Our big Etsy trading team

Wanted to take a moment to brag about how excellent things are going over at EtsyTrades.com. Although the site opened in 2012, it's really taken off this year since yours truly inherited the team and recruited some brilliant new leaders! I have always loved trading, it's one of the things that kept me on Etsy all these years, and I've been able to find some wonderful things through the team lately.

Here's what we've got going on these days!

The Website

EtsyTrades.com has been maintaining a catalog of around 40,000 items from our team full of trade-friendly shops. Items are automatically deleted when they're 30 days old, so you know that anything you see there is new and up for trade. Team members can manually add their items and update their "looking for" lists or just be in the team and the website will randomly pull in a few of their items as it gets around to their shop - either way, there's a lot to look for. Traders looking to trade nearby can search shops by country, and we even introduced a shop of the day feature that points to a different shop every day so you can just enjoy the randomness!

The Events

The first saturday of every month we host a MegaTrade event where a bunch of us agree to hang out close to computers and make an extra special effort to trade. There's a list, a very busy chat thread, and a TON of trading goes on! Sure you can trade whenever you darn well please, but the event weekend gives you some extra motivation.

Our next event is Saturday October 4th and signup has already started - check etsytrades.com/megatrade for times. Even if you can't commit to a time, just stop in and say hi, some trading will happen!

Our Team Page

Last month Etsy announced that they were doing away with the homepage that featured one treasury for everyone on Etsy to view. Instead, the homepage is now your activity feed - kinda like pinterest or facebook, what you see depends on who you follow. So of course I want everyone to follow me, spacefem (etsy.com/people/spacefem/favorites) but if you like to trade, you will be thrilled to follow our team page: etsy.com/pages/yay-for-trades

Help us grow

Finally, if you love trading and are already proudly on our team, we'd love some help recruiting new members. If you see an Etsy shop you love, convo me and I will send them an invite. And we'd really like it if all team members would post something, anything, to the thread about our team in Etsy's new promo forum: www.etsy.com/teams/21915/promos/discuss/15267361/.

Finally if you have a blog, blog about us! You can use any of the graphics and screenshots I've used here in your post as long as they're used to link to our team & website, and I'll give you a shoutout on our team and from @EtsyTrades on twitter.

The more new shops we get every month the more stuff we get to pick to trade from, it's really fun to see new folks join so thanks for help spreading the word!

My 100th purchase!

This week marked some real milestones for me as a buyer on etsy.

First, I made my 100th purchase! It was a trade, actually, and for a lovely bracelet from HouseDeFleur.. who happens to be running a valentine sale if you're interested. Use code BEMINE2013 for 10% OFF your entire order AND your purchase will have complimentary gift wrapping for V-Day! I love the purple bracelet I got, here are some other items from that shop:

Purple Agate Necklace - Sterling Silver Purple and Green Gemstone Handmade Beaded Necklace
by HouseDeFleur

Gemstone Necklace - Cherry quartz, Amazonite and Fluorite Sterling Silver Handmade Beaded Necklace - Multicolor
by HouseDeFleur

And to celebrate my 100th purchase I went for #101 because I needed more zippers, so I headed to zipit, which must house some kind of giant zipper warehouse the size of who-knows-what because she's been around forever and is incredibly reliable. Seriously, last year she went on vacation, I tried another supplier, had nothing but a string of problems and slow shipping that I had to remind them to DO, and went right back to zipit. When it comes to zippers you can't beat wholesale prices, I think discovering that I could get them for cents instead of dollars was the beginning of my etsy addiction. Zipit makes handmade items too, like these fun zipper pulls:

25 Assorted Kaleidoscope Zipper Pulls
by zipit

As usual, my zipper order showed up the same WEEK I placed the order. Perfect quantities of the weird combination of colors I wanted and everything. Just awesome.

So finally, some bad news! I had to open my first CASE against a seller! I won't say who it was, this has never happened before, it's a supply dealer who I have used before and they're not the fastest, but the supplies have come through. Well not this time. Totally AWOL, no answers to anything.

