Selling handmade items

Slava91

I have a question that I want to ask about selling handmade items, specifically a handmade models of a fishing vessels, since I don't know anything about selling stuff on the Internet. My grandpa is making them at his free time, just as a hobby and he is thinking to maybe start selling some of them.
I will put pictures of his 2 best made fishing vessels (my personal opinion) in here, so you can see what I am talking about.

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My question is: What should I do, if I want to sell a handmade models?

Some people told me, that the best place to sell would be ebay, but I am not sure about delivery. How would you send a 6.5 feet long model with very fragile pieces and do you have to pay any taxes?

Thank you for your attention.

Judgement Day

eBay is probably the correct place to start and for global reach it can't be beaten. Check here for similar items: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=model%20boat&_sop=1#item3378a900d3

It will be expensive to ship (sorry ) - courier will be the only option and will not be cheap.

Nice looking boats by the way. Good luck.

fergal.b

Very nice work he is a talented man. If your selling in Ireland you could state on your ebay page "pick up only" I think people will expect this as I buy a lot of stuff that is quite heavy and prefer to pick up instead of paying for postage.
Done Deal and adverts would also be worth selling on in the boating section.
Best of luck with it, I would,t like to be posting one of my boats

rubadub

I would definitely hit adverts.ie first. You get proper communication going on so can find tips on what info to put in a ebay auction, if you did then decide to go on ebay.

On adverts you can put up a high asking price and are under no real obligation to sell it, compared to ebay.

You will need insured couriers, I got glassware from germany which arrived broken and it was covered on the senders part.

newwifey

Hi there,
EBay and donedeal are good places to start but the handmade market place has to be etsy.com. shipping will be an issue but not an insurmountable one. It's my experience that people will always pay (a fair) postage fee to get the item they really want.
Good luck, your grandad is very crafty!

Tabitharose

I'd definitely recommend etsy too over adverts/donedeal/ebay for something like this - very talented man your Grandpa

Judgement Day

Grandpa's boats are not a craft item i.e. they are not the sort of items that people are going to go onto etsy.com looking for and much as I dislike eBay it's the only place (outside of a specialist auction house) where you're going to get enough people viewing. Adverts is far too small and there are too many messers on there to make it worthwhile.

On eBay.co.uk today there were 2,939 items available when you search under model ship http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=model%20ships&_sop=3

on etsy.com today there were 230 http://www.etsy.com/search?q=model%20boat&view_type=gallery&ship_to=ZZ&min=0&max=0

After a cursory inspection you will note that the type of ships Grandpa builds are represented on the eBay site but not really on etsy.com and certainly not on Adverts.ie

allthedoyles

Worldwide audience use eBay - Pay the extra for visability in USA / Canada .

Put one together and have it properly valued for shipping in PO .

Auction listing probably best .........Chance of free listings this coming weekend .

rubadub

allthedoyles wrote: »

Pay the extra for visability in USA / Canada .

That could be a good marketing point, playing up the Oirishness for the yanks, especially an older man still making them, like Aran jumpers or something. He might do better making traditional old style Irish fishing boats, though he may be more into the complexity of the pictured one.