From the Auxillary Desk

I have an Etsy bitch. Today I learned through a customer that Etsy has disabled my account. I have not received one word of notification as to why my account has become deactivated. I have no non-delivery disputes that are open. Nothing. I emailed Etsy only to find out that my account was deactivated because of my affiliation (meaning she helped me set up my store) with another Etsy member who had a personal falling out with Etsy. Now, what right does Etsy have to terminate my account privileges without my knowledge because I had gotten help from a family friend who no longer has a relationship with Etsy?

Sadly, we are seeing this more and more.

They seem to be shutting down sellers with a history of asking questions and not offering reasons why they were shut down with a uninformative form letter, if anything. Every week we hear of another one. Voices that called out for Etsy to straighten up and behave like a company and not a clique of vengeful children are vanishing faster and faster. Now they are dipping into the "friends of our enemies" level to close down.

Shade Jewelry is gone now after a unreasonable buyer organized against him, Etsy went to far as to even delete his "Quit your day job" feature. Verybigjen was shut down last month, and she still has no idea why it was done last we heard. Are they trying to polish the turd for investors by cutting off dissenters and try to repair their quickly tarnishing image with reviewers and the press? We don't know.

If they wanted to repair any damage done to their name they could start by oh... fixing all those bugs, making improvements, getting an actual customer service team and phone numbers and be proactive by listening to and giving sellers tools that other competitors now excel at and not being forward and communicating all the recent site issues (remember those sincere sounding promises to communicate better? We knew it wouldn't stick for even a week). They could, but they won't. This is Etsy. We've screaming till we are blue in the face for over a year now, and they are dead set in thier arrogant ways.

Hell at this point we'd be pretty happy with them just not being asshats for a couple days. But we know that won't happen either.


(If you've been shut down without cause, reason or explaination - write and tell us! Provide the address of your new store and we'll link you in a future story listing all the recent closures.)

Tickle us pink, we were right

Remember how we were afraid that Etsy was "branding" the wrong image - remember how we always call them hipsters and people laugh. Remember the shit some of you gave us for it.* Well, guess what?! We were right!

Last week, New York Magazine did a shop local feature with their fave items from Etsy, which, in the writer's own words, is about what exactly?

When Etsy, the Brooklyn-based online marketplace for all things handcrafted, launched in 2005, it sounded like another small-time, doomed-for-failure venture trying to capitalize on homespun hipsterism. Why not just sell and buy stuff on eBay, like the rest of the world? And who wants to buy other people’s crocheted pot holders, anyway? Hah. By 2008, Etsy’s sales had reached $87.5 million. And to its 2.1 million registered users, Etsy is much more than a virtual warehouse. Etsians, as regular buyers and sellers call themselves, want to live in a handmade world, from the clothes they wear to the forest-life stencils on their walls.

The Etsy lifestyle has a recognizable aesthetic, which looks remarkably like that of skinny-jeans-wearing, Slow Food–eating, bike-commuting hipsters. The site has pushed this aesthetic global; its vendors represent 150 countries.

Wow...way to ignore the majority of sellers who don't fit that aesthetic! What about all the metalsmiths and artists with years of experience and/or training? What about the potters who actually know how to make stoneware? What about the non-hipsters (which is just about everyone but admin)? Now granted, other NY hipsters like NY hipster ware - so NY mag was appealing to its own demographic. But this Etsy brand is out there - it's public knowledge - it's in stone.

This branding should piss off everyone who sells at Etsy because this makes Etsy it's own brand, attempting to attract only a certain type of buyer - they don't know who their sellers' audience or clients are. All they know is what they like - it's a fucking juried site! Only those they promote are going to benefit from being on Etsy.

My advice, and do take this as you will, but I would jump ship faster than rats when they set a cat loose. If you're going to be bringing in all your buyers anyway, might as well do it somewhere cheaper - say a free shop like ecrater or blujay, or on a handmade site like Artfire where a free shop is possible - or an outright juried site like 1000markets - there are lots of alternatives that haven't yet branded themselves into a corner!

When we told Etsy to advertise, it was to use their trademarked tagline (which is misused in the NYMag article btw) not to brand themselves. As a venue, their brand should be broad - instead they narrowed it down to themselves and their taste, 20-something delusion with a whiff of arrogance.


*Many of our regular readers did get it, but there were some doubters, some cupcakes, and some denialists - so to them: how's Etsy been with the vaseline? cause you have been taking it whether you realized it or not

Oh Noes! One less thing to bitch about!

In the dark of night Etsy made.. gasp... a professional improvement!

NO MORE BRICK WALLS! - I think I need some tea and a lie down from the shock.

Any suggestions what we'll call this screen when the next seller is shut down unfairly?
I'm suggesting "snow blindness".

ADDITION: Oh wait, spoke too soon, one of our commentors found this gem.
So much for newly attempted professionalism.