It kinda makes me feel good though that it took me literally 100 transactions to get to this point, where someone really didn't deliver. 99% of the time, everything on Etsy is just perfect... I've never had to leave negative feedback, never filed a case or a paypal dispute, never had to bring anything up to Etsy. Everyone is just professional and does great.

I think 99% is pretty awesome... certainly enough to keep me around.

New project: EtsyTrades.com

I made a new website over the weekend: a big database of etsians who love to trade! I've blogged about trading before and how it's such a spectacular way to combine my love of getting new things on etsy with my love of sending stuff I make OUT OF MY HOUSE but there's never been a great way to search for interested traders.

There are trade teams, of course, and some of them have a tag they encourage people to use on items, but lots of folks might not want to use a precious tag on something the average etsy shopper won't search for (and I have to say... I've had almost no search hits based on my use of team tags). There are other teams and blogs that attempt to compile exhaustive lists of traders and what they're looking for, but the information is out of date almost as soon as it's down, and it depends on one person doing so much work... just not a practical, sustainable solution, I think.

So now there's EtsyTrades.com! Each shop owner enters their own wishlist and a sample of items they want to make available for trade. The database is searchable, and it automatically makes you a page of people who are looking for your items, and similarly priced goods up for trade.

I AM SO EXCITED!

Oh, and all the information automatically expires after it's 30 days old, so you know everything on there is fresh, the traders are recently interested, the shops are open for business and your odds are good.

If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them, but I'd like to invite all trade-happy etsians to sign up and tell us what you want to trade. There's no better way to show your love of etsy, I say!

Spiderbunny bath & lip balms

Another good trade happened to me and I got some yummy roll-on perfumes from spiderbunny. And LIP BALM. I'm addicted to this stuff, and I especially love the handmade varieties, the ingredients are so much more wholesome. I try to buy local but hey, when it's up for trade, I can't resist.

There are still lovely things in her shop and she's having a big sale on hemp items, it's exciting:

7 ml Dreamy Chocolate Super Moisturizing Roll On Perfume
by spiderbunny

8 oz Pink Hopeless Romantic (Raspberry White Chocolate) Super Moisturizing Goats Milk and Honey Lotion
by spiderbunny

Flavored Chocolate Chip Lip Balm .15oz Paraben Free Sweet Yummy Cocoa
by spiderbunny

FINAL CLEARANCE Creme Twist Hemp Bracelet
by jesalynn

More trading, more cozies!

Apparently you can turn any team into a trade team! Some of us got to talking in the etsy contest team about trading and apparently it happens all over the place, so we outlined some guidelines for the newbies (of which there are many!) and guess what showed up at my house this week... new mug cozies & face scrubbies from misschristiana!

Cotton Mug Cozy
by misschristiana

I LOVE mug cozies. Don't ask why, I can't even totally describe my fascination, I started off using them on my travel cups and now I have quite a collection. I get a million wonderful compliments about them around the office though, I think that's what makes them fun, they just make everyone happy.

Anyway misschristiana is on our team because she was in the contest. See how well this is working out for me!

May 11th, 2012 - featured
Baby Booties
by misschristiana

And while I'm yammering on about cozies, look what was in today's contest making me smile:

May 14th, 2012 - featured
Space Invader Coffee Cozy - Coffee Cup Cozy
by MouthyMitts

and more:

May 14th, 2012 - featured
Cup Cozy, Mug Cozy, Tea Cup Cozy Blue with Red Heart and Wood Tree Branch Button
by GoldenLucyCrafts

May 14th, 2012 - featured
Colorful Mug Cozy
by pippisLongstockings

and I don't know what to say about this, except that it's uniquely fabulous! and from a new shop that just opened and has had one sale... I love it even more... I kinda want it... dang it this is how they get me...

May 12th, 2012 - featured
Angry Pig Soda Bottle/Can Cozy
by QueenHooker5

Cheap week soap-off

So I checked the winners of this week's $5 item contest and the top rows seemed to be dominated by soap! Figure I'll give them some shoutouts.

