Etsy has been a great place for hobbyists and creative individuals to make extra money. Some people use their unique skills to sell original handcrafted items, while others resell vintage items and customized gifts. You’re going to want to know the best things to sell on Etsy if you want to make serious money.
Since more than 60 million products are listed on Etsy, you may wonder which items sell the best. The short answer is that handcrafted items and vintage items sell the best. First, however, you should explore your own skillset and figure out how to obtain such items to resell.
Can you make them yourself or buy them wholesale from a third-party source? Do you have vintage items lying around your home that you don’t need anymore? Ask yourself these questions to figure the best way forward.
Ready to see the list of the best things you can sell on Etsy? Let’s do this!
Table of Contents
14 best things to sell on Etsy to make money
1. 3D Printed Objects
How would you like an easy way to manufacture items in your home office? If you buy a 3D printer, you can create physical 3D objects based on 3D model specifications made with special modeling software. You could create the 3D models yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Once you have at least one 3D spec model ready, you can manufacture several of them with your 3D printer and sell them on Etsy.
The objects could depict anything. Some people manufacture ashtrays, cartoon characters, cups, and completely customized original objects. Just let your imagination run wild. Customers respond to originality.
Do you have any painting skills? If so, you could spice up the 3D objects by painting them after you print them.
2. Printables
If you’d rather not deal with physical products, you could sell 2D printable products instead. These are digital products that people can download onto their computers and print out themselves with a standard 2D printer.
Examples of printables include infographics, resume templates, cover letter templates, greeting cards, invitations, and wall art. Just create a practical digital object that someone would want to print and use for some personal benefit.
There is no limit to how many printable items you can sell because they are all digital. You literally have an unlimited supply of them in your inventory. But it would help if you create additional digital items to add more variety to your Etsy store.
3. Stickers
People love to buy stickers on Etsy. It’s easy to mass-produce stickers after you create digital images of them on your computer. For example, you could design bumper stickers for vehicles or decorative stickers for walls, water bottles, phone cases, etc. There is no limit to what you can do with stickers.
Even though stickers are physical items, they are very lightweight and easy to ship. Therefore, you won’t have to spend much money on shipping stickers to your customers. Perhaps you could even offer free shipping as a way to entice more customers to order your stickers.
The stickers could have funny slogans, wise sayings, or colorful illustrations. Try out different images for your stickers and see which ones are the most successful.
4. Handcrafted Jewelry
Handcrafted jewelry is a hot category on Etsy. However, don’t assume that people only buy jewelry made of gold, silver, and diamonds. There is a continuous demand for simple handcrafted jewelry pieces made of beads, yarn, fashion gemstones, and ribbons.
The great thing about handcrafted jewelry is its originality and creativity. It feels good to wear jewelry that someone crafted with their own two hands. That makes it undoubtedly more personable and exceptional than wearing a dazzling diamond on your finger.
It doesn’t really matter what type of jewelry you create. People love to wear handcrafted rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc.
5. Face Masks
Face masks were a hot seller on Etsy in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic created a huge market for protective face masks. That market continues to thrive well into 2023.
If you could obtain a vast supply of face masks to resell on Etsy, you wouldn’t have a difficult time selling them at all. Unfortunately, there is no telling how long the pandemic will continue to affect our lives. As long as it does, people will continue to need face masks.
Think about selling masks with pictures or words on the front of them. Creative face masks are just one more way you can attract more customers to your Etsy store.
6. T-Shirts
Everybody loves t-shirts. There are online companies that can print your custom graphic or slogan onto a bulk number of t-shirts. Once you receive the t-shirts from the supplier, you can resell each t-shirt for a retail price on Etsy.
People love to buy t-shirts with funny or unusual things on them. Search around and see which t-shirt designs are popular on Etsy. Then maybe you could create a similar design and put that on your t-shirts for sale.
Tell your supplier to print on various t-shirt sizes. Obviously, you’ll have to expect your customers to have different-sized bodies. So, you’ll need to have multiple t-shirt sizes available for them.
7. Coffee Mugs
Coffee drinkers are everywhere. When people have the urge to drink coffee, they need to have a mug to contain it. But people don’t want to use just any ordinary coffee mug. They would instead use a mug with some creative imagery or wording on the outside of it.
