Once upon a time, I loved counted cross stitch. Then I made a business out of it and didn’t love it anymore. Alas, I was left with two file tubs full of reminders of my folly, half paper patterns no one wanted and half fabric and floss I didn’t know how to sell.
One day, while purging mementos and other past prized possessions, I ran across said tubs and had a sad. What was I going to do with these memories? Because that’s what it was—memories. First, I’d failed in my business endeavor (not before wringing my credit dry) and second, I killed my love for my hobby. It’s more likely I failed because I killed my love for my hobby.
Enter Etsy.
But how? My first problem was that I didn’t know how to list quantities of uncut fabric.
Regular fabric is sold by the linear (running) yard. It’s usually 44″ or 54″ inches wide, folded in half lengthwise and rolled onto a flat cardboard core. When you get a yard of fabric, it’s 36″x44″ (or 36″x54″). Cross stitch fabric is always 54″ wide.
Cross stitch fabric is not sold by the running yard. It’s sold in sections of a yard unfolded, called “fat halves”, “fat quarters” and “fat eighths”. It can be sold that way because cross stitch fabric has no grain, so it makes no difference which way it’s cut. In a running yard, there are a few different possible combinations of cuts.
This is important because I had to determine whether to cut it first and make my little packages or do I go through the hassle of cutting to order (selling by the square inch)? And if so, how would that work? It’s taken me months to figure out, but I finally did—using the variations/SKU feature.
What I do is list availability of 2 fat halves, 4 fat quarters, and 8 fat eighths, and adjust the quantities every time someone buys one of the above. It is a little bit of a pain, but Etsy does not allow you to put a quantity of 0 to trigger a “sold out” designation.
I also had lots of types of embroidery threads. Hundreds of different colors and textures and brands.
My last problem was … all—this—stuff. Photographing and writing the listings and on and on and on. That’s the most tedious thing about setting up an Etsy shop.
I estimate it took me about 40 hours to photograph and list my products, but if you have quantities of things to sell that people want, it’s well worth it. In my case, I’d already written that stuff off on my taxes, so getting them out of my house without throwing it out or donating it was my main goal. There was a lot of money wrapped up in that fabric. I have, at this point, made a profit on it, and have started buying the popular ones specifically to sell—and what sells may surprise you.
Now, here’s how I would recommend you set up an Etsy shop. Setting up the Etsy shop was pretty easy. If you already have an Etsy account to purchase, you also have a store account if you want to use it.
- Sort through what you think you can sell on Etsy for a fixed price and inventory it.One thing I already knew was that some of the patterns I had from other designers had appreciated in value because they were rare. I didn’t know how much, though, so I put those things on eBay. One of those patterns went for $500. So unless you are absolutely certain your stuff would not fetch much at auction, use Etsy.
- Photograph or scan all your items in one go.
There are numerous tutorials on the web for how to photograph your stuff for optimal eyecatchery, but I don’t have a light box and I wasn’t going to make a cheap one and my items did not need fancying up.
I got white poster board, a white presentation board, white fabric, and scrounged around my house for a floor lamp with a gooseneck fixture. I put the poster board on the floor, set the presentation board on it, draped the white fabric over it, positioned the lamp where I could see no shadows, and went to town.
I scanned my fabric.
- Put all that stuff away, get out your inventory sheet, and sit down at the computer.
- Set up your Etsy shop account.The process is fairly straightforward because all you really need to do is give them your bank account information so they can pay you. You can choose to use Etsy payments or Paypal. I missed that step and told it I would use Etsy payments, which is fine. I noticed other vendors using Paypal payments, though, so there is that option if you want it.
- List your first item.The most important thing is to take your time. I can’t think of one detail in the listing form that Etsy has forgotten. There are possibilities for everything you can think of.
- Find comparable products and read those descriptions. Copy anything you think you can use for your product.
- Write as much as you possibly can about your product, down to the nth detail. Nobody will read it. It’s not there for that; it’s to cover your butt in case a customer comes back on you.
- Write your shop/shipping policies in the description and again in the space provided for your shop/shipping policies.
- Use keywords, but use them judiciously. You only get so many and you need to have a good feel for what people type in when searching out products like yours.
- Longer item titles are better for searching.
- Then start cloning your listing and carefully editing it for each item.
- Use the variation/SKU feature as much as possible.For instance, if you have a tee shirt that is of one design, but comes in different colors and different sizes and different prices, use one listing for the design, then add a variation for size and a variation for color. This is important because it makes buying easier. You don’t want to have to make all those listings (or pay for them) and nobody wants to hunt all over your site for different variations.
One thing I have found frustrating as a purchaser is, for instance, there is a cross stitch pattern that is part of a set, e.g., seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall. I have to hunt for each season on the site and if you have hundreds of listings, this gets annoying. If you have a set of something but they are each in a different listing, in your description, list “part of this set” and put the URL to the other items in that set.
- Shipping
- Postage scale
- Appropriate packaging for the item itself
- Appropriate shipping packaging
- You will have to figure out how you want to ship and purchase postage. You can purchase it through Etsy, but you must know exactly how much it will cost to do so. I don’t use this option.
