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Things are looking up, here at the Etsy Bitch Homestead. We're just gettin' unpacked, but you're welcome to join us.
Come on in and set a spell. We'll talk about the ways that Etsy has seriously screwed up its initial brilliant concept. We can spin tales of the Wild Forums, where only the strong survive. We can reminisce about bannings, shop closures, badly implemented new features, and a complete lack of focus on basic ecommerce. Share your favourite stories of Admin Gone Wild. Have a drink. You may need one.
But most of all, we're fixin' to remember the folks who get shafted every day in EtsyLand -- the buyers and sellers.
Come on in! We've got a pot of coffee on, someone's made a fresh batch of organic sour prune muffins and we're all ready for visitors. Heck, we can even promise that this won't show up as a video on the Storque.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Another day, another bitch.
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8 Comments:
Let me sit and stew on this one.. So many topics to choose from..
HA! Not a stoque video! Ha!
*Gets her couch, popcorn & pop ready*
This is my new favorite blog :)
bookmarked and ready read on a daily basis...
Well, EB, even better than 2 dozen cupcakes in my book.
While my list about what Etsy has wrought on the handmade community is too long for anything but a 3-part book, I do ask the sellers focus on what Etsy has done to PRICING and QUALITY for handmade over the last 4 years.
1. Etsy is now party-hearty about their huge increase in SALES in Nov. 08, but remember sellers, the average selling price on Etsy (for several months) is $15 AND UNDER.
Now, do a quick calc. in your head about how many sellers that EXCLUDES on a monthly basis.
2. Quality. Etsy works like this finely honed viscious circle: Etsy picks a "trend", promotes it to overkill, the Labs run 100 workshops on how to make it, some sellers start making it, Etsy gets flooded with the very same products, price-cutting and price slashing starts and that very product decreases significantly in value.
3. Sellers "buy into" this trend circle by not only making the stuff, they then make Treasuries full of it AND FULL OF ALL OTHER TRENDY ETSY ITEMS to assure that they get picked for all the Etsy-owned promos (all 100% of them) thus making the site look like ONLY ETSY TRENDS ARE FOR SALE FOR $15 AND UNDER.
And sellers continue to make the Etsy trend items because they want to be in the 100% Etsy-controlled promos all over the site.
Which is just what the site looks like today. One big massive store for products that Etsy has decided meet "their" definition of handmade (and for $15 and under)>
Etsy is NOT a site for all things handmade. It is a site for Etsy-annointed trendy maybe handmade products that are underpriced, of questionable quality, and excludes ANY handmade products that are priced above $15.
And that's just what Etsy will continue to be as long as the current employees control 150% of the site. Sellers have no input, and never will.
Instead of being the sum of its parts, Etsy truly is an Etsy-personal-juried site that has severely damaged pricing, quality, and the reputation of a very creative and proud artisan & handmade community.
It's not a matter of "love it or leave it"---------once you change the perception of handmade to mean what ETSY SAYS IT IS, you change the intrinsic value of handmade for everyone.
Great blog! Right on! I usually dislike blogs (or any websites) about complaining-- but I love your take on complaining for a CAUSE (change)!
Funny, well-written, insightful and good information. I'm so glad there was a place I could go and feel like I wasn't crazy based on the things I was noticing at Etsy.
Thanks for the good work.
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