Menswear is a good niche for selling...

What I want to talk about today is “Menswear.” It seems that this selling niche is often overlooked by some but can be a very good selling product.

A few weeks ago my uncle was to play in a seniors golf tournament and he wanted one of those vintage golf caps, the kind with the fuzzy ball on the top. He had the knickers, socks and vest but could find no hat. He said he needed it to complete his golfing “ensemble.”

Well, I took it upon myself to try to find him one because he is not so good on the internet especially with shopping. It took me a while but I did find his hat. Now, he is a happy “vintage” golfer!

This experience brought to mind that menswear is not as big a seller in the clothing category a women’s or children.
But there are more and more men looking and shopping on the internet than before.

We all know the old story that men do not like to go shopping but now they can shop from the comfort of their computer chair.

Hawaiian shirts are a big seller and actually for what reason I don’t know. I do know that my brother has a closet full and wears every one!

My friend’s husband buys ties, especially the skinny ties as well as bow ties. Who would have thought that they would become popular again. I see more and more men wearing the bow ties and some are fabulous! There are some really good handmade bow ties and they are better made than factory made and he always buys from a handmade seller. He says the quality is much better and they “fit” perfect.

Now, I do not know about the fit because when growing up my brothers just wore the clip on ties and they fit no matter what. This man actually ties his bow ties and sometimes it is just a wonder to me how he can get the bow tie to look perfect, but he does. Maybe it is a ritual that he enjoys and there is a certain je ne sais quoi to his ties.

This brings me to the subject of don’t throw away that ugly tie of your significant other because some where there will be the person that just might be looking for it.

I have seen skirts made from old ties and even where a lady took a tie and made a bow tie from it. One crafter took old ties and used them in dog collars, they were so cute that I got one for my little dog!

If you are bargain hunting at your local thrift store you will find many suit jackets. My friend buys these at a very low cost and adds a bit of ribbons, lace and other “stuff” and turns it into a ladies jacket. They are beautiful. So if you have a sewing talent this is something that you can do to create a niche for this product. I wish I could do this but when I tried it looked like something a business zombie would wear!

Vintage menswear is becoming popular items to sell. Two toned shoes, pocket watches with fobs, bow ties, skinny ties, and lest I we not forget sweaters! My son is a sweater freak. He loves the sweaters with knitted designs and colors.

There is a world of men’s goods out there in thrift stores that just need a little cleaning and can be up cycled for a more tailored look.
Find an old leather jacket, try your hand a making it into a steampunk style which is another big selling product. Some people have taken to revamping old leather jackets into really great purses.

So, while on your hunt in thrifts stores or at local auctions don’t pass by the menswear because there is so much that can be created or sold just as is because there is an up and coming market for these items.

We sincerely do so hope that you rent a boutique shop with us, www.craftique.us as the cost is low and the customer service will be high!

You rent your shop for $5.00 a month or $50.00 a year and have unlimited listings, no other fees, at all. What you sell and money you make is yours, not divided out for listing fees, shipping fees or final value fees!

Enjoy your holidays and stay safe while traveling!

Flowers, Plants, and Herbs, Oh, My...

A friend of mine grows the most beautiful flowers and plants and sells them at her little roadside stand. Now I can’t grow a thing. Every time I buy a little plant, I baby it, do everything to get it to grow, it just up and dies. So, after repeated times of this I just buy my plants from her.

She ask me if she could sell some of her plants and tubes on craftique and the answer is Yes! We do want you to sell your beautiful flowers and plants on our site.

If you grow herbs, they can be also sold on www.craftique.us.

There is a good market for dried herbs. More and more people are using natural home grown herbs in their food preparation as well as in making bath and beauty products. I purchased some fresh mint from a seller and it made the most wonderful tea! It was so much better than the “store” bought mint tea.

