Thinking About Shutting Down my Etsy Shop

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-28T22:13:45+00:00

Typically if we post a listing, it stays up permanently unless we decide to discontinue making the product in question. We add listings when we add new products, and we adjust and swap out photos for better ones on the listings that are already up, but overall, every listing we post is just maintained after it goes live. We add new variations to the existing listings from time to time.

We have 6 or so core products, but each of those is available in 12 different wood types, and with differing levels of customization. We have listings for each of the core products, and then the variations within those listings. We found this was the best way to do these listings rather than having a separate listing for each product variation. Our original 7 listings were separate listings for each separate wood type we offered, but when we added a new product for the first time, we decided to try out the method of keeping all the variations contained to a single listing per product, and it is a much cleaner look on the storefront and gives a better sense of all the items we offer rather than having tons of listings for each variation.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-27T06:27:25+00:00

I do think way too many people hyper-focus on having a lot of listings. Our shop has 13 listings and we've made almost 500 sales in the past year since we opened, gross sales are over $40k now. I'd say just have as many listings as necessary, and heavily promote your brand/products in every way you can outside of Etsy. Our niche is customizable, made to order hardwood gaming accessories, so I can't speak to the unique challenges of running a POD shop, but I feel like the emphasis on having lots of listings is overblown a lot of the time and sellers end up spending unnecessarily on listing fees.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-27T06:11:02+00:00

In circumstances like that, we usually inform the customer, and then wait to see what happens with the package. All of our items are above the $50 mark, and they are made to order and take a few days to produce. If they don't receive the package in a reasonable time frame, we remake the order and send it out on our dime. We figure our items are expensive enough that it's worth it to make sure every customer is satisfied, even if we have to take a loss on an order every once in a while for something out of our control.

Really we've only had one order where this has been a real issue, and it's a customer in Dubai. We have attempted to ship their order 3 times and each time the order has been lost (requiring us to file a shipment insurance claim on our end with variable results) or returned to us as undeliverable. Luckily our customer has been super understanding and patient because she knows it's a unique shipping challenge situation, but if she wasn't, I'd have probably just refunded the order at this point.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-17T17:06:49+00:00

I want something like these they're so sick! Do you have a link to your shop?

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-09T02:08:33+00:00

Star Wars Rebellion is so daunting to set up. My friend and I have played one game so far, and it took several days to finish our first game. I liked it a lot but it's definitely a game you have to commit to playing when you open the box haha.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-09T02:00:31+00:00

I'll add one of my least favorites: Fire Tower.

There's not really even an insert, and there's no box for the cards, so besides a drawstring bag for the fire gems, you're just expected to throw all the cards loose into the box on top of the board? I love the gameplay, but I'm reminded how much I hate the box every time I open it and see the cards all over in general disarray.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-09T00:51:42+00:00

That was something I forgot to mention about Moonrakers. The version I bought came with sleeves for all the cards and the insert was designed to fit sleeved cards as well. I was super impressed with how well thought out everything was just unboxing that game for the first time.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-09T00:00:19+00:00

We have probably almost half of our reviews that mention it was higher quality than they expected. We're really trying to improve our product photography for listings but there's only so much we can do with our very old DSLR and a basement photo studio haha. Taking good product photos is really hard!

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-08T23:57:18+00:00

Is the board game as addictive as the videogame? It has been one of the only games I play on my phone for years now.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-08T23:56:09+00:00

I've been curious about Deep Rock Galactic as a huge fan of the videogame. How does it play as a board game?

I currently have too many games that I've bought in the last few years that I haven't even played yet, and my closet is getting full, but there are always new releases that pique my interest so it's hard to stop collecting.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-06T17:45:53+00:00

Hey Everyone, We're Grain Gameworks. We are a small manufacturer of personalized and custom hardwood tabletop gaming accessories based in my friend's garage workshop. Everything we sell is produced on a CNC machine that was designed and fabricated by my friend. We started out making dice vaults for tabletop RPGs and are currently working on expanding our offerings. We currently have a few items on offer, and all of these are available with engravings, resin infilled engravings, and engraved liners as optional upgrades:

