To pay, or not to pay?
A friend of mine recently alerted me to the fact that individuals can sell their own products on Amazon. His plan was to import plastic stuff from China – my first thought, of course, was of selling Butter Bean Boutique clothing. I could get tons of fabric and sell only the less-complicated dresses like Pillowcase dresses – things that I could get done quickly enough that I could still list them as “in stock” until I ran out of that particular fabric. I was especially excited when I saw that Amazon charged only a 0.99 cent closing fee to list these items.
Alas, my joy was short lived. As you can see below, you can’t list an item of your own unless you pay $40/month for it. The “individual” seller’s account can only sell duplicates of things already listed on Amazon, like books, movies, and music.
So the question is now…. would I be able to sell enough $25 dresses in a month to cover that $40 fee? Should I just go ahead and try it? Summer’s waning, after all, and soon pillowcase dresses won’t be such a hot item, so maybe I should get going. Then again, Amazon isn’t a great venue for handcrafted items, and with so many bargains available there, perhaps the lure of something handmade won’t have the weight it would on a site like Etsy. But on the third hand, Amazon has a huge audience, so does that really matter? Someone out there will surely see the value in them…. right?
Opinions? Thoughts?