From: Rachel
Subject: Buy Handmade
Date: October 11, 2011 10:52:06 AM PDT
To: Helen@regretsy.com

I was on Etsy a few nights ago, looking for elephant themed jewelry. I saw this on the first page of my search:

I instantly recognized it as being something that ModCloth also sells.

I reported the item to Etsy, giving them the ModCloth link, in order to show that it couldn’t have been handmade.

That was over a week ago. Today, it turned up in the search again. What gives? I wondered.

Then I saw it. “toofashion2010″ has nearly 6,000 sales. Oh.

BUY HANDMADE!

Dear Rachel,

Thanks for sending us your find.

True, toofashion2010 appears to be a reseller, and yes, they have now made over 6,000 sales, which is a lot of money for the Etsy coffers. And granted, this is the same seller who recently closed down her Ebay store, where she had sold over 6,000 pieces of the same jewelry.

But I think you’re missing two very important pieces of information.

First, the seller makes everything by hand:

And secondly, Etsy takes all complaints about resellers “on a case by case basis.” Maybe you just didn’t give them enough cases.

So here are nineteen more cases from the same shop for Etsy to look into, as soon as they stop gloating on PBS that they are a handmade marketplace, and not a fucking cesspool of three dollar shit, hawked on the backs of actual artists trying to sell their work there.

Hope deal with you again, have a good time!

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Oh, I know what you’re saying.

Whatever, whiney pants.

You don’t hear Handcrafts2Door complaining, do you? No you don’t, because their little collective is too busy hand sewing to bitch and moan about “unfair competition”, “factory wholesalers”, “sweatshop labor” and all the other sad little excuses you fat, lazy fuckers keep handing out instead of working.

Turn off Dr. Phil and let’s get going. You work hard enough, you might just see your work on a wholesale website. Then you can quit your day job and move to Brooklyn, where you can drink whiskey on your bicycle and listen to ukelele music.

CC: CHAD DICKAROUND

- Submitted by Robin

Let’s face it, Etsy is hard work.

Between setting up sock puppet accounts to heart your store and trying not to get muted in the forums, who has the time to make stuff?

Meet Vaughanseller, an Etsy seller who just set up shop two days ago. She’s got a fantastic time-saving method for getting things done. In fact, she’s already got seven things in her store! What’s her secret?

JUST STEAL SHIT

That’s right, just take whatever you want. Take the picture, the copy, the whole thing. Now you’re free to smoke pot and watch Dr. Phil. Talk about quitting your day job!

Okay, so you didn’t make the piece yourself. Hell, maybe you don’t even know how to make it! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The important thing is, you’ve got Paypal!

Vaughanseller:

Noveena on Artfire:

And by the way, copying and pasting is hard work. So make sure you give yourself a nice little mark-up.

Oops! Left the watermark in. Hope Francesca Lynn won’t mind!

Enough bracelets. A good store steals necklaces, too!

From Jada Jewels on Artfire:

One word of caution – make sure you take out the original artist’s name first.

See you on the front page!

Etsy promotes only a handful of very special sellers on their front page. Everything they promote is carefully vetted and returns no concerns, so you can shop with confidence!

Let’s look at yesterday’s hand made favorites!

What an awesome pocket watch! That must have taken forever to make. No wonder it sold so fast!

Don’t worry if you missed it. She has more.

And if she’s sold out, try these guys.

Of course, you may not be in the market for several hundred handmade mass produced pocket watches. So if you’re only looking for one at a time, try this seller.

He may not have that exact handmade model, but he’s sure to have something equally unique!

Or you could just do a keyword search. With thousands of handmade pocket watches, you’ll probably find something.