I've bought soap on etsy... last time in the form of trade, bars of lavender and lemongrass scents from this shop. The soap was AMAZING! Lathery, smelled wonderful, and my favorite part... when one bar got down to the last little sliver I was able to just smash it into the next one during a hot shower so I didn't waste a single bit!

All Natural, Handmade Lavender Soap
by BreckenridgeSoapCo

I can never have enough of it. I guess I'm not alone! Here's what won on $5 day, and it's already been SOLD, this is a very successful shop:

May 5th, 2012 - 1st place
Coconut Lime Verbena Cold Process Soap with Coconut Milk, Shea & Cocoa Butter
by WickedScentuals

And this one won on $4 day:

May 4th, 2012 - 1st place
Carnation (Roger and Gallet type) Soap One Handmade Cold Process Soap With Shea Butter 4 to 5 Ounce Body Bar
by LongLeafSoaps

Hue Tuesday this week was green... lots of soaps come in green!

May 1st, 2012 - 2nd place
WATERMELON O.o La La Sugar Scrub Cube glycerin Soap
by His2Hers

May 1st, 2012 - 3rd place
Cucumber & Aloe . Shea Butter Soap . Vegan . Green . Fresh . Clean
by winksoap

May 1st, 2012 - 6th place
Soap-Sweetgrass and Glycerin-New Look
by AutumnRoseBathBeauty

May 1st, 2012 - 30th place
Cabana Boy Soap bar (VEGAN Friendly)
by AndersonSoapCompany

I like the unique edges on some of these:

May 5th, 2012 - 4th place
Thorns Not Included Soap with Sweet Almond Oil and Shea Butter
by DressGreen

May 4th, 2012 - 3rd place
Dragon Fly Wings
by christaedwards2

May 5th, 2012 - 8th place
Green Tea Soap Handmade Cold Process, Vegan Friendly
by Blushie

And finally... soap skewer!

May 2nd, 2012 - 49th place
Soap Skewers - Natural Handmade Organic Soap - Fresh Sweet Orange
by SoapSkewers

Etsy trade love and felted bowls

Last week Ruby from missyandme contacted me through the Etsy Trade-a-holics team, it's this group I'm in where everybody trades their etsy stuff and I LOVE IT!

Etsy trading combines my two favorite things:
1) Sending something that I've made out of my house
2) Having something handmade show up at my house (with no hit to my paypal account! It's like FREEE!)

Anyway Ruby made felted bowls like this so I had to go for the trade, I don't even remember what I sent her, but these were so worth it:

Bright Stripes Felted Whatnot Bowls - Set of 3
by missyandme

Trading on Etsy is easy:
1) You find someone on the team interested in a trade
2) You send them a convo proposing what you want in their shop and how much
3) They reply back yes or no, and the team is very clear about the fact that you're totally allowed to say no. Sometimes people get traded out, no harm done, no hurt feelings, it's okay!
4) You both buy stuff from each other's shop with "other" as the payment
5) When you get their stuff, you leave them feedback and mark their order from you as paid. Whall-ah!

My only trading pet peeve is when someone is vague in their initial convo, like they'll ask me for one little bag that's $8 but their shop has only $12 items. I'm like, "How do you see this working out, exactly?!" I wish they'd just say "I'll trade three bags for two of my necklaces" or "My necklaces are pricier but that's okay, I'll send you a $12 necklace for an $8 bag".

The trades usually aren't *exactly* even but that's not a problem as far as I'm concerned. When I send off slightly more than I'm getting I call it "trade karma".

But anyway, my felt bowls from Ruby were less than what I was sending her so I told her to throw in whatever she wanted to make it even, and she sent me monsters, like this one... OHMIGOD it was so cute I about died.

Sparky -Needle Felted Not-Me Monster
by missyandme

She makes all these little cute animals that are just amazing:

Shawn Needle Felted Owl
by missyandme

So yup, perfect. It's stuff like this that makes me love Etsy and love trading, especially.