This is an update post as well as an enormous THANK YOU to all who read my previous post: In Small Business, Every Penny Counts. It was my my most read piece on here so far and I gained a lot of followers from it as well. (I just hope I don’t let you down!)
Due to some health issues, I haven’t been able to get a lot of writing done lately, but I’m here and I’m back and let’s see what’s been going on...
I received this notification from my bank today:
WE NOTICED YOUR ETSY SELLER RECURRING CHARGE WAS HIGHER THAN USUAL.
While it’s nice to know that it’s not just me, it seems that even the banks are noticing that seller fees are getting higher! And this is another example of why I have been moving more listings off of Etsy after 12 years and back on eBay where I began selling over 22 years ago.
If you are unfamiliar with my background or what I do, while I will always consider myself a writer first, I do need something to help pay my bills. So I started a vintage jewelry business in 2019. As my business is still relatively young, I don’t currently do major high-end pieces that I hope to do some day and try to have items for most budgets.
Because of my health, I also needed something I could do literally from my bed. Thankfully, jewelry is small and I am able to do everything from buy new stock, research pieces, promote, photograph, list and ship all from my small room and 95% of the time, sitting on my bed. So yes as the saying goes, “every penny counts.”
There is of course much more to this story and you can find it in my previous piece that I have linked to above So this brings us to today...
Just to give you an idea between the two services of eBay and Etsy and what has transpired:
It is February 12. In the now 7 weeks since Christmas on Etsy, I have had only 2 sales and, (I kid you not) CLEARED only about $40 total after fees. Ebay? 16 sales in the same time period and just about to clear the $2000 mark! This may not seem like a lot of money to many of you but to me? This is everything. Plus, it’s still just mid February and there’s a whole lot of the year left to go!
This is quite a dramatic difference, wouldn’t you say?
I’ve been getting more and more discouraged by Etsy over the last year, year and a half, especially when fees rose during the height of the pandemic. And in some respects was actually happy to get those two sales this year when last year from Christmas through March, I HAD NONE! Do you know how discouraging and defeated that feels especially when you are a jewelry seller around Valentine’s Day? I almost gave up.
While many of my fellow resellers and others in the vintage community are doing incredibly well and selling across several platforms including Instagram, I’m still feeling my way around for what is right for my own situation. My business is still only 2 years old and I’m working hard at it. And while right now I will continue to keep selling on both sites, (Etsy has become a necessary evil unfortunately), however, I will continue to decrease my listing count on Etsy...I am also looking into other ways to sell and branch out into other items as well.
In the meantime, I continue to work hard and thankfully I have a background in social media management so I don’t have to pay someone else to do it for me. I have been refreshing old photos with new ones to make my pieces stand out more. I talk to other sellers and we trade ideas and really learn from each other. And frankly, getting these sales has been an incredible journey so far and I’ve met some amazing people along the way.
Now again I know to many the dollar amounts don’t sound like a lot. But when I first became ill in 2016, I couldn’t work at all for almost 3 years. While doing this for myself not only gives me the confidence boost I’ve needed so badly, it is also freedom on the days when I’m not feeling well enough to be able to do anything at all and it also gives me the flexibility to be able to work the hours I want and get in writing days when I am feeling inspired! So this is not a full time gig, but one to get me back working at something while giving myself the opportunity to grow.
All businesses have to start somewhere and I know many have been born from the pandemic. I think this is an incredible thing. A whole lot of folks out there are for once taking that chance to do something they’ve always wanted to whether out of wanting to take that risk or out of sheer necessity. Either way, if anything I’ve written so far can help in any way, I hope it does. But again, EVERY PENNY COUNTS and if there is this much of a difference between the two main selling platforms, I think it needed some light shed on it. For those who don’t sell, you may not realize this is what we deal with and for those wanting to sell? Let my experience be a lesson for you to learn from.
So that’s it for now. I thank you for following along with me and hope that someone gets something out of this.
Thanks again!
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If you’d like to check out any of my other pieces here on publish0x: Cec1370 on publish0x
For my shops, social and more: Linktr.ee/StuffWeFind
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