Tulip bulbs are another great item to sell especially when planting season comes around. There are a vast array of lily plants and people do buy the bulbs especially the “home” grown bulbs.
What I have found is that a plant nursery does not especially specialize in having a “good” product as they are mass grown. The person that has a smaller flower, plant, herb garden can take more time to make sure their plants are not given chemicals to help them grow but are using more green friendly products for their plants.

Now I do not know if this is true but my friend tells me that this makes her plants stronger and they produce more aroma, flowers, and are healthier plants.

Now another good product to sell is seeds. More and more folks are looking for the “old timey” seeds from plants. Hybrid plants do not have the same taste and are not as good quality as the “old timey” tried and true vegetables!

Take a tomato that you purchase in a grocery store. It can be a large or small one, it does not matter. This store tomato comes from a nursery, a large green house and does not have the same taste at all as a good home grown tomato! The seeds from lets just say a Beefsteak tomato could be gathered and dried and sold. This would be from your own home grown tomatoes!

If seeds were not important then why do we have seed banks?
So what this all comes down to is if you grow plants, flowers, herbs, and have seeds they all can be sold on www.cratique.us. Your plants are a good product to sell. You have those prize winning tomatoes, well save some of the seeds, take pictures of the luscious tomato to show people what the grown product will look like that will come from your seeds! I bet you will make yourself a good little niche for your seeds.

This goes as well for those that grown tubular plants, take tons of pictures of your plant in full growth, showing the different colors and types that you have, this will also help you to sell your plants!

It seems that most holidays have a flower or plant associated with it. Easter has the Easter Lily and many people purchase these for decoration for the home as well as for the gravesite of loved ones. And Easter will be coming up before we know it!

Valentine’s Day is soon here and Roses are the top flower to have at this time. So all you rose growers will be able to sell your roses on our site!

I suppose this is enough for now as I have a poinsettia that I need to take care of before it “gives up the ghost” and dies on me. Maybe next year I will just get a plastic one and I know it won’t die! But at least I tried, again, this year!

Have a happy time during the holidays! 

Post your pics here..it's great..we want you to!

We are proud for you to post any of your wonderful items that you now have for sale even if they are from another web site!  

That is good business for you!  

We do so hope that in the future you will rent a boutique from www.craftique.us as well.

Now we are fine with you selling on our site as well as others.  We don't care if you even list the same items because what we want is to help you make money, sell your items, and if you can do it on www.craftique.us or another site, well that is great for you!  

Because we do not charge any listing fees, final value fees, fees on shipping NO other fees except to rent your boutique!  You can list just one item or hundreds it doesn't matter!  

While we might be cheap in cost we will not be cheap in service to you as a seller and as a buyer.  

Overseas sellers are very much welcomed as there are some very unique items that can only be found in an overseas market.
I lived in Germany for a long time and know this to be true.  Items I brought back to the US have sold for far more than the original cost of purchase because the item could not be purchased in the US.

So you overseas sellers we do want you on www.craftique.us.
There is no better cost than we have for the quality of service we give to you.

When renting a boutique you will receive a private telephone number where you can reach one of us day or night if you have any problems or just random questions.  Of course there will always be email but sometimes you just want to speak to a real person.  We will always have access to one of our computers to help with something that you cannot "fix" in your store, easy we can do this while talking to you on the phone!

Just a little more about www.craftique.us and what we offer.

Toys, Old and New !!!

Posted on 12/13/2012 by admin

Today I want to talk about toys and what can be sold on www.craftique.us.

There are collectors of vintage toys, collectors of modern toys, and the people that are looking for certain toys for children.
I have neither the time nor inclination to go hunting from box store to box store looking for that one certain toy that my grandson wants. Plus half the time I don’t even know what it is except a “Star Wars” something or another. I must confess I am Star Wars illiterate when it comes down to it.

So, I take my grandson along with me on a shopping trip through the vast world of the internet to find that one special Star Wars something he wants. It is far easier on me as well as him to look through all the various pictures, shops, and all from the convenience of my computer than run around town, going from store to store, using gas, and all the time my grandson getting tired and a little cranky.