But I also have an issue with just taking it to the post office. My local post office always charges me significantly more to ship than customer service at Hy-Vee. I don’t know why this is. So be careful about postage; the last thing you want is for it to arrive COD (did that once) or have it returned for insufficient postage (did that once).
Etsy does not limit how much you charge for shipping the way eBay does, but it will gently remind you that $X may be more than a customer would be willing to spend on shipping. It’s a helpful reminder.
The other thing that will invite a customer to spend more is if you make your shop “free shipping over $35”. People will buy more if they see “free shipping”.
FEES
Etsy, like eBay, charges a fee to list the item. It is 20¢ per item per quarter. They also take a percentage of the sale price.
One thing they do that I objected to at first is they promote you and charge a fee for this. There is no opting out. You can purchase more promo, but Etsy will promote you at their baseline and they will charge you for it.
I say “at first,” because I quickly realized I probably would have gotten no traffic to my site without it. When I did the math, I decided not to be salty about it and be grateful instead because …
Overall, my fees are about 16% of my sales. God gets less than that, but eBay takes more and limits your shipping fees, so I’m happy with it.
PAYMENT
Etsy drops money into my account every week. You can change that schedule if you want. Weekly is the default and I saw no reason to change that.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
I really shouldn’t need to tell anybody to make sure they stay on top of their Etsy orders, shipping in a timely manner, and whatnot, but here I am saying it anyway.
It was the only way I knew how to end this article.
this is a pretty prescient article thank you. I was wondering how I was going to move all my solar panels I’ve begun to assemble in my garage.
Taking away jobs from all those soon-to-be-unemployed oil workers. Nice.
It’s the power of the future. That, dirt farms, candlemaking, horses and windmills are the future markets i plan on betting big on.
If I can manage staying alive, I’m considering gravedigging, to bury all the billions that will die from the elements and starvation in that glorious new economy.
My step dad and I did that – digging graves – in Minnesoda winter.
Once you punch through the frozen layer with a jack hammer, it is actually fairly comfortable 6 feet down.
https://youtu.be/cmw67vdsB2Q
Yeah, I know. Done that. Like you said, once you get past the freeze line, it’s easy going.
Gravedigging?
You think valuable nutrients are just going to be buried in the ground?
No worries, they’re all going to have better green jobs. We’ve been assured!
Now I just need something to sell…
GameStop stock?
Don’t own any, and selling borrowed stock is risky.
canning jar lids?
Or canning jars. My daughter stole all of my wide-mouth jars for craft projects. Shelves at all the stores are empty of jars – until last weekend. There was a solitary case of 12 jars with lids up on the top shelf of the hardware store.
I’ve been looking every time I go into a store, haven’t lucked out yet. I need about 12 dozen for you know what in Sep. Wide mouth are best
“Wide mouth are best”
Except when it comes to bass fishin’
ULINE won’t allow “new customers” now for canning supplies. Usually you can buy in quantity from them, but if you haven’t ordered specific products from them before, they won’t allow you to place an order for those products.
Your body?
You mean people are willingly buying bodies?
Checks mirror. Oh, oh, I’m good with free if there are any takers. I’d be in the outdated discount bin anyway
Your immortal soul?
Artisinally handwrapped 9x19mm ammunition?
I would have preferred a guide on setting up an onlyfans but etsy is good as well
Welcome back, Pie.
Oh okay screw you, then.
“Live from Romania?”
Great article! It’s something I wish I had the chops to do. My personality doesn’t really click with handling angry customers.
I’m struck by how many people and companies and institutions presume to be owed more than God.
So far no angry customers on Etsy.
What bothers me is that they take a percentage instead of a flat fee.
It costs them exactly zero dollars more to host a $1 item as it does to host a $1M item, yet they charge you as if it costs them more.
Just because it costs the same to host doesn’t mean they shouldn’t charge on the item’s worth. They’re not a charity; they’re out to make a profit, so I don’t begrudge them this.
eBay screwed sellers over when they took a customer-is-always-right approach, capped shipping fees (usually below market), and did other things that chipped away at your profit margin.
Etsy apparently learned from this and they keep their fees reasonable.
eBay screwed sellers over when they took a customer-is-always-right approach
Yes, this is a killer for small sellers. Just a few crooked customers can eat up all your profits. The bigger sellers can deal with this, similar to how retail shops have to deal with shoplifting, but when you have limited inventory it can be devastating.
Yep. Last time I sold something:
eBay maximum allowed shipping charge: $5
Actual cost to ship it: $16
And that was after the first person who “won” the auction was like “nah, changed my mind”.
If they tell you that up front, you could add $16 onto your reserve and buy it now prices.
It’s not a flat 16%, that’s just what Mojeaux estimates for what she is selling. From what I last saw, it was 5%, plus payment processing costs and various other fees. And yes, they could make it a flat fee, but that fee would probably have to be too high for the low cost items to be sold.
Yes. I was trying to figure out how to put that in words and failed. Thanks.
This is why Steve Albini always refused to take points on album sales as compensation. As he said, he was providing a service. His fee compensated him for his work. Once the album was finished, his job was done. Whatever money the album made through sales was the work of the artist and belonged to them.
