Ebay?

JK Knives

JK Knives

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I`m considering opening an Ebay store after the first of the year. Any thoughts on this? Anyone else have one?
 
From a business standpoint it might make sense, but as an individual I won't sell on EB because I can sell here with no fees attached.
Good luck with the decision.
 
I don't know about such things, but have you considered an Etsy "store". My wife spends a considerable amount of time (and money) on that site buying handmade goods.
 
YoungCurmudgeon said:
I don't know about such things, but have you considered an Etsy "store". My wife spends a considerable amount of time (and money) on that site buying handmade goods.
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Any chance you can email me any info on that? I`ll be gone most of today, but can look into it tomorrow.
 
mykel m said:
From a business standpoint it might make sense, but as an individual I won't sell on EB because I can sell here with no fees attached.
Good luck with the decision.
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My problem is if it does not sell on this forum, it does not sell at all! I post things in the exchange and they get ignored. I need to reach a broader market, can`t just rely on the guys on this forum. I`ve tried other forums, with no luck.
 
Etsy is a better choice I think.
Ive browsed handmade knives on there before.

Ive sold stuff on ebay as well.

IMO ebay is more of a 'production made' market and etsy is more of a 'hand made' market.
Truthfuly, you could go both routes and double your odds, and create twice as much work to do, taking pics, sitting at a computer and such.
 
From what I understand both only charge a fee when the item sells so theoretically you could cross list items. There is actually a seller on ebay right now with a couple JK's I thought he was you originally.
 
I would recommend doing some market research first. Would Ebay reach your target audience? The same goes for Etsy.

I think both stores take out a percentage of every sale you make.

Ebay is notorious for resolving disputes in favour of the customer. I get why they do that, and as a customer I applaud it, but I heard sometimes sellers feel like they've been screwed over by someone abusing the system. (Like, claiming an Item has never been received.) I would be very meticulous in my administration if you decide to use Ebay. Save all receipts for mailing items etc. etc.

That said: both options provide a store page in which you can advertise articles, meaning you can link people to those articles from other pages as well (and social media) and for which you require minimal skills in building webpages. You could also look into other options. There are software/webhosting packages with premade storepages that require minimal configuration. There is a cost to everything though.

Good luck!
 
Whatever route you go, I would also set up a Pinterest account, post pictures of the knives, and then have them link to your eBay or Etsy account. A lot of people are doing that sort of thing these days. Pinterest is visually driven and has a LOT of users, including many men who like to look at pictures of knives. Best of all, it's free.
 
I buy and sell some items on ebay and I do enjoy browsing. The issues I have are 1. They hit you for 10% and then paypal hits you another 3.5. And 2....whoever said that it's more of a place for production knives is correct. I can sell an Ontario in 1 day but have to relist customs over and over. Although, I do see Fiddlebacks and some BHKs selling pretty fast.

ETSY for me is a little arts and crafty.

JUST MY 2 CENTS
 
STAINLESS90 said:
From what I understand both only charge a fee when the item sells so theoretically you could cross list items. There is actually a seller on ebay right now with a couple JK's I thought he was you originally.
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Be careful with the cross selling on ebay. Because if you sell it on here and don't keep a close eye on ebay, you could get wind up selling a knife you already sold
 
I think ebay has a "is it real" problem. I buy stuff there all the time but "handmade" knives on ebay tend to get ignored, I'll buy materials from guys I've bought form before or cheaper stuff I expect is amde by the same company when I buy it in walmart or on ebay, but I don't trust the place as far as I can through it for anything substancial. then again I'm not exactly like the broader audience who might be lokoign to buy I guess.

Etsy, i set upa store there for a while just so I could send people to it to look at pictures and want not, don't know a ton about it but ti was fairly easy to set up, did seem to require a lot of maintance (updating products, pumping out promo infomation to the market etc etc) to get it profitable
 
Pinterest is one of the most annoying services on the Internet. If it says Pinterest I don't bother opening the page.
 
I think Ebay is an option worth considering. Unlike Pinterest people looking at Ebay are generally looking to buy. If it only cost when you sell a knife I say give it a try. I agree with ichor about Pinterest, if I'm ever searching anything and get lead there I don't waste time opening the link.
 
I buy and sell on eBay all the time. No other auction site has more people looking to buy at any given time.
I've never had a problem.
Give it a try.
 
MTURBO said:
I buy and sell on eBay all the time. No other auction site has more people looking to buy at any given time.
I've never had a problem.
Give it a try.
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Up until about a year ago I sold on ebay for over 15 years. I too had very few problems. It won't cost much to give it a whirl.....little to lose and maybe much to gain. ;')
 
there are some custom knifemaker groups on FB - lots of traffic there and no fees.
 
What about going through a knife seller like Knivesshipfree or DLT Trading or theknifeconnection? I have no idea how that works, but I see lots of sales by them.
(Hope I'm not breaking forum rules by giving example names)
 
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