Sunday, December 11, 2011

A Salvo Into the Fortress of Hipsterdom

UPDATE: As you can see I have completely sold out of typewriters. The experiment proves that, with a reasonable price, a nice typewriter sells itself on Etsy. I have a few more that I plan on offering, but I want to get these other ones sipped out before I do. It's been a crazy few days. My prices were a little on the high side and they still sold. However, my prices are more than 1/2 of the nearest competitor. Now I have more than enough money for Typegrant ribbons.

Maybe it's my imagination, but Etsy has been largely ignored by the Typosphere. The boutique prices  seem to be the major detraction. However, I think that an over-priced market is a great place to introduce a lower-priced alternative. That's why I went ahead and set up an Etsy Shoppe (old-timey spelling intentional). I've priced the three typewriters lower than any comparable typewriter on the site. That still makes them much more expensive that I would have normally spent in thrift stores and the like. We'll see if anyone in interested in buying a $65 Hermes 3000 when there are identical $135 machines on the site. At the very least, I imagine that some of the shops will consider lowering their prices a bit.

Magic Margin: ruining boutique pricing since December 10th.

Here's the link to my shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/tryanpa?ref=si_shop