I apologize in advance for not talking about our beautiful miniatures this time, but miniature artists also need to make a living. So today I am going to talk to you about how to be selling dollhouse miniatures on Etsy or other pieces of art.
If you are not interested, then you can always take a look at my tutorials, miniature kits, or how to make miniatures from trash for example, and have fun! (I pinky-promise to update the last one next week!).
Now let's start by explaining what Etsy is all about first.
updated 11/07/23
What is Etsy?
Etsy was founded in 2005 by Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik.
Etsy is a marketplace where anyone who crafts things themselves (or have collectible items) can put their stuff up for sale. These people pay Etsy 20 dollar cents for posting their articles, plus a percentage (3,5%) of the selling price when an item is sold. In return, their products will be visible for the whole world to see.
The sellers can be from any country worldwide.
Some only ship within their own country, others also to Europe and the US, or the rest of the world.
In some cases though, things can be sold online. For example, building plans for a dollhouse kit can simply get sent through email and that doesn't cost the buyer anything extra.
You can set the language settings to your own language and currencies, but the products will remain to be seen worldwide.
Sellers can also use paid advertising to attract more people to their Etsy store. Thé interesting thing here is, and I didn't even know this either, is that you only pay for the add, when you have sold an item!
In November 2007 the total sales were worth 4,3 million dollars. The company changed its terms and conditions in October 2013. From now on, the site was also allowed to sell factory-made mass products, if older than 20 years (and thus vintage), and items whose production was outsourced by the seller.
Etsy joined the stock market in 2015. The stocks were set at $16 and then rose to $35 on the first day. Then dropped big time again later. After some good results, the stock price went over $70 for the first time in 2019. In 2014, Etsy had approximately 1.4 million sellers and 19.8 million buyers.
What's the difference between Etsy, Amazon, and others.
One big difference is obviously that all items are handmade and they are made by persons, not general stores who buy stuff in large quantities and sell with a profit.
This could be anyone: from professional artists to housewives/housemen, knitting grandma's, to carpenters making extra furniture for example.
You could say that Etsy is similar to eBay, and from the beginning of 2008 it began to look like Etsy could become a serious competitor for the market leader eBay at that time, partly because there was a strike by a large group of discontented sellers on the eBay platform.
Buying items on Etsy?
When you're new to Etsy, you need to create an account, it's very simple and free. Once you have created the account, you can buy stuff. If you have found something that you like, you can place it in your shopping cart.
If you don't want to buy it immediately, you can mark it as ' favorite' and easily find it later. This is handy if, for example, you are looking for a nice necklace, but come across several nice ones.
If you have selected an item where you have to indicate which color or size you want, you can enter this in a comment. Other things that you must indicate when placing an order are of course the destination, the payment method, and a possible discount code.
Once you have received your order at home, you can leave feedback in their shop. Other people who visit a particular shop can then see how it is rated by previous buyers.
What can you sell/buy on Etsy?
Basically anything vintage and/or handmade.
Here's just a small list, because I think there's so much more for sale on Etsy:
- miniatures and dollhouses ( who would have thought that ?;-) )
- homemade bath and beauty products
- face masks
- crafting supply's and tools
- home and living, decorations
- jewelry and accessories
- clothing and shoes
- art and collectibles
- wedding and party
- toys and entertainment
- self-made herbal tinctures
- and so much more
The pro's and contra's of Etsy.
The good.
- You can decide if this is a good thing or not, but for me, it is a good thing that most sellers use PayPal as a way of payment. I don't bother with other payment methods anyway, because PayPal offers the best security for both buyer and seller, despite the costs.
I had a bad experience once with buying something through a Facebook advertisement, which didn't arrive for over 3 months. Luckily I paid with PayPal and disputed the payment through their platform. Things got solved very quickly after that and I got a prompt email that they were going to 'resend the package', because apparently 'it got lost in the mail'. Yeah right 😉
But there are also sellers who accept wire transfers and all kinds of American checks, though.
- much more personal contact with the seller instead of a sales-bot or having to talk to a computer for help
- you are stimulating crafters and artists all over the world for selling their objects in a much easier way than having to for example organize an exhibition ( painters ) or making a website (it's not easy for everyone to do this )
- everyone that purchased something from a shop, can leave feedback, and thus you can tell if it is an honest seller selling quality items or not.
- Etsy can be a perfect addition to your own, existing webshop.
The bad.
- On the one hand, worldwide selling is a good thing to broaden the market, on the other hand, you would have to find people willing to pay big amounts of shipping costs and/or customs fees. You can negotiate with the buyer/seller in a private message.
- Etsy just provides the site and platform, getting a small percentage of the sales. You can't ask them seller-specific questions or ask them to hire a lawyer when fraud is involved and if you would lose money as a buyer.
How to set up an Etsy store?
For this part, I have actually already written a blog post on how to set up an Etsy store from scratch, check out the tutorial!
So now: how to make money on the internet with Etsy/miniatures?
There are actually 2 ways: