Which of these two marketplaces do you think is better: eBay or Etsy? Personally, I think when you are buying/selling handmade crafts or vintage stuffs, the best site to go to is Etsy, not to mention it is also way cheaper. When it comes to a more diverse and a wide array of products/services, I think eBay has the upper hand. What about you?
I totally agree. I do prefer handmade things though and I want to support real people and not big business. I have a problem though, with those who make price it for FAR more than it's worth. Very few price things properly on Etsy, in my opinion. When real time and effort goes into, sure.. but I still don't think much of it is worth what they're asking. Then again, I'm not into the game anymore.. if I were a business owner again, I would price for the people, not for myself. It would be win/win. Also.. Many people on etsy are buying their stuff from Ebay for pennies and marking them up drastically.. another example. I understand people need to pay the bills.. but I just don't think this is the way to go about it.
I love both, I think it depends on what you are looking for! If you are looking for handmade things then Etsy is brilliant, but if you are looking for new things then Ebay is better. I think the charges on Ebay are getting a bit much. It's cheaper to sell things on Etsy I find, but I wouldn't know how to choose because they are both good!
Etsy is pretty awful. Not the service itself, mind you, but the people selling on it. Everything costs a small fortune even if it's the smallest thing that took an hour to make.. absolutely turns me off of Etsy.
I really like etsy to look at all the unique things that come out. Personally though, I've bought very few things from Etsy as compared to Amazon/Ebay. Little trinkets and stuff are cute but I already have a ton of those, and oftentimes the price isn't justifiable. I'm okay with paying like 10-20 dollars for a trinket at most, but anything more seems too much. Once the sellers have the basics of a product down, reproducing it is typically faster and easier. I've doled out a little more to buy specific gifts for people but meh. I've heard of someone/people selling mini aid kits with a pretty big markup from the aid supplies they bought from the store. I mean, I guess they can justify selling those things because it's not like it's a secret that aid kits are pretty easy to put together...
Well I always look for cheap and free shipping, and the Chinese sellers in Ebay are always offering free shipping, so that's where I would prefer to shop. And besides, I'm not really into handicrafts or vintage items, so I would probably not even try searching for what I need on Etsy.
I like both, granted I've never shopped on Etsy. I prefer to mooch around Etsy admiring all the pretty little things, but I'm yet to take the plunge and commit to a sale. I'm not sure why, because I don't have a specific reason. But I have to say in terms of price, Ebay is a bit more varied, whereas I find Etsy can be pricey. Just my opinion. @sidney...Do you buy from the Chinese sellers often? I decided to boycott all Far East sellers after being scammed royally a few years back!
Yup, I always buy from China because of the cheap auction prices and the free shipping. So far most of the sellers were honest except for the 2 that I have encountered. But prepare yourself for varied shipping times, because some sellers ship fast, while the longest time that I had to wait was 4 months for a parcel. What did you buy and how were you scammed? Because over here, sometimes the post office workers steal the parcels if they take a peek and fancy what's inside. That has happened to me before.
@sidney, wow, you really sound like you're up against it with those postal workers! I mean, do they never even get in trouble with the law for such vile behaviour? I've heard of that happening in South Africa, because our mail goes through there. Some years ago, I ordered clothes from a clothing wholesaler. When I received them they were nothing like the pictures! They were very shoddily made and just horrible. When I checked for reviews, the internet was awash with complaints from mainly the UK/US! I just couldn't believe it. That just put me off buying from that region.
@Lushlala, some unscrupulous ones were caught, like here in this link:Log In but most are not. I had 3 spy cams stolen from the post office, and I buy varied items too, so it's apparent that the thief likes them. I am at a loss of around $25 for those 3 spy cams! A tracking number seems to deter theft though. I suspect that they got stolen in the main office, before it gets to be distributed to the other city branches. Oh, how could I forget.. Yup, when you order clothing, pouches or anything that's made of fabric in China, there is a big chance that the quality and stitching is bad! But not all of the time. The cellphone cases that I bought there were well-made. I guess they don't have strict quality-control over there, because the labor wage is very low already, I think lower than our labor wages. But their earphones are a good deal and of good quality, and you can get one as low as $1 or less in an auction. . Did you file for a refund against the seller? I had a seller send the wrong item to me and I don't know how I should deal with it. I figured that she sent a cheaper version because it was an auction to avoid some financial loss. Paypal now has extended their dispute time frame to 180 days from 45 days, so it's a good move for both the seller and buyer.
