Monday, April 20, 2009

Ebay vs. Etsy, Again

Once again, I am weighing Ebay against Etsy.

One of them is starting to tick me off. One of them charges too much. One of them is getting (to me anyway) harder to use.

However, the one that is doing all of these things is the one that has brought me huge sales. In the past. Neither has brought me much in the way of sales in the past six months. I think one of these is going to have to go so I can put more art and energy into the other one.

I checked my number of views on one of these sites this morning. Previous totals have added up in the hundreds. Yes, I know that views accumulate over time, but the auction before last has racked up only 29 views. The auction that ended last night received only 12 views. What the heck is going on?

As I read more and more blogs, I'm noticing that one of these sites is representing more and more artists. What are you bloggers thinking? What decisions are you making? How are these decisions working for you? If you were a approached to give advice about which site to recommend for artists, what advice would you give?

4 comments:

Fibra Artysta said...

I can tell you that I don't shop on ebay anymore. The last time I did was right after they did quite a few upgrades and I found it difficult to use. I only shop on etsy now. Plus I like the prices are set on etsy, which for me as a consumer, is appealing. I have no desire anymore (maybe I'm getting old) to duke it out in auctions. Just my two cents.

Marty Mason said...

Kim, I have the same problem. I enjoyed using e-bag for my "stuff", but not my quilts. Too iffy. BUT, I get absolutely no traffic on Etsy. I'm just not willing to pay the photo fee to list...and relist...and relist...my few items just to keep my shop in the forefront to attract buyers. Wish I knew how to play the game!!

Rita Vindedzis said...

Hi Kim and thanks for visiting my blog. I'm glad I found you as in reading through your posts, I feel I've found a kindred spirit. At least in the messiness in studios for sure :-) Your fabric art is beautiful.

I'm on Etsy only but haven't had the time to really make a go of it. I find it takes a lot of energy and I'm thinking of maybe just adding a paypal button to my blog.

Elizabeth Parsons said...

hi- I sell on both eBay and etsy.

I find that on etsy art supplies sell well- but not my art. I see etsy as artist-to-artist - not a whole lot of art buyers there has been my own experience.

On ebay, my art sells. I sell paintings and assemblage and I've done pretty well there.

good luck!