“Keep On, Keepin’ On”

This past October was a darn good sales month for me with my highest Etsy revenue ever (in 13 years) and the only thing that I can attribute that to is getting more traffic. I had more “eyeballs” on my goods. For some unexplained reason I had 30% more views and visits in October. Why? What changed? I wish I knew because I have no idea how to replicate this for November.

But as I mulled it over I realized in the end my best course of action is to “keep on, keepin’ on.” Maybe it is just the Q4 magic. But whatever the reason, I don’t need to overthink this.

So I’m going to keep:

• Removing lower-quality items.
• Weeding out inventory pieces that have lingered way too long.
• Re-doing older listings of good items.
• Running sales on a variety of items.
• Offering good customer service.
• Buying older, interesting, quirky, quality items. Things that excite me.

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November sales

So far November is starting off strong. Two of the items that sold the other day included the antique Austrian purse I had just bought in Tennessee at an antique store (paid $10, sold for $90) and this vintage Javanese painting bought at Goodwill earlier this year (paid $6.49, sold for $225). I was happy buying both of these items and pleased with their quick sale.

And today the lovely bouquet cross-stitch, also bought on my Tennessee trip, sold (paid $20, sold for $60).

And I am not surprised. This piece was so wonderfully crafted and just stunning.

I also sold a small 1927 French prayer book with big type for $20. I had bought this as part of a large lot of books (paid $53) some three years ago.

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A little shopping

Monday I popped into my neighborhood thrift store before my exercise class and found a couple of good bread-and-butter items that should sell without a problem.

I bought another little Mottahedah reproduction dish because Mottahedah sells and this is a sweet thing. [Sold within a week. Paid $2.49, sold for $38.]

I also bought a baby Jesus from an O’Well nativity set. There were a lot of pieces in this nativity set displayed and all rather attractive, but all were priced individually and I realized if I bought them all there wouldn’t be any profit. None. But baby Jesus is always a desirable piece on his own so I snagged him. (Though honestly a pale, chubby, ginger Jesus is a bit of a stretch!)

So no great scores but things that should sell without much fuss and will make a modest profit.

Exciting find

But I do have a really exciting story coming up from my friend Curtis. He literally made the type of Goodwill score that all of us in the biz dream about. He did it buying something I never buy.

Watch this space!

Karen