Thanks so much for all that information, @sidney. I'll be reading through it later, for sure I'm so sorry to hear you keep losing stuff via the postal service. It's just NOT fair, at all!!! Clearly you know your stuff RE buying form China. Maybe I'll run stuff by you if I'm ever brave enough to buy there again lol Yes, the stuff I bought; the stitching was terrible and the material used way below par or non-existent! I suspect they were all made in a sweat shop for very cheap. I tried to chase up the seller for a refund, but in the end had to give up as he/she was not being very cooperative
@Lushlala, You should have filed for a refund, I heard that Paypal usually sides with the buyer if filed within the given time frame. But yeah, some sellers just don't respond when you try to claim a refund, especially if it's way past the dispute time frame. I think if the item is only 0.99 cents then it's worth it to risk it, after all you won't get additionally charged there anyway if they mark it as "gift".
Sadly, this wasn't via eBay, @sidney. It was just some supposed online wholesaler I found through Google, so I really had no leg to stand on. I mean, I only did a thorough search of reviews retrospectively. I'm not sure what got into me. Oh yea, actually I remember; I got carried away and got too excited over the utterly gorgeous pieces on the website. I forgot to engage my common sense; if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is!! The website was flashy and very professional looking, the clothes to die for, but very low prices. I'm embarrassed, but I got taken it lol At least I can laugh about it now. - I can assure you, it won't happen again
I think as far as getting the product you ordered, they both can be trusted equally, and you probably can even trust etsy a little more since sellers need to pay to get their items listed, and also being craftsman they are probably less likely to turn out to be scams. However, there's just way more mainstream products on ebay and that makes them much more accessible in my opinion. I seek out mainstream products a lot more than I do handmade goods, personally.
So you paid by other methods and not via Paypal? Never pay using money transfer, for sure you won't get your money back if you are unhappy with the purchase or if you got scammed. I agree that the pictures that they use must be the one that is used for marketing purposes, but the real items that they sell are shoddy, since that's also the case in Ebay. So never part with your money if the item is expensive! I think the shoddy quality is only tolerable if the item is cheap.
Yes, I paid via credit card. Luckily, the stuff amounted to £200 only. In my mind I thought I was testing the waters. If it panned out, I was going to buy a whole lot more. I later learnt that it's very common for these "online wholesalers" to steal pictures off popular, legitimate sites to make themselves look all professional! It's amazing the lengths to which these unscrupulous people can go to, to scam people. The other interesting thing was the sizes were so tiny! I mean, I know that the Chinese are small people, but that was just ridiculous.
I see, so they stole the pictures of another site because they sell the same product, but they sell the inferior kind, am I right? As for me, in Ebay, I think the pics there are just like those found in fast food commercials and billboards where the burgers looks so big and "loaded", then when you actually order the same burger, it's a lot smaller and less appetizing-looking. You should have used Paypal, since you really won't be able to get your money back of you used a credit card. I guess you had no choice but to be stuck with that inferior product.
I prefer Ebay for most things since it is much cheaper, however if you're looking for handmade products then you gotta go to Etsy. I have realized that there's a lot of fraud on Etsy as well, people selling items claiming that they're handmade when they're actually not. So I'm pretty skeptic about using that website, but it does have nice jewelery you just have to look at seller reviews closely.
Etsy's a relatively new player in the game, so although more and more people are using its services, Ebay remains the number one online marketplace in the digital sphere. I think Etsy's interface is user-friendly and the items sold through it appear legitimate, Ebay has already reached economies of scale status that a simple competition can't do anything to reduce its reputation.
