YOUR ETSY CONTENT TEAM AT WORK
Poor Doris Handmade.
She’s having an awfully hard time making sales these days. So she decides to drop in to an Etsy forum and ask for a little helpful advice:
Immediately, friendly Etsy sellers begin looking at her store, trying to figure out why beautiful handmade journals like these aren’t selling.
Gosh, it’s hard to say isn’t it?
Some people suggest the price might be a bit high, though it certainly seems fair for a handmade journal. Others advise Doris to reconsider her backgrounds or styling. And some just blame the whole economy.
But it’s not until Etsy seller Rune Leather speaks up that we actually get anywhere.
Oh, snap.
Snappity snap snap.
I no see snap like this so long.
Yes, a reseller posted a link to her shop in the Etsy forums, under the guise of reaching out to the community. She even posted the same plea for help in other areas of the forum, adding self-promotion and spamming to her list of accomplishments.
Obviously, Etsy was not going to sit idly by. They take the reseller problem very seriously over there. In fact, they’ve recently added a monkey to the Content Team, thereby doubling their manpower. So when this all came to light in the forum, Etsy quickly responded to the problem the best way they knew how.
Knickey, who spells her name with a K, klosed the thread. She also linked to Etsy’s Official Rules Of Shut Your Pie-Hole, just in case you thought you might want to help some more.
Please don’t call out.
Please don’t bring attention to the fact that someone is reselling mass-produced garbage on Etsy, because then we might have to do something. And right now, we’re really busy drawing pictures of bacon on the dry erase board, and coming up with names for our ironic bowling team.
And just to put a few Swarovski crystals on the dog turd, the person who identifies a reseller this way could actually wind up getting suspended. Because while flooding Etsy with cheap shit from China is icky, being mean is ickier.
As of this writing, a full seven hours after Etsy was made aware of this situation, DorisHandmade is still open for business.
But as soon as Rob White finishes brushing his cat, shit’s going to get real.
BUY HANDMADE
FREE TIBET
UPDATE: What is Doris doing now?
April 14, 2011 at 5:31 pm
FREE TIBET
(with the purchase of a regular priced Mongolia)
April 14, 2011 at 7:00 pm
..but wait, there’s more!! Ginsu knives and a bamboo steamer!!
April 14, 2011 at 7:04 pm
And they’re completely handmade!
April 14, 2011 at 7:43 pm
mapleleaves, you’re my hero.
April 14, 2011 at 7:46 pm
I’ve got to admit, I saw it on a bumper sticker.
I don’t normally look at bumper stickers, because here in Atlanta anyone who’s got more than two is either a rabid vegan, an abortion activist, or they have the generic theme of “I love all the cuddlebunnies who agree with me and never say anything mean, and everyone else can go fuck themselves with their pointy tails.”
April 14, 2011 at 8:20 pm
“I love all the cuddlebunnies who agree with me and never say anything mean, and everyone else can go fuck themselves with their pointy tails.”
Much like the Etsy admin, then.
April 14, 2011 at 9:36 pm
I can’t see printing that in a readable size on a bumper, let alone a sticker, so I’m gong to have to put that on my rear windshield in individual vinyl stick-on letters.
April 15, 2011 at 10:43 am
YAY ATLANTA PEOPLE!!!
April 15, 2011 at 1:51 am
That made me LOL – mostly because I bought my brother a FREE TIBET (while stocks last) tee for his birthday a couple of years ago and it still makes me smile thinking of it.
April 14, 2011 at 5:33 pm
ETSY SUCKS ASS!!!!!!!!!
April 14, 2011 at 5:43 pm
I’m sorry… I’m just sick and tired of reporting resellers every f-in day and see how Etsy only shuts down the little guys, not the ones who are making big time sales!
April 14, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Your blog brings a tear of joy to my eyes. God bless.
April 15, 2011 at 8:20 am
Thanks
April 14, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Etsy, unlike Regretsy, has NO INTEGRITY. Here, we craft our snarkiness from 100% natural, handmade reseller innards.
April 14, 2011 at 6:32 pm
now i want this unknown item.. these people should be evicerated after the time and work actual sellers with real, not bullshit thrift store shit, put into their work (me included)
some days i feel like going down to etsy head quarters and setting myself on fire in the building. .. but they’d just consider my protest aromatic and gain craft supplies.
April 14, 2011 at 6:55 pm
“Something smells like bacon.”
April 14, 2011 at 9:59 pm
I’m thinking a color laser of the regresty page that identifies the offender, carefully vertically shredded and then hot glued onto dried whole oranges painted to look like the resellers shrunken head.
You like? I’m winning at Regretsy today!
April 14, 2011 at 6:49 pm
Where we love to embrace our “snarky” side
Reported – you fucktard.
April 14, 2011 at 8:07 pm
Please don’t call out in the Forums. I’m going to wrap this up now, thank you. I have to go finish brushing my cat.
April 14, 2011 at 5:34 pm
we all know the golden rule: knever be a knegative knancy, this is Etsy goddammit.
April 14, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Buy Handresold!
April 14, 2011 at 5:36 pm
So, let’s see…not allowed to flag resellers, not allowed to call out resellers on the forums…yup, Etsy will soon be the land of Machine-made-in-some-third-world-country.
April 14, 2011 at 5:39 pm
I think they’re in a Catch-22. Only without Bob Newhart.
If they respond immediately to calling out resellers in the forums, then that’s how people will do it.
Then someone who’s not a reseller, but merely a hand-assembler or used a questionable photo, gets called out and everyone’s crying.
April 14, 2011 at 5:45 pm
CLEARLY the answer here isn’t to actually deal with resellers when they’re flagged instead of forcing people to use the forums — I suggest they buy more fascinators.
April 14, 2011 at 6:30 pm
What they need is a better form to submit complaints.
Runeleather’s forum post included the links to the three items on the right in the post above. That’s not really an option when you’re writing in that tiny little box on the “report this shop” thing.
April 14, 2011 at 8:05 pm
I reported the shop, because I have seen other items in that shop in a few Tibet import boutiques in Manhattan. It’s the truth — I have especially seen the journals and lampshades.
The boutique owners don’t make any claims about making the stuff themselves. And they charge less! Considering their overhead (NYC storefront rent is astronomical), they really put this seller to shame.
April 15, 2011 at 5:11 am
Yes, indeed…and each and all are Scheisskopfs!
April 15, 2011 at 10:58 am
They could just ignore the calling out and research them at their own sweet time. Theoretically, of course. That is only if they changed their own rules.
April 15, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Funny how when the Etsy forum regulars trash people, they let them go on for thirty pages.
April 14, 2011 at 5:43 pm
They are a twee creamy cupcake Walmart made of barnwood and sugarfarts.
April 14, 2011 at 5:54 pm
No, no bitterness. Much.
April 14, 2011 at 6:20 pm
i’m feeling the bitterness
April 14, 2011 at 7:04 pm
The bitterness is ruining my bacon!
April 14, 2011 at 9:22 pm
And unicorn glitter frats carried in by octopuses – don’t forget that.
April 15, 2011 at 9:55 am
I knew a guy who pledged a unicorn glitter frat. It got ugly.
April 14, 2011 at 5:44 pm
What I find especially impressive is you aren’t allowed to call out resellers in threads where they’re asking how to drum up sales. I’m aware it was just a veil to get their shop views up, but still. They’re ASKING for it, and it can’t be given.
April 14, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Honestly, I don’t even see it as calling out. The seller asked a question, and an answer was given that was completely reasonable and explained why the gal had no sales, didn’t it?
April 14, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Exactly. It was polite and factual, how is that “calling out”?
April 15, 2011 at 2:49 am
Isn’t it just because resellers usually sell a lot, which mean that Etsy… you know… gets a lot of money from them ?
April 14, 2011 at 5:36 pm
I think I might just start demanding video of people making their products before I buy them.
April 14, 2011 at 5:42 pm
I think I might change my banner to a photo of me handmaking my products.
April 14, 2011 at 5:49 pm
I kind of like this idea, actually…
April 14, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Haha great idea! If only you could upload GIF’s for your banner; I’d show off my apartment, with crafts and craft-making shit everrrrywhere lol.
April 14, 2011 at 6:42 pm
eh i put up progress photos on FB sometimes.. not the same i know but hey proof exists!
April 14, 2011 at 7:09 pm
I have half finished projects everywhere!I like the idea of showing people that my stuff is ACTUALLY handmade.
I’m really tired of people having to wade though the sh*t to get to the good stuff that is actually HANDmade with REAL hands!
April 14, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Ha my dining room is craft hoarder heaven! I have enough to open a craft store of my own LOL
Point is, I do make my own stuff (when I sold and wasn’t pissed @ Etsy!).
April 14, 2011 at 7:05 pm
I post pictures of my items in-progress to Twitter all the time. Maybe I should post them.
April 14, 2011 at 9:28 pm
I lke this idea too.
April 15, 2011 at 7:26 am
That is a smart idea. I might have to do the same myself.
April 15, 2011 at 8:58 am
I too post progress photos on FB, blog and twitter.
April 15, 2011 at 11:20 am
You know, rather than do as Etsy recommends and use the last picture in the posting to show the packaging in which I will send the item (whut?), I think it could be good to have one of the photos be an in-progress shot. Maybe we could start a proof-of-handmade movement.
April 15, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Let’s do it!! Just make sure to cover up the labels on products used, don’t want copywrite issues or shit like that lol.
April 14, 2011 at 5:50 pm
I’d have to charge you extra for that….*squirts blue paint out of anus…*
April 14, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Dirty hippy
April 14, 2011 at 5:54 pm
It makes me feel kind of bad because I bought my engagement ring on Etsy and I really like it and the handmade aspect is a big part of the story and now I can’t help but worry. It was pretty reasonably priced, though. And I got a special order but the setting could have been mass produced I guess.
April 14, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Don’t let Etsy’s fucked-uppedness make you question what is and should be a happiness in your life.
April 14, 2011 at 6:15 pm
I wouldn’t worry. I think the majority of people at Etsy are honest people. It’s the handful of people that aren’t. Regretsy is a fine watchdog for the craptastic-ness of people. Enjoy your ring, and put the rest from your mind.
