Etsy Direct Checkout

Today's Silver Price: $32.40/t.oz.

There's a new feature coming to Etsy. It's called Direct Checkout. Customers can use their credit card on Etsy without having to go through PayPal. The third party has been eliminated... 2's a party, 3's a crowd...

I am very interested in this new feature. I think that customers will be much more likely to buy from an Etsy page if it is a simpler process. Now they do not have to have a PayPal account or enter their credit card info into PayPal, they can simply enter everything right on Etsy.

It seems that this new feature is in a pilot state. It is not available to all Etsy users at this time but apparently it will be eventually. I have requested participation in the trial and hopefully in a couple of months it will become available.

I don't think it will make much of a financial difference in terms of fees taken out of each sale. In order to use Direct Checkout Etsy will charge the seller 3% of the transaction plus $.25 for every purchase (this is in addition to the 3.5% of the sale that Etsy takes and the $0.20 listing fee).

PayPal takes 2.9% of the sale plus $0.30. So it's just about the same percentage taken out, but Etsy would charge $0.05 less than PayPal.

Hmmm now that I'm seeing all these fees I'm starting to wonder if this is all worth it. It costs me $0.20 for every item that I list on Etsy. Then when I sell an item, Etsy takes 3.5% of the sale. Now for the actual transaction, either Etsy or PayPal will take 3% of the transaction AND $0.25 or $0.30. So I'm paying at least $0.45 plus 6% for every sale. Bummer.

I guess for now it's not too bad. I've only had a handful of sales so far. Perhaps in the future though it will be beneficial to start my own website. If I start now, I can learn to build a website by...

To List, Or Not To List, That Is The Question.... and Show & Tell

Today's Silver Price: $34.24/t.oz.

Ok, Twilight is on FX at 7:30 tonight so lets make this quick. LOL.

To List, Or Not To List?

One of my challenges in keeping an online shop and doing craft shows at the same time is which items to use in which arena. When I list an item on my Etsy site I don't like to take it to a show or fair because if I sell it, I would have to immediately take it off of the website which is not always possible. Today's smartphones do offer easy internet access, however my Crackberry has limited capabilities (I may have to upgrade- I need better technology!!!). So if I am taking particular items to a craft show I cannot post them on Etsy. I want to have a large selection on my website, but I feel that I have a greater chance of selling something when customers can pick up a piece of jewelry and try it on.

For every piece of jewelry that I make I must decide if I will post it on the website or use it for a show. I suppose if I were to have an inventory large enough there would be enough merchandise to fill both the website and my table at shows. I feel like for a craft show or fair I should bring every piece I have and sometimes I have even removed pieces from the website in advance of a show.


Show & Tell

Over the weekend I finally got to make my new rings out of the sterling silver patterned wire that I've been babbling about. This is the patterned wire. It comes in a coil- I believe I purchased two feet of it (not all of it is shown below). I cut it down to 3-inch pieces in order to make rings.

 I've grinded down the ends of each piece with a Dremel to a diagonal slant to match the pattern of the wire. After grinding with the Dremel I used a file to smooth the edge.

 The rings have been bent around a ring mandrel. The ends have to be bent using pliers, it's too hard to do with my fingers.

I've made several of the rings below using 16 gauge sterling silver wire. I made one for myself and I wear it all the time. I've also made these out of copper wire.

Below are some copper bracelets with glass beads that I've made this past weekend:

I still have to add the spiral charms to each one. The charms are made from copper wire.

Here's some sterling silver bracelets that I've made previously. The first two pictures were taken using my homemade light tent- you can see the difference in these from the third pic below which was taken only using the camera's flash.

 Amethyst Beads:

Black Onyx Beads:

Multi-colored Glass Beads:

That's all I've got for Show & Tell tonight!