It would be nice if they had the time to approve individual listings before they were posted. Maybe a 1-2 week lead time to approve which might discourage the mass listings of “Mickey Mouse” and other BS infringement listings.
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Agree 100%. But at least it’s something? I mean - honestly the “Buy the whole shop for $15” crap on Etsy is just resized free downloads from museums. But the horse is out of the stable there now, so it’s a done deal.
So far I’ve been very happy - I only have 36 sales (3 so far today), but the value is higher - most are in the $80-180 range which is nice. Definitely a different target market than Amazon.
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would it be possible to have a 3rd party vetting process? you don’t have to have it to sell, it just give you a certain amount of credibility. Like “I am Orca-Rated”. And all that means is that someone has reviewed your stuff and your listing and they deem it up to whatever your standards are. Sort of like Plumbers are licensed or Real Estate agents are licensed, etc. Its not a license, just some vetting process that a seller went through and got the certificate and can now use that on their site.
These sites are seriously getting bad raps now with consumers. They are avoiding them like the plague.
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A 3rd party certification service is always a good racket.
You start it off for free/low cost, then once your logo is a trusted symbol, you hike the annual certification fees and rake it in. Kind of like how NSF or Kosher certification costs a fortune.
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i wasn’t thinking of it as a racket. just something that would make it a bit more obvious who the trusted sellers were.
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It could happen, but the issue is I don’t think there’s enough handmade sellers who will pay high enough annual certification fees to make it worth doing.
As with everything else, it’s about money, so unless there’s money to be made in a certification service there’s really no reason to make one. The certification service does need to do some level of vetting as well to maintain their credibility so there needs to be enough scale and fees to make it worthwhile. I just don’t see people paying hundreds - thousands of dollars every year for an authentic handmade certification.
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I mean…Amazon has made most of us prove we’re handmade with videos and photographs of our process. So it’s not entirely unheard-of? But yeah, I don’t see it happening.
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I don’t even think people really care if what they buy is handmade.
Like even though I complain about non handmade stuff and imports and all etsys issues….im still part of the problem because I’m buying this stuff.
One of my kids is a bit hard to shop for and I found a few gifts for her on Etsy. Which actually now that I think about it is the first time I’ve bought stuff on Etsy that wasn’t supplies lol.
A Bugsnax enamel pin (Bugsnax is a video game )
A magic the gathering T-shirt (this was a print on demand item that had I had free time I probably could have whipped up in photoshop myself but wasn’t worth it to save $3 lololol how are these people even making money 
)
A magic the gathering enamel pin from a company that probably has liscensed it because the pins were being sold at my local game store (for $25 but the original seller was on Etsy selling them for $15)
But yeah 
. I feel confidence in purchasing off Etsy and they did have unique items.
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A real 3rd party service that doesn’t have a conflict of interest of collecting referral fees on mass market goods (though I guess they have a conflict of interest in collecting certification fees) is more likely to only certify people who actually meet the requirements.
Amazon might ask for proof but I can guarantee you a lot of the stuff isn’t actually handmade. It’s not exactly hard to handmake 1 unit and send in a video of you doing it and then get it made in a factory.
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That sounds like copyright infringement
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I think there’s a place on MakerPlace for digital downloads of patterns, how-tos, and tutorials (text-based documents created by the Seller).
My personal opinion regarding artwork and printables is that the work offered digitally should be the original creation of the Seller: their own photo, their own painting print, their own sign or template, etc.
I don’t consider digital prints of AI-created works to be “handmade”…unless we start describing code as “handmade”. And where do 3D printed items fall? 
Original handicrafts and artwork–that’s what I personally think of when I hear “handmade”.
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i think that one of the big draws on Etsy is the unlicensed products. much cheaper than you can get them anywhere else. I graduated from Texas A&M and a few weeks ago I was looking for a painting of something on the A&M campus. I found a watercolor of a building on campus with the A&M logo. This guy’s ETSY store has a watercolor at some iconic location in every city or campus or whatever around the world. Downtown Boston, Chicago, Harvard, etc. Anywhere you wanted almost and he had a water color painting of that location in this big print with that locations name. So I’m looking at this building at A&M and I’m thinking “what building is this?” I know every building. So I message him. He deletes my message and he takes that picture down from his site immediately.
In hindsight I bet every drawing he had was AI generated. They certainly weren’t done by some artist sitting on stool with an easel in downtown Boston, etc.
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OT: My son graduated from A&M in 2021. Gig 'em!
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