With cabinet work begin slow I was looking at selling things on Esty, I was thinking some people on here sell there, I have a couple questions. Do you have to have a separate website? How do you handle shipping larger items? I was think of things like coffee or end tables, any advice is appreciated.

I dont sell on etsy but I do on ebay. I personally havent shipped anything of that size, but have heard some people use a site called uship.com.

For more expensive, larger items, like furniture, finding shops in bigger cities, that will let you sell on consignment, may be the best way to go. People are more likely to buy cabinet maker, quality furniture if they can see and touch it.

Keith

just be aware consignment fees are usually 40% or higher...here anyway.

My wife has bought smaller things from etsy, wood framed mirror, small folding end table, etc. while I don't know the shipping details, look up a few vendors and see what they do, or message them for shipping info on their item. All the vendors keep track of what other vendors are doing, and their sales, and frequently steal ideas.... Sell something successfully and within a couple weeks you'll have all the competition you don't want, lol.. especially on smaller "easy" to copy items...

My wife stopped selling her hand made items cause the race to the bottom of cheapest price to get sales wasn't worth it.

Bob, we have an ETSY store, a website, and sell on consignment. We're retired and the extra income is appreciated. ETSY treats us well and is very easy to operate. Susan is the webmaster of our website and she keeps it simple. The consignments are at antique stores and we pay up to 40% . All three generate "free" advertising, judging by the phone calls and email.

Suggestion: you might start with ETSY and make product that will break down and box up under 130". That's length plus 2X width plus 2X height. If you can stay under 130" shipping is tolerable. And use Pirateship com. If IKEA can produce particle board crap that bolts together and sells, you could certainly make quality product that also bolts together. IMO, that's where I would go.

Friend of mine made quality pieces of furniture and would set up at a big rendezvous in Minnesota. Did well for many years but since Covid attendance with good money has dropped off significantly. So he has his pieces in local stores and sells through consignment.

Anyway, good luck in your venture. If you have at least one piece in a good store with high traffic selling via consignment with your business card attached, you are at least getting free advertising and eventually one thing will lead to another.

We Sell on Etsy ,my Wife has a stained glass Etsy site and I have
my own site that she adds certain things s to.

their fees have gotten higher over the years

I enjoy selling on marketplace better...no fees

My wife sells the rubber art stamps she makes on etsy, ebay and amazon. None of them require you have a seperate website. She does well enoigh with just those she dropped our personal websites.

The only thing with selling stuff to be assembled is I believe some people don’t know which end of a screwdriver to use, but I understand your point, as for consignment there’s not a lot close but it is an option to at least get the name out, I wasn’t sure with market place where I’m making things and not a form of equipment also Esty can handle the credit cards where I believe market place I have to handle them, the website is something that was never needed and I didn’t want to get overwhelmed with this internet stuff and let the business end go down hill.