April 14, 2011 at 6:16 pm
You really like the ring–it’s beautiful and you were happy with the price. That’s all that’s important. Sometimes we buy something because of the story around it and sometimes because of the story it creates within us. Don’t worry about anything but your own story and future! And congratulations!!
April 14, 2011 at 6:47 pm
I recently had a great experience getting an item custom made for me. Working with the seller was a dream and she even included a fun freebie. I was amazed that I could dream up something, go online, and within a couple of days have that very thing in my hands. Crazy.
But this is starting to piss me off too. Nasty letter to Etsy on the way, not to mention a personal boycott.
April 14, 2011 at 6:22 pm
I’m really glad right now that the stuff I do is very obviously the product of a single, twisted mind, and not the kind of thing you could pick up cheap and in bulk somewhere.
April 14, 2011 at 8:18 pm
see! i never know who’s safe to buy from! this would eliminate that issue (unless you’re just posing with dye on your hands…)
April 14, 2011 at 8:21 pm
wow, this got way down on the list and doesn’t even make sense anymore…i guess i’ll just have another whiskey sour (they’re good for the cough you know).
April 14, 2011 at 5:36 pm
I saw some of this reseller’s crap on my feed earlier, because people were favoriting it. I took one look at it and thought “huh.. looks like cheap mass-produced shit.. and it’s from China.” Closed the tab and didn’t think anything else of it. I guess I have good bullshit instincts.
April 14, 2011 at 5:59 pm
ah yea.. i always look where people ship from.. if it looks machine made by any means or method and ships from china……. not buyin .. period.. not interested..
nice trick trying to bait attention to her shop though.. making her both a troll and a reseller
April 14, 2011 at 7:12 pm
I suggested this in the Etsy forums, but they should just make it impossible for a person to have a shop location in the US and ship a “handmade” item from Singapore. That would filter out some of them.
For example, this item: http://www.etsy.com/listing/68016990/5-polymer-clay-fruit-cane-save-on?ref=sr_gallery_16&ga_search_query=polymer+fruit+cane&ga_page=3&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade
And all of seller’s other cane too. Shop location? NY. Ships from? Singapore.
This doesn’t even need to be policed by Etsy staff. This could easily be stopped by their software.
April 14, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Shit, I feel like such a dumbass. I never noticed until now that it even has “Ships from” anywhere in the listing! That really doesn’t seem right! How can anyone ship something handmade from a different country than the one it was supposedly made in?!
April 14, 2011 at 8:37 pm
That doesn’t always work, though. I realize it’s not Etsy, but it could be — I bought a shawl through an eBay seller that’s located in the US but the shawl was shipped from India. And in this case it’s totally legitimate because the seller is a National Geographic entity that deals directly with all kinds of artisans worldwide, so it’s fair trade at its best. The name and photo and bio of every artisan is included with every item listing, even.
So you don’t want to kill the good — fair trade — with the bad — reseller of mass-produced shit.
April 14, 2011 at 9:02 pm
I suppose those official artisan outlets could get special permission.
April 15, 2011 at 4:25 am
That falls under the “supplies” category though. The seller does not claim they made the cane themselves.
April 15, 2011 at 7:45 am
Why is there not a way to tell from an item page what category you’re in? You’re right. I searched “handmade” and didn’t realize it pulls up supplies too.
April 14, 2011 at 6:35 pm
i think i must be really dumb and naive, because i didn’t get when i saw it, only when it was spelled out for me with the additional photos.
and now i feel so jaded and worldly … so very very dirtied.
April 14, 2011 at 8:54 pm
I was actually trying to find something dirty in the picture, so don’t feel bad!
April 14, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Please don’t call out in the forums, because we can’t afford to lose resellers who give us their delicious monies.
April 14, 2011 at 6:31 pm
I totally read that as “delicious ponies”. And went 0__0
April 14, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Only if there’s enough left to go around once they get done parceling out the pieces to make fascinators, bone jewelry and genuine rawhide vests.
April 14, 2011 at 5:37 pm
I am calling outttttttttttttttt
April 14, 2011 at 6:28 pm
I’m calling out
I want the world to know
Got to let it show
I’m calling out
I want the world to know
I got to let it show
On Etsy resellers reign
but don’t you dare complain
cuz you’re nothing but a pain
so say the cupcake patrol
all while small sellers drown
They just say renew it
Head down and do it
Earl Grey don’t make them spew it
And give you the big fuck you
Yes Etsy has come to be
Just a Steampunk Mustache Hell
I have to shout
That I’m calling out …
April 14, 2011 at 6:48 pm
i hope somewhere there is a suppository of regretsy poems.. that should be the next book *nodnod*
April 14, 2011 at 7:03 pm
A “suppository”? o.O
(Though it would be appropriate…) *laughs*
April 14, 2011 at 7:05 pm
Oh my! I hope you mean repository. A poetry suppository sounds like a good way to get a paper cut in a bad place.
April 14, 2011 at 8:02 pm
I think suppository is perfect! If you didn’t mean it that way, own it!
April 14, 2011 at 8:32 pm
no. i like suppository better.
April 14, 2011 at 9:21 pm
And the book should be called “The Regretsy Suppository”.
April 15, 2011 at 11:20 am
It’s a song actually:) I was inspired by that boy’s theme song the other day (I’m blanking on his name, was it Adrian?) and fiddled with Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out”
Although, I do love the idea of a Regretsy poetry book. We could pick items that truly inspire us to put words to paper and write haikus and things about them:)
April 15, 2011 at 11:21 am
Crap, it worked in the preview:-/
April 14, 2011 at 5:37 pm
It’s *still* up. Unbelievable. I remember a while ago, I was going to buy a bag from there. Everything I saw was over-priced, so I didn’t. Now I’m afraid to buy something on there because while it says £20, there’s a good chance it’s a resell of a £5 item.
April 14, 2011 at 6:37 pm
and made by child labor. think of that. it’s horrifying.
April 14, 2011 at 7:08 pm
On one hand, the people in Tibet should be able to make money selling things they make if it’s stuff that people want.
But no one should have the right to not only claim that they made the things themselves, but mark it up 1000%.
April 14, 2011 at 7:16 pm
oh absolutely. it truly is appalling that etsy lets this go on.
April 14, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Working hard to avoid working. Etsy, you’re a gold mine.
April 14, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Clearly, Etsy’s offices are not on the coast of the East River like they thought. It’s on d’ Nile.
April 14, 2011 at 5:39 pm
I’m finding RuneLether’s shop and favoriting her.
April 14, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Did it.
April 14, 2011 at 5:53 pm
I wonder how many favorites s/he’ll get out of this. I did, too.
April 14, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Already had previously. Wish I could a second time.
April 14, 2011 at 6:50 pm
ditto!
April 14, 2011 at 6:32 pm
RuneLeather is an April’s Army member!
April 14, 2011 at 7:08 pm
We’d have to make her an honorary member if she weren’t.
April 14, 2011 at 6:38 pm
I did too. It looks like a bunch o’ people are following suit. It was my first instinct.
April 14, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Hell, I’m thinking of tapping her to make a birthday gift for my fiance. I just have to figure out how big a M:TG card case should be before I send a question to her.
April 14, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Me too. Three. Five…. uh, also.
Her shop now says “Thanks to all the awesome people for all the hearts.” I so want to think that wasn’t there earlier and she’s talking about us.
April 14, 2011 at 10:50 pm
http://www.etsy.com/shop/runeleather
Link for lazy people like myself.
April 15, 2011 at 9:03 am
favorited it.
April 14, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Should be IN the East River.
April 14, 2011 at 6:36 pm
NYC has worked so hard to keep pollution out of the rivers.
I’m thinkin’ landfill.
April 14, 2011 at 7:42 pm
What state would agree to THAT? A landfill full skull fascinators, vinyl vag hands, steampunk octopi, vaginart, and faerie-made unicorn buttplugs populated by wandering zombie-like sad hipsters in one-armed snooded sweaters, wringing their glingered hands at the lack of Earl Grey and bacon-topped cupcakes. Not In My Backyard, Mister!
April 14, 2011 at 7:43 pm
“full OF” sigh.
April 14, 2011 at 5:38 pm
That is what bothered me earlier when I was reading about this on the forums. Fucking fucks at Etsy couldn’t care less about honesty or integrity, they just care about making money. They’re not any different than the resellers, in that respect.
April 14, 2011 at 5:49 pm
I decided to read the “dos and don’ts” link they posted. Didn’t get very far until I came across this:
“Etsy encourages all members to resolve their own disputes. As a venue, Etsy cannot mediate disputes between members or other parties.”
Ha. Nice way to say “we don’t care”
April 14, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Funny thing this Etsy policy. I had an issue with a seller, tried to resolve it over convo, got reported for “harassment”. Got the big bad finger wave from Etsy and still no resolution!
Awesome opossum.
(and I was pretty nice during all this too- bah never again)
April 14, 2011 at 6:38 pm
I hate to tell you, Twitter does the same thing. Some twat was slandering me on there, and they told me they would not get involved in “personal disputes.” EVEN THOUGH THE POLICE WERE INVOLVED. Way to step up, guys.
April 14, 2011 at 7:41 pm
The fuck they can’t mediate disputes. If Amazon Marketplace, eBay, and a thousand other website admins can get involved in disputes, so can Etsy. You’re right, they don’t care. They don’t want to expend the time, money, and energy on paying staff specifically to deal with this shit, so they just back away and tell everyone to play nice and not be “negative”. The folks who run Etsy like the idea of an indie craft marketplace that runs on glitter and unicorn farts but don’t want to go through the effort of making it run properly. Fuck that noise.
April 14, 2011 at 5:39 pm
Noodles is actually the name of Etsy’s new adminmonkey.
Working his fur keeps him from sticking their mustaches up his nose and pooping in their Earl Grey.
April 14, 2011 at 5:52 pm
OMG! I was about to suggest that my bobble head monkey named noodles left me for Etsy and that’s who handles these things. No joke. I honestly had a bobble head monkey when I was a kid and named him noodles cause he had a big head. You need to find a way to sell this great power of yours to see into other’s past on Etsy.
