Well, it seems that eBay doesn't want us small & sporadic sellers, they want to be Amazon ... ('scuze me while I finish laughing at the potential success of that venture!)
Anyway, doll crafters are heading in DROVES to Etsy! Customizers, doll part suppliers, doll clothing makers, we're all high-tailing it Etsy's way!
To keep things simple the BJD people are all being universal in putting the "word" bjd in our descriptions and tags so we can be easily found by our customers.
There are options open to all of doll people, we just need to look ...
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This morning I posted on a board I help admin ...
thoughts on the eBay boycott and the subsequent mind-set change that a lot of us seem to be going thru ...
(Just proof-read thru this, if you can bear with me after 3 hours sleep and a Vicodin you can read anything, LOL!!!)
OK, first off; I've been laid up for the last few weeks, waiting for my gallbladder to be removed, and now post-op laid up (but almost all better, whee!) so I've had WAY to much time on my hands to think and read (if not always the energy to type).
All of us who are in mass exodus away from eBay have taken a big step in reminding the 800lb gorilla that it got to be so big on the backs of all of us little people. I'm not as large a seller as someone like our Grace (JPop), but she is considered a small seller by eBay and with eBay being slow to listen to reason (read: hasn't yet) all of the little guys are being pushed out. I for one could give a dung if the 800lb gorilla crashes off the Empire State Building at this point; it's bitten the hands that loving fed it once too often.
Have seen people post here and elsewhere with "where will I find my favorite insert odd item here without eBay???" The best answer; Google. Or Yahoo, or whatever your favorite search engine is. There are websites for everything! And if there aren't easily found websites there are often index sites geared to a certain hobby/collectible that gather URLs for you (I know, I manage a couple, LOL!) when you find 'em, bookmark 'em, they come in handy. Those folks selling bit by bit from their small websites are going to be SO glad to get business from all of us leaving eBay in mass droves!
So we're now out finding new avenues to peddle our wares or to go shopping.
Us crafters have Etsy (and Mintd and Dawanda and our own sites), for other doll folk there are doll auction sites - even free ones - cropping up, and there's always the forums.
I opened an Etsy store in August 2006 ... and let it sit much to my chagrin. But now I'm looking at it again and thinking how liberating it will be to sell there, and at the same time it will force me to not be so mamby-pamby in pricing; I know how much the materials cost and how many man-hours went into each item - I need to ask for that instead of trying to compete with Dollheart or any of the other mass BJD clothing makers ... and then *hope* that it brings more at auction. (And now it's downright embarrassing that I've had an Etsy store this long and have yet to list an item - gah!)
I could say I wish I shopped at Etsy for handmade goods but I haven't because I live in the middle of hand-made central. There are craft fairs, bazaars and shops specializing in local craftsmen's goods everywhere here in VT. But I've been poking away the last few weeks and WHEE-HEE-HEE!!! The selection is fabulous! Inspiring actually! And not just to me in my little family, but my oldest son (14) who has expressed interest in glass blowing and working with glass ... there are goods by glass-workers on Etsy that has his mind - and mine - churning in interest. My husband has said he'd get our son set up with a home annealing oven and lampwork supplies and now we're going to be learning as a family. THAT is cool; even my son is taking the handmade challenge!!!
Anyway, what I'm getting to is that maybe turning our backs on eBay and finding small/grass-roots venues to buy and sell and just generally hang out is NOT a bad thing. And when you consider this particular wing of dolls the "big" mindset is all wrong; BJDs are about small local meet-ups, customizing and buying from artisans rather than manufacturers.
When eBay became too big it lost that community feeling and that's something we as humans need, even online.
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As someone recently posted on the eBay Feedback Discussion boards; "It's the end of the world as we know it - and I feel fine!"
