You Can Sell On Etsy Even If You Are Not Into Crafting

Image courtesy of the DaniKfashion Etsy Shop

As the Christmas shipping season starts to reach its peak, it is time to start thinking about next year. What plans are you making to build your business? If you are looking for a new place to sell the items you source at thrift stores or if you make items to sell, Etsy is a site you should consider if you are not already using it.

The Etsy marketplace is growing in leaps and bounds. Sellers have reported a large increase in sales. Those that have been around for a year or more have reported that sales have more than doubled.

Etsy is a fantastic community of buyers and sellers. At first glance, the website looks more like an online store than a community made up of many sellers. This more familiar feel is appealing to online shoppers. Maneuvering around Etsy is straightforward; sellers can showcase their items and are sure to attract the right buyers. The set up of Etsy seems to be more conducive to ensuring that sales are accurate. What is meant by this is buyers get a true picture and description of what they are purchasing. Sometimes other online sales communities do not give as clear a picture.

As a seller, you might wonder if Etsy will draw enough buyers. The proof is in the statistics and the news is great! Small businesses and individuals who sell on Etsy are boasting about their sales. With the holiday season upon us, Etsy is ready and has distinct holiday showcases in place. Buyers are sure to get original, in many cases handmade, gift items for the holidays.

As you review how you sell and where you sell, remember Etsy. Even if you do not make handmade items to sell on Etsy, remember that those crafters need supplies as well. From old sweaters to torn jeans or toilet paper rolls to old books, crafters often use uncommon items for their creations. Take a look around Etsy to see what other items could be sold to this creative bunch.

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Etsy Wholesale to Connect Crafters and Sellers

Image courtesy of DeMoss Designs

As we find ways to build our inventory, we can often find ourselves moving along with the pack. Sometimes we find what we sell is being sold by many other sellers as well. It can be a waiting game. That is okay. But there are other items you could consider.

Marketplace sites like Etsy, Goodsmith, and Bonanza give crafters and other creative artists the opportunity to offer their wares to a large community of shoppers who are looking for something original. This is also an opportunity for you as a seller to find an original product to offer. Many Etsy sellers are offering wholesale pricing on the products when they are sold in lots. You may find woodcrafted items or sewn items that may be great to offer during the holiday season.

For the Etsy sellers who are looking for a little help in getting started selling wholesale, Etsy is creating a wholesale marketplace. While the site has not launched yet, Etsy is accepting sign-up for both wholesale vendors and buyers. Once the site is launched, this will allow you to connect to many sellers in the Etsy community who are looking to connect with sellers. For the crafter, it gives them an opportunity to concentrate on the actual art and not finding the individual customer. For the seller, it is a chance to find unique and uncommon items to offer your buyers. To sign-up, visit this link.

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What to Sell for Summer on eBay?

Today, I am featuring a guest post by Jenn Cangelosi of Boutique Bargains:

Summer is coming soon and this is the best time to sell vacation and summer season items on eBay. If you have been selling on eBay for a while, you already know that selling seasonally or timing your auctions with the seasonal supply and demand is a good idea. Summer is a peak time for travel. So this is the best time to sell those old travel and vacation items. No point in letting them take up valuable space or fall into disrepair. By selling those items on eBay you can make back some of the money you invested in the item while helping someone else enjoy their summer and vacation time.  

Here is a list of some of the items that sell well for summer:  

Consumer electronics - truthfully these sell well most of the year. Even many consumers buy the high-end still and video cameras only to realize they won't use them as much day-to-day as they did on that big vacation. Don't forget about portable DVD players for the kids during those long airplane flights or car rides. Also GPS systems, mp3 players, and other similar electronics.  

Luggage and specialized bags/carriers - Unless you travel a lot, the bags you used for that last vacation or trip are likely gathering dust. Regular luggage items are not always a great seller, they are not particularly rare or valuable on eBay, but name-brand items do sell. However, your specialized luggage items can sell for near the same as their original purchase price. Specialized luggage can include; camera cases, computer cases, serious hiking or mountaineering packs, and purpose-made carriers of different kinds.

Baby and kids items - There are many different kinds of special travel gear that is needed when traveling with infants and children. There are travel carriers, restraint systems, many kinds of harnesses, high-end and all-terrain strollers, portable bottle warmers, flotation devices, and even portable sleep furniture and aids. All these things can be sold on eBay. Since children are always growing and their needs changing it is safe to pass on the items from last year that may not get used again.  

Recreation equipment - Skis, inflatable tubes, bicycles, snow and water boards of all kinds, even small watercrafts. These are all items that may have been purchased for a summer trip, and now sit in the garage or storage shed. Just be sure to carefully select your shipping terms as you list these larger items or mark as local pickup only if necessary.  

International versions of common electrical items and appliances - Moved recently from another country? The summer is a great time to sell your non-demestic appliances that rely on alternative standards of power or other features. Selling these items can also help fund the purchase of similar domestic items.  

Power conversion aids - Some travelers are able to get by with the small and inexpensive travel adapter kits when they travel the globe. However, the traveler with more typical needs often ends up with the large transformers or converter systems that can get quite expensive. If you have one of these and think it unlikely that you will you it again, then sell it on eBay for another traveler to use.

Now is the time to clean out those old vacation items and make some cash doing so. Many vacation items have been used only the one time and still have lots of use left for a new owner to enjoy.

Thanks, Jenn! These are great ideas for bringing in more summertime sales!


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Goodwill Goes Upscale in Florida

eBay Seller Pam Greenman recently shared shared this information:

The Ponte Verda, Florida area has a new Goodwill store but it is not a typical one. Two Goodwill executives have opened Bluetique, a Goodwill retail location for higher end items. The store has a department store feel that Goodwill stores usually do not have. Amber Russo, vice president of retail sales for Goodwill, and Amy Koebrick, the Marketing Manager for Goodwill’s Northeast Florida region, modeled the project after a similar store in Rochester, NY.

The store is designed to look like a regular department store from the layout to the displays. Its design rivals a Stein Mart or Marshalls. The store’s inventory is about 75% items that have been donated through a local Goodwill donation center while the other items are from brand new items from closeout stores. The donated items are being pulled from the nearby Ponte Verda Goodwill donation center and that location has been setting aside about 600 items a day for this Bluetique location.

The store layout and higher end items are not the only differences in this store. Unlike a typical Goodwill, the pricing structure is not a set one. Instead of finding a one-size-fits-all price for items, there is no price ceiling for items at the Bluetique. An item is priced to reflect more of its market value. Even with the slightly higher prices, the items will still be priced at 50-90% off retail.

With the difference in pricing, is the Bluetique a good source for resale items like its Goodwill predecessors? Yes it is. Right after the store opened in November 2011, its inventory included a Chanel handbag that was priced at $799. At that time a similar bag was selling on eBay for $1325.

As with other Goodwill stores, the money collected goes into the Goodwill’s GCF job training program.

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