Founded in 1995, eBay is an online auction and shopping website based in San Jose, California. It allows consumers to participate in a buy and sell opportunity for a general variety of goods and other services in over thirty countries around the world.
eBay and Crafts
eBay is the place to purchase a broad variety of goods that include handcrafted products, crafting supplies, second hand craft items and a lot more.
Whether your craft is candle soap making, sewing, cross stitching, knitting & crocheting, weaving, bead art, scrapbooking, jewelry making, etc. Your products are qualified to get listed here.
Also, purchasing raw crafting materials like yarn for knitting, threads for cross stitching, rubber stamps for scrapbooking, wooden frames and other materials can also be found here. In addition, eBay have partnerships with brands like Sizzix, Creative Memories, Old Holland Oil Paints, Lion Brand Yarn, and designer fabrics from Vera Bradley, Scalamandre & Lilly Pulitzer giving you more options to shop.
How To Sell On eBay
- Go to eBay and click on the Sell tab at the top of most eBay pages.
- On the next page, you need to enter 3-5 words about your item and then click the Start selling button. For example: yarns for knitting
- Click register and fill out the form.
- Look for similar items that have recently sold on eBay to help you select the best category, price, or learn your item’s potential value.
Selling Format
Auction – Allows customers give their bids and compete for your item
Fixed Price – Set the price for selling one or more items and skips the auction.
Classified with Best Offer – Set the price for one item and allow buyers to negotiate with you.
Great tips for selling your crafts on eBay
List all of your items as buy it now, at your full price then list one of each item as an auction at a very low price, this usually helps getting the bids going, as people want a bargain. In each of those auctions, put a link in saying something along the lines of “If you want this item now click here to get it buy it now in our shop…”
This method works quite well for smaller craft items etc… On average the auctions go for about 1/2 to 3/4 full prices, or they don’t sell at all sometimes. The outcome is that it covers the listing fees and you’ll make a little profit.
The main advantage is that you will have links in your auctions directing to your ‘about me’ page which is a marketing push. Basically get your about me page loaded with all the info about your items and you are allowed to have links to your website there too.
If you can get your total sales on eBay to cover their costs and maybe get a little profit then it is a good marketing system. Plus when a search is done in Google for an item, eBay items get listed quite highly. So there is always a chance that people could find your items/website that way.
Other Useful Tips:
- Higher priced crafts don’t do very well.
- Use eBay to drive people to your about me page and onto your website.
- The people who really make money from crafts on eBay are… sellers who supply craft supplies. So in your case you are probably more likely to make sales selling mosaic tiles and backing boards, patterns etc… to other mosaic makers than selling the marked up finished items.
Disadvantages of Selling Your Crafts On eBay
- eBay buyers are all out for a bargain. Some have no appreciation of the work involved in handcrafted items.
- Items that are most successful on eBay tend to be of two categories: collectors’ items and second hand items. eBay buyers generally aren’t looking for original content and that includes crafts.
- The eBay fees do chew up a lot of the profit. But things do sell fairly well.
eBay is a good venue for selling your handicrafts, but if you want to know more on advanced selling venues for your crafts, you might also want to check Etsy and Artfire.
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