Fabule$$ly Frugal Mom

Etsy is not only a great place to shop for handmade treasures, its also a treasure trove of good ideas and vintage heaven!

I used to sell candles and knitted things a few years ago but the market is so saturated with those types of things I stopped making and selling them. In the last couple of months I started listing some of my vintage items here and there. Supplies do really well as well as kitschy little things but one thing I've noticed is that your photos are everything. Eye catching photos will sell your items for you on there.

The reason I like selling on there is not only because it's substantially cheaper, but the listings last for 6 months! I can list for $.20 and that gives me 6 months, or I can "renew" whenever I want for another $.20 which bumps my listing up in the browsing categories. This is great for items that I have not invested a lot in and that might not sell for that much compared to eBay where I want to get the top dollar out of my items because the fees are so ridiculous. When I make a sale on Etsy I don't have to take 1/3rd of my profits out for fees which is very nice!

Here are a couple of things I've sold lately!

A cute metal brooch I found in a box of free stuff at a garage sale earlier this summer. It took about 6 weeks to sell but sell it did. $4 + $1 shipping, not a huge sale but for something I pulled out of the free box it was great! And because the fees are so minimal I only had to pay about $1 between the listing fee, selling fee and Paypal fee. If this had sold on eBay - I probably would've only made $1.

This is also proof that the photos are everything on Etsy. I'm pretty sure this would have never sold if I'd have used my normal solid white backdrop, or it would've taken longer to sell. The cool rustic look to the photo really helped my item pop.

These Playskool letters sold within 3 days of listing them on Etsy. I picked them up at Value Village for $3, loved them instantly because the box was still there and they are great quality. Its very true, things back then were made to last, the letters for the fridge today are cheap plastic that have such weak magnets they don't hold anything up. They sold for $18 + $5 shipping and are headed to CA!

I really want to start my own booth at an antique shop. I think I could be good at it but I haven't bit the bullet yet because I can't find an affordable place to rent out that's close by and also has good traffic for continual sales. My fear is that I would invest a bunch in booth space and inventory but then not sell anything and loose more money than I'm making! I have a small collection of things that will go in my booth someday, I just don't have a place to store big items or transport them! For now, Etsy will work for those smaller things...