This Saturday, October 1st from 8-3 Vintage Baubles & Bits will be set up in spot 40 at the Fall Flea Market in the parking lot in front of Kenrick Antique Mall 7435 Watson Rd, St Louis, MO 63119-4415. We did this sale in May at the Spring Flea Market and it had a pretty decent turn out - so hopefully the weather will be nice and the people will be shopping before the cold weather makes flea markets go away for the rest of the year!
In case you weren't aware - I sell a lot of my vintage clothing, shoes and larger pieces like glassware and hat boxes at the flea markets, so there's a lot more to see than just what I have posted on Ebay and Etsy.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Etsy - The Good, The Better and the I Wishes
So I've been an Etsy seller for nearly three weeks now, but I've yet to make a sale on the site. I'm not sure if there isn't enough awareness of Etsy or if there is just too much competition or if it's just a cruddy economy and slow to move items. But I find myself being completely addicted to monitoring the site and daily check it to see if I'm having any luck.
For those of you not familiar with the site or selling on it, there are actually some pretty good incentives - it only costs 20 cents to post an item, with five photos and the option to feature it on your own store. There's also no charge for your own store front. The other cool benefit - items stay live on the site for up to 4 months - that's right, 4 months of exposure for 20 cents! So huge bonuses over Ebay which charges you insertion fees, fees for extra photos, fees to make your item stand out and massive final value fees if you actually sell something. Did I mention most Ebay auctions are for only 5 days, the longest auction is 30 days and costs you about 5-6x the Etsy listing prices. And don't get me started on final value fees! It used to be that Ebay would charge you 12% on the final selling cost of your item, which is a bit steep, but they made it worse! They now charge you the full 12% on not just the selling cost of your item, but also the cost of postage! They claim it's in order to keep postage costs low, but for those of us that don't mark up postage we're just losing money... On the other hand Etsy only charges a 3.5% final value fee on the item, not item and postage. Making it much, much more reasonable.
The other really super cool thing I like about Etsy is the site tracker. I can monitor the traffic to my site, how many people looked at an item, how many visited the store, the words they searched to get them there, where they came from and if they "favorited" an item or my store. I love this! I find myself constantly trying to push site traffic. I post on Facebook and Twitter. Link to the store via this blog and create treasuries all the time. What are treasuries? They're 16 individual items (not your own) that fit any theme you want that you post for others to view. The folks you feature usually repost the treasury, or favorite it or start to follow you or your shop - all of which improves site traffic. If you visit my Etsy page I believe you can see my treasuries or look for mheth as the curator to pull them up.
The final two pieces I've decided to do to push traffic and try to gain sales are promotions and buying key words. Etsy offers coupons that you can customize for your site. So I created a coupon code that I've put on postcards to hand out at my flea market events and a code for my electronic communications, like this blog, Twitter and Facebook. For those of you reading this - your code is Post15. Click on the Etsy viewer on the right and if you purchase something use the code to get 15% off!
Buying key words is brand new to the site - just launched last week. It basically works the same as Google Adwords - the site helps you come up with the key words you use most in tagging your items and creates ads to push your products if someone searches your key words. My ad buy starts tomorrow - so I'll be very curious to see if it drives traffic the way it indicates it should!
Even if you're not interested in buying - you should hop on the site and look around, so many things are available and you never know what you may find!
For those of you not familiar with the site or selling on it, there are actually some pretty good incentives - it only costs 20 cents to post an item, with five photos and the option to feature it on your own store. There's also no charge for your own store front. The other cool benefit - items stay live on the site for up to 4 months - that's right, 4 months of exposure for 20 cents! So huge bonuses over Ebay which charges you insertion fees, fees for extra photos, fees to make your item stand out and massive final value fees if you actually sell something. Did I mention most Ebay auctions are for only 5 days, the longest auction is 30 days and costs you about 5-6x the Etsy listing prices. And don't get me started on final value fees! It used to be that Ebay would charge you 12% on the final selling cost of your item, which is a bit steep, but they made it worse! They now charge you the full 12% on not just the selling cost of your item, but also the cost of postage! They claim it's in order to keep postage costs low, but for those of us that don't mark up postage we're just losing money... On the other hand Etsy only charges a 3.5% final value fee on the item, not item and postage. Making it much, much more reasonable.
The other really super cool thing I like about Etsy is the site tracker. I can monitor the traffic to my site, how many people looked at an item, how many visited the store, the words they searched to get them there, where they came from and if they "favorited" an item or my store. I love this! I find myself constantly trying to push site traffic. I post on Facebook and Twitter. Link to the store via this blog and create treasuries all the time. What are treasuries? They're 16 individual items (not your own) that fit any theme you want that you post for others to view. The folks you feature usually repost the treasury, or favorite it or start to follow you or your shop - all of which improves site traffic. If you visit my Etsy page I believe you can see my treasuries or look for mheth as the curator to pull them up.
