I'm curious if anyone knows the deal with selling art/jewelry internationally via a site such as esty. I'm thinking that since I can't get a job to save my life, I should perhaps try selling some art, although I'm not sure if I'd have to file papers here for that, since the money would go into my US bank account.

I'm also wondering how that would work with customs. If someone ordered a 65 dollar print which I mail them, obviously I'd have to declare the value and I'm wondering if the purchaser would be slammed with a customs charge.

i'm also curious to hear answers to this question, as i've wondered about selling on etsy from holland, too.

First, I do not know all the answers.

1) in NL, a lot of art is sold internationally through Ebay and Marktplaats.nl
2) if you start a company you will have to file papers at your local Kamer van Koophandel. Fortunately, it is cheap and they give a lot of good advice.
3) Dutch Belastingdienst is same as IRS = you have to mention all your income, including the income made in other countries.
4) if you have a company, your product will have a price without and with VAT!
Please inform yourself thoroughly about the VAT before starting a company (ask KvK).
5) selling art to countries in the EU : no extra charges (customs).
selling to countries outside the EU: is different from country to country.

Yeah I was worried that it would become too confusing to sell items on a global scale because there's nothing worse than buying something and when it arrives you have to pay some whopping customs fee! I would hate to have someone experience that if they buy something from me since I want to build a solid reputation.

I think I might just use Red Bubble, because they ship everything for you and I won't have to deal with the stress of figuring out the customs fees and all that for people.