I’ve made a decent amount of money on selling stuff at Reverb in a similar way.
It helps I have wholesale accounts at a couple of distributors.
Although I can get accounts with distributors, I decided against that for now.
I basically buy highly desirable guitar pedals on the ground floor, use them for a bit, then sell them for more.
I could be an asshole and go the straight flipping route, but decided against that too.
Why is flipping an assholish move?
It looks a lot like scalping to some people, and scalpers descending like a plague of locusts driving up prices irks some people.
Depending on circumstance, flipping is no different from running retail.
People don’t have to buy from scalpers. That’s a choice they make.
I would argue that all flipping is retail. You may not sell it at that price, but the correct response is to lower your price.
The weasel words in my initial response are meant to indicate that this is an observation of the reactions of others. I don’t claim it to be rational, just what I see.
Pretty much this.
Because you’re manipulating the market to create even more scarcity on an already scarce item.
I don’t mind making money off of stuff, and it’s certainly supply/demand that drives people to pay many times the original sale value for a scarce item but I don’t feel like being a manipulating factor in that transaction chain.
In short, the guy who buys the Very Exclusive Guitar Pedal™️ at $400 with the explicit purpose of selling it for $1000 is a dick, and I like to think I’m not a dick. At least not that kind.
I don’t agree, but we each have our lines in the sand.
That depends. If to get the VEGP, you have to be in line in Des Moines at 7 AM on a Tuesday, but the flipper then sells it on ebay, then he is providing a service.
If on the other hand, he follows the delivery truck around and buys every one of the VEGPs at each store as it is unloaded and then sells them all on ebay, he is a dick.
I am sure Neph knows exactly what I am talking about.
Which one is the guy who has a bot order up all the stock the instant it becomes available on the website?
I agree. If the item is exclusive in ways like that.
But we’re talking almost exclusively online sales, where it’s sniping bots that determine who is able and not able to buy an item.
It’s definitely a line in the sand for me.
Again, I can’t agree. The guy saw an opportunity and he took it.
The stores could a) refuse the sale and b) listed it on eBay themselves and/or c) price it in their stores the same as they do on eBay.
When a seller on eBay has more than one of his item in stock, it tells me it’s not rare. I decide whether to bid/buy now or not in part based on his stated stock.
A dick.
Sniping bots are different from Some Guy, but the principle is the same.
Do I think sniping is a shit thing to do? Sure. Do I feel like setting up my own bots? No, because I want to control what price I pay, which is why eBay has a feature where you can enter your cap. If my cap is higher than a bot’s, I’m going to win the item.
For me, it all boils down to “How badly do I want this item?” and “How much profit can I make at $X?” and cap accordingly.
Why is flipping an assholish move?
I think it depends on the type of flip.
My buddy has a store on Amazon and flips stuff sometimes. He finds stuff on clearance at places like Kmart, negotiates a further discount to buy everything out, and then sells it on Amazon for less than retail. Its a win-win-win all around for him, the retailer, and his customer. To build off of the other day’s Buffalo Trace conversation, assuming no interstate liquor laws, someone could buy a bunch of BT cheaply where they are in high supply and resell to places like mine where they are scarce. Another win-win-win all around.
It would be assholish for an ABC employee to let his buddy grab each of the 12 BT bottles allotted to our local ABC store right off the truck and then flip them outside the store at double the price. Certainly ethically wrong because it’s an artificial scarcity created by government force and he’s connected to the monopoly.
But robc was talking about RandoGuy following the delivery truck around, waiting till it was unloaded, putting the stock into his cart, and going to the cash register to buy it all. At least, that is what I inferred.
The retailer has the right to limit his purchase because he can’t jack up the price at the cash register.
OTOH, we are talking about dickish and assholish moves, not necessarily immoral/unethical ones. I don’t see the free exchange of goods for money, absent government intervention, to be immoral/unethical. Some people went to the store and found the shelf empty.
The retailer still got paid what he asked.
Yes, that is what I was talking about. It happens in the beer/bourbon world.
I said he was a dick. And, yes, the store is part of the problem, not limiting sales. Also, the brewery is too for not just brewing more of the beer. I isnt illegal or unethical. It might be immoral, I think I could make that case.
I think the use case is simple. Is the middleman improving access by his actions? If so, like in my case of waiting in line to buy a one off product, then yes, he is. If he is creating a false shortage by buying as much as he can, while making access harder or not any easier, then he is a dick.
The brewer may be limiting how much he brews because of the federal surtax on larger brewers.
I am smelling an article about this.
“To build off of the other day’s Buffalo Trace conversation, assuming no interstate liquor laws, someone could buy a bunch of BT cheaply where they are in high supply and resell to places like mine where they are scarce. Another win-win-win all around.”
No one would ever do that. Certainly no one would drive to visit his inlaws for Christmas in a state with better selection and cheaper prices on bourbon, and then end up driving back with so many different kinds tucked in various pieces of luggage that he sang Copperhead Road half a dozen times on the drive, pissing his wife off a moderate amount.
