Every once in a while something happens that makes me consider shutting down my Etsy account. First, it was the fact that I had to sign up to Etsy payments, and they take a whole chunk of whatever money I make. Then, there was the tax code and IOSS bullshit that I still do not understand. Now, there’s that LUCID thing with shipping to Germany. And I hear that other countries may be catching on as well which will make shipping to other countries even harder. I won’t get into details because a. it’s boring, b. I hardly understand it myself and c. you seriously don’t care.
But the bottom line is, the reasons for closing my Etsy shop are piling up, and the reasons for keeping it active are dropping steadily. I don’t even make that many sales anyway. That is, I hardly make any at all. I’m lucky if I get one order every 10 months.
On the other hand, I spent years trying to keep it updated, revamped the appearance of it with pictures, colorful descriptions, adding more details on my profile about my life and my zines, and I also made flyers, business cards, catalogs, and all my zines have a link to this shop on them. So do I just throw all of it away, just like that?
But if I’m not making any sales, isn’t that also throwing it away? I don’t spend any money on making copies of my zines, because my husband works at a print shop and does it all for free. So it’s not like I need to cover my expenses or anything. But I still pay a monthly fee to keep my listings active, and Etsy still takes a chunk of my money if I ever do sell anything. So I still spend money.
It’s not just about the money either. I feel like my zines get more exposure if I have an Etsy shop. People express more interest, even if they don’t buy anything.
But now with all the shipping shit piling up, I’m thinking seriously about shutting down my shop and finding a suitable alternative for sharing my zines with the world. I’ll wait until the end of July (International Zine Month) and close my shop for good.
That said, if you still want to buy something from my shop, you can do so until the end of July. And if you’re in Germany, I’m sorry, but you only have until the end of May, just to be on the safe side.
Direct yourself here to check out the shop that is soon to be defunct.
Peace, love and I’m still keeping the name PMS Mess, that’s for sure.
Get messy and follow the bleeder: Like my Facebook page, PMS Mess!