April 14, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Or you could just sell your bobble head monkey. It’s not like anyone would care.
April 15, 2011 at 12:44 pm
If I still had it, I guess it would count as handmade. I did have to use my hands to make his head bobble.
April 14, 2011 at 10:28 pm
I thought I recognized Noodles the Etsy monkey:
April 14, 2011 at 5:39 pm
This is why, even though I knit my fingers to the bone(my poor bleeding fingers!), I don’t sell my stuff on etsy. There is no room for home made goodness any more, just derp and ready made crap from overseas… this is where it’s gotten us. There is nothing we can do but sit and watch as people take something that could have been a wonderful venture and art sales magnet and turned it into a fleamarket. Go figure, you make something that could bring people together and then someone has to crap on it to try and screw it up by trying to make some quick bucks… greed and sloth have no place there (unless you work for etsy I suppose…)
April 14, 2011 at 5:40 pm
I appreciate what you do, HK.
April 14, 2011 at 5:40 pm
I’m sorry; I just can’t come up with anything vitriolic enough for these heinous, scum-sucking, rat-faced waterheads.
oh, maybe I can.
April 14, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Etsy: The Land of Slave Made
It’s still handmade even if those hands are bloodied, bruised, and earning a cup of rice a day, people!
April 14, 2011 at 6:41 pm
I often wonder why people in NYC are so bent out of shape about WalMart wanting to open in the city when we already have the same shit happening in Brooklyn at Etsy.
It’s the creamy fondant-covered cupcake facade, isn’t it?
April 14, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Because Wal-Mart is a big ebil corporation who buys all their stuff from overseas resellers, while Etsy is a little rose-covered cottage full of sweet, delicate maidens who spend all their time busily knitting and sewing away, creating wonderful handmade crafts (when they’re not upcycling roadkill).
Only those who have a shop at Etsy, and we here at Regretsy, know what really goes on. For everyone else it’s all sweetness and light and hand-made dead mouse hair fascinators.
April 14, 2011 at 5:41 pm
There’s a spot on the sellers page to report the store. Maybe if everyone uses that, it might close down. I’ve been lucky to only find wonderful things on etsy, but stuff like this crap makes it harder and harder to do so!
Thanks regretsy for calling attention to it!
April 14, 2011 at 5:44 pm
Don’t you remember the Jess Fink/glitterbiscuits incident? They don’t seem to like you reporting stuff with the function, either. “Wrong forms,” they claimed. It’s ridiculous. They only did something because there was a pretty significant grassroots spamfest.
April 14, 2011 at 5:55 pm
I used that nifty function. There’s even a drop down tab that has “Not handmade, vintage, or supplies” on it. But it’s still the wrong way to report these issues.
April 14, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Fact check:
1. The buttbiscuits affair was a copyright issue, and only the copyright holder has any standing to report it. Otherwise the whole damn sandbox erupts in finger-pointing and tearful, desperate howls of “S/HE’S COPYING MEEEEE!” and have you priced out clerical help in NYC lately?
2. THEY didn’t do shit. The seller pulled her own store down with a flounce about moving her shoppe to the local flea market with the other dogs.
April 14, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Yeah I know how expensive it is to work in NYC, but your second point makes it almost irrelevant: they don’t do ANYTHING. Clearly they could have spent the money on clerical help instead of these lazy fucking admins.
April 14, 2011 at 9:10 pm
That’s why they’re building a customer disservice center up in the Hudson Valley.
April 14, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Did that, too.
April 14, 2011 at 5:41 pm
Wow. Just wow. It makes me want to write a strongly worded letter.
“Dear Esty, You can go fuck yourself! Sincerely, Me”
April 14, 2011 at 5:41 pm
All I can think is that Etsy really does just care about those listing fees and nothing else.
So much RAGE.
April 14, 2011 at 5:41 pm
Is this from Etsy? Oh, I’m sorry, I thought it was Oriental Trading Company. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?
April 14, 2011 at 5:42 pm
“What is wrong with me?”
Bitch, you really don’t want us to answer that question.
April 14, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Is this referring to nadinecross78 or Doris Handmade? Because you’re about to get thumbed out of existence if it’s the former.
April 14, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Doris Handmade, of course!
April 14, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Though I can see the confusion, nadinecross78′s post wasn’t even up when I was typing mine.
April 14, 2011 at 6:17 pm
That’s what I thought, but since it came right on the heels of Nadine’s post, it looked like you were calling her a bitch. I saw the thumbs downs starting and thought it should be clarified. Call off the dogs people! It was just an unfortunate accident of whimsicle juxtapositionationishness.
April 14, 2011 at 9:27 pm
For the record, I never for one second thought that comment was directed at me. Spasticaster and nadinecross78, BFF.
April 14, 2011 at 10:18 pm
Huzzah! BFF = Best Friends in Fuckery?
April 15, 2011 at 8:16 am
Ha! BFFs 4 LYFE!
April 14, 2011 at 5:43 pm
I can’t stop laughing….
Oh my oh my oh my
April 14, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Maybe we can call out in plain site by placing the word “cupcake” in between words? Read between the cupcakes.
This cupcake is cupcake too cupcake hard cupcake for cupcake Etsy cupcake staff cupcake.
The staff would just see cupcakes and go back to being ironic.
April 14, 2011 at 5:53 pm
I cupcake love cupcake cupcakes cupcake. now cupcake I cupcake am cupcake going cupcake to cupkcake eat cupcake a cupcake dozen cupcake cupcakes cupcake.
April 14, 2011 at 7:05 pm
My god, it’s EtsyLatin. *twitch*
April 15, 2011 at 10:19 am
Would that be Etsyian or Etsy-nese?
April 14, 2011 at 5:43 pm
“What is wrong with me?”
You are not wearing a rubber mustache.
April 14, 2011 at 5:59 pm
funny, i just went to the etsy homepage and the very first listing was a sterling silver “monostache”.
April 14, 2011 at 5:45 pm
Note: croquet team is the new bowling team.
April 14, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Being a hipster seems like it would make me tired. I could never keep up with all the changes.
April 14, 2011 at 8:59 pm
I saw a PT Cruister with a giant green mustache attached to the grill the other day. I give up. The hipsters win.
April 15, 2011 at 11:11 am
I saw those in a store online. They also made car thongs.
April 14, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Croquet is too violent for the Esty crew… bocce is where it’s at.
April 14, 2011 at 5:45 pm
Damn you for *kalling* out on the prestigious forum of the sacred Etsy board of pomposity. Those silly little starving Tibetan children love folding and dying paper into the wee hours and making 12¢ a day. Without the KIND support of some of our fair minded and world-hugging-sellers, some already starving Tibetan kids would be even hungrier.
April 14, 2011 at 5:46 pm
It is totally ridiculous! What more proof do they need? does it help if people go on the resellers shop and flood them with reported items?
April 14, 2011 at 6:00 pm
I actually sent her a message asking to see pictures of her crafting these “very pretty books”…
April 14, 2011 at 6:26 pm
I’d love to see her response!
April 14, 2011 at 6:47 pm
April 15, 2011 at 6:06 am
What do you know…no reply!
April 14, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Dear Etsy Forums
I make original plush, I draw all the patterns myself, sew them all by hand — heck, I even source local materials! My question is, how can i make them look more like soul-less mass-produced garbage made by enslaved children in the third world so someone gives a rat’s ass?
Thanks ever,
Gwennie
PS – love your chicken!
April 14, 2011 at 5:56 pm
As mentioned above, it might be time to start posting pictures that show you sewing the animal in question. I always take photos in the middle of a project to remember what I did (and so I can show other people), but that might be the best way.
April 14, 2011 at 6:22 pm
nah, I don’t have a moustache — ooh, you know I could set up a mini-sweatshop photo, with rows of plushie monkeys toiling over half finished dolls… that would get the Etsy chicken’s attention!
April 14, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Please, please do this. I’d love to see this picture. Hell, you could probably even sell it!
April 14, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Gwen, can I outsource my jewelry-making to some of your sweatshop plushie monkeys? They work 16-hour days, right?
April 14, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Gwen,
Your plushies are adorable! I favorited your shop for a future date on which I didn’t have to rape my bank account paying stupid, stupid taxes.
April 15, 2011 at 11:28 am
I love your plushies! I’m excited to see that some of them have sewn eyes instead of button. Me thinks I’ll be shoping there for my wee one, since she likes to chew the eyes of her toys and try to choke on them. We have her first birthday coming up and I’ll hit up your shop for new “floofies” for her!
April 14, 2011 at 5:47 pm
I *was* a seller on Etsy, and this bullshit is why I don’t bother anymore. They’re not getting my money. My stuff never sells even though it’s hand knit, and I get compliments all the time and make sales to real people. Down with Etsy!
April 15, 2011 at 11:32 am
I knit as a hobby and started selling on Etsy just so I’d have something to do with the few projects I finish and don’t particularly want to keep, and I’m thinking of looking for somewhere else to do that. I’d like to go on selling stuff, but Etsy’s policies are so offensively bad that I’m honestly starting to feel like using their site and paying them listing fees is morally reprehensible.
April 14, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Obviously it hurts the feelings of people who marked up items by 1000% to be tattled on. We don’t like to hurt feelings of any one, except those Regretsy fuckers. Bash them all… with a lot of booze. Wait, what? I got distracted by booze.
April 14, 2011 at 5:48 pm
I wish I could smack Etsy in the face. Unfortunately since “Etsy” is just a webpage on my computer, I would likely just end up knocking my glass of wine all over my keyboard. And then I’d be out of wine =(
April 14, 2011 at 5:48 pm
This is so not OK. I’d rather they just gave resellers an option to sell provided they identify themselves as such. If they are going to allow it to happen anyway and ignore the entire foundation of the site, they might as well adjust the rules and be honest with both buyers and sellers. The way it stands right now is just seedy and unfair.