No one.
Ever.
There is a reason they record your license plates when you drive up to the Duty Free shop.
It’s not. Buying and selling honestly is never wrong.
Guitar pedals and amps is a business I’ve been thinking about getting started in. What would be a great product name?
Candy little girl?
Wah Wah.
Ice Cream Truck [products]
For real?! You can engineer that? IMHO opinion, there’s not enough of the old school analog stuff like this,
https://reverb.com/p/catalinbread-karma-suture-fuzz?hfid=16411561&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=9713147504&utm_content=campaignid=9713147504_adgroupid=103084752121_productpartitionid=953452919697=merchantid=101082203_productid=16411561_keyword=_device=c_adposition=_matchtype=_creative=427572825763&gclid=Cj0KCQiA3smABhCjARIsAKtrg6Jc8BY27Y7vxEqZq_PD1jHTMzhRK6irYywR1yOkXkFlWguEiytfzwAaAhBHEALw_wcB
All tube amps and analog pedals. If you could make them more affordable…
I have some small experience with amplification and tubes.
One thing I know how to do is vastly increase the efficiency and reliability of tube amps, and AFAIK, these methods have not yet been used in guitar amps. Tube pedals could be fun, especially with some of the pencil tubes.
This was a good tube pedal. Coulda used more crunch on the low end…
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274424146224?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=274424146224&targetid=1071860177701&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9013129&poi=&campaignid=11614529183&mkgroupid=113642448632&rlsatarget=pla-1071860177701&abcId=9300457&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cj0KCQiA3smABhCjARIsAKtrg6JpvqF4rOwkpfQepqnu6qVYN2ctj79uIzsD4RSRFByDuqpv7KF34XkaAgHjEALw_wcB
It’s a big world!!!
This looks like one where the tube is decorative rather than functional…
“The First Properly-Designed and Built Guitar Amps in the History of Earth,” according to the stuff I’ve read and the guitar amps I’ve actually seen.
I have a friend in England who has done some terrific work on guitar amps, Merlin Blencowe. Wrote a couple books about it as well.
Just checked ’em out on the ‘Zon. Interesting.
As an old fart, the price of technical books (which were never cheap to begin with) are absolutely breath-takingly stratospheric these days, although your friend’s offerings are around half the price of stuff from (say) Douglas Self.
Given the mystique around tubes, I’m sure you could just sell one or two “ultimate” amps a year and make scads o’ dosh. ;-)
Self’s stuff is great. Ditto Bob Cordell. Best books on tubes are from Morgan Jones. Those of you who know me IRL will be amused reading the back covers and Acknowledgement sections of Jones’s books.
Nice info, Moj! When I get ready to vacate, I have some knitting stuff I may sell.
Bankrupted Hedge Fund Managers To Receive $600 Stimulus
From Greco-Persian Wars To The Civil Rights Movement, Here Are 7 Times Kamala Harris Changed The Course Of World History
“The 5-year-old Harris cut down 300 Englishmen with a claymore while shouting, “FWEEDOM!” at the top of her lungs.”
Heh. I’d laugh harder, but this person will be president very soon and I’d rather be lower on the gulag list.
I donno, she strikes me as someone who might get assassinated by her secret service detail.
i read an interesting piece….I don’t know, somewhere recently that said that Harris doesn’t have as much power in the regime as people assume, and that Susan Rice is more likely to be Biden’s puppet master.
How Susan Rice continues to be employed is beyond me.
She gets caught lying about the Libya mobs, she is dumb (or disloyal) enough to write an email about Obama’s secret meeting where they put the hit on Flynn and she still has a job?
If the GOP takes over the House and Senate, they should impeach her to prevent her from ever holding an office of public trust.
ow Susan Rice continues to be employed is beyond me.
She gets caught lying about the Libya mobs, she is dumb (or disloyal) enough to write an email about Obama’s secret meeting where they put the hit on Flynn and she still has a job?
Why not? Has she ever been held accountable for any of that? Has there ever been any serious fallout because of it? She has a job because she’s proven she’s a loyal party member willing to lie cheat and steal for the benefit of her employers, and she is therefore duly rewarded.
She also lied through her teeth about Bowe Bergdahl, among other whoppers.
I admire how she pulled herself out of the poverty her PhD professor parents had been mired in.
My admiration is how she agreed to toil under a known anti-bussing racist and accused sexual predator for the good of the country.
She knows that if Biden kicks the bucket, we will need a strong fierce woman to lead us to the Promised Land. It is just sad that those white racist hicks in Iowa wouldn’t vote for her back in January and she has to suffer the indignity of only being VP.
C’mon, Man, she’s veep for all the people, even you. Why, I don’t know, but she is. A good hearted woman…
A good description and a good photo are the key.
I am a craigslist hound. I laugh at the sellers who are trying to sell used tires but DON”T PUT THE TIRE SIZE IN THEIR AD.
My best score so far has been replacement mirrors for my truck. I got a matched pair to replace the one I hit with a road construction sign for $30. Retail for a single mirror was ~$120
I like(d) Craigslist for certain things, mostly heavy and definitely local, but lately Facebook Marketplace has been my go-to for buying and selling.