Please keep in mind we are not looking for a high price toy just a little action figure that completes/adds to his Star Wars army of troopers. I can also go to local thrift stores and dig through the vast amounts of broken, sometimes dirty toys to try to find it so I do better looking on the internet.

I was able to purchase a “bag” of toys on a site that was around $5.00. Then the shipping was $3.00. A total of $8.00 and I got that “special” Star Wars action figure and a few others and actually saved myself a lot of trouble. Especially when the new item would have cost me more (with tax added) than what I paid online. The little action figures were clean and in good condition and he was so happy! He had a few extras to build up his Star Wars “army!” Always good to have extras in case some get lost. (or so he says).

At first we felt that the only toys to be sold on www.craftique.us should be vintage toys but after several of us (moms and grand moms) we want to open up www.craftique.us to all toy sellers, not just vintage.

Old toys, vintage toys, new toys, any age toys that you have you can sell on www.craftique.us because we want you to be successful with your business on our site. Limiting toys to just old/vintage or handmade can limit your market and that will limit your sales.

For those of you that collect vintage toys, or collectible toys, we already have several reserved boutiques that will cater to that specific genre and will be easy to find.

Collectible toys can be vintage or new as I have found this out. I have a Barbie Doll that I purchased a few months ago from the Barbie site and now this doll is over $800.00 to buy! It is not vintage nor is it a pre 70′s just was in short supply. I got the doll because I liked her design and clothing. I had no idea that she would in this short time be worth so much.

So, you never know that new toy you buy what it might be worth in just a few short months. Then if you so want, you can sell and make a profit.

That is good business. The business of making money and that is what it is all about. If it wasn't then why sell at all.

Whatever you have in your boutique, somewhere there is someone that wants/needs what you have and they will buy it.
Unique items. One of a Kind items, seem to be the best sellers especially for a collector of said items.

Hang on to Legos as they are a big selling item, either in an unwrapped box or not. I bought my grand kids a “Black Pearl” (Pirates of the Caribbean) Lego ship. they put it together and then lost interest. I have all the pieces, instructions, and everything, I figured that no one would want it but I am wrong. There is a market for this piece and especially the little Lego men that you find.

Whenever you are browsing a yard sale or thrift store look for Legos because they sell.

Again with the weather (lots of snow) and cost of gas it is sometimes far better for me to find the toys for my grandkids online than in a B/M store! Plus we like to support the small business, the cottage business and those that are just starting out with their online boutiques.

We do hope you keep all this in mind when deciding if you want to rent a boutique with us at www.craftique.us as we do not limit the age of toys that you can sell!

I know many people who buy nude (almost new) dolls to use for OOAK dolls. They can be sold as supplies for the OOAK dolls or just as dolls.

Louise, one of our web owners, has 4 girls and to buy NEW Barbies (she says) is a waste of time and money. The girls always change the dolls’ clothes, cut their hair, and “fix” the dolls like they want them to be, their idea of making the doll pretty. So why should Louise go and spend on the average of $15.00 for a new Barbie for her girls just to have the girls “customize” the doll they way they want, when she can buy a Barbie that is ready for her girls to “fix!”

We have several doll boutique names reserve so if you are a doll seller, reserve your name before your special name gets taken.

I also wanted to mention that we have not only people reserving boutique names but had request from non-shop, non-boutique folks that are strictly buyers that are reserving their names as buyers only.

Anyone can buy but I feel that they want to have a certain name and so the reason for the early reserve. We also have many who reserve boutique names as well as buyer names that are different.

You can do this by dropping an email to the general email craftique.us@gmail or to admin@craftique.us.

Either email that is easier for you to do.

Happy Holidays to All!

Herbal Bath and Skin Products…mmmmm

Posted on 12/11/2012 by admin

Geez Louise…I love all kinds of herbal bath and skin products from the scented soaps to sugar scrubs, I think I have them all!
And in all kinds of scents! I love all the wonderful handmade lavender lemon soaps, the Christmas peppermint hand lotion, lilac scented bath salts and my list could go on and on.