April 14, 2011 at 6:45 pm
That is a brilliant idea. Plus, it really would get more people to buy ACTUAL handmade items when they realize they’ve been duped by resellers.
April 14, 2011 at 6:57 pm
i’d only be for thatr if it could be proved that child labor wasn’t involved. but it’s not a bad idea.
April 14, 2011 at 5:49 pm
I’m confused.
So, in Etsy’s twisted world where we all ride mustachioed Unicorns to work and live on a diet of Cotton Candy, what would the correct response be to this thread? RuneLeather was blunt and to the point. They didn’t make a scene. I see nothing wrong with what was said. Someone had to say it eventually.
Should RuneLeaher have ended their post with “Hugs!
” to take the edge off the truth?
Or was it after that initial post that things got ugly as others joined in?
April 14, 2011 at 6:51 pm
I suspect the issue is not “being mean.” I suspect that sooner or later, some disgusted Etsy seller of going to attempt legal action against Etsy for unfairly undermining their handmade efforts in a supposedly handmade-only market by breaking their own terms of service. I don’t know if they have a case, but if other sellers jumped on the bandwagon, they’d have a hell of an expensive and time-consuming mess, not to mention bad press out their vanilla-farting asses.
Hey….
April 14, 2011 at 7:00 pm
this is a plausible scenario – and an especially feared one i suspect, given that i think etsy is going on the sales block in the next few months … imo … and then an ipo, perhaps. something like that anyway, explains their behavior.
April 14, 2011 at 8:38 pm
You know, your comment has me thinking… (incredibly dangerous considering I’m on my 2nd vodka tonic) my sister is a lawyer- I’m going to give her an email tomorrow to see if something like that would even be possible. I am thoroughly sick of all of this reseller crap, especially when they not only feature these idiots but stick up for them.
April 14, 2011 at 8:48 pm
okay correction, she is soon to become a lawyer- still legal advice is good, regardless…
April 14, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Please let us know what she says.
April 14, 2011 at 11:57 pm
In Etsy’s land of sugarplums and faeries, if it had gone more like this it probably would have been passed over for having enough fluff and sugar:
“Oh sweety, I know it’s hard to get started, especially when you’re having trouble taking good photos.
Perhaps if you took photos more like these ones [links to the bulk items on other sites here] and made a lightbox they would sell better!
It also seems like a lot of people are using the same designs- maybe if you had something more unique in your shop people would be more inclined to buy.
I tried to help make them all a lot prettier by adding a bunch of beautiful flags!
Have a wonderful, cupcake filled day!
”
April 16, 2011 at 4:02 am
Absolutely brilliant!!
April 14, 2011 at 5:50 pm
LOL.
Etsy is a fucking joke.
April 14, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Hey, Candlejack–nice name by the w
April 14, 2011 at 5:52 pm
God I hate it when people spell their names with superfluous “K”s.
April 14, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Haven’t I heard that name before? Didn’t King Kubla Kraus have a killer robot K-night, K-nicky? Or a dozen – hmmm, a robot, I had long suspected the chicken, but now You are on my radar, K-Nicky…
April 14, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
April 14, 2011 at 5:53 pm
You know, those knots in cat fur are totally heinous! And I will not work faster just to finish to take care of your every whim! After I get done, I’m going to have to render first aid to the scratches from my dear sweet Noodle and I’ll have to calm down with a caramel, half-caf, skinny, half-foam, mocha-cherry, iced latt-chino.
THEN, I will address your concerns of resellers on etsy.
But first, I have to ask my assistant and her assistant if my mustache is thick enough to be hip but not so thick that it screams “Olmos a’la Miami Vice”. That could take days.
April 14, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Years, even.
April 14, 2011 at 5:54 pm
All right. So. When we gonna make our own site? I’ll happily contribute whatever graphical design stuff I’m able to provide to the effort.
April 14, 2011 at 6:16 pm
I know, right? If there are any code monkeys reading this site, they need to step forward!
April 14, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Everybody’s homework: go learn some code.
April 14, 2011 at 7:11 pm
I wish I were a code monkey so I could put that on a business card.
April 14, 2011 at 10:42 pm
I can do tables…embedded, even!
April 14, 2011 at 6:58 pm
I really, really wish I had the startup money to do this. I know there are many others out there contemplating it… I just hope whoever gets there first makes it a top priority to keep it “handmade”.
April 15, 2011 at 10:40 am
“KeepItHandmade.com” has a nice ring to it.
April 14, 2011 at 7:11 pm
A lot of us have been talking about this on the forums. I think enough people definitely want it and want to work to make it happen. Organization time, folks. Let’s just do it.
April 14, 2011 at 7:55 pm
<—- code monkey ready to put in the time for the common good of genuine hand made artists who don't want to pay a premium to be treated like shit by hipster douchebags.
April 15, 2011 at 8:47 am
It would take at least a couple grand to hire a programer to get something along the lines of Etsy, so it really should be a combined effort (with combined wallets).
I don’t think there would be a problem getting people to donate to the cause, especially if the project is brought up after regretsy posts like this.
April 15, 2011 at 10:41 am
We could actually make a kind of a funding drive to raise funds for it: donate things we make, sell them, put the money toward that.
April 15, 2011 at 6:23 pm
We already beat you to it. We got tired of etsy a long time ago. go see http://www.amdrm.com what etsy used to be, we are new but we are building it with things customers want. Really like the in progress idea above and the hand made photos idea. We will be trying this soon. Thankx
April 14, 2011 at 5:54 pm
Is it time for a NEW handmade marketplace with people who really DO give a crap about the folks who AREN’T resellers?
April 14, 2011 at 5:57 pm
YES
April 14, 2011 at 6:01 pm
Artfire.com yo
At least, till the resellers all land there. I hear they’re starting to come over from Etsy already though :/
April 14, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Look a little closer. They’re already there. Lots and lots of them.
April 14, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Oh, boo.
Regrartfire, anyone?
April 14, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Fartfire?
April 14, 2011 at 7:20 pm
They’re like bedbugs. D:
April 14, 2011 at 9:45 pm
Shartfire. Obviously.
April 14, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Can genuine vintage come, too? Those of us who know and treasure real vintage and hate fauxtiques are getting just as screwed by liars, fakers and resellers. We *heart* handmade, and plenty of real artists make gorgeous pieces from things we sell.
April 14, 2011 at 6:48 pm
Absolutely!
April 15, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Misi or Zibbet are good enough to have a decent range of sellers, small enough that resellers haven’t found them yet
April 14, 2011 at 5:57 pm
Is there a reputable site out there for me to sell my work? The only reason I’m still with Etsy after all this garbage is I don’t know where else to go.
April 14, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I opened a shop on Zibbet.com . Zibbet is still small and new so I haven’t had a lot of sales yet, but the admins are fantastic. They are working hard to make Zibbet the awesome selling venue that Etsy is not.
I’ve had questions and comments, sent e-mails and gotten replies from real people on the admin team within just a few hours (I’m in the US, and I think they’re in Australia, so there’s a time zone issue).
April 15, 2011 at 11:38 am
*Bookmarks*
Next knitting project I finish goes up there instead of Etsy, srsly. Not like Etsy has gotten me many sales anyway.
April 15, 2011 at 6:26 pm
try amdrm.com see what you think about the new kid on the block.
April 14, 2011 at 5:58 pm
*raises a glass to RuneLeather*
*raises a glass to Regretsy*
*raises a glass … falls over*
April 14, 2011 at 6:41 pm
*raises glass to gravatar near-twin*
April 14, 2011 at 7:39 pm
I would make a custom gravatar if it weren’t for all the drinking.
April 14, 2011 at 5:58 pm
I think I would rather swim in stinky hippy robes and dead coyote fur than try to follow etsy staff logic.
April 14, 2011 at 6:20 pm
It’s asshole resellers like “DorisHandmade” that give stinky hippy robes and dead coyote fur a good name.
April 14, 2011 at 6:54 pm
I am beginning to think anyone using the word “handmade” in their shop name is suspect and preemptively protesting too much.
April 14, 2011 at 5:59 pm
As soon as I saw the picture of the avatar I knew. I bought that same journal 10+ years ago at a book shop in Seattle.
What’s amazing are all the people who are like “Wow! I love your work!”
April 14, 2011 at 6:01 pm
Well, in all fairness, they are very pretty journals that were probably handmade by people in Nepal and Tibet. Maybe the answer here is to get Etsy into south-east Asia?
April 14, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Yeah, those prices actually do seem reasonable for handmade journals like that, it’s just that the money isn’t going to the people who made them. If only DorisHandmade was selling these and donating the money back to the artisans, I could get behind it.
April 14, 2011 at 6:35 pm
I think I paid $10 for it then, which translates to at least $15 now. I thought it was so pretty I never wrote in it!
April 14, 2011 at 6:04 pm
Not the avatar, the first pic HK posted of the journal… derp!Not the avatar, the first pic HK showed
April 14, 2011 at 5:59 pm
This is sad really, and frustrating. Ya know, I have been working on some stuff to open a shop with for a while now and I am glad I’ve found regretsy so I could get the real truth on Etsy before I did it. I’ll find some other place now.
April 14, 2011 at 7:05 pm
i’m in the same position as you – i’ve been working for months trying to get my stuff to a super professional, ‘perfect’ level … and i’m glad i found regretsy too, because forewarned is forearmed. but i’m going to go ahead and open a shop and i think you should too. i mean, seriously, fuck ‘em. don’t let ‘em drive you out of a potentially good thing. stand your ground.
April 14, 2011 at 7:09 pm
You might read Etsy Bitch, too. They obviously have an axe to grind, but they’re pretty good at identifying the sorts of things that are annoying to sellers, and spelling out what Etsy does and doesn’t (mostly the latter) do well.
April 14, 2011 at 7:24 pm
i found regretsy through etsy bitch … the stars were bright and auspicious the night i opened up etsy bitch to see a video of der fuhrer ranting about hipsters!
but between the two sites, i am often filled with despair for all of civilization and for my small endeavors.
April 14, 2011 at 10:53 pm
I had a shop in etsy for a while and then got discouraged with minimal sales and my dad’s accident took our family and my work schedule to the point of inability to function as an etsy seller.
