Options
How has Selling Numismatic Items on Etsy worked out for you?
Cougar1978
Posts: 7,637 ✭✭✭✭✭
My sales on eBay absolutely horrible Nov and Dec 2020. Covid or what I don’t know.
Considering Etsy. What say ye.
So Cali Area - Coins & Currency
1
Comments
I haven't tried Etsy in a couple years. It's not exactly a coin venue in my experience. But, what do you have to lose?
eBay has been fairly slow for me also. Although, to be fair, I haven't really been adding any new material as I was busy with other things.
I would go with Instagram.
I have made sales and bought coins thru that venue.
My eBay sales have been extremely strong this month and especially this week.
Hmm, thought Etsy was for handmade goods — is that no longer true?
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
There are 2500 Pcgs coins in Etsy and about 3000. Ngc when I checked about an hour ago. So thinking not as much competition too.
I'm 0 for 0, so depending on how the calculus works out, I've done somewhere between horrible and incredible.
I can’t speak for all eBay buyers, but if they are anything like me....don’t want to deal with the poor shipping times. Lately if I can’t buy what I want locally, I go without.
MY GOLD TYPE SET https://pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/complete-type-sets/gold-type-set-12-piece-circulation-strikes-1839-1933/publishedset/321940
I tried it for about 6 months. Not a peep! offer or anything and that was paying for extra advertising also!
Never tried it. Probably wont though.
Young Numismatist/collector
75 Positive BST transactions buying and selling with 45 members and counting!
instagram.com/klnumismatics
I have been more satisfied with Ebay lately over the holidays than earlier. Sold some items pretty quickly with plenty of watchers which have been lacking earlier this year. Sorry, but never used Etsy to sell. Searching coins(unless I just don't know their methods) is rather difficult. I tried putting in a specific date into search and got a plethora of specific coin and mixed dates. I tried specifying PCGS and got the same nonspecific selection. I tried to search certified coins and again got the mix. If there is a better way to search for specifics I would appreciate knowing.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Do your own research as I'm not sure of all the details, but once you reach a certain sales level on Etsy they force you to pay extra for online advertising. It makes the fees relatively high.
Doesn't say anything about that here:
https://www.etsy.com/legal/fees/
The time you spend getting set up to sell and preparing listings if it turns out your stuff doesn't sell there?
There doesn't appear to be a "sold items" search on the site, making it difficult at best to figure out what sort of items sell there, and for how much.
Yes, that always annoyed me about them. Their search function was quite minimal.
A little time now could be dollars later...or not. Besides, it wasn't my time. LOL.
Based on my limited exploration there, the "Coins" section appeared to be mostly novelty items and overpriced "stuff". I've got no problem with selling my stuff for overpriced prices, but if I can't see that people are actually buying it, I'm not sure I want to invest the time necessary to make the attempt.
Ebay charging me sales tax when I live in a state without sales tax on coins, currency and precious metals has curtailed my buying. Only thing I will look at is an auction, and those are rare on ebay now.
Actually, I decided Etsy wasn't worth my time several years ago. But I haven't tried lately.
I highly recommend instagram. There is a gigantic coin community floating around there and if you find a group of people in your niche area, even better. Nowadays, majority of my items come from IG. Is suggest joining and giving it a shot for yourself. Plenty of awesome people. Here is my page,my registry wouldn't even have half of the coins I do today, if not for IG
Sold two (non-coin) items there. On one I received slightly less than 75% of the selling price, the other almost 80%. So make of that what you will.
Yes, it does: offsite ads fees. According to my quick reading, once you hit 10K you are forced into the offside ads program where Etsy will run ads elsewhere (search, video, etc.). If someone clicks an ad for your item and then purchases within 30 days, you pay an extra 12% or 15%. I don't know if there will be many coin sales driven by online ads. So perhaps not very applicable for coins. But I do know that can be tough for other sellers who have no control over the ads which makes managing a particular margin difficult.
What's Etsy? (says the Old Codger).
Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA
It doesn't say you have to pay extra for online advertising on each item which is how I read your statement.
It says you can opt out of the offsite adds but the opt out ends at 10k. At that point, if they run an ad using one of your items and someone buys it, you are charged a fee. I would think that is a relatively rare occurrence given the number of listings on the site.