Etsy and postage

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I’ve noticed a lot of mats on Etsy which are reasonably priced and many of the sellers say they’ll do bespoke. Maybe worth a look.

Doug

As Doug has mentioned Etsy on another post I thought it was time to post some questions about this.  I am a bit of a Luddite and have avoided getting anything from there.  I have restricted my internet buying to places with a physical shopfront.

Is Etsy safe or do you need to do your homework regarding individual companies listed there?

I assume items are potentially posted from multiple suppliers so get hit with postage for each company you deal with rather than things being bundled together like with Amazon.

What is the overall standard of 3D print from Etsy?  Or is this dependent on the individual supplier?

For those of you in New Zealand and Australia - has postage from US and UK normalised yet?  I have not bought anything from US since some parcels went astray a couple of years ago and struggled to get any interest from the suppliers.

[carlos marighela]

I've bought stuff through Etsy, although only from the one supplier at a time so can't comment on multiple postage issues.

For my most recent purchase I could have gone direct to the manufacturer's website in Germany but for some reason he has a wider array of product on Etsy and it worked out cheaper on the whole. I found I received the goods within the advertised range to expect and no complaints with the service. Obviously that's a fairly limited sample so maybe there are individual suppliers with issues but I haven't come across any as yet.

Given a choice I will always buy from the UK rather than the US. Leaving aside the fairly ordinary service of the USPS, postage costs an arm and a leg so purchases from the Estados Unidos are few and far between these days. A pity but on the other hand there's only a tiny handful of US suppliers with stuff I want to buy. Fleabay is even worse. The postal rates for stuff from the US are just a piss-take, often coming in as multiple times the cost of the item itself.

[Elbows]

With Etsy you can search in your own country or international.

As far as "average quality" - entirely depends on the printer/seller.  Fortunately, Etsy allows for posting of pictures on reviews - so you go to the shop and check the reviews.  As always, anything under a 99% rating is probably a questionable seller.  On eBay, for example, if you have even a 97-98% it means you have a few too many issues.

So, just be careful about buying from a seller which doesn't have at least 200-300 sales, and they should have good feedback.

[fred]

Etsy doesn’t sell stuff directly. Everything is sold by individual sellers who have their own shops.

They will charge their own postage levels.

As the others have said there is a good feedback system on Etsy. My wife is a seller on Etsy and they do seem to police deliveries and communications well.

These days Amazon is very much an umbrella for many different sellers - and even when you buy multiple items that are ‘sold by Amazon’ these can arrive in different packages. And postage costs also vary by seller on Amazon.

[Doug ex-em4]

As Doug has mentioned Etsy on another post I thought it was time to post some questions about this.  I am a bit of a Luddite and have avoided getting anything from there.

Actually, I’ve only ever bought once from Etsy - I don’t want to come across as a frequent flyer…

I bought a packet of tree stumps (I’d seen some on a LAF post and asked the author where they came from). They came by inland post, so presumably UK made). as I recall, postage was included in the price. I was happy with the product and the service. As regards quality, well, we’re talking about tree stumps after all so the bar isn’t set very high but I liked them. I can post a photo if you like.

I got the impression that many of the sellers were gamers themselves - a bloke with a 3D printer. I maybe wrong.

I thought it was worth trying and wasn’t disappointed but, as I said, a packet of tree stumps wasn’t too big a risk…!

Doug

[zemjw]

I have bought a vase (1:1) scale from Etsy as a present and the p&p was reasonable.

I have looked at a Grumman Goose (Tales of the Gold Monkey) a couple of times, but p&p from the US was more than the cost of the model

But I agree, most of it seems to be bloke(tte) with a printer or two. I have mulled that route as an income source as retirement beckons. There are YouTube videos on the most popular ways to make money on Etsy (and it ain't selling wargaming scenery )

[Khusru2]

I've bought a couple of things on etsy.uk. Postage always seemed reasonable, prices not so much.
There are often multiple suppliers of the same models, stl franchises, but prices are fairly consistent.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

Thanks for all the replies.  Gives me someting to think about.
Mainly I am after sigle figures from several different suppliers.  This is probably not cost effective shipping to New Zealand 

[Ogrob]

An alternative is to look for someone who will print out your files for you in New zeeland, and then buy up all the stl files that you want.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Having bought a number of printed miniatures from Etsy I’ve made some good relationships with some sellers (who’ve sent me extras, created custom orders or previews of things they intend to list) as they tend to be hobbyists and interested in what you’re doing (especially if you’re also giving them cash!). I’ve bought some things (not miniatures) from international sellers (only with great ratings but all very positive experiences) but for my hobby mainly from local (U.K.) and so far have been happy. I use the basic system of: If you’re not sure about a seller message them with a question about what you want; if they bother to reply they’ll probably send the things you buy from them! 

Good luck,

Balm