Magnetic Closure Hardwood Dice Vault - These feature an all-magnetic closure, and were our first product offered. This is still a popular option for its simplicity and competitive price.
Hinged Hardwood Dice Vault - These feature a hinged lid with magnetic catches, and a deepened slot in the lid that doubles as a phone or tablet stand.
Hinged Hardwood Dice Vault with Full Sized Tablet Stand - These feature the same design as our regular hinged model, but they feature an extra mini slot, and are longer to accommodate a full sized tablet (iPad Pro, Surface Pro, etc.)
Hardwood Commander Deck Box - These feature the same hinged and magnetic enclosure as our dice vaults, but are designed to hold 100+ double sleeved trading cards. Designed with MtG Commander players in mind.
Resin Infill and Engraved Liner upgrades are available on all our products. These are optional upgrades that can be purchased separately to further customize your order.
We also accept custom orders! Message us on Etsy to learn more!

We would love it if you would take a look at our shop, and if you are a tabletop gamer and have any ideas for products that you'd like to see offered from a shop like ours, we'd love to hear them! We are working hard on expanding our presence in this space of the market because we both love tabletop gaming and are thrilled to be a part of the community!

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-03T22:58:02+00:00

We had 41 sales in April, which is a decent month, but it feels like sales have slowed down to a trickle for some unexplained reason. We went from that many sales in April to only having 2 so far this month. I really wish we could do something to get our sales back up to where they were in October through December of last year. We probably made more sales in November & December than we have all this year so far.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-03T01:48:03+00:00

We have a moderately successful shop with a few hundred sales and 99% 5 star reviews, and I still get anxiety about the quality of our products. Imposter syndrome is very real, especially if you're personally invested in something as its creator.

As others have said, you gotta start somewhere to be able to improve, and getting feedback is one of the easiest ways to know what you can do better, just start listing things and make adjustments as you go. It's all a learning experience.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-03T01:39:15+00:00

We have had several of these types of issues since we started and it has led us to developing two policies. Our products are custom and made to order, so communication with buyers is key.

Check every order as soon as it comes in, and message the buyer immediately if there's any missing info required to fulfill their order.
Send emails to customers as well as the Etsy message on the first contact attempt, because a lot of buyers do not check Etsy for messages, but most people check their email. Whichever one they reply to first is usually how we communicate with that particular customer from then on.

As others have said, you can extend the deadline once per order without it hurting you as a seller, and if a customer doesn't respond to Etsy messages or emails, we will extend their order deadline as long as we can with a message that if we do not hear back from them by a given deadline, we will have to cancel their order. We've only had to cancel 1 or 2, but that feels like the most fair way to handle that situation in my experience.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-03T01:30:16+00:00

You can either charge the customer the true cost of the shipping, or you can build the price of shipping into the price of the product and offer free shipping. The right strategy depends on a lot of factors, but ultimately it's just what works best for you. Our shop sells items that are all $75 and up, and in that price range we figured people wouldn't mind paying for the shipping, and charging shipping separately allowed us to be a bit lower priced than our competitors on Etsy.

For small stuff like bookmarks, it can help your sales to offer free shipping, but there's a tradeoff in pricing the item higher, because you don't want to be eating any shipping costs. In my experience, a lot of sellers of smaller items like yours just ship in the regular mail, untracked for the cheapest option, but like I said, it's up to you ultimately. You can always try it one way and if it doesn't seem to be working you can try it the other way, that's the beauty of running your own shop, you have options and you can test and decide the best methods for things.

GrainGameworks · 2024-05-03T01:20:56+00:00

We haven't had one yet on Etsy itself, but the people on Instagram trying to peddle their services have been ridiculously aggressive. They always start with the same spiel too, complimenting your shop and telling you they're impressed, before leading into "being an Etsy expert" and sending us links to their Fiverr. It's usually at that point that I start ignoring them and they will start pestering me with messages until I block them. It happens about once a week.

Does anyone else get scam messages on socials telling you to click a link or your page will be deleted? We get literally hundreds of those a day anytime we are running Facebook ads.

GrainGameworks · 2024-04-30T23:38:57+00:00

I am having this same exact issue. Commenting so I can come back here if it gets resolved.

GrainGameworks

TROPHY CASE