Recently, though, Etsy's been plagued with "resellers"--people who buy factory-produced items and sell them as their own, handmade creations. Many resellers are large-scale importers, and their items can also be found in non-handmade venues like Ebay. For example, here are the results of a search for "pocketwatch" in the handmade category. Clearly, most of those watches (over 10, 000!) aren't handmade, or vintage. Etsy Terms of Sale DO allow for altered items--meaning that if you buy a factory pocket watch and incorporate it into a necklace you assemble yourself, that item is allowed. But it's pretty obvious that over 90% of pocket watches on Etsy are straight-up factory produced items. Look at this one. The same item is available from multiple sellers on Ebay.
Many of the genuine crafters and vintage sellers on Etsy have been very frustrated by this. Etsy has a flagging system in place, where you can report factory made or non-vintage items, but often nothing is done about flagged items or shops. And yet, Etsy aggressively promotes itself as a "handmade marketplace", and enjoys considerable brand cachet derived from this image.
On April 20th, 2012, Etsy published a "Featured Seller" article about a furniture shop called Ecologica Malibu. It drew attention for being suspiciously light on actual technical info, and heavy on Etsy-riffic copy like "I always felt that there was magic in the trees and a mysterious energy in the ocean." The article seemed to imply that Mariana Schechter, the owner, actually hand-built the items by herself. However, the next day, satirical site Regretsy published compelling evidence that Schechter was, in fact, importing the furniture from Bali. In large amounts. The same furniture is available at Overstock.com, and also at http://allfromboats.com/. Comments on the article exploded, with many Etsy users calling for the feature to be removed, and the Ecologica shop closed. Regretsy's evidence included photographs of Balinese carpenters building the furniture in Indonesia, and shipping records marked "furniture" and signed by Mariana Schechter. Clearly, this shop was in violation of Etsy's stated mission.
Instead, Etsy leapt to Ecologica's defense. An Etsy moderator deleted all comments, and Etsy rewrote the article, "clarifying" that Ecologica was a "collective", and adding the names of Schechter's employees, who were not mentioned in any way in the original. Multiple Etsy members started forum threads about the issue, only to have them summarily deleted within hours. Customers who had purchased supposedly handmade, one-of-a-kind items from Ecologica began leaving negative feedback. Schechter left them negative feedback in return. Etsy deleted the negatives from the Ecologica page, while allowing her retaliatory feedback to stand. Considering that Etsy has summarily closed small shops for a single factory-made item, this consideration struck many Etsy users as profoundly unfair.
Many longtime Etsy sellers have been left feeling betrayed. Etsy promotes itself as a paradise for small-scale businesses, and the many independent crafters on Etsy help to maintain that image. They also pay listing and sales fees, which helped Etsy earn 314 million dollars in 2010 alone. Etsy can't be expected to catch every single instance of reselling, but their ongoing refusal to close Ecologica's shop is a clear violation of Etsy's stated principles and public image.
Many Etsy shop owners are organizing temporary boycotts--a 1-day shop closure on May 1st, another on the 3rd, and another on the 10th. You can show your support by not shopping on Etsy on those days.
Feel free to reproduce this article! However please give credit to me, Aurelea River. I believe I've provided links to all of the sources I used in writing this post--please let me know if something is uncited!
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