How can this be possible

[Leo Voisine]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1567436070/resin-table-custom-order-poplar-wood?click_key=de381cb46f8657c1df544d2354b5842d06bed23f%3A1567436070&click_sum=7f9c35f7&ref=shop_home_recs_1&pro=1&frs=1

Something I want to try my hand at some day is epoxy resin tables

I have hoarded some nice slabs of Walnut, Osage Orange a bunch of nice live edge and a bunch of other things

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The thickset deep pour epoxy is about $160 per gallon

How is it possible for a ETSY seller to sell these epoxy tables for $100.
The legs - deep pour epoxy - shells - wood - and labor
PLUS --- FREE SHIPPING ( not free - seller includes shipping into price)

Materials will be more than $100

If I would even try - how would I compete with this?

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

That Etsy listing has got to be a scam. Even if they are made in Asia with child labor, they can't even ship them for that price.

 

[Ted Calver]

Ships from Italy. Isn't this the same picture in another listing? Looks like a scam to me.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

The reviews are all 5 stars… for a completely different product (cartoon weaning set) which adds to the list of giant red flags screaming scam.

 

[glenn bradley]

Once upon a time, LOML bought some CNC machined wind spinners, made in the USA. Pictures of the factory and everything. Turned out to be some cheap Chinese crap that we returned. Took almost 6 months to get our money back.

 

[Leo Voisine]

I have been ripped off before.

The viewer often times does not see anything except a beautiful table for $100, and they compare it to my beautiful table of the same dimension for $1250 and wonder why I am so expensive?

How do I compete?

I know it's a lie - you know it's a lie - but - HOW do I tell the viewer that mine is a good deal?

I sold a sign once before. My price was $12,000 and they got a competitive price of $5,000
I talked to the customer and explained the differences and that there was no way I would make a sign like the compitition at any price.
I was awarded the job.

How - on ETSY can I compete?

 

[Ryan Mooney]

How - on ETSY can I compete?

tis a good question. I would argue that you aren't, at least not really.

For starters I'm 99.99872% sure that no one who orders from the above store is getting any table much less a competitive one. I guess you could lead with "I actually have a table to sell unlike some other sellers" but that might get you booted

I dunno, etsy has it's ups and downs. I reckon I'd figure on it being a storefront if you want to use it and try to come up with other ways to drive traffic to your store there other than actually relying on etsy. In particular I'd prioritize marketing and social avenues that you actually control over being at the whims of a specific online retailer.

 

[Mike Stafford]

I used ETSY for years but finally gave up on them as they tried to force you to ship everything for free. They even started taking a cut of the shipping. Of course they want you to ship for free because they know most people will include the shipping cost in their asking price. They get a cut no matter what you do.

I continue to receive notifications of sales from them even though I haven't listed anything with them for two years. I received one recently where they were advertising $10 off everything $40 or more. It read that if a shop received ETSY payments the $10 discount would be applied. Since I don't use ETSY anymore I don't know if this is a mandatory $10 off or if you have to opt in.

The other thing ETSY does is try to get shops to agree to letting ETSY promote your shop. Sounds great, right? Well, the way that works is they tell you which sales of your items were as a result of their promotional efforts. If anyone clicked on an ad with your item in it and then went to your shop and bought something they took a larger cut of your sales even if the customer did not buy the item they were promoting. They did this to me without my permission and I had to jump through hoops to have them stop. My sales threshold did not meet their requirements yet they tried to force me into it.

In my case the only promotion I needed was my wife. Everything in my shop was targeted at people in the needle arts. My wife is quite prominent in that community and she would post a notification that my shop was open in a few of the needlepoint community websites some of which have tens of thousands of members. I only opened my shop from Labor Day to Christmas or until I was sold out. I usually offered about 125 pieces and sold out almost every year during that three month time frame.

ETSY will sell some stuff if you can ever get started and figure out a way to get people to your shop. Just be aware that ETSY will take their cut which is fine as long you go in with your eyes open. By the way ETSY's cut is still much lower than virtually every other gallery and shop in which I have been able to place and sell my stuff.

 

[Leo Voisine]

I sold a couple of items in ETSY. I like the way it works.

Way back I sold stuff on EBAY. WAY back in like 1998 - 2002. At the time I was selling model railroad stuff. Nice stuff. I walked into the post office with contractor bags filled, like Santa with model railroad stuff to get shipped to all points around the globe. EBAY was new and ETSY didn't exist. I made my own HTML sales page to post on EBAY. The fees were really small but were constantly growing.

Now-a-dayz, EBAY, ETSY is all very different.

They are greedy and pounding all the small folk to support that greed. Sound familiar?
The rich get richer..........................................of you know

The big point is that the compitition is not on an even playing field. My costs are a lot higher than a company in some other country. It's not just China either. Also EBAY and ETSY allows the "ripoff".

I cannot compete with an epoxy table on ETSY. I will not spend the money to make a nice quality resin table just to try to sell it on ETSY.
Watch Blacktail Studio on youtube to see how they are made.

I think small stuff will work. High volume and low effort/cost with high return. Jewlery or other such stuff. The profit margin is high, but the amount is small. I can make BB ear rings that sell for $12.00 and cost me 50 cents. Laser cut. After fees and free shipping there is still some meat on the bone.

I am just ranting about online sales - that's all. The resin table just got to me.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Somewhat over half of the stuff on Etsy isn’t even artisan made, there’s definitely a lot of the cheapest importium there. I’ve bought stuff through there but only from artisans I’ve found in other ways because I don’t trust the rest of the junk.