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Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay - with a Focus on Bead Work Part 1

By: Kandice Seeber
Date: Wednesday November 19, 2008

Air & Earth Designs

My friend Kandice Seeber has given us permission to share this article from her web site Air & Earth Designs. While the context is selling fine handmade beads, there is a lot of good general advice for selling handmade crafts on eBay. I hope you enjoy the article.

Ebay Tips and Tricks for Beadmakers

Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay. What follows is the text from a post I made at the WetCanvas.com forum in February, 2006. I have edited the post to add new thoughts and tips. Please do not copy this text or use it on any other website without my permission. If you'd like to link to this article, please email me first. Thank you!

These are my own personal tips for success as a beadmaker on ebay. Please keep in mind that my intent here is just to let people know what works for me, in case they need some help and want some advice. This kind of thing tends to change over time, so please use what you can from this and feel free to toss the rest.

General Tips

Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay. I have been making beads for about 3 years now. I have been a member on ebay for something like 7 years - and before I sold beads on ebay, I sold handmade jewelry. Those of you who sell jewelry on ebay now have a *much tougher* road ahead than when I did. There is so much competition in the Designer/Artisan jewelry section on ebay, that even unique, gorgeous jewelry is hard to sell at decent prices. These tips may work well for *beadmakers* but may not work for anyone else.

Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay. I sell only my best beads. I constantly work to improve my technique and designs so that what I put up for sale is my best work. If I have beads that are not my best work ("seconds"), I label them as such, so my customers do not get confused when they see something selling at a much lower price. But for the most part, all my beads are of the highest quality I can possibly make. That means even dot placement, even shapes, smooth, puckered holes, matching sizes (as much as I can, anyway) and all that.

Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay. Art is of course subjective, but I find that the better my technique is, the more my beads will sell for, and the happier my customers are. Plus, I feel good and proud of the accomplishment. If you're new or haven't mastered certain techniques, you cannot assume you are going to get high prices. If you're okay with that, then great. However, I have seen some beads posted on ebay that have crooked bumps, pointy holes, lumpy shapes, etc, and then the seller will post complaints about how their beads are not selling.

Look at your work. Are the flowers smeared? Is the encasing uneven? Is your raised work melted in enough to keep it from popping off later? Do your bumps have under-cuts? Do your beads have sharp, pointy ends that may cut a designer's stringing material? These are just some things lampwork bead buyers look for when buying beads to go in their designs.

So basically, the very first thing you need to look at when sales are not going well is your own quality and workmanship. Work to improve that while working to improve other aspects such as auction layout. A good way to check quality is to do a search on ebay for the highest priced "annealed lampwork" (make sure the title and description box is checked).

Look at these beads in terms of quality and workmanship. I am not talking about design or artistic expression - purely about craftsmanship. There are quite a few sellers whose quality and technique are top notch. Not all of them are getting high prices, but you can see some examples in the high price search.

Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay. Lampworkers are getting better and better at technique as time goes by. The competition is almost staggering, and more and more people are making beads these days. Keep that in mind when listing on ebay - you are listing beads with hundreds of other lampworkers, so you need to find something that makes you stand out in the crowd. On any given day there are over 5000 listings in the Handmade Lampwork category. Do something unique - pick unique colors, try a new shape, do anything that will make you stand out when people are looking.

Photography

One main thing I think needs to be addressed here is auction photography. First off, I recommend that you do not use ebay's picture uploading as your sole picture host. They compress and resize pictures when you upload them, and this tends to distort your images. Find another photo host and use HTML to reference the pics in your auction description. A number of hosts can be found by searching Google.

I use my web host (netfirms.com) - I get 1000MB of space for my website, and that is more than enough, so I use some of the space for auction pics. I pay $10 per month for hosting services, but you can likely find something much cheaper if you're just looking for picture hosting.

Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay. Learn to take decent pictures. If you use a scanner and that works for you, great. But by and large, most of the auctions I see that use digital images look much better in my opinion. I use a digital camera (Nikon Coolpix 4100 - I upgraded last year) that I bought for about $300. I know that seems like a lot, but it's so worth it. The pics are clear, crisp and detailed, and show true color.