What I do love so much is where a person can take different “scents” and somehow put them all together to created a very heavenly scent! As much as I would love to do this I cannot. It does take someone with the “nose” (excuse the pun) for blending scents together.

I will admit I tried it, one time, and that was enough! I had several different flower scents along with herbal scents and the each smelled wonderful, separately! But when I just threw them all together, whew, it was awful. Too much. So I learned my lesson that one cannot just get a bunch of essential oils and make something that smells so good.

It takes a person that knows what they are doing.
So, I resign myself to just being a buyer.

One problem that I have had is that when a person names there product with a name such as “Moonlight Beams” I wonder what does it smell like. The name tells me nothing and some sellers are really great at describing what oils/scents are in their product but some are not. If you are a seller of those wonderful bath and skin items just give to the buyer the names of the scents that are in your products not just give the product a name. You will get more business when a person knows what is in your special scents/perfumes.

I went out on a limb and purchased a small bottle of essential oil that was a mixture but listed no ingredients but has only a “name.” The name intrigued me and so I figured that if it did not smell good to me I would give it to my sister.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the bottle and this aroma was something so amazing. I carefully put the top back on and hid it so my sister would not find it. Jealously I guarded this small bottle, sparingly using it only for special occasions and then I had no more. Shaking hands I had keying in the seller name and emailing to buy more. I checked my email every hour for an answer. Finally the seller answered back. She no longer had any more and could not make any more because she did not write down the ingredients nor the amount of each ingredient!

Another point in case, you never know when you make something that someone just “has to have it” and then there might be another person that just really “wants it!”

I crochet a lot of things but never use a pattern. I have been doing this for a long time. I see something and I make it. Well, I made a little hat from yarn that I had dyed. Yep, I mixed a green and blue to get the color. Can’t repeat it because I never measured the amounts of the different colors. I also never even thought about writing down the design of the hat. I have had 4 people want me to make the same hat for them! I also gave them a ridiculous price and they still want the hat! Soooo, I am busy dying yarn and trying to match the color. I can look at my hat and tell how to make it but not in making the color.

This is just another example of writing down your formula when creating something for the first time as you never know when people want your products.

Well, enough for today on this subject.

 All you wonderful people who create bath and skin products, we hope you open a shop on www.craftique.us. I certainly do because I don’t have the “nose” for creating the perfumes and blending of essential oils for aromatic pleasure.

Happy Holidays to All!!!

E books, digital designs, and things of the sort….

E books, digital designs, and things of the sort….

Posted on 12/10/2012 by admin

E books, digital designs, and things of the sort can we sell on craftique.us?

Yes these are wonderful products for a person to sell. Why because the only cost to the seller is their time and imagination. Of course there is a lot of “work” that goes into writing and designing but for the most part it is not “work” to a writer or designer.

Why do I say this? I am a writer and everything I write (stories, books) are not work but my “labors of love!” I love to write.
A very creative friend of mine is a digital designer and he loves his “work.” He tells me that he is his happiest when he is designing web sites, banners and things of the sort because he loves what he does.

If we all loved our “work” would we not be the happiest people on earth? I feel we would. If we were all happy then there would not be so much strife and heartache in this world today.

So this tells me that I need to do what I love to do and in that I would be happy.
Simple.

Well as a writer I will be selling some of my “work” on www.craftique.us as well as my friend that writes a series of very creative children’s books called the “Rowdy Randy” series. I can’t give away the plots of the stories but I just know that Moms will want these for their little ones.

So you creative folks that “work” on digital designs and such, we want you to sell on our site!

Writers of e-books, heck yeah!! We do want you on our site because we want a well rounded web site where everybody can do what they love be it from knitting to shopping for vintage, from writing e-books to hard copy books, we want you all to do what you love!

I have way too many reserved names to keep putting out the boutique names and just wanted everyone to know. I would be writing a very long list and just did not want to disappoint anyone or have you die of boredom by reading just a list.

