How to Sell Your Crafts on eBay
by James Dillehay
Published on this site: November 10th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
Artists, craftspeople and photographers are successfully selling
their wares everyday on the online auction site, eBay. According
to a recent analysis of eBay sales, a crafts-related item
is sold every nine seconds, a scrapbook item is sold every
minute, and 40 cross-stitch items sell in an hour on eBay.
Sales of craft items on eBay have grown almost 60 percent
in the past year, according to TheBidFloor.com.
But, at the same time, many would be sellers are listing
their pieces for sale on auctions and getting no bids, concluding
that eBay just doesn't work.
Here are some tips from James Dillehay, craft artist, eBay
seller and author of the new book, "Sell Your Crafts
on eBay" (Warm Snow Publishers), on how to profitably
sell your wares online:
- Anyone who can type and has access to the Internet can
sell on eBay. But the creative person has an advantage on
eBay when she turns that creativity toward researching overlooked
opportunities.
For example, during the months before Christmas, more than
3,000 Christmas items are sold every 24 hours on eBay. Research
methods outlined in Sell Your Crafts on eBay showed that
between February 12 and March 12 of this year, 4,107 auctions
with 'Christmas ornament' in the title completed successfully
at an average price of $17.34. Imagine how much more money
a smart crafter can make all year long knowing how to ferret
out this kind of information from eBay sales.
- A word's spelling impacts an item's profitability. For
example, the word 'handmade,' spelled as one word, was part
of 2,233 auction titles with an average closing price of
$16.29. However, auction titles that included 'hand made'
as two words were found in 1,358 listings, but with an average
auction closing price higher, at $27.81, or $11.52 more
profit per item.
- Go to eBay.com and find the search box. Type in the word
or phrase that describes your art or craft item. Then scroll
down the links on the left side of the page and click on
the link for "completed items." Here, you'll be
able to see the demand for this type of product. Do searches
for your items every two to three weeks to chart buying
patterns.
- Find out how much people are willing to pay for your
wares. Click on the link that says "highest price."
This will give you a list of completed auctions from highest
priced items to lowest priced ones. You want to know what
people are willing to pay for items like yours. If you can't
make and sell your product for a profit, eBay might not
be your marketplace.
- Determine how much money you'll make on your product.
To determine your profitability, use the cost of your materials
plus the cost of your labor plus the cost of your selling
price, which should be the minimum price to recover your
expenses. If it takes you eight hours to make a piece of
jewelry and the highest priced similar item sells on eBay
for $26, you won't make a profit.
- Look at the elements of successful sellers of products
that are similar to yours. Examine their winning auction
titles. Observe how much detail they use to describe their
item. See if the seller used any of eBay's special features
such as gallery photos or a bold, featured listing. Evaluate
the starting price, starting day of the week, and duration
of winning auctions.
For more tips on how to sell your craft items on eBay, consult
a resource book like "Sell Your Crafts on eBay,"
by James Dillehay. It offers-more than 200 easy-to-learn tactics
and tips that help sell art, craft and theme-related items
for a profit on eBay and on other online auction Web sites.
James Dillehay is a 20-year crafts veteran and nationally
recognized expert on craft business. Author of eight books,
his articles have helped readers of Family Circle, Better
Homes & Gardens, Country Almanac, Working Mothers, The
Crafts Report, Sunshine Artist, and many other magazines.
James serves on the advisory boards to the National Craft Association and ArtisanStreet.com.
For more information, see http://www.craftmarketer.com
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