Some online suppliers will print your digital image onto coffee mugs and ship a bulk number of them to you at wholesale prices. It is similar to the t-shirt concept, except this is with coffee mugs.
Sell your coffee mugs on Etsy at retail prices. If you have a creative and exciting-looking coffee mug, people will want to have it for themselves. Coffee mugs also make great gifts, which is another reason for people to buy them.
8. Stock Images
Do you have an HD digital camera? If so, you could turn that into a huge moneymaker for yourself. People are willing to spend top dollar for the right stock images to put on their websites, advertisements, commercials, etc. All you need is a digital camera that can take high-quality pictures.
You could take a picture of almost anything and sell it as a royalty-free stock image on Etsy. As a result, people have created stores with literally thousands of stock images for sale. And since they are digital images, you don’t have to produce or ship any physical goods.
9. Party Decorations
There is always a market for party decorations. People worldwide are hosting parties for their family members, friends, employees, and customers. As a result, they are constantly on the lookout for creative and fun party decorations.
Many Etsy stores successfully sell party decorations for various occasions, such as birthdays, weddings, business gatherings, anniversaries, baby showers, etc. You could sell party invitations, gift bags, hats, cupcake holders, table cloths, and napkins with decorations for these various event themes.
10. Candles
People love candles for two reasons: they look attractive and produce a euphoric scent in the air. Etsy has all kinds of candles listed for sale. Some sellers create their own candles at home and resell them in their Etsy stores. All it takes is some beeswax, a candle jar, and a cotton wick to produce a candle.
Experiment with different colored waxed candles. Put a cute logo design on the jar of each candle to make it look more attractive. But if you don’t have the skills to create your own candles, you can always buy them in bulk from a supplier. It all depends on your current skillset.
11. Notebooks
People use notebooks for many different things, such as writing diaries, travel itineraries, and notes for school. However, the one thing that separates each notebook from one another is its cover art.
Lots of Etsy sellers are selling notebooks with creative art and titles on their covers. You could do the same thing by contacting a supplier and having them create your notebooks for you.
Leather-covered notebooks are also popular too. Some suppliers will let you put a personalized name on the leather-covered notebooks they create for you. It will cost you more money to produce, but you can resell them for even more money on Etsy.
12. AirPod Cases
AirPods are the latest trending mobile items from Apple. They allow users to wirelessly connect to their Apple Watches or iPhones and play music stored on them. Many people have AirPods now, which has sparked a growing demand for AirPod cases on Etsy.
The average AirPod case sells for $15 to $20. Suppose you could obtain a bulk number of custom-designed AirPod cases for an average of $5 each. In that case, you could make a substantial profit reselling them on Etsy.
Personalized AirPod cases are the best. For example, you could design cases with a random first name of someone on each one. Either that or you could put cute symbols or logos on them. Unfortunately, they are small cases, so you won’t have much room for lots of text.
13. Posters
People love to hang posters on their walls depicting all kinds of imagery and themes. For example, a poster could depict historical concepts, family tree charts, cartoons, movies, television shows, quotations, artwork, and anything else you can imagine. As long as the poster looks interesting, people will want to buy it for their walls.
Find online suppliers who can mass-produce posters with your imagery printed on them. These would probably be the same suppliers who can produce your t-shirts and coffee mugs. Since posters are made of paper, they should be cheaper to buy in bulk. But you can resell them for a lot more money if the printed imagery is in high demand.
14. Homemade Beauty Products
People are more conscious about the beauty products they put on their skin. For example, they don’t want to use skin lotions or creams with unnatural chemicals because they cause inflammation and unhealthy skin.
For this reason, Etsy sellers are creating their own beauty products made of natural ingredients and selling them for significant profits. So think about selling natural body lotions, bath bombs, facemasks, and things like that. Additionally, anything eco-friendly or organic is a huge plus in the beauty category of Etsy.
Best things to sell on Etsy: The bottom line
The most successful Etsy stores make several thousands of dollars each month. Of course, it takes a lot of time to build an Etsy store and make it successful. But if you fill your store with the kinds of items listed above, you should see the sales start coming in quickly.
Just be patient and form connections with reputable suppliers. Most importantly, maintain your creativity and produce original items that people would want to buy. If you follow this advice, there is no reason why your Etsy store cannot be successful too.
