Etsy Seller Interview with Ed of FoundAndFlogged

How FoundAndFlogged got started

Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?

My name is Ed Short, and I am the co-founder of Found and Flogged on Etsy. In 2012, my wife Ella and I made the leap and relocated to our 150-year-old farmhouse in rural southwest France full time.We live a simple and happy life here with our faithful friend Dave the dog and are surrounded by farmland, nature, and animals rather than people and the madness of city life.

Our respective skill sets weren’t much use to us in our new lives, so it was an interesting journey with a steep learning curve for the first few years. Neither of us were fluent in French when we came here, so when we started to think about work, operating in our native language was essential. Closely following this consideration in second place was finding something that we both enjoy doing to make our money. We were told about Etsy by a friend who had been selling her handmade products here for a few years. Internet selling wasn’t something that we had previously considered, so we embarked on a project, weighing up the pros and cons of the better known trading platforms. Etsy easily outperformed the others in every category.

We already had a large collection of antique and vintage items, and most of them were living in boxes due to downsizing the house. This helped to make our startup costs minimal, so we took the plunge and opened up our Etsy store in May 2015. Antiques and vintage were the obvious choices for us. We had been visiting flea markets and antiques fairs for years and had a reasonable amount of knowledge that we could build on.

Favorite items

What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?

We collectively decided to offer a good variety of products in the store to appeal to as broad a client base as possible. This has changed the way we approach the buying of stock as well as the things we call our favorites. Thinking to yourself, "Will other people like it?" rather than just, "Do I like it?" has really broadened our horizons in terms of the things we buy. A closer inspection of many of these experimental purchases at home helped us to appreciate the beauty of a lot of things that we wouldn’t have previously given a second look. Here are just a few of the many examples I could share.

Confit pots are popular items in the shop. This example has ended up with a unique look, which I believe came about when it was fired in an overheated kiln. It emerged unfit for purpose, but someone must have seen its beauty and rescued it rather than throwing it away. More than 100 years later, it found its way to us and is deservedly one of our most cherished finds.

There are many marble-based statuettes from the art-deco period, and some look a lot more pleasing to the eye than others. This dancer is a top-notch example, with a beautiful form and lovely flowing movement.

This well-weighted art nouveau bronze dresser mirror's design and quality made it a standout item for us, as well as a rare piece.

Last but not least, a lovely pair of candelabras from the mid- to late-1800s that check all the boxes. 

Getting sales on Etsy

How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?

It took just a couple of weeks or so to notch up our first sale. We sent a pretty mid-1900s hair dryer to Japan, where it was put on display in a hair salon. Our second sale, a cast iron fireplace, followed six days later. This earned us the first of well over 1400 five-star reviews that we now have under our belt. We are full-timers on Etsy and have not diluted our efforts by trading anywhere else. It took us a while to get going properly, but once we had learned the ropes, Etsy became a dependable source of income for us.

Top-quality stock at attractive prices, informative and honest ads, and a customer-focused business with an outstanding reputation have been our primary focus. The amount of time we spend on sourcing stock, production work, and customer care leaves us with very little time for promoting the business on social media and the like. Word of mouth and our spotless track record speak well for us, and good SEO helps Etsy bring us the work we need.

Managing FoundAndFlogged

How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?

The beauty of working online is that we have a store that is open 24/7 without having to stand behind the counter and lose the will to live when nobody comes through the door for a while. Ella and I share the management of the shop equally, and we make sure that we can both cover for each other perfectly well when needs be. The Etsy tools and apps are easy to use and make staying on top of everything relatively easy. We ship daily on a next-day basis. All dispatches are tracked, and we keep our customers in the loop with weekly progress reports until delivery.

The future of FoundAndFlogged

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?

Over time, we have progressively gained the confidence to offer more expensive, upmarket items to our customers. This has been successful, and our reputation has given people the confidence to buy these things from us without worry. It is a process we hope to continue into the future.

Advice for new sellers

What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?

You need an in-depth knowledge of anything you intend to sell, honest, good-quality photos, and good communication skills. Keep yourself up to speed with current SEO, set your ads to manual renewal, and give them a tweak as necessary every four months before putting them back online. Your internet reputation is paramount, and customers are your bread and butter; treat them the same way you would like to be treated yourself.