I’ve been looking for other sites, one http://www.madeitmyself.com seems okay, I can’t afford zibbit or artfire though but I may be moving to that site when I have cash flow.
April 14, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Well, I reported the store. Doubt the Etsy hipsters will do a damn thing about it, but there you go.
April 14, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Holy fucking shit Etsy is an elephant turd rat crap fest of fetid vomit from last month’s pineapple vodka shot contest that was hiding under the potted plant. I am never selling for them and I’m only buying from Regretsy fans. Shit fuck.
April 14, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Poetry, pure poetry, sweet geek!
April 14, 2011 at 6:02 pm
I’m just wondering how that cat got all those knots in his fur. Is neglecting your pets hipster chic?
I think Knoodles kneeds a knew home.
April 14, 2011 at 6:08 pm
was thinking the same thing
April 14, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Kitteh dreadlocks!
April 14, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Knoodles got so full of Knots because Rob was so busy shutting down resellers.
Oh, wait. I meant figuring out whether macarons are the new cupcake and if beards are hotter than mustaches.
April 14, 2011 at 6:04 pm
RuneLeather bookmarked for future reference. Thank you for having a spine and calling bullshit when you see it.
April 14, 2011 at 6:05 pm
You know, with creative rephrasing that comment could be entirely neutral.
“It appears your journals are available cheaper elsewhere.”
I would LOVE to see how the Etsy staff justify suspending your account with that statement.
April 14, 2011 at 7:49 pm
“Oh, wow, I love your journals! I bought one for $10 at Barnes and Nobles the other day!”
or
“These are so awesome I bought a hundred from Tibet to sell myself!”
And there were cupcakes for everyone.
April 14, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Well I will give DorisHandmade some credit…her photos look a lot better than the original site. Maybe she should sell prints of her photos of cheap mass produced notebooks….hmmmmm….
April 14, 2011 at 6:32 pm
That’s what I thought too!
April 14, 2011 at 6:07 pm
I posted in that forum!! Shocking she doesn’t see that the dumb bitch called HERSELF out. Now, what’s the rules on that fuckin genius?
April 14, 2011 at 6:09 pm
When I read her name I heard it in my head as Kah-Nicky, like the character from Grease. Which only made her seem like more of a hipster. God I hate hipsters
April 14, 2011 at 6:12 pm
ahahaha…just 5 mins ago I saw TheBlueKraken (maker of the awesome reseller owls treasury) had added RuneLeather to her Favorites and thought…hmm what’s up there……Regretsy completing the circle of knowledge for me!
April 14, 2011 at 6:12 pm
At least Doris “no sales so long.”
April 14, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Well, just as I did with whats-her-face who copied the Threadless cookies and milk design, I shall write up a Report for this one too. I shall used phrases like “Oh no she didn’t!” and “Hand-made? You mean Bought-in-bulk-and-re-took-pictures-in-cascading-sunlight-for-a-more-hand-made-look” -more sassy snapping inserted here-
P.S. No offense to the people in Nepal who made all of those journals, but for a millisecond I thought this post was going to be about things that look like butt holes. I am a little ashamed.
April 14, 2011 at 6:16 pm
goatse inspired journals?
April 14, 2011 at 7:15 pm
I thought the same thing regarding the butt holes though I don’t think I even know how to be ashamed anymore.
April 14, 2011 at 6:15 pm
FromDorisresellingtibetanbloodcrafts:
April 14, 2011 at 6:16 pm
html fail…
FromDorisresellingtibetanbloodcrafts:
“…the moment I have a myriad of thoughts, can not wait to make my designs to handicrafts. The use of handmade paper is my favorite element, and I use them in many aspects. I hope my design will bring you beauty and happiness, to share with you my joy and wonderful.”
WTF???
April 14, 2011 at 6:17 pm
HK, I fucking love you. You make me laugh out loud. Every. Day.
BTW I am currently working “shit’s gonna get real” and “horseshit” into my daily vernacular. Regretsy builds word power!
April 14, 2011 at 7:08 pm
my favorite is ‘i no see snap like that in a long time’!
April 14, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Maybe as long as it appears handmade etsy admin is ok with it, they just don’t want any obvious mass produced things on the site.
April 14, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Oh, take another look.
April 14, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I’m not sure I understand how they can shut that thread for calling out, since the reseller started the thread…
You know, it’s not like they have no clear business plan, or understanding of their own rules or ever contradict those rules in their day to day actions. It’s also not like they reward resellers and punish actual handcrafters on a daily basis, after all.
Oh… wait, THAT was the etsy that was part of my dream where I got to sit on a pile of pillows with my cats sleeping all around me and eat a big bag of candy while hunky men did my dishes and gave me massages while singing at me like Gene Kelley.
We are probably not talking about that etsy…
April 14, 2011 at 6:20 pm
*ahem* favorited rune leather and bought a necklace. Reported “doris” “hand-made”. pointed out to etsy that they are morons. All while grooming my dogs. My work here is done.
April 14, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Are there any opinions for or against ArtFire.com?
Its a much smaller store than Etsy seems to be.
I haven’t bought many things on Etsy… the things I have picked are more specifically supply based, or were commissioned. It never occurred to me until I started watching this site more closely that there was stuff being sold as handmade that wasn’t.
April 14, 2011 at 7:13 pm
I like them well enough; they’re pretty good in terms of being responsive to seller feedback. I don’t have much experience with them as a buyer, though.
April 14, 2011 at 8:33 pm
I opened a store over there, but only a Basic one–Not the $9.95/month one. Basic is their red-headed step-child and the owners flatly state they give precedence to the “Pros” and leave the “Basics” in the dust. I don’t even know why they allow Basic shops as they are limited to only 300 items, have NO categories, cannot customize their shop’s look, and are listed last in searches. First time I asked a question in the forums I was pounced upon by several of the regulars who are on every thread. After I basically answered my own question they started savaging me because I was not thanking them for all the unwanted advice to follow the company line and get a Pro store. There was even profanity–which I called out–and they came after me for that, too. All this after I quit posting and had said “Question Answered”.
April 14, 2011 at 8:35 pm
I ended up blocking a few people (you can do that on Artfire). Bottom line–there are retards everywhere. You have to drink the Koolaid over at Artfire to get anywhere.
(Couldn’t post this as one message because it was at the comment limit with one character left.)
April 15, 2011 at 9:51 am
I have a shop there. I had shut down my Etsy shop until April’s Army came to the rescue. Artfire is ok, but I stay away from the forums pretty much. The problem of resellers is creeping in, but they are at least talking about ways to control it. They are contemplating making a commercial section which resellers would have to use instead of handmade. Their staff does respond to questions pretty quickly. It’s a completely different business model than Etsy because you pay a monthly fee instead of a listing or final value fee.
April 14, 2011 at 6:24 pm
I can’t even begin to express how furious this makes me.
I’m not an amazing artist or crafter, but I do have a shop on Etsy, and ALL of my stuff is handmade. I’ve put a lot of effort into making my items.
For somebody to fucking sell something that they didn’t put an ounce of work into making at all… it makes me SO damn angry. This is a place for crafters to sell their works and for people who hate supporting big companies to buy honest works by honest people.
How many sales have I lost because the search function keeps spouting Chinese resold crap? How many sales have other crafters lost because of these asswipes?
Damn, people better keep the alcohol farrr away from me come Monday… I’ll be legal, and there’s so much reason to drink right about now.
April 14, 2011 at 6:40 pm
you know what gets me? how do we know this stuff isn’t by child labor? child labor is rife all over southeast asia and i’ve seen plenty of resellers who appear to be based there.
makes me sick to my stomach.
April 14, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Hey! Happy birthday a few days in advance! Don’t drink too much. Otherwise we won’t be able to buy your truly handmade things. But otherwise, have a blast!
April 15, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Happy birthday! I remember being your age and having my first shop. Go forth, young awesomeness, and continue to create whatever fuckery you desire!
April 14, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Jeezus — she is ballsy.. and a stupid fucker..
Etsy are worse – words fail me – cunty fuckers drinking skinny soy lattes while wearing skinny jeans so tight its cutting off their blood supply.
April 14, 2011 at 6:26 pm
“Handmade paper is a revered ancient art in China. Living in Beijing, I am directly in touch with this rich tradition. I draw upon it to make modern pieces that combine the beauties of the old and new world.
My first attempt would be to use handmade paper in the notebook, writing on handmade paper always give a person halcyon feeling, this is the feeling I have been looking for. I hope you will like it.
All the things in my shop are made by handmade paper,especially one kind of ecofriendly handmade paper covered with dried-flowers.” – DorisHandmade Shop announcement
AAARRRRGGGHH.
There is just so many obvious things wrong with that darn shop it makes my head go kaplooyee.
April 14, 2011 at 6:44 pm
actually it’s not a revered art in china: it’s now mass produced like everything else there, and has been fr a long time. further, in china, they rip off japanese washi designs – in violation of international copyright – and mass produce ersatz washi papers there on the cheap, which further erodes the papermaking tradition in japan, where it is a revered art.
/end of rant/
April 14, 2011 at 7:28 pm
oh, and tibet and/or nepal, where this handmade tie-dyed mulberry or lokta paper is made, is NOT PART part of china, no matter what doris may be brainwashed to think !!!!
April 15, 2011 at 12:12 pm
That’s something that really bothers me about this reseller — her whole shop pretty much sums up the Tibet problem in a nutshell. China comes in, takes over their land, leaves them impoverished and disenfranchised, then sells their native culture at a huge profit to the West.
April 14, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Wow! I just added RuneLeather to my favorites and realized I had featured them in my first treasury:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d92c4df6dfb8eef7b0eb2e8/not-just-black-and-white-but-read-all
It’s a small world and the coolest people are in it!
April 14, 2011 at 6:28 pm
There needs to be a new, uncorrupt online empire of homemade-goods selling.
Etsy is starting to have the appeal of my old desktop system that had been wiped clean of viruses for the third time. What’s the point in even looking around when after a short while you will be overwhelmed by the crap and disappointment.
