of this b4 hand..because you CANNOT go back and change your name, unless you delete your WHOLE account(which you do not want to do).

So, you def. need a CC or paypal acct#(which makes it faster to start your process)
good luck..
Melinda

Thanks so much for the replies. I have had so many people ask me at craft shows, if I have a website so I thought this might work better.

When you say you have to upload your pictures. This doesnt mean you have to use a place like photobucket do you? Can you just upload your pictures off your computer instead?

Yes, Maria, you can just upload your photos from your computer.

Thanks everyone for all of the info, I was wondering myself how it works.