“…Facebook Marketplace…”
HISSS
Marketplace is the only thing I miss about Facebook.
I used to buy quite a few things on CL, but lately it seems like there are more scams than legit items for sale.
Thanks, Mojo.
eBay screwed sellers over when they took a customer-is-always-right approach, capped shipping fees (usually below market), and did other things that chipped away at your profit margin.
In my researches into Amazon selling, I ran into a bunch of stories about “competition-killing strategies” like accusing another seller of dealing in knockoffs, bombarding them with bad reviews and accusations of bad practices; weaponizing the “customer service” department, basically.
My kids’ school trying to get their SJW points by using “Latinx” instead of Latino on the re-enrollment form.
You know, the same Latinx that most Latinos disapprove of and see as a form of linguistic colonialism on the part of US academics and the SJW crowd?
Liberals hardest hit.
I told my wife that she ought to write to the school as a form of pushback against it, and even though she’d like to, she’s not gonna do it. Doesn’t want to rock the boat. Unfortunately, the unwillingness to rock the boat means it will be taken as a prelude for more by the powers that be.
Also- I worry about shipping. Both cost and logistics. I guess there are “postage services’ but I don’t know enough about them.
There are more efficient ways to do it than I do, but I don’t mind trotting myself down to HyVee (almost) every day.
Have you tried using USPS shipments from your home? You can order free (!) USPS-branded packaging (boxes, envelopes, etc) from USPS, that they will deliver free(!) to your door. Then you can print your own shipping labels and set the boxes out for pickup (or just carry them to a drop box or local post office).
No. Probably should, but it would be way way down on my to-do list.
Many online marketplaces have an option to ship through them. I know Reverb does, and it’s far better priced than any service I’ve seen, plus you don’t have to deal with the shipping service if something goes wrong. They handle it for you.
Do they actually hold your product and ship it for you? Or do they just send you shipping labels that you are supposed to print and slap on the box?
Back in the early ’00s I worked with a local shipper who had a giant contract with QVC to import orders, generate shipping labels that were sent to QVC’s suppliers and scheduling pickups.
It is a nice way for QVC to avoid having to warehouse any product or take a risk of being stuck with a bunch of garbage inventory.
The labels are printed so that the end consumer thinks it came from some QVC warehouse. There is no clue it came from Sven and Ole’s garage.
You buy and print out a shipping label, then drop it off at PO/UPS Store/FedEx Office or schedule them to pick it up.
It’s labeled as coming from whoever sold it, not from the marketplace.
But (at least with Reverb) if anything were to go wrong (lost/damaged) Reverb deals with the shipping company, and you pay much less for a shipping label than buying direct (unless you have a corporate account with good terms).
But how does this apply to my OnlyFans?
that joke has already been made.
Look at his picture. You can see how he missed it.
In short, the guy who buys the Very Exclusive Guitar Pedal™️ at $400 with the explicit purpose of selling it for $1000 is a dick, and I like to think I’m not a dick. At least not that kind.
What about the guy who is willing and able to pay the premium because he hasn’t got the time or the inclination to search for the $400 one? Is he a dick?
it is dicks all the way down
It’s all cod’s in the end.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb_nZh8x_Uo
It’s not about searching. The vast majority of stuff like this is a small run released at 1 place online, which are completely sold out in seconds. It’s more a matter of luck (and bots) that determines who can buy one than anything else.
Back when I started in IndyCar, the Indianapolis Five Fucking Hundred was a Really Big Deal. In May, when you drove down Crawfordsville road from 465 to the Speedway, there were probably 100
scalpersticket brokers on the side of the road. I thought, at the time, “Why do the Georges leave all that money on the table? Why don’t they jack up the prices at the ticket window and capture that?”But, as time passed, I came to think it was intentional. It was a good little side gig for a lot of people and put a little extra money in their pockets. It’s not like the Speedway was barely scraping by. And the secondary market relieved the Speedway of a lot of additional administrative time and effort.
They came down like a ton of bricks on counterfeiters.
Back when I started in IndyCar, the Indianapolis Five Fucking Hundred was a Really Big Deal
The decline of the 500 is one of the sadder cultural declines I’ve watched. As a kid in the early 90s, I witnessed the entire city, even way out in the suburbs and beyond, dressed up. 30 miles out, people were putting up decorations on their houses and hosting listen parties (it was blacked out on TV) if they didn’t attend. More people put out decorations for the race than for Christmas. The entire month of May was a festival.
Practices were busy, qualifying was packed. The race itself was a sea of humanity, both inside the track and out.
25 years later, it’s more akin to the buzz around a NFL playoff game, not even the super bowl. The city gets excited for a week, the sportscasters spend a few days at the track, and then it’s over.
I need to get back on craiglist and sell off some more stuff (Spoiler Alert: lame excuse ahead) when springtime comes and the weather gets a little warmer.