April 14, 2011 at 6:33 pm
I’m afraid that the etsy staff have removed their brains to make room for more creamy cupcake cappachino. I have a suggestion to everyone. Every day, send Etsy an email called Reseller of the Day. If we all did it, it may make a point. That, or they’ll curl up on their IKEA beds surrounded by moustache pillows, and write in their “handmade” aka mass produced journals that no one loves them anymore.
April 14, 2011 at 10:04 pm
If that was a GIR reference, I love you.
April 14, 2011 at 6:33 pm
AUGH I saw this in the forums & it made me so mad *lavajin smash*
April 14, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Posts like these are the reason I love Regretsy. I also love being snarky, which is a virtue around here.
April 14, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Dammit. Is it wrong for me to say I love Etsy (I have made some great purchases there), but I think their admins must be a bunch of stupid, silly Stepford wives?? I would think if you run a site for “handmade or vintage” items, then bygawd, that’s what it oughta be! I wouldn’t want a bunch of idiot resellers misrepresenting their China-made crap as handmade and bilking my customers and ruining my rep. I mean, jeez, what business school did these morons go to???
Oh, wait…
April 14, 2011 at 6:45 pm
You can love someone/something and still acknowledge that they make bad choices.
April 14, 2011 at 6:42 pm
I’m quite angry lately (I blame the medication side effects), and this doesn’t help me.
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/6856183/page/1
Also, someone
started a thread asking why Etsy won’t stop resellers http://www.etsy.com/teams/7714/ideas/discuss/6854808/page/1 and I love them for it.
April 14, 2011 at 6:43 pm
And, by the way, What’s wrong with that seller is that she/he is a first class douche bag.
April 14, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Ah yes, another pointed and relevant discussion, soon to bite the dust. Comment while you can people! And let me just add that I have NO idea who that HappyZoo character is. None whatsoever.
April 14, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Two hours and 10 minutes later, HeyMichelle has closed the thread
Hi there,
If you see something in a shop that makes you suspect that the items aren’t handmade, please let us know by reporting the shop using the link on the shop page. We can’t discuss sellers who may be breaking Etsy’s rules in the forums (calling out), so I am going to close this thread. Thank you.
Bitch.
April 14, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Michelle’s response was at least a bit more fair and helpful.
But again, I understand that they don’t want the forums to fill up with unverifiable accusations, but when you get a legitimate complaint in the method you yourself insist on, DO SOMETHING.
April 14, 2011 at 7:12 pm
Oh my dear funk! The first thread I linked to has gone from calling people meanies to talking about how great it is when a husband makes dinner, and then said I’m more than welcome to say more on the actual topic. Apparently forums are just for fun. Fucktards.
April 14, 2011 at 7:19 pm
I want to say “You want to know why people get mean in the forums? Because of fucking douche bags like all of you who can’t take a damn thing seriously. Go make a chat room to talk about this crap instead of taking up room in the forums. Actually, go kill yourselves instead of taking up air in the world.”
April 14, 2011 at 7:33 pm
They all seem to be acting like 5 year olds with the attention span to match.
April 14, 2011 at 7:31 pm
Someone was just called a sillyhead. I can’t deal with grown people saying things like that to anyone other than very small children.
I feel itchy and gross now.
April 14, 2011 at 8:25 pm
“People get overly frustrated with things like copyright infringement”? Seriously? Douchbags. Seriously.
April 14, 2011 at 8:55 pm
How dare you get overly frustrated just because someone stole your idea that you put time and money into and is now making more money making it cheaper?! What a bunch of fucktards…not you, fancyskants. You rock my world.
April 14, 2011 at 9:03 pm
*Blush*
April 14, 2011 at 6:43 pm
That’s Horseshit! Awhile back you helped my family out with a fundraiser and mentioning our Etsy shop. It seems, EVERY TIME the shop sold out within MINUTES Etsy Content was on me about removing the Zazzle link. They watched it like a hawk…But they let this slide.
That is krap.
I am done whining now.
April 15, 2011 at 8:22 am
Yup. I got perma-banned for being vocal in the forums (never “called out” – just complained about Etsy nonresponsiveness a lot) and for mentioning that I had another online store in my shop description.
I was furious then, but now I think it was a blessing in disguise.
April 14, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Actually, if you think about it, RuneLeather wasn’t really ‘calling out’ the imposter (who, BTW is still up and running as of 9:40PM Brooklyn time). Traditionally, ‘calling out’ has been stating something’s not legit behind the seller’s back, where the accuser could be wrong. (At least this is the excuse for not wanting callout to begin with. Etsy is SO democratic that way)
But, ‘Doris’ him/herself had no problem in showing the bogus merchandise right out in the open, so all RuneLeather was doing was reaffirming what was already known.
This, on one of ‘Doris’ lampshade listings:
“Materials: handmade paper
Shape: Spherical
Dimensions: Diameter 27cm
Bulb type: Chandelier &pendant lamp , Ceiling mount
The package did not contain bulb and wire,we just offer a lantern.”
>>>>THE PACKAGE DID NOT CONTAIN THE BULB AND WIRE<<<<<
The package of what? Handmade inspiration and creativity?
What more do they want???
I am SO glad I'm outta there.
April 14, 2011 at 7:18 pm
The package did not contain bulb and wire,we just offer a lantern.”
Oh, my God. What an idiot.
April 14, 2011 at 6:47 pm
While I care a great deal about the whole resellers issue, I’m very disappointed in you all for not suggesting names for the ironic bowling/croquet team.
I suggest the Empty Frames.
April 14, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Hipster Pinheads.
April 14, 2011 at 7:20 pm
First-Class Douche Bags.
April 14, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Mallet motherfuckers?
April 14, 2011 at 11:22 pm
They changed from bowling to croquet?
Shrinking Balls
April 14, 2011 at 6:49 pm
SCOOP: Etsy’s new corporate brand!
April 14, 2011 at 6:52 pm
You responded to bullshit with Sifl & Olly? Marry me, you sexy beast.
April 14, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Though I am most flattered, I must respond to your marriage proposal with Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
April 14, 2011 at 11:03 pm
It’s Sifl! I had SUCH a crush on him!
April 14, 2011 at 6:54 pm
I love how everyone in the etsy forums hates a caller outer… until they do it themselves.
Personally it’s like the Lord of the Flies in there anyway. They might as well just allow calling out and make it a complete free for all.
April 14, 2011 at 6:55 pm
I should add that I personally like calling out. Keeps it interesting!
April 14, 2011 at 7:03 pm
“We here at Etsy take pride in our moral flexibility, and with the uneven enforcement of our policies. We are certain you will be delighted to take your complaints elsewhere while we wedge our heads firmly up our asses. As always, thank you for your patience and understanding.”
April 14, 2011 at 7:13 pm
They should put that right under the “kiss and make up” clause.
April 14, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Those are genuine, handmade in Mayberry, shipped from Singapore asshats they’re wearing, I’ll have you know.
April 14, 2011 at 7:07 pm
I reported DorisResellerwhats’ername with the following note, which will probably get me a nastygram from the Etsy admins.
“RESELLER!
I thought Et$y didn’t allow re$elling of commercial product$? If that’$ true, why do you $hut down thread$ where the$e people are brought to light, yet let the re$ellers continue to do busine$$..oh, wait, I just figured it out for my$self.
I think I’ll be closing my Etsy shop soon and going to another site where resellers aren’t welcome.”
April 14, 2011 at 7:14 pm
I just put “Reseller. Yes, I’m calling them out.”
April 14, 2011 at 7:38 pm
I put “These items are all resold bulk items and you know it. Stop getting pissy when other people do your job for you, because you won’t.”
April 14, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Do tell us what they respond with.
April 14, 2011 at 7:07 pm
For all the laughs I get at their expense, nothing quite brings my blood to a boil like the Etsy staff. What dingleboppers.
April 14, 2011 at 7:17 pm
All I can think of is Austin Powers Goldmember saying “right in the k’nickies”
April 14, 2011 at 7:17 pm
As long as everyone’s in a flagging mood, I made a treasury earlier today:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4da7456beb536d910acdcda2/handmade-robot-clocks
Most of those sellers sell identical things. If only I had time to flag over 1000 items between them… and if only it would make any difference.
Some of them have over 5,000 sales. Since last June. Yeah, because I know lots of artisans who handmake brass trinkets at a rate of 500/month and then sell them for $3 each.
April 14, 2011 at 9:32 pm
I checked out Artwonders’ shop – she’s in the US and the robot clock seems to be an aberration. Everything else is cute and original. I don’t know about handmade, but it’s cute.
April 14, 2011 at 9:53 pm
Unfortunately you didn’t look deep enough.
Another Robot Necklace
Artwonders:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/61457413/robot-necklace-autopilot-bot
Wholesale:
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/302073868/Charming_fashion_jewelry_Robot_compass_watch.html
April 14, 2011 at 10:09 pm
What about all the miniature food stuff?
(I had no idea there was an Etsy team called “Miniature Food Jewelry on Etsy.” And I was shocked that it had 116 members. Our own Roscata is the captain.)
April 14, 2011 at 9:53 pm
Keyhole necklace
Artwonders:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/63983550/antiqued-brass-keyhole-necklace-what-do
Other Etsy Seller:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/65831690/keyhole-necklace
http://www.etsy.com/listing/58693500/oval-keyhole-pendant-necklace-brass
http://www.etsy.com/listing/70907870/secrets-a-classic-antiqued-brass-oval
April 14, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Owl clock:
Artwonders:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/64189689/hedwig-antiqued-brass-owl-watch-locket
Others:
http://www.amazon.com/Flappy-Wings-Locket-Watch-Necklace/dp/B004H7TMC4
http://www.etsy.com/listing/70221961/someone-to-watch-over-me-owl-pocket
http://www.etsy.com/listing/68417933/2pcs-42x26mm-antique-bronze-owl-necklace
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2523934
April 15, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Your treasury has been removed.
You must be a very bad person.
April 14, 2011 at 7:24 pm
I fail to see how bringing a reseller to light is “calling out”…it’s not negative, just pointing out the obvious.
