A vintage seller dying to sell on icraft!

[Erin Brennan]

The title pretty much says it all, but I was brought here over from a very big site that seems to be going through A LOT of negative change lately *cough e*** cough*

Anyways, I am Canadian and love almost everything about icraft, the problem is I sell vintage jewelry. When oh when will vintage be a sectionon here. I'm very nervous with all the changes happening on the other site where my shop is and it's very hard to find decent, nicely laid out sites that help us vintage sellers!

Is there at least ANY inkling that vintage may be a sectionhere in the future (pretty please with sugar on top)??

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Erin,

Glad to hear you like our site. We've had numerous discussions about Vintage and Supplies, and even Handmade Food before, as people who sell on Etsy or Artfire expect to see the same categories here on iCraft.

We'd like to expand into those markets too, but without losing focus on Handmade here on iCraft.

So one of the ideas we had is to give those who sell Vintage a separate site with it's own look and feel, but with the same features as iCraft and a single login to both.
This would allow us to focus our marketing efforts on a particular niche - vintage, handmade, supplies etc., making it easier to drive targeted traffic to each site. And we could still do cross-promotion between the sites.
At the same time those who sell a variety of things could segment their products using different stores on different sites. I've heard before that sellers on Etsy are not always happy with seeing dog food beside their expensive jewelry. So we are not sure it's a good move for us to mix handmade with vintage or supplies.

We have not decided yet on the approach. Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks!

[Erin Brennan]

What a great idea to segregate the two or three different shop styles! I definitely think that is smart. Like you say it will help give those other vendors an option to still come by and add to the reputation of icraft while also bringing you into the same market as other sites like Etsy as well. It will also be good to help keep icraft the way it is for those handmade artisans here who are content with the way this site functions already. You could somehow link all the sites together with widgets so a person only has to click on one of these on say, the vintage website, and they are transferred over then to the adjacent supplies site, crafts site, etc. What about just tying them in through name as well? I have no idea what the process to secure a domain name is like but it would be interesting (and easier for the new users/buyers) if there was an icraft, ivintage, and isupplies. Or something like that.

Anyways, as I'm sure you can tell by my enthusiasm, I would definitely sign up to any vintage site that icraft set up. I could pretty much guarantee with all the unwelcome changes on Etsy, if it leaked onto their forums that this was available to vintage sellers there would be quite a few willing to transfer over here!

And thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Erin,

Yes, we thought about similar names for all sites too. (Great minds think alike )Though it’s hard to get .com domains now with good names. We didn’t want to use .ca domain only this time. Ideally, we should get both .ca and .com domains.

Here are some domains that we’ve purchased already. But we are obviously not done with deciding on the name yet. We’d need to find something that would speak to buyers and sellers of vintage items.
ivintage.ca
vintagedig.com
vintagemine.com
seriouslyvintage.com

They all redirect to our own page listing vintage inspired handmade gifts for now.
Any suggestions for the name are welcome! 

I guess here are the things we’d need to seriously pursue this option.

• Decide on the name and secure the domain name.
• Find a small group of vintage sellers to work with us (at least 10-20) on site design and testing. If you know some sellers on Etsy, that’s great. There are a few people on iCraft who sell vintage too. I am sure they’ll be interested in this offer, especially if we’ll give promotional accounts to those who help us build the new site from the ground up.
• Create a list of Categories that will work well for vintage products.
• Find out about the preferences in design and look and feel.
• List required, desired or nice to have features
• Figure out the Pricing model… (Btw, we are still deciding on iCraft’s pricing)

I am curious what “unwelcome changes on Etsy” you are referring to. Thanks!

[Craft Boutique]

I've also seen posts on Etsy about  three groups of sellers (handmade, vintage and supplies) that are not getting along under one roof.

I am afraid that handmade items would get lost very quickly in the sea of vintage and supplies. We just can't compete with those shops, as we have small quantities of products. I think other marketplaces, like vintage and supplies, would benefit each other, if properly connected, but I would not mix all together. Just my two cents.

[SarahMars]

Yes, vintage has been discussed many times here on forums. I wonder if there are more people selling vintage than handmade? Is it a big market? I personally like both and would buy both.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I like the idea of linking without merging the three styles of shops (handmade, vintage, supplies).
Just for fun, I like the name "vintagelife".  I think of buying vintage as a lifestyle choice more than just a style choice.  Just me.  I don't follow the vintage scene myself though.

[Erin Brennan]

Admin – I imagine the domain names and process can be a difficult one for sure! I love to hear that you are actually in the process of having a vintage site too. Knowing that the domains are there and waiting makes me very happy. As soon as you get any one up I will be hopping on board. 

