A Little Vent, A Little Yarn

My store sales are in a bit of a slump so I put some on ebay to see if the market is any better over there. I was a bit dismayed to see that the average price for hand dyed yarn over there is much lower than it should be. I'm not against reasonable prices for yarn, and I work to keep mine reasonable (my prices are usually $5-12 lower than most on Etsy) but these prices.. they're just too low. It's mostly the same seller too - undercutting everyone just to make a sale, which is sometimes a problem on Etsy as well. Having a sale is one thing, but constant undercutting devalues the work people put into it. If you're selling yours for $7-9 per big skein, you're barely making back cost, or losing money depending on where you get your base yarn. This often leads to other people lowering their prices in return to keep up and so on. The idea is to make handmade goods affordable - not dirt cheap. Etsy is not a flea market or thrift store even though there are some people determined to make it so. I won't have my shop there forever, once my business is steady enough I will move it elsewhere so that it's more direct and without a lot of the extra fees and frustrations.

There are two skeins of scarf yarn in my shop as well, such as this colorway I call Campfire Marshmellows. This last batch of yarn was dyed in softer colors to add a bit more variety to the store but they don't seem all that popular. The Merino yarn cleared out quickly, but the rest is lingering. There's been a flood of cross posted items in the knitting category, and it's pushed back most of the yarn, making it harder to see. It's been my biggest gripe about Etsy - that some of the sections contain items that don't technically belong there, and it makes it hard for buyers to find what they want easily. They really need to add a section under knitting for just yarn, and maybe one for stitch markers since that's the item that usually floods out the category.