April 14, 2011 at 8:01 pm
I fail to see how the expression “calling out” is negative.
April 14, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Hmm, k(whatever) tipped her hand as only a dimwitted Admin can telling all in print! that Doris(whatever can’t remember) is in all probability
1. her relative
2. living with an Admin (horrors!)
3. related to someone who might drink with Admins 3 nights a week in the Plushie Phone Room Bar
4. has the same color hair as RK
5. sent Admins 2 boxes of free stuff to make sure they get the next FS
Pick one or all, they probably all apply.
Admins are on a particularly alarming rampage the last 48 hours so let’s start making every single one of their cendorship posts public!
Flagging makes Admins do just the opposite. Posting in the forums makes them do even worse.
Why pay any attention to them? They certainly ignore you!
April 14, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Is there a good alternative to Etsy out there? It seems like they really don’t give a damn anymore.
April 14, 2011 at 7:35 pm
well, there is ArtFire, but its ugly, and no one buys on there.
I have been SERIOUSLY tempted to start an Etsy-style site. If I did, would anyone buy/sell on there?
Thats the question…
April 14, 2011 at 7:45 pm
I think the problem is that EVERYONE wants to start their own Etsy-style site that isn’t Etsy right now.
April 15, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Yes people will buy, we started http://www.amdrm.com handmade marketplace, grass roots, tired of etsy politics, building as we grow. Take a look.contact me at jeff@amdrm.com if you have questions, real customer service. Real people.
April 15, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Artfire is ugly. Misi.co.uk and zibbet.com are lovely, though
And yeah I know I’m kinda spamming tht right now, but seriously I think it is important people know etsy and their shitty reselling crap is not the only choice
April 14, 2011 at 7:40 pm
I am forced to conclude that the people running Etsy have brain damage in the area that deals with confrontation.
“You can sell your wholesale shit on our lovely website as long as everyone is the best of friends!”
April 14, 2011 at 7:43 pm
This is super depressing and it seems to be the final straw for some sellers.
April 14, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Damn straight. I’m considering organizing a strike. Take down all my shop items and replace my avatar and shop sign with “On strike until Etsy does something about the resellers” or something like that. Keep posting in all the forums and making treasuries (of REAL handemade items of course) to maximize exposure of the issue. Think it would work?
April 14, 2011 at 8:02 pm
handmade, not handemade damn it! I saw it just as I hit send.
April 14, 2011 at 8:12 pm
How will they see our signs if they never pull their heads out of their mustached glitterbiscuits?
April 14, 2011 at 8:37 pm
How long do you think it would take for them to make you go sit in the corner with a glitter unicorn ball gag in your mouth for suggesting that there might be *gasp* reseller on Etsy?
April 15, 2011 at 6:36 am
Perhaps strike by just having one item for sale with a multitude of tags as well as the avatar – a packet of chocolate digestives for example, something generic most folks can easily take a photo of to join the protest. It could highlight the absurdity of mass production goods on a handmade site if lots of biscuit avatars and products turn up all over etsy.
(Fuck’s sake – that’s an absurd way for a subliminal need for snacks to let itself be known. Guess I’ll head to the store for some biscuits now).
April 14, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Mmmm.
I find this is one of the best outlets for my passive-aggressive nature. Bitchy and constructive!!!
April 14, 2011 at 7:52 pm
FOR FUCKS SAKE!
They weren’t calling out sellers.
They were calling out RESELLERS. LYING, SCUMBAG RESELLERS SPAMMING THE FORUMS.
It makes me so fucking mad I can’t even attempt funny.
Not that when I attempt it I actually achieve it, or anything.
April 14, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Any junk you post, regardless of source, makes money for Etsy. The whole “hand crafted by you” atsy bullshit is just to create a warm fuzzy feeling in art-tards.
Therefore, reselling other peoples’ shit is…
April 14, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Not to sound harsh but,
Rob White is the biggest piece of shit that has ever walked the face of the Earth. Most of the admins are useless, but he is a vindictive poser hippie.
Oh do I got stories of that turd.
Ok, carry on. Awesome post by the way HK!
April 14, 2011 at 8:22 pm
We love stories, lets hear ‘em!
April 14, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Gotcha
I totally called out the Etsy staffers on their neglect via this post. I’ll probably be blocked in the next 24 hours. Thank goodness for aliases.
April 14, 2011 at 8:05 pm
…the link is to me calling them out.
April 14, 2011 at 9:36 pm
No surprise, they shut the thread and directed people to the useless flagging button again.
April 15, 2011 at 11:16 am
And, the last sentence in the last post before they shut it down?
“Etsy cares about stopping forum threads about resellers.”
REALLY
April 14, 2011 at 8:05 pm
It’s patently obvious what’s going on here.
Etsy has demonstrated quite clearly that they have no standards. We’ve known that for a long time now. Now we learn they also have no ethics and no integrity.
The only thing they DO have is this one thoroughly childish rule: NO CALLING OUT. This one idiotic rule, a rule that should only be reserved when dealing with three-year olds, is all they have left to hang their hats on. BE NICE. Never say one negative word about another seller, for any reason. That’s it. That’s all they got. Those forum moderators only watch out for this one thing. NO CALLING OUT. What, you expected them to enforce complicated terms of use?
Of course, without that ridiculous rule in place they might never have created the atmosphere of frustration that brought so many of you to our little site. We say the things that Etsy won’t let you say.
So…thanks, Etsy!
April 14, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Remember the rules of Etsy: Always wear a smile when stomping on the dreams of real crafters.
April 14, 2011 at 9:37 pm
And a mustache. And offer a cupcake while doing so.
April 14, 2011 at 8:09 pm
From the store’s announcement message: “My first attempt would be to use handmade paper in the notebook, writing on handmade paper always give a person halcyon feeling, this is the feeling I have been looking for. I hope you will like it.”
April 14, 2011 at 8:10 pm
i hate rob white so fucking much. just his stupid etsy avatar makes me seethe with hate.
April 14, 2011 at 8:12 pm
Follow him on Twitter. You will NOT be disappointed.
April 14, 2011 at 8:30 pm
duly noted!
April 14, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Now that’s what I’m talking about.
April 15, 2011 at 2:07 am
Bronc you have to be kidding me…so much can be done with those hashtags.
April 14, 2011 at 8:19 pm
This whole situation makes me what to buy a bunch of crap on Oriental Trading and put it up for sale, then poke at the admins and see what they do. But since I would draw the wrath from all y’all and that scares me much more than anything etsy admins would do, I will just keep doing what I do.
Here’s a Question – if reporting resellers doesn’t do anything and you can’t call them out when they so obviously are looking for it, what does etsy expect you to do?
April 14, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Pay an etsy seller to do a mythical rain dance for you that will alert the admins to the trouble.
or use a bat signal, with a mustache instead of a bat.
April 14, 2011 at 8:57 pm
April 14, 2011 at 8:59 pm
You just made my whole night.
April 14, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Oh, bravo!
April 14, 2011 at 8:23 pm
I think the answer to that is “shut the fuck up and get over it.”
April 14, 2011 at 8:40 pm
I don’t actually think they care if you get over it; they just want you to shut the fuck up.
April 14, 2011 at 8:24 pm
And that stupid handmade pledge. I can’t even read it.
I called out Rob White from removing me from a blog about male sellers on etsy. I had that cockspit cornered, and got others on my side.
So he perma banned me for calling him out.
Believe it or not, their was a admin who was…well, a “double agent”. She told me a lot.
April 14, 2011 at 8:25 pm
I actually saw this thread in the forums when it had like 3 responses in it…
And I looked at the broken English, + then I looked at the shop + I realized it was a reseller. And yes, I chuckled.
I’m guessing it’s like 10 hours later and this shop is still open. This is just Etsy employees proving they’re fucktards who refuse to do right by us sellers.
*head desk*
April 14, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Here’s another thread she started asking for help with her shop. I think we should help her out. http://www.etsy.com/teams/7903/gothic-treasures-and-metaphysical-magic/discuss/6855297/
April 14, 2011 at 8:32 pm
But I’d have to join that team to comment.
April 14, 2011 at 8:42 pm
Fuck. I didn’t know that you had to be a member of a team in order to comment on a thread. I obviously need to work on my cupcake skills.
April 14, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Some of them don’t. I just commented on a discussion in the Site Help forum.
April 14, 2011 at 9:54 pm
I joined the team (or applied, rather) by answering their question about what inspires me:
Actually creating my own stuff with my own two hands instead of buying it in bulk from poorly paid artisans in another country and passing it off as my own work. Oh, probably wrong team then. Sorry.
(Also, I posted this below because I didn’t want to have to find this thread again but then I found it so you get to read my awesomeness twice.)
April 14, 2011 at 8:42 pm
I do appreciate that one of her tags is “surreal”. That about sums up the Etsy experience.
April 14, 2011 at 8:54 pm
well i asked to join the team by saying my influiences are people who really make thier own art and not resell cheap crap. i put that in my comment box along with a link to this. lets see how that goes over. I am wiling to get spanked…for my little patch of watercols to get pulled. yea, i am ok with that.
I too like “choad” good word
April 14, 2011 at 8:30 pm
so.. a callout is not like a glitterbsquit ‘holla’ , but a call out is a “hey man your are mean don’t be a meanie”.
but a call-out is saying free tibet and on the flip side is a shout out to an out-ed outseter which is an ironic twisted steampunk hipster.
got it.
Good work to all who stayed with this lame post of mine to the end.
April 14, 2011 at 8:43 pm
My brain hurts; was that the intention?
April 14, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Seriously… can Regretsy readers band together and make like a “RebelEtsy” site…
I am afraid to buy there now because I feel like I have to search every conceivable keyword and description of what I want, to make sure it’s not a reseller or a copycat.
Also after discovering the Etsy Forums for the first time last week, I decided in about 5 seconds that the admins were a bunch of morons. It takes me longer to decide what I want to eat for breakfast. Major props to RuneLeather; I might just buy one of their necklaces, it’s beautiful!
April 14, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Every time shit like this is posted here I feel a bit better about not having an Etsy account.
