LusciousPlaythings

Quality USA handcrafted borosilicate glass adult toys and therapy products

LusciousPlaythings

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LusciousPlaythings

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Verified Seller

Info

Name:

Ryan

Pronouns:

He / Him

Links:

www.lusciousplaythings.com

www.etsy.com/shop/lusciousplaythings

My Story:

I've been lampworking glass since 1998, starting in the pipe industry. I learned quickly and developed a unique line of products, and sold to many shops around the country as well as a major distributor. I had dabbled in making glass sex toys in the early days of them being introduced to market, but the torch I was using at that time was quite small so I couldn't make very large items out of solid glass rod. I still made and sold my small pieces though, primarily anal plugs and "probes".

In 2003 I bought a large torch and was able to produce much bigger sizes and create many new designs, and teamed up with a local company that was already established in the adult industry. I still made my glass pipe lineup too, but gradually moved over to the sex toys more and more which eventually took over and I stopped producing the pipes. My heart was never really in the pipes anyway, since I'm not a weed user. I worked with the aforementioned company for about 8 years, vastly expanding their catalog and selling to major online and brick-n-mortar stores like Adam & Eve, Stockroom, Blowfish, Glass Fantasy, GoodVibes, and Babeland.

Over time, that company lost a few of those accounts so in 2012 I created my own Etsy shop for supplemental income, with the owner's approval. It did well right out of the gate and got increasingly better over the years. The company owner decided to throw in the towel on the business in 2016 and handed me the last remaining account, GoodVibes. So, I solely supplied their 14 physical shops (they bought out Babeland) + online store while maintaining my very busy Etsy shop...all by myself in my home studio. The Etsy shop kept getting busier and busier the more I sold and got rave reviews, and eventually I had to make a difficult decision. I wasn't able to keep up with the demand of both GoodVibes and Etsy in a timely manner, so I chose to part ways with GoodVibes and focus on my brand with the Etsy shop. I wish there was a way to have kept both going, but honestly, it felt good that I was finally getting recognition for my work with MY brand on it, rather than making private label items for another company and not being able to represent it. I was ok with both, but if I had to choose one I much prefer standing behind my brand and being able to talk to customers directly if they have any questions or would like alterations to products to fit their needs.

Fast forward to June, 2024. After selling successfully on Etsy for nearly 13 years and putting all my faith in the platform as my only source of income...Etsy releases a bulletin that it will be prohibiting ALL insertable adult toys from the platform as of July 29. 😳 WHAT??!! This put myself and many others in scramble mode. Some fellow Etsy toy makers already had their own websites, but have said that Etsy still brought the majority of their sales. I didn't have a website because I got complacent with Etsy doing all the work for me. I didn't think their fees were unreasonable, considering all the benefits you got with that like great marketing and the ability to sell worldwide without having to deal with the duties/taxes part of that...and I was doing quite a bit of international commerce.

So, I managed to knock out a Shopify website in a couple weeks with the help of a friend and got all my Etsy listings moved over to it. I also sell padded storage bags for my glass items so I was able to keep the Etsy shop open selling just those, and made a shop banner that directs customers to the new website. The website has been doing ok, but not nearly the same as my Etsy shop did. I'm reaching out to other indie makers to network and share ideas & info and came across this group :)

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