Should i stay or should i leave?

They don’t take 60% but there is often an illusion they are taking more because of the way the site works. As they pay out weekly, you only have to make a couple of fresh listings to see the proceeds of a sale disappear before your eyes.
I prefer the more transparent billing on Folksy, with instant access to your sale proceeds via Paypal and a straightforward bill once per month.

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Well done im glad things are working for you :blush:

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I’ve set mine to pay out daily but yes, I much preferred it when I had a separate bill for my fees that I paid once a month.

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It’s not using it from PC that’s the problem.
Friends borrow PC to access their FB when they’re here. (Cos there’s no phone signal here)
I only have a landline & FB would not accept a LL in registration process.
Didn’t have to be a smart phone, but had to be a mobile.

Yes, its a bit of a shock when looking to get work into ‘bricks & mortar’ galleries.
60% = some St.Ives Cornwall gallery rates.
20-30% seems average with Cornish galleries I have & had my work & sales from.

*For footfall & exposure my local Carboot would be good (2-3,000+ visitors/a day during summer).
Bother! = I just don’t have a car!

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I have a shop on both but mainly only cards on Etsy, sales come in fits and spurts over there but I do 99% of my promotion for my folksy shop. Every now and then I think of closing over on Etsy then I get a couple of sales and keep it open. I think it doesn’t cost me much to list over there and when I send orders I put in a card showing both shop’s so I see it as a cheapish kind of advertising really. :slight_smile:

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Yes the E side fees is very confusing. IF people pay with a visa card admin take fees and pay you the balance . They also take listing fees from any money they are holding for you…so it often looks like they have taken more than they should.
It is SO much better on here and my business card only has my Folksy details on it…I work hard to tell people about Folksy…

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Ah, is that how it now works? I’m not sure being vague with fees is something I could live with - I prefer a bit of clarity as otherwise I’d have a sneaky suspicion I was being taken for a ride.

I don’t remember Etsy working all that differently from here, but I did run down my Etsy shop quite a few years ago, so I’m not a recent user. Based on a quick pop into the site, it seems that an awful lot has changed. I expect some changes will be improvements, and some not so good. I stopped giving them any of my money once they allowed mass manufactured items on as “handmade”. I didn’t see the point in it any more.

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Yes, they changed the billing system last year so they now take the money as soon as they can. Which means if you haven’t had money in your payment account for a while, but have been listing/relisting a lot, once you do actually get a sale you might not actually get anything from it because it’s gone straight on those built up fees (happened to me a couple of times now).

The new system does annoy me and it seems to confuse a lot of people… but I don’t think they’re actually taking that much more than they used to (it’s changed to 5% of item price and shipping, instead of 3.5% on just item price)… but as far as I’m aware the other fees are the same as we’ve been paying for years. It may not be very clear… but it does seem to make it clearer just how much money we’re spending/wasting there. Probably not what they were hoping for!

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That seems an awful lot in fees, I sold a bear kit on there in January for £40, I’m sure after fees I came out with around £35, if I sell direct to local customers I charge £35 and add in the fees for online which I normally calculate around 10 to 12% for everything including paypal…how did it take so much ? if that’s the case I will be closing my shop imminently as couldn’t afford to sell on there as would be massively out of pocket…I will go and have a look x

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Had a look at my sale from January,item was £40, postage £3.95 and the dark side took £4.20 !! then there was paypal fees so actually it does cost more than I thought, nearly 10% on there site…I always thought it was 6% and paypal obviously
To be honest I don’t like it…i may just close it…one less thing to think about ha ha

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I just sell on here and I love it! It’s such an attractive site and a lovely community of sellers. Like others have said, I feel like other sellers on here are my friends. I find my things sell really well on here - I do promote on Facebook and Instagram but, other than that, this is my only selling platform and I think it’s just great!

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I have two shops on both sites (glutton for punishment I know!) I actually do more over there, though I promote both equally. I sell a fair bit to the EU as well, though that might change after brexit, USA and other countries. I do sell internationally here but not as much.

I list one offs only on one site but do have the same on both for made to order. As for fees on an £11 bangle I expect to pay £1 in fees which includes re-listing, credit card fees, vat etc. I can live with that and for the returns I get it’s worth it for me, I get on average 8-10 sales a week over there and 3-4 a week on here. Though my heart is on Folksy it’s where I started and love it here :slight_smile:

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There is a common theme forming here. Etsy must have noticed there are a lot of disgruntled shop owners. Will they learn or just carry on doing mass produced stuff as long as it makes a profit, who knows. I will be staying here. Since starting on Instagram as well I have picked up a few one off jobs which I find really nice to do. Haven’t ventured into FB as I don’t have the time at the moment, but do need to look at the advantages for the future.

They need to keep their shareholders happy now, and I imagine they’d rather see profit than care if the site is handmade or not. As long as people are buying it probably doesn’t matter to them.

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Hi all the large amount taken was for listing fees and promotions of which i did on a few items and new listings, it actually worth it as it gets me sales…i knew i had to pay these by 15th… its just the way etsy do things.below is a run down of what was taken off …its all about profits…

So i dont really know what to do but i am stocking my folksy shop and will promote both for now and see what happens over the coming months…

Been on here since 2010, not super busy but steady. Used to be regular on the forums but frankly rather busy atm - which is nice! Also on E … there I get very regular sales for very little effort , just list and go ( but I do make sure I have good picture that’s VITAL) and I don’t do teams/forums - not because I don’t like them just too busy. Whatever marketplace you use you have to spend a lot of effort on social media and build your audience - but I like that so it’s no great effort lol. Also your photos are your currency on social media they need to be as good as possible. That goes double if you have your own website - I tried that years ago but it didn’t work for me.

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That’s a similar picture for me but 5 : 15 sales ( lampshades mainly these days) Folksy:E…

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Just checking I’ve not misunderstood what you’ve written. They’re charging you a fee on your shipping costs?? Really? How the heck can that be justified? They’re earning a fee from you packing and posting your own parcel, yes? If so…wow. I’d be off so fast they’d think they were in a time warp.

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You should try selling very heavy items internationally. These new shipping fees on £23 postage are like another item fee on top. What can you do though? If it was killing my business I’d leave, but I do so much more business over there, like @WittyDawn says, with little to no effort after I’ve got all my social media links sorted. And with the higher fees here it still works out slightly more economical over there, even on an international sale :slight_smile:

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