Is there any point to Tindie?

[mdszy]

When I had first heard of Tindie, I knew it as the "etsy for electronics" and so when it came time to start selling my first kit-type product, I went to eBay and Tindie to sell. So far, I've had close to zero engagement on Tindie and only one order (of 1 qty!) while on eBay I've had multiple orders, each one at least 3 quantity, and as many as 10 in one order!

It seems like there's not much point to using Tindie. It's difficult to set up shipping, nobody seems to use it... eBay seems more suited in every way.

Any thoughts?

[dferyance]

I've bought a few times from Tindie. I've never sold anything but the buying experience has been good. To me, the advantage of it is the ease of finding something through all the noise. There is so much random and knockoff electronics from China on ebay, it is hard to sort through it.

So I guess the good thing is that it isn't as popular, but that is likely causing your selling problems too. I'd rather buy from Tindie than ebay, but this also means there isn't as much available either.

[boffin]

Tindie works pretty well for me.
If you want to kick the 'advertising' for tindie, create a 2 day sale, and tweet it out. Tindie will almost always re-tweet your sale, and you'll get business, that's been my experience. 

[mdszy]

I've bought a few times from Tindie. I've never sold anything but the buying experience has been good. To me, the advantage of it is the ease of finding something through all the noise. There is so much random and knockoff electronics from China on ebay, it is hard to sort through it.

So I guess the good thing is that it isn't as popular, but that is likely causing your selling problems too. I'd rather buy from Tindie than ebay, but this also means there isn't as much available either.

That certainly makes sense, I guess I didn't really think about it from a buyer perspective.

Tindie works pretty well for me.
If you want to kick the 'advertising' for tindie, create a 2 day sale, and tweet it out. Tindie will almost always re-tweet your sale, and you'll get business, that's been my experience. 

Ah, neat. Too bad I'm not much for Twitter!

[ataradov]

I like Tindie interface as a buyer and as a seller. But I'm not looking to get rich from it, so I don't want to deal with shitty eBay policies towards sellers.

If you want this to be a business, it probably makes sense to be on all platforms. Even if you don't get a lot of orders, it does not cost you anything to keep the item listed.

[mdszy]

I like Tindie interface as a buyer and as a seller. But I'm not looking to get rich from it, so I don't want to deal with shitty eBay policies towards sellers.

If you want this to be a business, it probably makes sense to be on all platforms. Even if you don't get a lot of orders, it does not cost you anything to keep the item listed.

I haven't ever had an extremely negative experience with eBay as a seller, personally. Their fees can be kind of high, and it's annoying that they'll give your phone number away to anyone who asks for it, but it's not the worst.

And there is a cost to being on all platforms and that's maintaining all the listings. Each platform is an extra listing I have to update each time I make a change to any of them, including having to update stock levels on each one when I sell an item. That gets time consuming and a mistake can mean an order you can't fulfill.

[Richard Crowley]

I have purchased many electronic products on Tindie.  Both domestic (USA) and international (mostly Europe not Asia) I don't purchase as much on Ebay as I used to.  Shipping from Asia takes so long, I often forget what I ordered.

And I have had many shipments from Asian sellers just disappear.  Same when buying through Amazon from Asian vendors. The disappearing shipments may very well be "porch pirates" in my neighborhood, but the poor/no tracking contributes to the problem. I rarely know when something is supposed to arrive.  Sorry, this paragraph is rather Off Topic, but I was waiting for an opportunity to rant.

As @dferyance mentioned, the "Signal-to Noise Ratio" (SNR) is a primary factor. There is so much junk on Ebay it becomes a chore to try to find something specific. And the poor search performance makes browsing not very satisfying.

OTOH, if you are getting more sales on Ebay, perhaps that is a better fit for whatever you are selling (not disclosed).

I am working on a set of interface boards and circuits and was planning on selling them on Tindie. But I wouldn't expect to just get orders without some kind of other promotion. Perhaps Ebay has such a very large number of buyers that more of them find your product than on Tindie?

Why is shipping on Tindie so difficult?  Maybe I shouldn't consider it?

[ataradov]

I haven't ever had an extremely negative experience with eBay as a seller, personally. Their fees can be kind of high, and it's annoying that they'll give your phone number away to anyone who asks for it, but it's not the worst.

It is probably not a big deal for selling homemade electronics, since the target audience is very specific. My negative understanding of eBay comes from reading opinions of commodity stuff sellers. eBay takes buyer's position on everything.

And there is a cost to being on all platforms and that's maintaining all the listings. Each platform is an extra listing I have to update each time I make a change to any of them, including having to update stock levels on each one when I sell an item. That gets time consuming and a mistake can mean an order you can't fulfill.

There is some of that. I guess if you find it taxing, then don't do it.

[ataradov]

Why is shipping on Tindie so difficult?  Maybe I shouldn't consider it?

Tindie shipping is fine. But they don't give any discounts, you set the price and they charge buyers accordingly. I wish there were a bit more flexibility in setting price breaks for volume. But it is not harder than you would expect.

[mdszy]

I am working on a set of interface boards and circuits and was planning on selling them on Tindie. But I wouldn't expect to just get orders without some kind of other promotion. Perhaps Ebay has such a very large number of buyers that more of them find your product than on Tindie?

Why is shipping on Tindie so difficult?  Maybe I shouldn't consider it?

That is true, and I have promoted and mentioned and I know I've had people at least SEEING my product and that it's for sale, usually via the links in my signature, my hackaday.io page, etc.

What makes it difficult is that you have to define all of your shipping rates manually on Tindie. It's not like eBay that can automatically calculate everything for you, and they also don't have eBay's global shipping program - which makes it really easy to internationally ship, all you need to do is send the item to their domestic facility and it goes on from there.

