Where can I sell my painted furniture?

Where can I sell my painted furniture?

If you are asking yourself, where can I sell my painted furniture? Well, there are quite a few options available to you right now and in this blog, I’m going to list all your options, the pros and the cons of each.

Here is my compiled list of places to sell your painted/upcycled furniture online, if I have missed any that you feel should be included, please leave a comment or send Upcycle TV a direct message.

• eBay
• Facebook Marketplace
• Etsy
• Vintup
• Gumtree
• Vinterior
• Instagram & Social Media
• Preloved
• Your Own Website

Let us look at each platform and its pros/cons

eBay
Probably the most established multi-selling platform on the internet, although it is not as popular as it once was, many complain that new items have swamped the site and this dilutes the impact that you might want when attracting buyers. The fees are fairly high, typically around 10% if you are including Paypal as the merchant to take payment. I hear many traders are disgruntled because they say that eBay provides too much protection for the buyer and not enough for the seller. I still believe eBay is a great way to sell specific items that are searched for, if you have a branded piece like Ercol, many buyers will search eBay for items like this.

Facebook Marketplace
The beauty of selling furniture on the Facebook marketplace is that it is free, so can be very useful for those that are starting out and need to keep costs down. The problem can create is that there is a lot of people selling on the site, this can dilute the search but also, it is often very competitive with buyers searching “something for nothing” and perhaps, not respecting the time taken to produce top quality work. On the flip side, it is very easy for poor quality to be offered up for sale which can damage the reputation of professional furniture painters trying to make a living. www.facebook.com

Etsy
Another well established and well-known site with a good reputation and a lovely functioning site. I know many sellers that do very well selling on Etsy, the only slight downside is that it isn’t dedicated to furniture, it is very craft-based with jewellery and items like this, the advantage of this is more traffic to the website which could attract potential buyers. A good all-round option with sensible fees. www.etsy.com

Vintup
The beauty of Vintup is that it is dedicated to vintage and upcycled furniture, it is also free to all sellers and buyers. There are no listing fees or commission on sales, however, there are options to pay a small monthly fee which give you an upgrade to your membership and some benefits when adding listings. The downside is that it is a new player and has some annoying glitches and low volume of traffic, that said, there is a lot of promise if the investment is made improving the site and attracting visitors. www.vintup.co.uk

Gumtree
A very basic site that offers free listings, Gumtree can be used to sell your upcycled and/or painted furniture but again, it is not dedicated and items can get lost in the noise. Worth testing as Gumtree can vary depending on the area, a good place to clear unwanted items fast, similar to the Facebook marketplace in many ways. www.gumtree.com

Vinterior
No longer dedicated to furniture, Vinterior offer everything from rugs to mirrors and lighting, it appears to be aimed at interior designers and the high end of the market so if you fall into this criteria then Vinterior is definitely worth looking at. The commission on sales is 20% so quite a large chunk of the pie is going to them on a successful sale, there is always the option to sell your pieces a little higher than you might have otherwise as the market is definitely there. I would expect that they are quite particular about the quality of listings so expect some stricter rules that the other platforms. www.vinterior.co

Instagram & Social Media
A great way to promote what you are doing is by using free social platforms such as Facebook Pages, Twitter and Instagram. Be aware that these sites are very noisy and it can be hard to get your pieces seen by actual buyers, it’s all good and well getting a tonne of likes from other furniture painters but that isn’t necessarily going to make a sale. My advice is to use social media but do not chase it, allocate 20 minutes or so a day to make a few posts. www.instagram.com

Preloved
I haven’t personally used Preloved but it appears to be in line with much of the others mentioned here, it is open to anything secondhand and it has an excellent user-friendly interface for buyers to find what they are looking for.  https://www.preloved.co.uk/

Your Own Website
If you asked me “where is the best place to sell my painted furniture” my first response would be “your own website” and this is probably the most underused of them all. A well built and managed website can outperform all of the above if done correctly. I honestly mean that, if you use WordPress and build a well-functioning website that is Google-friendly and attracts traffic, it will blow away the competition. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune and look fantastic, all it has to do is to function properly and just by following a few rules, you can absolutely smash it. I urge you to consider building a website and writing incredible content that people are interested in that relates to your service.

Don’t believe me that this the way? Look at what you are reading right now, a website with content written by me, yes it works.

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It was until I wrote this amazing program that teaches how to make a WordPress website for furniture painters! > Check out the course here <

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