I'm new at selling vintage so what platform is best? Ebay or Etsy

Hi Everybody, I dont know if i have the right area of the forum for my query but he goes

I'm somebody who collects vintage as a hobby and found its taking over my house and I want to sell some of it.

What would be the best platform me to sell the items? My items aren’t couture or huge designer labels, just bits and bobs I’ve found over the years.

I could make a website but I don’t really want to start selling as a business either.
I already have an ebay business and really don’t want to mix my personal sales with my business sales, same goes for my ecommerce website (as I’m new at selling vintage, I know I will be making mistakes and don’t want my day job to suffer).

I have tried selling on a stall at the weekends in my local area and it went quite well but I also have a bricks and mortar shop too and time issues caused problems.

I have noticed a lot of sellers here use Etsy and I’m wondering is it just for businesses and is it better than Ebay?

With Ebay I will have to set up a new account so I’m worried if that will have a bad effect on potential sales of having no feedback, would this also be an issue with Etsy?

The other thing I’ve noticed is that Etsy seem to sell in dollars does that mean the customers are mainly from the US? Do a lot of UK sellers use this site and is shipping costs an issue?

Sorry for the gazillion questions and thank you

 

I sell most of my items on Etsy, but do occasionally sell on eBay. To sell on Etsy your items need to be at least 20 years old. Occasionally I have good pieces that do not meet the 20 year requirement and I look to eBay to sell those items. Also I find that some items will sell for a higher price on one eBay than Etsy. I have better luck with selling St. John on eBay than Etsy. I usually do a search on both sites to determine which site to list on. Another consideration is if I'm looking for a quick sale, I'll turn to eBay Auction. All in all despite some advantages, I limit my listings on eBay simply because the fees are so much higher.

Regarding some of your other questions. Approximately 20 of my Etsy business is international, so I don't think the dollar question is a problem. I think other countries can look at an item in their own currency. I had no problems with starting to sell on eBay without feedback. But their push for a very generous return policy could be something to consider.

One final thought, the more items you have for sale the larger the draw to your shop will be on Etsy - I'm working up to offering 100 plus listings. On eBay I can list only a few items in auction and I feel I still am getting a drawing to those items.

Hope this helps.

 

Ive been doing shipping aboard for some years now and the type of new clothing I normally sell requires using international signed for, I even use 1st class signed for in the UK.
We have had some bad experience in the past and thankfully our Ebay customers seem to love it and leave positive feedback on the speed of delivery.
It might be worth me weighing the items (like I do with my new stock) to give a more accurate shipping cost and include it in the listing.
We do a returns policy on my shop as we do have the new stock to swap with but it never occurred to me that Ebay would want one on Used/Vintage goods, thank you for pointing that out, I will have to look in to that a bit more.

I know what you mean about high fee's on ebay, has given me nightmares in the past and thats what makes Etsy so appealing to me plus the amount of vintage listings.

I think im going to open accounts on both and i suppose it does make better sense to aim for both audiences.

Thank you so much for your replies, this forum is a treasure

 

I have used Ebay in the past just to clear out and found several points worth noting:

• You can sell (virtually) anything there, even if you don't know what it is - somebody may pick up on it and pay more.
• In the run up to Christmas and other big events, people tend to bid and pay more.
• It is increasingly difficult to simply list - there are more and more things required and I find it takes a lot of time to list on Ebay.
• It is expensive - you can virtually knock 10% off your final price in ebay fees, plus now they force paypal on you they will also take a cut including postal costs.
• Their offer days are good, when you can list an auction starting at any price for free this can be a way to hit a new audience without so much risk.
  
  Etsy is completely different, I haven't been on there long at all but sold my first item overnight. It's simple and easy to list, you know the costs of your listing upfront. It's very international, 85% of my sales are abroad so far. Sales are sporadic depending on when you list (keep in mind time zones) as newest appear at the top of the site by default until you search and Etsy changes it to most relevant. But then I've been putting things up for sale with no advertising or links at all as I'm not a business (yet!) Lots of people have facebook pages, blogs, websites all going back to their Etsy page for sales. This creates more 'traffic' through your store. I think people who go to Etsy know what they want and are prepared to pay a set amount for it depending on the condition etc.
  
  Ruth why do you say you have to list in $? I list on Etsy in £GBP and when international users view them it just converts to their currency.

 

Yes they did introduce the ability to list in your own currency not too long ago. I think the international interest is because there aren't the flood of vintage websites abroad like there is in the UK so they see it as a source. Also, some just don't make good clothing/shoes for sale in their own country. I think it's much harder for UK buyers to find Etsy listings unless you've helped it with some other media or avenue.

 

I find Etsy a much much nicer selling platform, and it's more relaxed for the buyer, not being bombarded with a gazillion sponsored ad banners flashing around the place! eBay is typically a place for bargainhunting, and some items I wouldn't want to risk selling for lower than their worth, and in that respect I prefer Etsy.. although it goes the other way too! When 2+ bidders fancy your item who knows where they'll stop..!

The layout of Etsy shops are cleaner and easier to navigate in my opinion and, as everyone's mentioned, the fees are mini in comparison. The trick is to update regularly with listing new items, or relisting older ones, to appear higher in the search results within Etsy and also on Google. I like the use of treasury features as promotion, whenever I've been on the front page with an item it stirs up a lot of traffic. Ooh also, their Shop Stats page provides a really helpful insight into where your customers/browsers are being directed from and what they're searching for to find you!

I probably have about the same international buyers as Pink, but the UK is slowly getting in on the action..

I LOOOOOOVE ETSSYYYYY There I said it.

 

Thank you so much for all your advice and experiances, im in the middle of setting up account on both selling platforms and hopefully things will go well, thank you once again

 

Hi Emma Boo,
I just came upon this post as I am in the process of making the same decision. I work full time and am just looking for a way to make a little extra money on the side without a terrible amount of hassle, selling some cute vintage items I've accumulated. Did you end up trying both ebay and etsy, and if so, what was your experience? Thanks for any advice!