A Little Experiment

These buttons are headed to Italy today! The lady paid $13.33 for shipping for a 4 ounce package! The buttons were $7.50. I have been trying to up my price on buttons a little bit here and there. I used to just charge $4.95 for a set like this but these were a little more unique so I charged accordingly. I see others on Etsy charging more than I do and then I see some charging less. It's a fine line to try to figure it all out!

35 Metal Buttons

Cost - probably a quarter - Sold for $7.50 plus shipping - Profit $6.12

I know a lot of people wouldn't want to mess with selling buttons but for some reason I really enjoy sorting them and making little packages for them. I think it's kind of a calming thing. Here's an example of how I package most of my buttons.

Anyway, I've been so busy trying to sell on eBay that the past few months I hadn't spent much time listing any new buttons. I have lots of buttons....so I wanted to try to list more and see if I could sell more. Of course we all know that the more we list, the more we sell, and it worked with my buttons too! In June and July I only had around 450 views in my button shop for each month. I only had 2 and 3 orders for each month too which totaled about $33 for both months. I started trying to add more listings and in August I had 811 views and 9 orders totaling $64.80. September was 856 views and 12 orders totaling $86.45. October has about doubled that. I had 1550 views for the month, 23 orders of 36 sets of buttons for a total of $186.75! My goal has been that I would like to sell at least $50/week of buttons. I know that's not a lot but every little bit helps! That would be $2600 a year! It doesn't take a lot of time to list them or pack them up either. I'm hoping to increase that number as time goes on. I wish I had some really, really neat buttons! I have some nice buttons but I've seen some sell on eBay for quite a bit of money. Makes me wonder where they get them and how much they might pay for them. Check out this sellers sold listings. They have beautiful, unique buttons and it looks like they do really well on them! I'd love to find some like theirs!

So, I need to up my eBay listings as I'm sure I would make way more on those things than on buttons! But, I do enjoy the buttons so I will most likely keep listing them too.

Here are my stats for October:

eBay - Sold 31 items for $630.21 - listed 33 items

Down Vintage Lane Etsy shop - 4 orders of jars (10 jars total) for $87.85 - listed 8 items

ButtonCrazy Etsy shop - 23 orders of 36 sets for $186.75 - listed 70 sets

Facebook - Sold 5 items for $65.00 - listed 5 things

Total gross income - $969.81 -    116 total new items listed

After fees, shipping, supplies, cost of new items to sell, storage unit and miscellaneous I figure I made approximately $519.84 profit. Definitely want to increase that number. I need to figure out some solution to managing my time better I guess. Although I think I probably just have way too many demands on my time and I can only do so much! I do have good intentions!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and listening to my ramblings! Have a great day! ~~Pam