Bizz Buzz - A Little Bird Told Me

I've been hearing a lot about how unhappy Etsy sellers are about resellers on their site. I think that it's bad enough that Etsy promotes shops that blatantly break rules like this recent Star Wars Pez Dispenser find in Etsy Dudes (check the "vintage" dates).  It's bad enough that Etsy is kicking off honest hardworking crafters and leaving on resellers, but to add insult to injury, they've been promoting a lot of the resellers, like their featured seller EcologicaMalibu You can read more about who this seller really is in The Etsy Featured Reseller: Ecologica Malibu at Regretsy

I've been reading a lot of posts and blogs about this and it seems that everyone is upset, because they think the resellers are misrepresenting what they are selling as "handmade". After working with and in Chinese, Mexican and Filipino factories for several year, I can guarantee that most of the merchandise is hand made, not machine made. Humans are far cheaper to use than machines in those countries. So are you buying handmade? Even the   reclaimed wood furniture is, I'm sure, made by hand.

I think the point is that Etsy should be a place for self representing artists who also make their own craft of their own design. There are too many blatant abuses of this term to post here. And honestly, Etsy should be ashamed of promoting and featuring resellers, when there are so many wonderfully talented artists who have never been promoted.

So here is what a little twitter bird told me. I heard that there will be a silent protest against Etsy on May 10th. If you would like to learn more and join in on the silence, check out http://www.protesty.com and join the protest. I'm all about the protesting and radical behavior and stuff like that. But I bet you know that about me. I'd be doing this too if I hadn't already been quietly removed from Etsy late one Friday night (you know what I'm talking about).