Mo. Yes there will be peeps ths year and Yes, they will be wearing their masks.
https://www.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/octopeep_ugzgmr.jpeg
Nice article. Miy wife is going through the same thing. She was a fanstastically talented crazy quilter/embroideror. She loved it so much she went into business (web and brick and morter). She did well enough but the pressure to keep producing killed her muse. She’s now liquidating the substansal inventory via etsy (which includes a lot of cross stitch stuff). She has a few gripes, but bascally Etsy seems like a good way for a private person to reach a large audience. I set up her web business and it was not easy making something simple enough for quilting ladies to use and still be flexible enought to handle different kinds of inventory.
is that a peep c-section for at least G baby peeps?
Oooh, what’s her Etsy site?!
I don’t really have any gripes with Etsy (yet) other than not being able to trigger the “sold out” tag manually.
Speaking of quilting, my MIL got into that briefly (I think briefly), and I took her up to the Missouri Star Quilt Co in Hamilton, Missouri. She was in heaven. I can quilt, but I am not a quilter, so I just liked looking at all the pretty colors and imagining things. The “store” was spread out over most of the buildings on the main drag.
This is her site.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/bertseesathread
Mo, Just went to your site. You two are in competition for the thread!
I have very little thread left; I just want to get rid of it and I know somewhere out there is someone looking for something I’ve got.
And I know this because I just got an order from someone looking for fabric from a company that went out of business YEARS ago. I’ve got a lot of their stuff because I bought bolt ends on clearance. She was so happy and grateful I had it.
That’s a lot of my wife’s customers. The inventory is pretty old so she still has stuff you can’t find anymore. Several customers have just said “How much for all of the x you’ve got?” She loves them.
Well done, Mo.
I’ve got a small Etsy shop. I started it with the idea of having a side hustle just for the extra cash. Greeting cards seemed easy enough, though I had to learn to illustrate. The whole gay wedding cake thing was going on so I thought the gay/lesbian community would be a good niche to start in. I sucked so badly at it initially, but studied the stats and customer preferences, shut it down for awhile to regroup, then opened it back up to some success. Been doubling revenue year over year the past 2 years. It’s been fun.
Thanks and congrats!
I found Etsy years ago and bought ties for my husband from this shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Cyberoptix
I can’t put more than two links in a comment or it’ll get moderated, but here’s one tie I bought for him: https://www.etsy.com/listing/60837804/victorian-gears-tie-steampunk-wedding
I like your taste!
I had this doormat https://imgur.com/a/VYI3nVf made at this shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/AsYouWishCustomCo.
That’s awesome. And that’s a neat shop.
Well, whaddya know?
So, let’s sum up the situation at hand:
There are still thousands of soldiers milling around DC, and apparently they are there indefinitely.
Biden has signed at least 33 executive orders in his first week or so in office.
A guy is being prosecuted for posting memes online ….four years ago.
Trading is being restricted in order to stanch the losses of billion-dollar hedge funds.
This return to normalcy has been terrific, huh?
$1M from Citi and only $800K from Citidel?
WTF? Did Citi not realize she was a chick? Paid her The Man’s rate?
It used to be a free country.
Yeah, but now we don’t have to deal with the horror of all those mean spirited tweets!
If we bring the troops home, it would mean that they all
diedslept in parking garages in vain.I’m thinking bout getting back into shirts (because nobody bought my screen printing stuff last summer when I had it on craigslist). I’m not sure if Etsy would be a good place to sell or not. I always wonder how anybody finds anything on the vast quagmire of unsorted and unsearchable stuff on the intertubes.
Well, that’s the nice thing about Etsy’s not-optional promo. They help people find your stuff and pronto. I had sales my first week.
How long do you suppose it would take for my Shepherd Fairy knockoff of St Foochy with the “QUACK” legend to get banned?
Practices were busy, qualifying was packed. The race itself was a sea of humanity, both inside the track and out.
My first race day, I was dumbfounded. The guys I was working with said we had to be at the credential gate before 4AM or we wouldn’t get in. I thought they were nuts. Nope.
Every time I have been to Etsy for something, I end up passing because of the shipping costs.
Does Etsy get all the shipping $$, or is it a case of people trying to get you to look at their low priced listing and then make it up on shipping?
But good article Mo!
Thanks!
I can only speak for myself. My shipping prices are at or below what the post office really charges. People have a good feel for what’s reasonable and what’s not. It’s also why “buy $35 worth of stuff in my store and I’ll ship it for free” is attractive. Why spend it on shipping when you can spend it on something tangible?
. . . . plus $85 shipping and handling (mostly handling, we like handling).
kinnath: Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I had a million dollars I could hook that up, cause shippers dig a dude with money.
Peter Gibbons: Well, not all shippers.
kinnath: Well the kind of shippers that’d double handle an order for a dude like me do
Angry Etsy custome story.
Wife gets an order Friday afternoon, Dec 24th. Saturday afternoon (Christmas if you didn’t notice) angry email arrives “Where’s my order? $%^&*!!!”
Goodness. I would’ve refunded her immediately.
Here’s your money back and dont ever order from me again.
Is that what she said? GOOD FOR HER!
That was bascially it.
BS is someting up with which she will not put.
Cooling down the rhetoric, I see.
