Art Fire

There's a new site for handmade goods called Art Fire and it's very much like Etsy. The biggest difference is that they only charge a flat monthly fee instead of listing fees and a percentage of each sale. If you get in on the ground floor, the monthly fee is only $7. That's crazy cool if this site takes off. I love Etsy but the lack of personal attention when you have a problem has been annoying. I'm not a big fan of automated messages. So then you run over to the forum on Etsy and ask your question hoping that an Admin will finally help you only to have one slap your hand for discussing a private issue in public and then they lock the thread. Uh...did you see that I had an important question? Guess not. So I opened an Art Fire shop last month and listed a few of my silver sliders and then promptly forgot about the site altogether....until someone flagged two of my items. The reason they gave Art Fire was "prohibited item" and "not handmade, this is a reseller". Huh? You are allowed to resell items there just like on Etsy as long as they are tagged correctly, which mine were. So I decided to email Art Fire and ask. Two hours later.....and I get a personal, non automated, non canned response back. I'm impressed:

Hi Amy,

I apologize for the scare. As long as you are in the Supplies/Vintage category, you may sell anything that artisans can use to make something handmade. Your items are fine. We’ve removed the flags and notified the flagger of the rules regarding the Supplies/Vintage category.

If you need anything else, please let me know.

Thanks!

Kirsten Van Detta

Director, Member Engagement

ArtFire.com

So I've decided to try and fill up my Art Fire store and give the site a more than fair chance. That $7 per month fee is only if you want to be a Verified seller too. If you'd like to just list up to 10 items a month it's entirely FREE! If you do sign up to be a Verified seller, I'd love it if you use me as a referral. The site is still in it's beta phase so things are changing and improving constantly but go on over and see how you like it! Especially if you are forking out lots of money each month to Etsy or Ebay.