So with Tindie you have to define all your own shipping rates and also you can't purchase postage through Tindie, unlike eBay. I really value being able to purchase postage and print a label right on the site, and I get a pretty steep discount on some shipping methods on eBay.

[ataradov]

So with Tindie you have to define all your own shipping rates and also you can't purchase postage through Tindie, unlike eBay. I really value being able to purchase postage and print a label right on the site, and I get a pretty steep discount on some shipping methods on eBay.

This makes me want to actually list my things on eBay as well. Shipping to Europe is killing me on Tindie.

[mdszy]

So with Tindie you have to define all your own shipping rates and also you can't purchase postage through Tindie, unlike eBay. I really value being able to purchase postage and print a label right on the site, and I get a pretty steep discount on some shipping methods on eBay.

This makes me want to actually list my things on eBay as well. Shipping to Europe is killing me on Tindie.

Oh absolutely. GSP is honestly really good. I know I've talked a lot about it, but I'm not trying to shill for eBay or anything.

There is one downside of GSP, though, and it takes some explaining if you're not super familiar with eBay.

With payment on eBay, the way it works is:

1. Item sells, user pays you on PayPal.
2. Money is held by eBay for up to 21 days.
3. If you add tracking, then the money is freed 3 days after the tracking is marked as "delivered" if that happens before the 21 days are up.

HOWEVER with GSP, the tracking is all there, but for some reason eBay doesn't free up the funds until the full 21 days are up...

It's still very convenient and you only have to worry about shipping and postage to a facility in the USA, so it's worked well for me, even when I've had to ship very large and bulky items.

eBay gets a lot of hate, but I've used it for quite some time and it's made selling things very easy for me.

[boffin]

So with Tindie you have to define all your own shipping rates and also you can't purchase postage through Tindie, unlike eBay. I really value being able to purchase postage and print a label right on the site, and I get a pretty steep discount on some shipping methods on eBay.

This makes me want to actually list my things on eBay as well. Shipping to Europe is killing me on Tindie.

Try moving to Canada.  Canada Post is insane for small packages.  A padded envelope to the other side of the country weighing 100g cost me $13 yesterday.

[Gribo]

I have found FedEx in Canada is sometimes cheaper than Canada Post.

[mdszy]

So here's a bit of an update, and why I'm definitely done using Tindie for selling anything.

I've had this account on Tindie for a very, very long time and the email address I had used to set it up wasn't in service anymore. I logged in with my GitHub account, so it didn't prevent me from logging in. However, I still wanted to change the email address to one I could use. I go into my account settings and, alas, there's no way to change the email.

I literally had to contact customer support to get the email address for my account changed, something every website lets you do from your account settings since I've been using the internet. Nice.

Anyway, they got it changed. But what I didn't realize was that the PayPal email I had on file hadn't been changed, and that was also no longer in service. There is also literally no way to change your PayPal email without, again, contacting support...

Tindie also has the "feature" of automatically disbursing your funds after 30 days, but doesn't send you any heads up or email confirming this is going to happen or has happened. I just got an email all of a sudden from Tindie support asking why I hadn't "accepted" the automatic PayPal transfer that happened today (of a whole $8.56, so I was just more annoyed than in real financial trouble).

I emailed back saying I didn't see any such transfer on my PayPal account and also didn't initiate any disbursement, at which point they informed me of the automatic disbursement system and told me the PayPal email they had on file for me, which didn't work anymore.

I told them all my money had just been sent into the void and what to do about that. They gave me a link to the PayPal email setup form (why this isn't something you can just do from your account settings, I again have no clue whatsoever). And this failed a couple of times until the customer support rep remembered that he has to remove the old PayPal address setting before a new one can be set, again a step that can't be done without the helpful hand of a customer support rep, but which every self-respecting online storefront would let a user do in seconds on their own.

So that's it, I'm no longer dealing with having to ask for customer support for every little thing I want to do with my account, and I'm sick of worrying about where my money is going to go and not having settings available to me. No more Tindie seller for this guy, eBay is my jam.

[Nauris]

All is well, where is the problem?

I think it is just so rare someone needs to change the address that it is much simpler that customer support just manually changes some database entry as needed.
Many times it is just so much cheaper and simpler to do rarely needed things this way than develop some code to do it automatically. There is not that many sellers on Tindie after all.

All these little features add up so easily and blow the budget and the timelines. With their sales numbers I would think that they are out of business if they don't stricly control costs

So that's it, I'm no longer dealing with having to ask for customer support for every little thing I want to do with my account, and I'm sick of worrying about where my money is going to go and not having settings available to me

Well, the money goes to the Paypal account that is on file and the settings - just ask customer service to change them for you when you need them changed. I doubt you change them daily, do you?

To me that sounds more like wise management of limited development resources than any real problem.

[Richard Crowley]

All is well, where is the problem?....
To me that sounds more like wise management of limited development resources than any real problem.

Yes, that is a management trade-off decision that I face at least weekly if not daily at the office.
Is it worth the resources to develop a web page for management of something that changes so rarely?
I develop, support and manage dozens of online resources and I spend perhaps an hour a week doing manual updates for rarely-changed data.
Sometimes, when you see a rise in demand, it becomes worth it to develop an online self-support web page (or whatever).

[mdszy]

Well, the money goes to the Paypal account that is on file and the settings - just ask customer service to change them for you when you need them changed. I doubt you change them daily, do you?

To me that sounds more like wise management of limited development resources than any real problem.

The fact that I can't even SEE what my paypal account is set to is annoying. If I would've been able to SEE what the account was set to, and a little message saying "contact support if you'd like to change this" then this whole situation would have never happened. The fact that I can't see it and have no indication of when disbursement is going to occur is the crux of the issue here.