And I personally quite like the .ca domain but then again I can see the other side of the coin and how it could be difficult for new international buyers to find since .com is the typical sought after ones. Out of all those options I would definitely say seriouslyvintage strikes me the most. But my first choice would still be ivintage.ca. lol

In terms of getting some other sellers on here, that may be something I can help with. I can casually mention on the forums that I have found another site for vintage sellers and maybe even start a group that would be interested in transferring over to here (if not fully, partially). I’ll have to figure out a way to do it that doesn’t get me into hot water with Etsy, but I think it wouldn’t be too difficult to wrangle a few people over here! I hope this link works, but it basically outlines how there are now people on Etsy that are masquerading as handmade sellers when in fact they are actual mass market stores acting as resellers (which was something big against Etsy’s policy’s).
www.regretsy.com/2012/04/24/update-ecologica-malibu/

Needless to say A LOT of people are pissed about it over there – hence why it’s on Regretsy, a mocking site of Etsy. Also they have revamped the weddings section (and I believe are planning to do it in the future to all sections) and they’ve actually made it so thousands of sellers and items are being lost and customers can’t even find their items in a replacement. Sad, eh? So ya, quite a few people unhappy over there!

Craft Boutique - I completely agree! I would never want Handmade to get lost in the sea of vintage and supplies. I buy way too many handmade things as gifts I would be lost every birthday and Christmas. Lol

Fairy Cardmaker - That is a pretty good name! I like vintage life!

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Erin,

Yes, we discussed it seriously before and even made some progress sketching the new site. iCraft was redesigned this year to make it easier to use it as a platform for adding other sites to it, with a single login to all. We always wanted to add other closely related communities, like vintage and supplies, as they would benefit iCraft as well - raise site's profile and drive additional targeted traffic to it.

No, we don't want you to get in trouble with Etsy. We would not ask people to close their stores somewhere else in order to start selling on our site.

We are planning to send a message to our sellers this weekend and see who'd be interested in the vintage site too. The sooner we can organize a group of vintage sellers to work with, the sooner we can start doing the real work on the new site. Exciting! 

[iCraft Admin]

Just read that post on regretsy.
WOW, so much drama! I have to say that was a good read. Loved the humor! Ha ha 

On a serious note, we struggle with the same issue of "collectives" vs "resellers", what's truly handmade and what's not. It takes sometimes a lot of rereplacement to make that determination. Some people tell us they are resellers, but work on behalf of an artist or a group of artists.  So far it has been on a case by case basis. However, at this point Etsy should have no doubts about their Featured Seller. I don't understand why they just didn't remove them from the featured spot and closed their account...

Removing all comments is weird too. I think that's the whole point of having a community - listening to their feedback, good or bad.  Hmm... 

[iCraft Admin]

Here is another domain that we thought is kinda interesting.
www.oldsuitcase.com

It doesn't have word "vintage" in it, but it implies it. What do you think?

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Personally speaking,  It's not great.  It implies clothing or clothing related.  Not furniture, or vases/decor, dishware, collectibles and other things you wouldn't ordinarily pack in a suitcase.

[iCraft Admin]

Good point, Fairy Cardmaker! I didn't think of that.

[iCraft Admin]

I guess one of our concerns of having "vintage" in the domain name is that it would limit us in including other related product categories, like antiques and collectables. So the name would have to be more inclusive or, at least, not too limiting.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Ok... brainstorming...
"OldWordCharm"
"ofThingsPast"
"ShopTheEras"
"ShopofAges"

Ultimately, I think you are going to need the word "antique" or the word "vintage" in there somewhere though, so you'll have to pick one.  In addition, consider whether "vintage" will be confused with where it originated from: wine.  Wines have vintages and I'll bet there are tons of wine sites with that word.  In fact, my previous suggestion of "VintageLife" could be mistaken for maybe a connoisseur's blog!

More brainstorming needed.

[iCraft Admin]

Thanks for the suggestions, Fairy Cardmaker!  
I like "OldWordCharm".

No, I don't think we need word "vintage" or "antiques" in the domain name. It can be more generic and inclusive.

Yes, "vintage" can be also confused with vintage wine. There was an interesting discussion about "Antique vs. Vintage. Definition and differences?" on Ebay. 

I keep thinking of places where you find old forgotten treasures, like attics, old chests and lost suitcases. Unfortunately, forgottentreasures.com is taken...

[Fairy Cardmaker]

So... turn "forgottentreasures" around and make it "foundtreasures" or "treasuresfound"
hmmm "treasurefountain"?  "treasuretrunk"?  (Makes me think of Mr. Dress Up's tickle trunk - fond smiles!)
I like "treasuresfound" best of this group or else "treasurefind" because it sounds more active than passive.  (ooops, just saw that one is taken.)

