How can they sell so low?

[Former_Member]

www.etsy.com/shop/froshjewels, http://www.etsy.com/shop/simplyaroma?...
The listings are mainly fo r$ 0.20. How is it possible?

[ModernHermine]

Maybe off shipping rates?

[TheDorothyDays]

Their shipping makes up for the cheap listing price I think

[Former_Member]

I would agree that it must be the shipping they are making the money off of.

[Former_Member]

Shipping and maybe the cost of supplies. You'd be amazed the price you pay getting stuff from places like china.

[LeNidDeFleurs]

I have seen another shop like this that is on a much larger scale and sells for the same price. As pretty as the items are, I cant imagine they are made of good quality material, and probably also made of nickel, which isn't great, if like me you have metal allergies....

[Former_Member]

This thread will probably get shut down, you cannot reference specific sellers or transactions in teams or forums.
That being said, they might be doing it to get feedback and look like they have sales. Basically it's free,they are paying the listing fee for the items. Joke's on them though, Etsy will still charge them a percentage of the selling price.

[Former_Member]

High shipping price and low price, isn't against the Etsy policy?

[Former_Member]

I don't think the shipping is that high. It sounds fairly reasonable to me, for international S&H.

I totally don't get it, though. Crack is whack.

[Former_Member]

Dan Lee from VaVaSilkBowTies says
I don't think the shipping is that high. It sounds fairly reasonable to me, for international S&H.

I totally don't get it, though. Crack is whack.
__________________

I second this! Shipping from TN to Europe is almost $5 alone...

I definitely don't get it!

[Former_Member]

Like I said, I think they are doing it to entice people to buy, which would inflate their sales numbers and give them feedback.
Later they can raise their prices and look like a well established seller.

[Former_Member]

This seller is shipping from Hong Kong. So probably a dollar to ship and for sure buying materials in bulk quantities. Probably getting materials for 10000 at $5 or something ridiculous like that.

[LLFarm]

I don't get it either but my first though was NO WAY am I buying a pair of earrings for 20 cents...it costs 50 in the gumball machine and $2 something from Cracker Jacks....

With so few sales and neg feedback I don't think they are doing very well....

[RivendellRocksSedona]

Could the owner perhaps confuse price for each item with the cost to list on Etsy? Perhaps a language misunderstanding?

[PlatoSquirrel]

Am I looking at the wrong shop? ....2,000 and something sells seems like a lot (with only 1 negative), and it says they ship from Italy .....

[Former_Member]

I did a little research on one particular set of earrings for .20:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/91831500/liberty-froshjewels-original-earrings
then I found these:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62200555/silver-love-bird-earrings?ref=sr_gallery_6&ga_includes[]=tags&g...
and then again...
http://www.etsy.com/listing/76963597/silver-love-birds-earrings-sterling-ear?ref=sr_gallery_13&ga_in...

As Goldsmiths who make our own things, we find that posting under handmade when it should be supplies, is in very bad taste.

How do they do this? They buy bulk wholesale, change 10% of the design and call the piece their own.

[Former_Member]

then they inflate the shipping price....these earrings wholesale most likely cost less than a dollar when bought in bulk

[Former_Member]

another one :)
http://www.etsy.com/listing/64963596/bird-earrings-silver-love-birds-by?ref=sr_gallery_31&ga_include...

[TEEsox]

Maybe they put the decimal point in the wrong place, by mistake! :)

[RunkPockDesigns]

I've seen those exact charms in TONS of shops ranging from 20¢ to $20. I've also I think seen them at hobby lobby or michaels... I don't feel like it's that creative to put them on a chain or earrings by themselves... but I guess it still counts as handmade. I don't make jewelry but I feel like if I did have a jewelry shop I'd at least try to make something different that 50 other shops didn't have the same exact product.

[Former_Member]

I wish most sellers on ETSY would sell their OWN items :( This is in bad taste and should be reserved to be sold on EBAY or something.

[PebbleCreekStudio]

I would say they are definitely making their money through the shipping cost:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/74287693/birdie-iii-design-necklace-glass-pearls

[Former_Member]

They are able to sell so inexpensively probably for the same reason that this is sold for so little..
http://www.etsy.com/listing/93248653/bookmark-crocheted-with-flower-made-to

The supplies and fees alone in an item such as this would cost much more than the price of the item.

Based on
http://www.rolbe.com/etsy.htm
the funds from a $2.00 item after fees is $1.37 to cover the cost of the materials and the seller's time. So they are basically giving the items away.

[ChrisOsCreations]

@Kim they do... and if they keep doing that we will have to pay shipping fees too in the future....

[PaperDotCo]

@crochetgal : wow! the fees eats up a higher % from low priced items because 50 cents is just the very basic fee per transaction and then there is extra 7% taken off.

And with the packaging and mailing time, its just a negative transaction!!

and depending on the shipping prices to make money, will work only for people in some countries because of the $ exchange rate.