craftgrrl | a few crafty questions. (Reply)

Hi all,

1. ETSY. I just opened a shop there a couple of weeks ago, and while I seem to be getting traffic, I've had no sales. I've looked around at other users' shops which are chock full of great items, and see that they've really not sold much either. And then occassionally I happen upon a decently cute shop that has sold THOUSANDS of items. What's that about? I'm almost beginning to wonder if most of the traffic on Etsy is crafters looking at each other's things, and very few shoppers. I haven't been there long, though, so we'll see.

2. So failing Etsy, where are your preferred places to sell? I'm going to test out Ebay shortly, but I've never really sold things on there so I'm not sure how best to advertise myself.

3. Craft fairs and county fairs. I think it would be fun to rent a space and sell my things in person at a fair, but I'd probably only ever have about 30 pieces to offer, and I just wonder if that would make it pointless. I'm also concerned that I might not sell enough of my stuff to cover the vendor fees! Do those of you who've sold at fairs find that people are eager to buy, or does perfectly good stuff just sit and rot on the table? I know that's highly specific to what you're selling.

Thanks!