[iCraft Admin]

So true... I like how you think
I like "treasuretrunk" best. It has a nice ring to it. 

[Erin Brennan]

I've been MIA for a little, but WOW. There are some awesome name ideas going on here!

I personally love OldWorldCharm the best. I have absolutely no basis behind this but I just don't really like names that have the word treasures in it. Again, I have no reason why...just not something that catches my eye too much. lol

What about something completely different from the typical discriptions of vintage and antique items? What about using the focus of how old the items are instead? Some ideas I have rolling around my head:

Onlytimewilltell
Walkthroughtime
Pastperfection
Piecesfromthepast

Just thought I'd share

[iCraft Admin]

Glad to see you back, Erin! You started quite a discussion here, so I was hoping to see you back. 

Yes, a lot of great suggestions!
OldWorldCharm & Pastperfection (which I also love) are taken. However, we could still try to get those domains.
I guess we just need to pick top 3 and see which ones we'll be able to purchase.

Btw, after sending email to our members on May 12th, we've got about 10 emails from those who also sell vintage. Unfortunately, not all of them are interested in participating in the site design. Most just want to be notified when the new site is ready. 
So we still have an issue of getting a few sellers to join this discussion...

[Fairy Cardmaker]

WonderfullyAged?
Agedwithlove?

Fun and possibly catchy: ThisOldThing

[iCraft Admin]

Yes, ThisOldThing.com is catchy! but taken. Available for sale for $9,500 
ThatOldThing.com is taken too.

I lost my voice last week and was thinking of word "Rusty", that it could also work for the domain that we are looking for.

RustyCreations.com (taken, but available for sale for $3,260)
RustyMill.com 
RustyCharm.com 
RustyGrace.com
RustyFinds.com
GoodNRusty.com

or
OldNewAgain.com
OldToNew.com
OldAndGold.com
LikeItOld.com
...though these might sound like a dating sites for seniors. Ha ha 
 

[Bomb La Bon Bon]

Veni Vidi Vintage

It might be too long, but sounds catchy

You came you saw... vintage

Cheers

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Playing off of Bomb La Bon Bon's idea...

VintageViewfinder ?

[iCraft Admin]

We should probably setup a poll for choosing top 5 or top 3 names. We have a lot of ideas already.
Here are a few more...

VintageFinds.com
VintageFix.com
RetroFix.com
ValueVintage.com
GoodOldStuff.com
GoodNRetro.com
RetroPlace.com
VintageAddict.com
VintageCatch.com
theAttick.com
Attick.com

[GalleriaLinda]

I am so excited about this thread with such good ideas!!! Jumping in a little late but better late than never, I say.

I just spent 45 minutes writing a reply with some comments and I lost them - my thumb brushed something now it is all gone.

I have to go to work now and  I will try to reconstruct my thoughts later today about domain name selections, etc....

Count me in!

Linda
iCraftGifts.com/gallerialinda

[iCraft Admin]

Glad to hear you are in, Linda! 
Sorry about lost post! Need to add autosave to forum.

[GalleriaLinda]

Here is most of my post that was lost! As I mentioned above, I am very excited about this project and about the enthusiasm!

I agree with Erin that getting this onto the Etsy forum, hopefully by a few different people, would be amazing. They talk about and critique other venues all the time. I no longer have shops there so cannot help with that, but it would be awesome.

Just look up “thecraftstar” or “craftstar” on the forum and you will see huge discussion and buzz about this new handmade venue (that kind of fizzled once they went live because the site was not working right and they were not prepared for the numbers of people accessing it and got a lot of BAD buzz AFTER they went live – worth a read to mitigate issues with going live with a new site if you start to have anticipated buzz on Etsy. Etsy buzz kicks up hundreds of interested parties for new venues and the new venue needs to be prepared with a clean, working site and technology-power-wise for the onslaught the initial few days of going live).

It would be so beneficial to somehow get a couple of the long-time Etsy vintage sellers who might be interested, to join the iCraft vintage development team. They know what they need, what they have been disheartened about on Etsy, categories they must have, and other issues with a “vintage only” website. I think it would be extremely valuable. Just a thought.

Here are some strategic comments about domain name selection – and I have not really selected on in my mind yet.

•   .com – I agree that a dot com is the best because international buyers and sellers recognize that. A few times when I have suggested iCraftGifts.com to other sellers, they were under the impression that it was just for Canadians and I had to let them know that it is international. It is all about perception.

•   SEO for domains – Google crawls the domain name first and is the best keyword SEO tool you have. Ideally, it should have specific keywords in it for this purpose. A good (bad) example is my own domain (lol) gallerialinda.com – it really should be GalleriaLindaHandmadeJewelry.com or something like that to take advantage of the keyword “handmade jewelry,” which is one of the top keywords for this category. This is just an example.

