Pretty with Ink Invites sells handmade wedding invitations on Etsy.

Callin’ Out on Etsy thinks this Pretty With Ink design is awfully close to Vistaprint’s.

So they put up a post about it.

Then this happened.

Yes, Dances With Vistaprint didn’t care for this feature, and she’s going to do something about it.

LET ME HELP YOU WITH THOSE SIGNATURES

Personally, I don’t think this really fits the definition of handmade. But sadly, the fact that she types your name and address into Vistaprint’s website for you is probably enough for Esty. Have a cup of Earl Grey Area.

If you’re a lying, thieving, lazy ass reseller and you get busted by the internet, there really are only two things you can do:

1. Take down the listings
2. Leave them up because – like Etsy – you don’t give a shit

But the absolute worst course of action would be to involve yourself in the comments. And whatever you do, don’t allow your friends to come to the rescue.

It’s just embarrassing, and it impacts the way customers and potential customers perceive you.

But more importantly, some jackass on another blog is going to see this as content. Then their readers will join in, and it will turn into the worst PR you ever had.

AT LEAST I HOPE SO

- Click here for the whole clusterfuck

UPDATE: Oops.

This is Chad:

This is Chad’s Treasury:

As the CEO of Etsy, Chad is a champion of handmade. He and his content team work tirelessly to ensure that every piece they feature is as unique as the special snowflake that created it.

See?

Etsy’s offices are in Brooklyn, but handmade is everywhere! In fact, we saw thousands of handmade robot necklaces in Times Square this weekend.

$2 each, 3 for $5.

He’s just welcoming his new overlords.

The ones based in Singapore.

When you’re making a necklace out of rope and house paint, it’s time to stop crafting. Either that, or make it a few feet longer and throw one end over the ceiling fan.

For those of you who don’t know about Etsy Treasuries, they are “collections” of objects for sale on Etsy, put together by members with lots of free time. And by that I mean almost everyone, as only about 6 people make any real money on Etsy. And by people, I mean Alibaba.

Etsy members make these treasuries for a variety of reasons, most of them deeply personal and completely uninteresting. But for most people, the object is to get your treasury so much traffic that it catches the attention of the cretins in Etsy’s Brooklyn funhouse, which as you know is located here:

OMG I LAUGHED SO HARD KOMBUCHA CAME OUT OF MY NOSE YOU OWE ME A KEYBOARD

In any case, the people who work at Esty are generally so busy wearing fingerless gloves in the office and pretending to be cold that they don’t have the time to put together treasuries of their own. So the more popular yours gets, the more likely it will wind up on the front page of Etsy, earning you absolutely nothing.

By far my favorite use of the treasury is protest. So I was delighted to see this treasury starting to get some attention this morning:

- Click image to view this treasury on Etsy

That’s a collection of 16 “hand crafters” who are all selling the same shitty, mass produced owl, and claiming it as their own creation. Prices for these fine hand crafts go to as high as $15.00, which is quite a bargain when you consider that the piece itself costs around $2.

I decided to look at the shops that are selling these pieces of crap as handmade, and see what possible defense they maybe using in their listings.

She found it in a magical thrift store, where Owls shit caviar. Seems legit.

Wow! All that, and she still found time to put extra letters in “jewelry!”

Then there’s this guy:

Nothing says “hand made” like photographing a mass-produced owl on a brochure touting the efficiency of your Chinese factory.

In any case, there’s always room for doubt. It’s hard to know who the resellers are, particularly when you don’t give a shit. That’s why Etsy routinely closes store like these. Better safe than sorry!

Because this is an important issue, I wanted to make absolutely sure these owls are handmade. So I decided to visit my very favorite mass crafter, toofashion2010. If she has an owl like this, it’s definitely handmade!

What a surprise. You could have knocked me over with an antique bronze hand hammered feather.

If Anna looks familiar, it’s because we showcased her 5 months ago, when a reader recognized one of her “handcrated pieces” on Modcloth. I showed you 19 of her pieces, and their exact counterpart on Alibaba, where she is clearly buying this shit and reselling it. You dutifully reported and complained.

Sometimes this seems like a thankless job. No matter how many resellers you bust and report, nothing ever really changes. But I’m pleased to report that things have changed quite a bit for Anna since we first reported her.

BUY HANDMADE!