Do you buy or sell at Etsy.com?

I've been thinking about selling at Etsy.com for quite a while now, and thought some Gather members might be able to answer a few questions I had.

The two major obstacles that I need to overcome before I can sell are: having some actual merchandise to sell(kind of a major obstacle to overcome to actually sell something, but none the less) and a digital camera to take pictures of the items(should I ever have enough time to actually create anything).

I have a few questions though:

For those who sell, is there a season where you earn more? I work in retail, so I would assume pre-holidays would be a big time where as summer would not, but you never know with online sales.

For those who buy, do you go to Etsy looking for something specific and then buy within that subject(like search for purses and then buy one) or do you just kind of peruse everything and purchase something small?

Do you have any tips for me? I've sold on Ebay in the past with some success and only stopped the store because I was moving, so I'm actively trying to make a few things to put up for sale. Thanks for any tips you can give me.

If you're a member, send me a link to your store or your username, I'm all about finding items created by fellow gather members and friends.