My First Etsy Sale

Okay technically, my second Etsy sale, but the first was seven years ago when my shop was an entirely different entity, and the sale came in just as I was closing it down.

It was a gold paper mosaic serving tray, very much like the black and gold vase that sits in my shop right now, only on a serving tray.

Now, back to the post at hand...

I made my first Etsy sale! Yaaaaay!

I was contacted by a woman who wanted to know if I would make one of my plastic canvas decorative kitchen magnets in a different color than the one that I already had in my shop, ready to ship.

"Hmmm", I thought. Would I? I had not intended to get involved with custom requests (except for my MiniBaskets, which I think make cute gift basket party favors). Other than that, I only intended to sell the items that are listed, as they are, done and ready to ship. But then I thought "Ooooh what the hell." I didn't have any other projects going on, and I really wanted a sale. So I took the job!

Once complete, I created a custom listing in the shop for her to purchase. But instead of making the purchase, she asked me for another one, in another color.

Now, the advice given by nearly every member of my Etsy Group is to always have a customer pay up front for a customized order. Otherwise you could spend time and materials making a piece, and then the customer backs out. But in this case, even if the customer were to back out, I could still list these pieces in my shop for the general public. So I accepted the request.

Once completed, I updated the listing, and the customer made the purchase! She is now the proud owner of two cute little kitchen magnet owls!