•   Keywords in Domain - For that reason, I think that using the word “Vintage” in the domain is valuable because people replacement that word. I love the word “Retro” but think about how you would replacement – vintage earrings or retro earrings?

•   Branding outside of keywords - If a creative domain name outside of the keywords is selected, like “RustyMill,” it can definitely be a brand specific to you in the long term, but who will replacement by that term (for a long time)? If someone replacemented for “vintage” then your “www.vintagexxxxxxx.com” site should show up. It is doable for a creative domain but you need a huge, consistent push in PR for years to eventually become a replacemented brand, because you don’t benefit from that domain crawl SEO.

•   Social – I also would suggest checking Facebook and Twitter for the selected names to see what is available and/or other businesses using that name.

When there is a “going live” date, I think we can kick up some anticipation buzz through our own blogs and soliciting vintage blogs from others for posts. I was asked to join this vintage directory – she is going live in June for the directory but has a vintage-specific blog – a good target for a post about this. http://vintagedirectory.blogspot.com – I know we can find other ones too.

Admin – give us the OK when we can blog and buzz about it.

Do you have a target month to go live? End of this year? Or Earlier? Or later?

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Linda,

Great points! 

Yes, we'll definitely go with .com domain.

Yes, having "vintage" in the domain helps a bit, probably mostly users who are replacementing for vintage. There were claims that Google doesn't give much weight anymore to keyword-specific domains, not like before.

Another concern we have with "vintage"-specific domain is that it might turn away people who sell antiques and collectables, and we definitely want to be more inclusive - bigger market!

Good point about social. Yes, will have to check that too.

We are really at the rereplacement stage right now. Before we can give any timelines for when the site will go live, we need to have requirements for what needs to be built. Without that we can't even estimate how long it will take.

Here is roughly what needs to happen.

1. Organize a small group of sellers (7-10 probably ok to start with), who sell variety of vintage & antique items - jewelry, clothing, collectables, furniture etc.
2. Decide on the domain name.
3. Setup forum under new domain and move conversation there. It's a good idea to establish site early on, as it will start collecting inbound links and get up in rankings faster, once it goes live officially.
4. Write up a list of Must-Have and Nice-to-Have Requirements
5. Do Keyword Rereplacement and come up with Product Categories
6. Create mockups of main site sections. Decide on look & feel and site layout.
7. Develop all Must-Have features. At this point only a small group of people would have access to pages under development.
8. Create buzz before site goes live
9. Release Beta site to public
10. Promote new site (social, link building, newsletters, paid ads etc)

In terms of generating buzz, we really only need people at this point who are interested in being on the ground floor of this new site. Obviously, the more feedback we get from the experienced sellers, who know what works and what doesn't', the better site we will build.

So if you guys have any connections in the vintage world, please let others know about this rather unique opportunity. 

[GalleriaLinda]

Thanks for sharing the do list. I knew it would be a while but excited to get it started!

[iCraft Admin]

A few more name ideas:

StrictlyVintage.com
VintageUniverse.com
TreasureTrove.com

[iCraft Admin]

Just checking if there is still interest in the Vintage site?
We are ready to continue work and will need a few early adopters to work with us.

[iCraft Admin]

Did I mention that we are going to offer 1 year of free unlimited postings to a few early adopters? 
Anyone interested?

[GalleriaLinda]

LOL, that should bring a few posts.

I am in. Just give me a little advanced notice, like maybe a couple of weeks to organize stuff.

Vintage is so different than my jewelry because each piece is a different size, weight, and postage method. Vases, purses, etc..

Keep us posted!

[iCraft Admin]

Great! 
Linda, what is your vintage store URL? Thanks!

[GalleriaLinda]

I have vintage jewelry on http://zibbet.com/gallerialindaloft.

The shop has been neglected due to time, but if starting out with a new shop would be a great time to get more organized and keep up with it. I have boxes of stuff (not just jewelry) to list.

[Unique Bundle]

I've not heard anything new about the "Vintage/Supplies" opportunity-to sell on iCraft.  What's happening? Thank you

[Fairy Cardmaker]

If you are interested, add your name to this thread:
https://icraftgifts.com/forum/1665/do-you-also-sell-vintage-or-supplies/1/

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Unique Bundle,

We are working on other marketplaces and will try to provide updates on regular bases.
Not sure if you received our last email update, where we outlined some of the features. I'll try to post same updates here on forum as well.
And as Fairy Cardmaker mentioned, make sure you add your name to the other thread too. Thanks!

[Feel N Sassy]

you are good with coming up with name ideas

would you like to find me one.
currently I have Feel N Sassy

my niche is fashion clip on earrings
fashion apparel

I secured the domain already..I was surprised to know that no one had this name yet.....