While addressing members’ security concerns, Pelosi says that they’ll need additional protective measures when “the enemy is inside the House of Representatives.”
They really really want this insurrection to happen, dont they? Either that or they don’t have the first inclination as to what kind of bear they are poking. Maybe, after 120 years of tapping the bear and hardly getting a response, they’re jabbing the stick in its eye to ensure it’s dead. Imagine how surprised they’ll be when it turns out it was only hibernating.
Yeah every single time they have stripped away liberty, nothing has happened. So….why would they stop now?
How many of you remember the outrage when Nixon called his political opponents ‘enemies’?
Ten bucks says Pelosi was one of the outraged. Would someone throw a bucket of water on her already, geez.
“We’re doing everything in our power to make it absolutely clear that you’re our enemies, but how dare you say it out loud!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aopdD9Cu-So
Pelosi says that they’ll need additional protective measures when “the enemy is inside the House of Representatives.”
I’m not sure that’s what Pogo meant.
They really, really want a civil war, don’t they?
Never gonna happen. By the time enough people don’t have anything to lose, it’ll be too late. They will have lost too much to stage a war.
On the other hand, people who have lost everything have nothing left to lose.
I’m thinking about people who are starving and without weapons. That’s where we’ll be.
Not all of us.
Only if you allow your weapons to be confiscated
Refresh before replying
Refresh before replying.
Refresh before replying.
Sheesh.
They have the tanks, the planes, and the megabrains like Brennan. Why wouldn’t they be full of hubris?
Meanwhile, somewhere, the ghost of Ho Chi Minh smiles.
They are definitely trying to stage a coup.
It is, Someone asked for clarification and she said “there are reps who want to have guns on the floor and have threatened other members”.
Nothing that comes out of her mouth is true, ever. It is all lies and gibberish.
threatened other members
Really?
Well, threatened to vote against their bill, yes.
They dont give any names of these theateners, do they?
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Lol. Even the wikipedians can’t make that case.
I didn’t say they were right just that they give her name as threatener.
Is she also the one trying to get to carry at the capitol? I thought that was a different person.
“Wish I’d have thought to bring a gun with me” said the ghost of Charles Sumner
When AOC and Ted Cruz are in agreement, watch out! Although in this case, they are on the good side together. Both have slammed Robinhood.
https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1354833603943931905
Yeah but she already responded that she wants nothing to do with it because Ted Cruze “Tried to have her murdered”.
#Unity
(yes i know that AOC was never really on the Unity train, i’m just pointing out that she is an absolute crazy person, who you don’t want to be allied with)
“A guy is being prosecuted for posting memes online ….four years ago.”
First thing that pops in my head….statute of limitations? It is 2 years in LA except for crimes that don’t have one (child molestation, forcible rape, murder). They are prosecuting the guy 4 years later? I guess they weren’t kidding when they said they want retribution for Trump voters.
Keep your powder dry.
It won’t hold up but the process is the punishment.
The technical complaint against him is that he sent out an official-looking picture that suggested that people (specifically targeting a particular demographic as pictured) could vote remotely by texting to a particular number. He took great pains to make it look legitimate, and a fairly large number of “votes” were sent to the number he published. I’m not sure what the statute of limitations is on election fraud, but saying he is being prosecuted simply for posting a meme is ignoring some information.
I imagine his defense is something like “It was an obvious joke guys, who would believe that at the time I posted it,” and that may or may not be enough to get him off, but it’s pretty sketchy.
All his defense has to be is “1A Bitches!”
Who cares how legitimate his meme was? Who cares how many people sent a text to that number? Fuck I would have been tempted to send a text too if I had seen this just for the lulz.
The only thing I could see getting him in trouble is if people were charged to text that number and he got money from it. Then maybe you could say that he committed fraud.
True enough; buyer beware. But if it swings one way, it should swing the other. I’m wondering if there’s some sort of “reasonable person” standard that would determine where on the fraud/joke continuum this lay. Certainly if the language was specifically claiming that if you sent your vote in this way, you didn’t have to go vote in person, it’s really questionable.
Fraud, either commercial or electoral, is a serious issue, IMO.
Here’s another way of looking at it: If the text said: “Text ‘RippedOff’ to xxxxx to be added to our complaint against MegaCo and we’ll send that list to MegaCo and use it to get your money back” and then they either didn’t send anything to MegaCo or did and neglected to give money back to the texters, that’d probably be considered fraud, right? If it weren’t, MegaCo could just pay have a third party set up a similar “service” and never forward the complaints to MegaCo. MegaCo could say “we never received any complaints” truthfully, and all the complainants would think that they had made their complaint and not call MegaCo’s customer service dept. to lodge a real complaint.
“Fraud, either commercial or electoral, is a serious issue, IMO.”
Apparently “electoral fraud” is a serious issue in only this one case
“Text ‘RippedOff’ to xxxxx to be added to our complaint against MegaCo and we’ll send that list to MegaCo and use it to get your money back” and then they either didn’t send anything to MegaCo or did and neglected to give money back to the texters, that’d probably be considered fraud, right?
What is the damage to texters? They did not purchase a product or service from the “Text RippedOff” company. Possibly receiving spam the same as all spam messages, but I’m not sure I see fraud.
