Friday, July 12, 2013

I Thought the Rules Were Obvious?? The Etsy Reseller Issue

Lately I've seen many Etsy re-sellers defending themselves by saying they didn't know that they couldn't sell on Etsy

How is it possible to open a shop and list, and not know that you cannot sell something that isn't handmade, vintage, or supplies?

When you make a listing, There are 3 questions to answer at the beginning of each listing:
*Who made it? Possible answers are:
 - I did
- A member of my shop
- Another company or person

*What is it? Possible answers are:
- A finished product
- A supply or tool to make things

*And the last question is When was it made? and it gives you different date ranges.

If you answer that an item was made by another company or person, you can only list in vintage or supplies. if you also answer that the item is a finished item, then the form will only allow the vintage category to be picked, and if you pick a date that is 1994 or newer, then this pops up in red

"Oh dear, you cannot sell this item on Etsy. Learn about what you can sell on Etsy.
Etsy is a marketplace for items handmade by you, crafting supplies, and vintage goods."

I can see the confusion in things like plain t shirts, onsies, bibs, and whatnot that are used very, very often for crafting, and even sold in the crafting aisles- and items that the person listing thought was vintage.

I can even see some confusion on the collectives issue- as it pertains to when a factory is selling direct through etsy.

 But I don't see how anyone can be confused with something like a bracelet, watch, other jewelry, dresses, and other obviously new obviously non supply items that they purchase and do nothing to.

Is there something I'm missing? The way I see it, you'd have to just plain lie.

And that's why so many legitimate sellers on Etsy are so quick to get angry. because there are lots of places where people who make their living buying and selling new non supply stuff can sell without lying, and they are lying when they sell on Etsy.

3 comments:

  1. For me, I'll get so angry when I see wholesale / resell items from Taobao appear in Etsy and claim that they are handmade or vintage!
    Especially those jade pendants with fancy carved on it! I was like "come on! i see those everyday in tons of local shops!"
    There're some people will wonder or doubt how we know those are resell items, but it's like, if you pay attention to local shops or mall... you know what i mean? XD

    To report a shop or an item, we can't (or shouldn't) just report it, we should need to prove our doubts to admins, it's much better with the same item's links (like 1 from Etsy and 1 from Taobao with the same item)
    but are there anyone who have these much of free time to report WITH details?
    and not to mention if Etsy admins really do check (or have enough admins to check) all those shops that we report.

    i think it's better for Etsy to open one more category call "Resell" (if they don't want to give up all those money that resell shops bring to them), so that they can separate from real handmades!

    so that's my angry point toward resellers, sorry if i'm off topic LOL

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  2. you have to wonder WHY they don't clamp down on it more and stop them fast as they open up.... and lack of manpower isn't an excuse :(

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    ReplyDelete