August 22, 2012
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Would this be naughty? *Giggles*
As some of you know, I’ve been drilling and painting dried gourds and making birdhouses out of them. I put a few up for sale on eBay a bit back, and did quite well, selling four out of the seven I had in just over a week. But I was shocked to see how much commission eBay took. I was selling them for $20 inc. shipping, which would just about have covered my costs and made a couple of bucks profit. But by the time they took their cut – which averaged $3 per gourd, I’d actually sold them at a LOSS. BUMMER!
So I cancelled the remaining gourds on eBay and opened an Etsy shop. MUCH more financially viable! Only 20c to list each item instead of 50c on eBay, plus your listing stays up for four months instead of 30 days. AND they take only a small % for their commission. YAY!!
But Etsy doesn’t have as large a customer base as eBay, and none of the gourds I’ve listed there have sold yet. BUMMER!
But Shane had an idea yesterday – list them again on eBay but this time for $30 plus shipping. BUT – add a message at the bottom of each listing… “If you really like this item and do want to buy it, I’m selling the same item cheaper on Etsy. Take a look!” And add a link to the Etsy account. YAY!!
I like the idea, and there’s really nothing to lose. If eBay decide to spank my bottom for it, then what the hell. They’re grabbers anyway, right?
I took this pic a couple of days ago… I loved how the lowering sun was shining onto my happy campers. I’ve tweaked it a bit in Photobucket – just messing around with their editing tools.
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On Etsy, they’re listed for $20 plus $5 shipping for one, with an additional $3 each for sales of two or more. Fair? I think so.
Those are all the ones up on Etsy at the moment. Here’s the link to my site.
Comments (27)
ebay will ban you for life in a heartbeat, hon.
and i don’t know how the math is working here, but you sell something on ebay for $20 and your fee should be less than $1.50. but they will delete you if you steer people over to etsy. i promise.
@RingoBonzai - So I guess it would be naughty then. Hehehe. Maybe I’ll just list them at the higher price and see what happens. But the thought of it did make me grin!
what you need to do is keep them on ebay, up the price to $25. add shipping of $5, and let people know exactly what you do to create them..step by step. you told me how hard that you worked on mine. build value in your craft and people will pay the few extra bucks once they realize how special they are.
@RingoBonzai - “and i don’t know how the math is working here, but you sell something on ebay for $20 and your fee should be less than $1.50″For the four gourds, for my initial 50c fee to list and then their %, I got my monthly statement for a little over $12. To say my jaw nearly hit my knees is an understatement Z Man. I was PISSED.
@RingoBonzai - “build value in your craft and people will pay the few extra bucks once they realize how special they are.”Your friend Stephanie over on M’Ply said the same thing – she PM’d me quite a bit about the Etsy site once I’d opened it. She is LOVELY! When she read about the amount eBay charged me, she even offered to refund my postage costs through PayPal, lol. What a sweet woman. I said no, obviously. She was my first “outside” customer, after all! Plus I’m not the sort of person to go back on a deal – fair’s fair and all that. But you’re right – add a bit more info about the gourds themselves and the making of them, rather than just banging up a photo and hoping for the best. That’ll be my “project” this weekend.
Time to get dressed and head out – I need more varnish and a bottle of metallic pink paint for one I’m working on now.
hmmm….dunno how smart this is….but they look awesome as always !
They’re neat.Consider craigslist, too. Totally free
They look amazing
they are so pretty Mouse
and yeah, E-Bay will not give you a nice gentle spank, more like a wallop with a big heavy paddle lol
GREAT idea!! Very creative too!
They look awesome! The bee one is my favorite though!
Very Kewl!… (and too pretty to use outside!)
Very smart advice from your friend. Frankly, ebay doesn’t have the integrity to work with anyway. Neither does paypal for that matter. Especially paypal. I hope etsy doesn’t use paypal.
Those are really cool!
They are amazing! I hate eBay!!
ebay saved my life a couple of years ago. big fan.
those gourds are amazing! Wish I lived in a place where I could hang one up.
ebay once banned me because some one at the same address as me was cheating people so they assumed it was me since we shared an address. they banned me again for nonpayment because i cancelled payment on an item that was damaged because of the way the seller had shipped it. i do still enjoy using them but for hard to find items these days. your gourds are quite interesting and look lke you hqave put lots of effort into them.
you do nice work
I am going to steal Z’s gourd when he isnt looking…
@joecool202 - aaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahhahahahhahahahhahahahahahaha! but i’ll be looking……. hehe
Those are very awesome! <3
Awesome gourds. I envy those who are artistic!
Heh, you probably haven’t heard of it, but there’s this website designed for kids called Neopets where you play games and raise virtual critters. One of the biggest items on there that people trade are called Neggs, which have a variety of different designs on them, and your gourds look a lot like them to me! If you’re curious, just do a quick google image search for “neggs” and you’ll see what I’m talking about ^^
@BlobOfGoo - Hahahaha, they DO, too! They could almost give me some ideas for my next gourd designs, lol!