The final two pieces I've decided to do to push traffic and try to gain sales are promotions and buying key words. Etsy offers coupons that you can customize for your site. So I created a coupon code that I've put on postcards to hand out at my flea market events and a code for my electronic communications, like this blog, Twitter and Facebook. For those of you reading this - your code is Post15. Click on the Etsy viewer on the right and if you purchase something use the code to get 15% off!
Buying key words is brand new to the site - just launched last week. It basically works the same as Google Adwords - the site helps you come up with the key words you use most in tagging your items and creates ads to push your products if someone searches your key words. My ad buy starts tomorrow - so I'll be very curious to see if it drives traffic the way it indicates it should!
Even if you're not interested in buying - you should hop on the site and look around, so many things are available and you never know what you may find!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Where to Find Me Next - MHS Tailgate Sale
This Saturday I'm helping support the Mehlville High School by participating in their tailgate sale. The MHS Tailgate Sale takes place from 8am - 1pm in the parking lot of the high school. Vintage Baubles & Bits will have a tent there where I'll be showing off some new vintage clothes (including some rocking pantsuits!) and other wonderful vintage jewelry and accessories.
This is my first year exhibiting - but check out some photos from last year's event!
Hope to see some folks I know there!
This is my first year exhibiting - but check out some photos from last year's event!
Hope to see some folks I know there!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Where to Find Me Next - Wallach House Fall Festival
It's looking like it's going to be a beautiful Fall day on Saturday - so that means you should all come out to Eureka to the Wallach House's Fall Festival - Antique Show and Flea Market!
The flea market will be open from 9-3pm and I'll be there with a tent and promoting my case inside. It should be a fun-packed day! In addition to the flea market and shopping there will also be gourmet food tasting, wine testing and who can resist it - chicken and dumplings!!
Here's a sample of what you'll find:
The flea market will be open from 9-3pm and I'll be there with a tent and promoting my case inside. It should be a fun-packed day! In addition to the flea market and shopping there will also be gourmet food tasting, wine testing and who can resist it - chicken and dumplings!!
Here's a sample of what you'll find:
Happy Harvest Days to everyone!
Join us for our annual antique show and flea market on the parking lot at Wallach House, this year back by popular demand....
- CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS homemade in the Harvest Cafe' with luscious desserts
- KETTLE CORN
- BLUEGRASS MUSIC with Spike & Janis Huff 10am-1:30pm
- NINA'S PRODUCE-Eurekas own offering a huge array of mums, produce, jams & jellies and lots more
- THE FADED ROSE' Wine Garden - enjoy a glass of wine
- Gourmet food tasting inside
- 30 plus vendors outdoors on the parking lot including fabulous antiques and collectibles, garden, primitives! Rain or shine.
- Shop open 9-5!
Monday, September 12, 2011
A New Venture
So it's official, I now have a small business! My hobby can now serve as a tax write off! As of the end of August I am now the proud "owner" of Vintage Baubles & Bits, a vintage retail business. Now that I'm official I've decided to up my game in the advertising and promotion department and really try to start establishing a customer base. Not exactly sure the best route to go about doing this - but I'm using this blog, the case I have at Wallach House, my items on Ebay and now a new Etsy shop to round things out.
I've also started developing some promotional materials, I'll take some photos and post those later this week when they arrive, but I've started using Vista Print for developing custom items. So I have some business cards, a pen, notebook, small window clings, banner, t-shirt and hoodie all coming my way with a logo and design I selected from the site. I'm trying to make it all cohesive and connected. Hopefully this will start to get the business some recognition and grow a base of buyers that I can start to rely on for more steady interactions.
Here's to some optimistic growth!
I've also started developing some promotional materials, I'll take some photos and post those later this week when they arrive, but I've started using Vista Print for developing custom items. So I have some business cards, a pen, notebook, small window clings, banner, t-shirt and hoodie all coming my way with a logo and design I selected from the site. I'm trying to make it all cohesive and connected. Hopefully this will start to get the business some recognition and grow a base of buyers that I can start to rely on for more steady interactions.
Here's to some optimistic growth!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Keeping Up with Trends Part 7
Gold- it's shiny, blingy and back with a vengeance.
Gold tone has always been hugely popular with costume jewelry, then gold took an out with the fashion world and people started wearing silver and white gold instead. Now gold is back and I have tons of neat pieces to showcase the return of gold to fashion. Check out my necklaces, pins and earrings today!!!
Wallach House - 510 N. West Ave., Eureka, MO - Case 10.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Gold tone has always been hugely popular with costume jewelry, then gold took an out with the fashion world and people started wearing silver and white gold instead. Now gold is back and I have tons of neat pieces to showcase the return of gold to fashion. Check out my necklaces, pins and earrings today!!!
Wallach House - 510 N. West Ave., Eureka, MO - Case 10.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)