1:12 Scale English Breakfast by Fairchildart
Etsy is one of my favorite sites and I love the idea of site that helps independent artists and crafters promote their products. I love that there is a site that can help me connect with people who make things tailored to my particular interests: dollhouses, miniatures, steampunk, cosplay, ren faires, fantasy, and overall geekery.
However, there has been a disturbing trend of more and more resellers showing up on Etsy. And more importantly, the staff at Etsy seem to be doing nothing about it. A breeze through Regretsy’s Compare and Save can give you an idea of what I’m talking about. And most recently, the issue came to the forefront when a featured seller Ecologica Malibu was revealed to be a potential reseller.
Look I have no problem with mass produced stuff—my miniatures are full of them. But I don’t like being lied to. I don’t like being told that something is handmade when its not. I don’t like being told my money is going to support some hard working artisans when really its just lining the pockets of someone who did nothing more but order some cheap stuff from overseas and mark it up because its now “handmade”.
I don’t have an Etsy store, but I can get the word out about this. Please reblog and please let Etsy know that either they need to stay true to their “handmade” ethics or they need to change their policies so that their users know that they might be buying from resellers.