MegaCo could say “we never received any complaints” truthfully, and all the complainants would think that they had made their complaint and not call MegaCo’s customer service dept. to lodge a real complaint.
Does MegaCo offer any sort of customer service guarantee? If yes, this would be fraud. If no customer service language or guarantee anywhere, I’m not so sure this would be fraud.
Yeah, and there were a lot of texts to that number supposedly. It certainly did keep a lot of (stupid and/or uninformed) people from voting
“They are going to put all of you back in chains”
Which lie caused more votes to be cast based on bullshit?
Agreed but how many specific people can you point to that voted one way or another because of that specific lie? I’d suspect that they actually have complainants who’ll admit to being fooled and the phone records to back it up. It’s not that I think the guy should be prosecuted but they do at least have a bullshit case they can build.
bullshit case they can build
Against Big Education? For doing such a woeful job of teaching basic civics lessons?
I’m going to guess that you could probably get a bunch of complainants who used to be pipefitters on the Keystone project to testify that Joe Biden fooled them into voting for him. Probably more than you can round up for the meme guy.
All I’m saying is if you start criminalizing lies and untruths in political races, that is a very big can of worms.
The proper response is “You fucked up, you trusted us”. Not the threat of jail/fines.
But as right wing twitter discovered, there are leftists who did the exact same thing, but in the other direction, and who are not being prosecuted for it.
As with so many things, it’s just as much that the rules are not evenly applied as that the rules exist at all.
I’m sure the statute of limitations for any fraud that may (and I’m totes sure it was an honest mistake) have occurred in the 2020 election has already passed.
Fulton County, GA election workers can all sleep peacefully at night
Also, while I understand the “indict a ham sandwich” notion, I am curious what statute covers memes.
It used to be a free country.
Who said you could say that?
What’ the big idea?
That also used to be a negative phrase. Unfortunately people got cracking on the answer and now we have The Green New Deal, Build Back Better and The New Normal as answers.
BTW, Mojeaux, thanks for the article. I’m considering setting up a shop to sell some things I have now. I get wholesale rates on some things that I could repackage into more reasonable quantities, plus I am hoping to make some custom parts for experimental aircraft in the next few years, so now might be a good time to get experience with the platform.
You’re welcome!
Nice job, Mo!
I’ve bought a couple things there, but never really paid much attention. Looks like an interesting marketplace!
Thank you!
I’ve bought a bunch of charm/bead bracelets over the years. They are reasonably priced and I do not need another hobby.
Voter fraud guy: Cry me a river. Anyone that fell for that is a fool. If you cant be bothered to show up at the official voting booth in person, fuck off. In person voting is the only method that should be legal. Of course honest voting would kill the Democrat party so it will never happen.
Getting ready to have it out with the very angry 14 year old daughter. Everybody wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
Just understand that if you win, you lose.
Good luck.
Good luck. I am glad it is you and not me.
Good luck, been there many times. I think dads, more than moms, don’t want to be the bad guy, but sometimes you have to.
Thoughts and prayers, d00d.
I am with you in spirit, my dude.
Some interesting developments in the SpaceX Starship testing in the last couple of hours: Musk in some sort of battle/discussions with FAA and also flipping out on Twitter. FAA just issued a TFR up to only 7200ft after canceling the unlimited altitude TFR that was in place earlier today. Ship is being fueled, and the tank levels are getting high enough to imply possibly a high altitude flight, based on the video feeds I posted earlier.
Why would they give a damn how high he goes? If he isn’t leaving junk up there why cant he go where he pleases?
Well, legitimate or not, the FAA has a lot to say about where you can fly and when.
Wistfully remmebers when you didn’t even have to register your Drone…
Because they control all the airspace and commercial flights go upwards of 35,000 plus feet. If the TFR only goes up to 7200 ft, the FAA has no plans to route commercial flights around the test zone.
I suspected I didnt have enough info to have an opinion on the matter.
Class A airspace goes from 18000 MSL to 60000 MSL, and above that, the FAA does not claim to regulate it, but the FAA does issue TFRs up to 91,000 MSL (or “unlimited”)–international law does not specify the vertical limits of airspace above sovereign nations.
Infinite!
Unless if we live in a closed universe that could present problems….
Gravitational lensing could be a problem. What if the universe actually is a Moebius space?
I thought it was scrubbed for today?
It was, but they began fueling maybe an hour ago, and the FAA re-issued a low altitude TFR for this afternoon.
Reportedly, a flight TFR has now been issued reaching to “unlimited” altitude. This is not yet visible on any TFR web sites, and even Garmin doesn’t list it just yet in their “Pilot” app, but TFR propagation can be slow, and it is technically and legally up to pilots to continually confirm with Flight Service Stations or ATC whether there are TFRs in the area where they operate.
Everybody wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
Break a leg.
Whose? That’s entirely up to you.
Holy shit – Robin Hood is actually selling off users’ GameStop shares and the users cannot stop them.
seen here
I’m going to close my (albeit small) robinhood account.
lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit
The lawsuits are going to be legendary.