Folksy and Etsy

[uncomfortablydumb]

I'm thinking about setting up a shop to sell some of my trinkets. Does anyone have any experience or opinions on either of these sites?

I understand that Etsy is much larger, and US based but I can't get insurance to sell there and am not comfortable selling without. Can you geographically limit sales?

Are these sites worth the effort, or do they require tons of promotion?

Any info would be helpful, really can't decide. Thanks.

I sell on both, although I haven't put much effort in recently. Both need a lot of promotion. You can limit your sales to just the UK on Etsy.

On balance, I prefer Etsy because it is way ahead of the game in terms of what it can offer sellers than Folksy does. I would recommend that you hook up with a UK sellers group on Etsy community if you want to dip your toe in.

Good luck!

Thanks 574ejones that's very helpful

The insurance issue... Everyone always mentions it on the Etsy forums, I don't think many UK sellers bother with it and I've never heard of anything bad happening to anyone. Obviously depends what you are selling but 'trinkets' don't sound too dangerous.

Folksy needs you to promote yourself quite a bit more as it just isn't as well known. But I have a soft spot for them as the people who run it are so so passionate and I like supporting a small British company. Etsy in theory has a large potential audience waiting for you as there are a lot of people, especially in the States, who will look on Etsy first for something. Of course if you're selling something that Etsy is already full of, you'll still need to do work to get your items in front of those people. There are more and more UK people using Etsy every month, I'm finding.

The great thing with either is that you pay very little until you start selling stuff. IE it is just 20 cents to list, on Etsy. The selling fee is only paid on the sold price.

Thanks moggle I know I'm probably being paranoid about the insurance, and the risk is low, but I can't seem to get over that at the moment.

I think I'll look into starting both a UK/Europe only Etsy shop and a Folksy shop to start with and see how I get on. Now I just need to find the time to set them up.

I think I'd better apply to the DC for a weeks annual leave

I sell your etsy, sometimes with reasonable success. I've never bothered with insurance though have had one incident recently that made me wonder if I should look into it. I sell jewellery btw, but lower end price wise. Its quite a supportive community with lots of help available. I do have a folksy account too but haven't bothered with it for ages, as others have said there is a much bigger audience with etsy. I do think its worthwhile selling abroad though and not limiting yourself to the UK. Good luck!

I sell ON etsy...