Miscellaneous paper bits & pieces

Well, everything except Pat's package went out today. I'm pretty sure I got it straight who was getting what! I certainly hope so! lol

 

Pat Parker, this was so sweet of you to do. I'm sure everyone will be very pleased when their special mail arrives.

 

Aw, thanks, YourTurn.

Since I've barely been listing things lately (I have nothing on eBay at the moment), it actually felt good to start shipping thing out again. And it's been a lot more fun for me than selling is these days!

Now I've got to get serious and start listing again...

 

Book, thanks for asking!

My selling ID on eBay is the first two words in my PayPal address, with a dash instead of dots between them. On Etsy, I have two IDs: my supplies shop ID is the same two words with no space or dash and my vintage shop ID is those two words followed by "vintage" with no spaces or dashes. Hope that was clear!

I've been using my name here, rather than my selling ID, so I can discuss things without concern that potential buyers might see my posts.

I'm planning on shifting what I'll be listing, which is one reason I don't have anything listed on eBay at the moment and very few items on Etsy. My plan is to mostly list less common ephemera, collectible books, better prints, and antique and earlier vintage decorative items, glassware, and ceramics. Not sure how fast I'll ramp up, since a lot of my energy lately has gone into integrating my mother's things into our own stuff and trying to get more organized.

 

Etsy's a strange place and I have mixed feelings about it. People are friendlier, the listing process is simpler, and I enjoy the mix of items available for sale.

On the minus side, you have to list or relist constantly for your items to be found, and even then, if you don't do a lot of social stuff both on Etsy and other sites, your items may not get much attention. The admin tools for sellers aren't so great, either.

Some sellers do seem to do very well, though.

 

Forgot to say that, yes, keywords are very important on Etsy. There are slots to enter keywords, and it's best to fully utilize them.

 

I'm not sure if anything's changed very recently, or exactly how the search engine works, but in my experience and from what other sellers have said, you have to pretty much list new things, or relist old things, almost every day.

So that implies to me that the search engine is heavily favoring anything it sees as new. Also, the category structure has never been too good, and the search filters could be better. I think they've been gradually improving things, so maybe it's working better now.

Etsy has "teams" that you can join, which are kind of like eBay groups. Some teams actually have discussions where you can ask questions or share ideas. But a lot of the teams are there just for people to get their items seen by either showing a live listing of your own, or joining in various games, like showing and favoriting an item listed by the person who posted before you. It may help, but is very time-consuming and I found it boring.

There are also Etsy "treasuries" which are the sets of listings shown on the homepage. Etsy users create the treasuries, probably thousands a day, and Etsy picks out some of them to display on the homepage.

People follow each other, and then "like" each other's items and treasuries, plus teams have ways to get your treasuries seen and liked.

In the past, there were times that I'd play these games, and I did get more sales that way. When I did treasuries, a few times someone posted one of my treasuries or an item of mine on their blog, which brought traffic to my shops. But it's so time-consuming that I'd only do it for a short period of time.

It's possible that some items are so unique and/or so popular that they're found no matter what, especially since these days Etsy listings seem to be showing up on Google more than eBay listings. But I haven't put in enough effort consistently enough to really be sure.

 

Good luck with it, Book!

If you get good results or learn of things that work today on Etsy, I'd love to hear about it.

 

I joined Etsy months ago but have yet to use the site. I do get their email updates. Thanks for the info. Pat. I guess I will stick with ebay until I get the UMPH to list again, then I will try Etsy....now I just relist on eBay as I just don't have the motivation anymore.

I am afraid that if I have nothing on ebay that when I DO decide to list new stuff that they will hold my money,etc. I get many invites to list free but I just use the BINs and pay my fees.

 

This pic is to show Pat.

 

That does look nice and roomy, Shiloh.

 

Book, its an aerial view of the home I lost years ago I tried to post in the messages but for some reason you can't post pics there.