Seriously, I do not want to be doing business with a bunch of chucklefucks.
April 14, 2011 at 9:32 pm
Thank you Rad Bromance, chucklefucks will be my new word for the week.
April 14, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Reported:
“RESELLER. And maybe you choads could actually do something about it for once?”
I’m a firm believer in the use of the word “choad.” Not that our messages will actually get those lazy cunts to do their jobs.
April 14, 2011 at 11:44 pm
I’m amused by the use of ‘choad’ and ‘lazy cunts’ in the same paragraph.
Also amused that my spellcheck knows what a cunt is, but not a choad.
April 15, 2011 at 9:10 am
The body parts our underwear hides are a veritable treasure trove of insults.
April 14, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Resellers pay etsy to list their shit. Why would they shoot the cash cows? Their blatancy is what cracks me up.
April 14, 2011 at 8:38 pm
I’m about to graduate college finally. I think I’ll write to the Etsy peeps and ask them for a job handling the resellers. They obviously are so plagued with grooming their cats and drinking bad tea that they can’t do it on their own.
Here’s the thing… I’ll fucking do it for FREE. Out of the kindness of my heart. Because I am that nice. I really just can’t stand it anymore.
I’m drafting a letter as we speak.
April 14, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Wooo! DOWN WITH RESALE.
Also props to graduating! (me too! May 13th!)
April 14, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Where the hell is my superlike button.
April 14, 2011 at 8:44 pm
So I honestly think I’ll start using one image per listing to prove that my items are really handmade.
April 14, 2011 at 9:28 pm
One of my favorite sellers does that. It was really cool to see her at work.
April 14, 2011 at 8:58 pm
So, that one thread finally got shut down. I hope someone starts a new one because it’s obvious they didn’t read the last one.
“If you see something in a shop that makes you suspect that the items aren’t handmade, please let us know by reporting the shop using the link on the shop page”
Uh? We’ve tried that and you ignore it. If you actually did something when we report the shop then we wouldn’t have to resort to the forums.
April 14, 2011 at 9:12 pm
April 14, 2011 at 9:14 pm
Sorry I tried to post a photo and it didn’t work.
April 14, 2011 at 9:19 pm
It makes me sick that the seller called herself out but the person who identified her as a reseller is the one who could get in trouble. I reported the shopl
April 14, 2011 at 9:21 pm
There we go.
Mother Etsy likes what you like as long as mother Etsy likes it.
April 14, 2011 at 9:57 pm
This SO should be my new Etsy avi. But I’m already cruisin’ for a mutin’ over there so…
April 16, 2011 at 12:01 am
Hey, now! That’s not fair.
Stalin didn’t let his chicken decide who got sent to the gulag.
April 14, 2011 at 9:42 pm
There is nothing as depressing as listing something you spent hours making, only to see something much shittier and cheaper sold by someone who has clearly made bank on it. If I didn’t have a shop only to give people who have my business cards to go to, I would cry. Resellers can suck it.
April 14, 2011 at 9:48 pm
Even though it’s pointless, I reported her shop.
I said, “This is a reseller and if this is the wrong form to use to report her, then you suck at life.”
April 14, 2011 at 9:52 pm
And I just applied to be on the team to comment on the other post she put up asking for help.
“Actually creating my own stuff with my own two hands instead of buying it in bulk from poorly paid artisans in another country and passing it off as my own work. Oh, probably wrong team then. Sorry.”
I’m probably going to get banned because I’m such a dick.
April 14, 2011 at 9:56 pm
I have to admit, for as much as I love Regretsy, I rarely go browsing around Etsy. But I went over there now to see if finding resellers is really as easy as everyone says. On the first page of what I clicked on, I found both a blatant reseller and someone who seems to be an actual handcrafter who makes gorgeous things that I want. THE ETSY PARADOX.
April 15, 2011 at 12:17 am
Ebay went thru this way back in the day. Their solution was to expand and create Ebay stores for resellers – they make money and the resellers get a storefront with more traffic than they would be able to get otherwise. And Ebay makes it clear they are hosting only and let the buyer beware, etc as always.
Perhaps what Etsy needs to do is add a Retail or “Imports” section with a higher cost for resellers. That way it would be a financial motive for them to move flagged sellers into their pricier tier and leave the handmade arena for the actual artists. Just a thought.
April 15, 2011 at 1:23 am
That’s it, I’m done. Etsy is quite literally the turd of the crop. The power has gone to their heads! And considering how little was in there to begin with, that didn’t take too long.
Anyone know of better websites where I could sell my art? I know Artfire is one, I have an account, but get no hits.
(plz don’t shut me down for self-promotion!1)
April 15, 2011 at 1:57 am
Resellers looking for advice on etsy forums – that’s new (I think). The last time I saw something similar was when a closed down art shop reseller was complaining on wetcanvas to not just anybody but ARTISTS that his shop was closed and he couldn’t see why – http://wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=602152
April 15, 2011 at 4:58 am
I added Runeleather to my favorites. Like that they had the guts to call the reseller/factory out. The reseller is now on vacation.
April 15, 2011 at 5:08 am
This depresses me. It is hard enough competing for business with other talented artists, sellers who have sexy girlfriends to add to their sales photos and those gifted enough to add mustaches and tentacles to everything…we now have to try to be seen through the forest of resellers.
Now Etsy is the bastard lovechild between Michael’s and Walmart.
The fact that Etsy administration isn’t able to combine the focus of making money with maintaining their integrity is hurting their sellers who originally gave Etsy it’s big name.
People just starting out with next to nothing but pennies and some talent…
Where am I supposed to go now?
April 15, 2011 at 6:08 am
“Now Etsy is the bastard lovechild between Michael’s and Walmart.”
That’s gonna be my quote of the day.
April 15, 2011 at 5:09 am
So, I’ve been really tempted to post links to these Regretsy posts on Etsy’s FB. I know they’ll get deleted, but maybe a few people will see them and get pissed. Has anyone tried this?
It’s getting fucking ridiculous.
April 15, 2011 at 5:52 am
and now DorisHandmade is “on vacation”. How nice for her.
April 15, 2011 at 6:06 am
I saw that, too. And still reported the shop.
April 15, 2011 at 6:41 am
That person being mean to her caused so much stress on her system that she had to go on vacation
Poor Doris.
April 15, 2011 at 7:35 am
Etsy system message:
Oh DOOOO you now… heh heh heh…
April 15, 2011 at 7:32 am
We should start a new flagging system to flag Admins who keep posting nasty shit while they lurk in the forums.
Let’s flag every post that continue to put down sellers once and for all!
April 15, 2011 at 8:26 am
Doris must be exhausted from starting promo threads all over Etsy. It’s no wonder she had to take a “vacation”.
Here’s another one she started in the Etc. team:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7361/etc/discuss/6855278/
April 15, 2011 at 9:39 am
Did you see this comment on the thread you linked…
ader
AllegroArts says [tagged a "leader"]
“…saying anything bad about another shop is considered calling out.
so technically, i should close this thread too. i’ll get around to it in a bit.
Posted at 10:32 am, April 14, 2011 EDT”
April 15, 2011 at 9:40 am
then finally closed:
AllegroArts says
“Ok, thats about enough fun for this morning.
Posted at 11:55 am, April 14, 2011 EDT”
April 15, 2011 at 10:14 am
So, I can no longer go on to the Etsy forums, it’s going to be bad for my heart.
So many people getting super angry when people pointing that spending two seconds gluing something to something else is not hand making it. If a two year old can do it then you shouldn’t be considered an artist for it.
April 15, 2011 at 10:18 am
I will probably get myself in trouble with the site. Oh well, at least I’m not lying to people.
April 15, 2011 at 11:08 am
Amen, Sadie-Ann. More people should realize that pretending to like something when you don’t is still lying.
April 18, 2011 at 2:23 pm
too bad 85% of the people who do so think it is so
April 15, 2011 at 10:28 am
I just bought a necklace from RuneLeather, mentioning that I was doing so b/c they spoke out and that Regretsy was to thank. So there.
We change the world one trivial piece of shit at a time.
April 15, 2011 at 11:04 am
Ya I stopped going on forums a while back when I realized most ppl on there were idiots. You have a list of formulaic answers you tell people “Get better lighting, change your tags, blablabla” and that same Mr Oblivious Q + A session gets old after a while.
After art school where critique sessions were harsh and brutal in order for you to eventually succeed, the treatment in forums by admins and others is like treating people like children–completely unprofessional. We can handle calling out, and if you cant: don’t do art.
The only way I get by on Etsy is seeing it as a web-hosting site and that’s it. They give me a mailbox, a place to upload images, a web address, and they cost about as much as a website without designing it myself. Their site design is so pathetic, that I’m thinking of just starting my own website so I get more Google hits. (A year and my shop is still invisible to Google, all my hits and views are from off-site promotion.)
April 15, 2011 at 11:14 am
Um, hello?!?!?!
They’re a social networking site, too.
Oh wait, am I calling you out? Are you going to shut down this thread because of that? lmao
April 15, 2011 at 11:58 am
The “Rules and Regulations” simply say you can’t talk about people or items in a “negative way.” Saying they’re resold from a bulk supplier isn’t even “negative,” it’s an obvious, verifiable fact. What nonsense.
April 15, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Oh damn you all to Hell, Cupcake Brigade.
I’ve had to deal with your homophobe hypocrisy at Scout meetings.
I’ve had to call you out at PTA meetings for your oh-so -subtle racism.
And I don’t even consider myself a fighther of social justice, but you Cupcakes bring out the worst in me.
Please… leave Etsy and hire people with a respect for crafting .
April 15, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Etsy’s so hardcore they don’t play by anyone’s rules. Not even their own.
April 15, 2011 at 7:19 pm
totally going to buy something from RuneLeather right now!
April 16, 2011 at 1:01 am
Helen
Thank you for showing Etsy for what they are. This is so disappointing, but it is better to see the truth. I am seriously considering closing my Etsy store due to their complete ignorance of these matters. I actually make the stuff I sell. I must be one of the few suckers who do.
Stitchybritt