There are tips and tricks on photography everywhere - google.com is a great place to search. There are threads in many forums - go look at them as well. Also, the ebay community web boards have tons of information on photography and other things. Don't take your pics with a regular camera that has no macro - these are not close enough or true enough to see your artwork unless you are a professional.

Get picture enhancing software and use it. I know people who use Photoshop and various other programs to touch up photos. I use Paint Shop Pro 7. I have no idea what a lot of the features do, but what I do know works really well. I can get completely true color when I enhance a pic with PSP. No, I don't make the beads look more colorful or better than they look in person. I make the pics look more realistic.

For instance, Moretti/Effetre Ink Blue photographs much bluer than it really is under normal lighting even with a digital camera. PSP can make it look much more like it does in person by using the Hue Map, Color Balance, and Levels features on the Color Menu.

There are quite a few tutorials for photo software on the web. Make use of Google and you'll find them easily. I also have a few resources for photography help on my Links List. Also, WetCanvas and other forums have tons of threads devoted to photography.

If you'd like a more professional approach to photography, I would recommend looking at some of the new photo set-ups on ebay that are made specifically for taking pictures of small items, including beads and jewelry. This particular ebay store has a nice selection, and the prices look good: Tabletop Studio LLC. I have not bought from them, but I am considering it, because I have seen recommendations from other beadmakers.

Describing Your Beads

Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay. When you list your beads for sale anywhere, including ebay, there are a few things you should always have in the description. Buyers often won't buy from you if you're missing some of these things, so it's important to be thorough in your descriptions. Here's a list:

Bead Size - this is a biggie. In the bead world, people utilize both inches and millimeters. I personally use millimeters in my description, because most of the components my customers use with the beads they buy are listed in millimeters by the manufacturers. (for example - crystal bicones, sterling silver beads, jump rings, etc.)

Some buyers also like a size reference picture - a penny, a ruler, a hand, etc. There's much debate over what people like for size reference, so you can use what's most convenient for you, as long as you have some reference to size in your description. For many, size in millimeters (mm) is enough, so that's what I use.

Hole Size - Also important enough for its own place on this list is the size of the hole in your bead. Since most beadmakers (at least here in the US) are making beads on mandrels which are sized by the inch, it makes sense to put that in your description for people who need to know. Buyers will often need this so can determine what size of stringing material or findings to use. Again, measurements for findings do vary, so use whatever measurement unit is more convenient for you.

I use inches, because my beads are most often made on 1/16" mandrels, a 1/16" mandrel is somewhere between 1mm and 2mm - not very exact. If you're in a country that uses the metric system for mandrels, it's no problem to use mm in your description. Whew - long winded, aren't I?

Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay. Number of Beads/Extras - This may seem like a no brainer, but if you have more than one photo of your beads, some people might be confused as to what's actually included in the auction. Be clear about the number of beads included, and whether the buyer also gets what's shown in the picture - are the beads strung with crystals, silver spacers or other beads? Are they included in the auction? Does the buyer get that quarter? (LOL It may seem silly, but some people do ask).

Type/Brand of Glass - Many buyers don't care, but some do, so it's nice to list what kind of glass you're using in your beads. Whether it's German made Lauscha, Italian Effetre or some kind of borosilicate made here in the US - a lot of buyers do like to know.

And if you're using premium hand-pulled colors that are scarce or more expensive, saying so can attract customers. I also like to list the colors I use, because monitors don't always show true colors, and the buyers who are familiar with certain glass will know what they're getting and can plan ahead.

Annealed or Not? - This is perhaps your most important descriptive term. If your beads are kiln annealed, say so. People who buy handmade lampwork really want beads which are annealed properly, because they won't break nearly as easily as beads which are cooled in vermiculite or a fiber blanket.

If you're not annealing your beads in a kiln, you should definitely say so. Not saying so is misleading to your customers. Many people do search the terms "annealed", "kiln annealed" or "kiln-annealed" when looking on ebay for lampwork beads.

Shipping and Payment Terms - Be clear about your terms. Always state what payments you accept, what the shipping costs are, and how long it will take for you to ship out beads. State clearly any return policies and any time restrictions on payment (payment due within 7 days or whatever). Also state whether you ship worldwide, what the restrictions are on that, or whether you ship to your own country only. Selling Handmade Crafts on eBay.

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