Sellers Of Handmade Items Find Success On Etsy

We have a friend who has found success selling on Etsy. Her user ID is sparkklejar. The first time we met Sparki was in the eBay Answer Center and we were totally impressed with her salvaging and creative talents.

Sparki's real name is Lisa and she's been a collector of mason fruit jars for many years. She is especially fond of Kerr jars. All of her life she has repurposed items into something else useful. So the reclaimed item trend for her is something she has always done. She is thrilled to salvage, upcycle, repurpose and upchic glass jars and other vintage items she offers on Etsy.

What can you expect to find in Sparki's store?

* Vintage Upcycled Repurposed Chic and Shabby Mason Jars.
* Cottage Whimsy Victorian Recycled Goodies and treasures.
* Unique home canning items, twisted vintage into shab fab cottage home decor.

100 year old Antique Cottage Chic
Light Green Mason Jar Shabby Roses
Two Squatty Fat Pint Vintage Ball
Eclipse Bail Jars Romantic Roses
6 Very Primmy Hand Painted Vintage
Clothespins Cottage Chic Distressed Pink
Antique Kerr Angel Base Jelly Jars
Lilac Light Purple Lids Sparkly Roses
Click here to visit Sparki's Etsy store.

Tell her that Dakota Exchange sent you. ;-)

Click here to go to Sparki's Blog.

Affordable Gifts

With the global economic crisis putting finances in a squeeze, Etsy is a great way to maximize a budget. There is an endless variety of unique, quality handmade gifts at affordable prices. Besides being memorable, these gifts are also valuable. They're made to last a lifetime, not just until next year's version comes out. Which means less trash for landfills, and more savings for shoppers. Plus, each purchase on Etsy directly supports independent artists and designers.

About Etsy

Etsy is the online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. We connect consumers with independent creators and designers to find the very best in handmade goods, while providing these artists with the technology and information they need to start and grow their own businesses.

Etsy is a community that actively supports one another in the shared goal of offering alternatives to mass-produced objects. We work to highlight the true value of handmade goods and their creators and encourage awareness of the social and environmental implications of production and consumption.

We created Etsy to reconnect producer and consumer, and swing the pendulum back to a time when we bought our bread from the baker, food from the farmer, and shoes from the cobbler.


The Etsy Story

Etsy was conceived by Rob Kalin (28) in early 2005. A painter, carpenter, and photographer, Rob found there was no viable marketplace to exhibit and sell his creations online- other E-commerce sites having become too inundated with overstock electronics and broken appliances. Ever industrious, he, along with Chris Maguire (25) and Haim Schoppik (28), designed the site, wrote the code, assembled the servers, spliced the cables, and launched Etsy on June 18th, 2005 after only three sleepless months.

Quick View: Etsy Stats

Total Members: over 2.8 million
Total Sellers: over 250,000
Items Currently Listed: over 4 million
Total $ sold (Gross Merchandise Sales)
2005 = $166,000
2006 = $3.8 million
2007 = $26 million
2008 = $87.5 million
2009 = $84.4 million (through July)

Etsy Features -- Alchemy

Alchemy is a service through which Etsy users can request the creation of any handmade good that they can imagine.

For decades, philosophers, chemists, and theologians have hunched over bubbling beakers, smoldering cauldrons, and stinking vials only to struggle fruitlessly in their attempts to create something from nothing. Now, thanks to Etsy and a little bit of magic, they toil no more.

Here's how it works. Click the Alchemy link on any page of Etsy to begin. Then, create a request with a description of what you want made, a deadline, and your ideal price. Your post can also include pictures for reference. With nary the risk of lead poisoning, Etsy sellers will then place bids, showing you what they can do, for how much, and by when. As the alchemist who made the listing, you choose whose bid to accept, and then finalize the deal by agreeing to pay the specified price. When a bid is accepted, the seller pays Etsy a 3.5% fee on the promised price of the item. There are no fees for the person creating the Alchemy request. As work begins on your item, the seller can upload photos to keep you up-to-date on your creation.

Sometime around 42BC, Horace, who coincidently was not a successful alchemist himself, said, "What we seek is either here or nowhere." Surely, he had Etsy's Alchemy in mind.