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.
Showing posts with label ebay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebay. Show all posts
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!
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!
Friday, August 19, 2011
On Ebay This Week - Schumann Bavaria Reticulated Bowl
So last summer I was at a huge estate sale - talk about hoarding! This estate sale lasted two weekends Friday, Saturday, Sunday each weekend! Six full days and on the last Sunday of the sale you couldn't tell that things had even sold there was so much stuff! I actually hit this sale both weekends and found something new each time I went. The final piece I bought from this sale I knew nothing about, other than it was pretty. It was this neat old china bowl with a gorgeous print. It's taken me a year and multiple online searches to finally discover the name of the pattern and what I have up for sale on ebay this week is a Schumann Bavaria Reticulated Bread Bowl that depicts a scene known as "Dice Players Urchin."
Schumann is a very popular brand of china that was produced between 1881-1996 in the Bavarian region of Germany. It's a well marked brand - often depicting a crowned lion as it's symbol, so at least that gave me a strong start to my research. But due to the length of time they produced China there are literally hundreds of Schumann patterns. Though not as many that actual depict scenes or people. So that at least helped me narrow down my search - but searching three different times in the past I was never able to find the pattern until just two weeks ago.
Dice Players is a commonly reproduced scene of beggar children throwing dice. This scene is in transfer and was reproduced by many other manufacturers, including R. S. Prussia, after the original painting by Spanish artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo, 1618-1682. (Source: R. S. Prussia Popular Lines, Mary Frank Gaston, page 22). Murillo produced several paintings portraying some of the street children of his time and place. They have commonly been referred to as street urchins and beggars. Schumann did a series with Murillo paintings, but this pattern isn't even on Replacements' site, which is usually referred to as the Bible of all china patterns.
This is a stunning reticulated or "pierced" bowl often called a bread bowl because of it's shape and style. It is 13 in long by 7 in wide and about 2 in deep. Excellent condition. c.mid-20th century. Very unique!
Ebay Seller Name: foobar252
Schumann is a very popular brand of china that was produced between 1881-1996 in the Bavarian region of Germany. It's a well marked brand - often depicting a crowned lion as it's symbol, so at least that gave me a strong start to my research. But due to the length of time they produced China there are literally hundreds of Schumann patterns. Though not as many that actual depict scenes or people. So that at least helped me narrow down my search - but searching three different times in the past I was never able to find the pattern until just two weeks ago.
Dice Players is a commonly reproduced scene of beggar children throwing dice. This scene is in transfer and was reproduced by many other manufacturers, including R. S. Prussia, after the original painting by Spanish artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo, 1618-1682. (Source: R. S. Prussia Popular Lines, Mary Frank Gaston, page 22). Murillo produced several paintings portraying some of the street children of his time and place. They have commonly been referred to as street urchins and beggars. Schumann did a series with Murillo paintings, but this pattern isn't even on Replacements' site, which is usually referred to as the Bible of all china patterns.
This is a stunning reticulated or "pierced" bowl often called a bread bowl because of it's shape and style. It is 13 in long by 7 in wide and about 2 in deep. Excellent condition. c.mid-20th century. Very unique!
Ebay Seller Name: foobar252
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