To switch gears or rather change the subject, I went shopping with a friend of mine the other day and we went to the “G” boutique which is the Goodwill store. I found the absolutely cutest Victorian style teacup and saucer. I had to buy it! I don’t collect teacups but it was so different and dainty I could not resist. “Resistance was futile” at the time.

Now, after getting home that brought to mind as to “Why” I bought it. I really don’t know but in thinking this could be the same for someone else that finds something so irresistible that you just have to have it! Then later on wonder what you are going to do with it. Well, things like that can be sold on craftique.

So, while out doing Christmas shopping and you find that one irresistible item that you have to have right then, well get it!! Because later after the glamour is gone you can sell it on www.craftique.us!

Well enough said and it is time to go. Going to a “thrift” store and this time I will be strong! I swear I will! I will resist! I think.

Happy Holidays to all!!

Is Craftique just focused on “handmade”?

Posted on 12/07/2012 by admin

This was a question that I received and decided to try to clarify what the “craft” in craftique means.

First we want everyone to succeed in their business which is owning a boutique on our site. We will be promoting your boutiques, your products, your items on many different social as well as picture sites! We will give to you the best possible customer service that there is! This is a promise.

We, together at www.craftique.us, have sold and bought on many venues and we feel that customer service is lacking on most of these sites. Maybe they have gotten so big they do not care about their sellers. I have read way too many complaints on forums about NOT having customer service. A friend that sells (for now) on a big name web site tells me that it is like all they (being the web site owners) just want his money and they throw any complaints (which are a lot) out the door! You are left on your own to settle any problems with your customers as the site offers no help! Well, we will offer help with problems as well as mediation for any that a buyer as well as a seller might have.

Now, starting a boutique, shop, or store, whatever you might want to call it, is not an easy thing to do! You have to “set up” your place, think of a name that in someway might define your wares that you have, then the listings, taking good pictures, trying to describe to potential buyers all about your items and all of this takes time and it is in essence becomes a “craft” to do all this. Making a banner for your place is that not a craft? Taking good photographs is a craft and that has to be done to show your items.

We feel that your boutique is a craft in itself and that is where the “craft” in www.craftique.us comes from.

We are not only hand made items but what you have in your boutique is unique for you, for your boutique. Therefore every boutique is unique!
Not everyone has exactly the same things. I have a sofa and you have a sofa but what are the odds that we have the exact same sofa? This is just an example of meaning your boutique, shop or store (whatever you may want to call it) will be the unique for craftique!

I was also questioned if any of us were “crafters,” artist, or “made” things? We are a diverse group that does a little of everything so we do know the time that you spend in creating and making your wonderful hand-made items.

We are also vintage lovers that buy, sell and collect vintage as well as retro items. So, we do know the joy of finding that special vintage item we want. We also know the time spent in going to local auctions, local vintage shops, local thrift stores and finding a vintage item that is in perfect condition and buying it. Then later on deciding to sell it.

I at one time collected teapots. I had a gazillion of them, having to clean and dust almost every day so just decided one day that I was tired of all of them and so I sold them.

So there will be a number of different items that you can sell, things you find here and there, things that you no longer want or need.

There is a “craft” to buying and selling to make yourself profit. And we are going to help you succeed in your “craft” of having an online boutique with us.

We are not here to “get rich” off of you that is one reason our pricing is low. We want everyone to have the power to succeed in their business and you cannot do that if at the very beginning you have high fees, final value fees, shipping fees and a whole lot of other fees to figure into your cost of your place. After a while you seem to make nothing but am selling for the cost of fees! You should get your price of what the value you set for your items and NOT have to take away from that with high fees!

The only fees you pay for having your boutique on www.craftique.us is $5.00 a month or $50.00 a year! This is unlimited items you can list, NO other fees, ever!
Nothing will change!

Time to go and work on the list of reserve names which are coming in more and more. So, please reserve your name early so no one takes your name you want for your boutique.

Happy Holidays to all!!!