The Handmade Dream

Etsy's dream of a handmade site is becoming more like a resellers paradise everyday!

I have lost count as to how many items I personally have flagged, some have been removed, others not. I will say I was really upset about a listing awhile back, actually made me sick to see it listed on Etsy, it took Etsy a couple of days but it was removed, for that I'm thankful.

Some people say it shouldn't be our job to flag items that don't belong on Etsy, some say if we don't Etsy will become another Ebay. According to a Storque article Etsy only has 3 on staff who monitor flagged items coming in. Well I hate to tell them they really need a whole heck of a lot more, but then why should they as long as they have members doing the job for them.

Do you believe Etsy members should be the ones doing the flagging or should Etsy step up to the plate and hire more staff to do the job?

Romeo Snoozing!

Need I say more!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly(Resellers)!

Have you checked out these websites about Etsy.com?

The Good:
http://etsysangels.blogspot.com/2008/06/welcome.html
The Bad:
http://etsybitch.blogspot.com/
The Ugly(Resellers):
http://flaggyetsy.blogspot.com/

Which one is your favorite?

I have to say even though I have only one complaint about Etsy, (taking forever to get rid of the shops that just don't belong or leaving ones that guarantee they made them themselves even though there is prove they didn't), I love reading Etsybitch! I also keep an eye on FlaggyEtsy too. Just in the past 2 days, in a matter of minutes, I have found 4 resellers, so if I can do it, why can't Etsy admin?

We aren't selling right now (due to my medical problems and husband's job). I have a lot of free time on my hands and am a big time lurker on the forums, sometimes I post but not often like some do. I have come to love the feature Pounce, have found so many new sellers/no sales sellers that I have added to my favorites and hope to some day purchase from them. My point of this is that I am always on Etsy looking around and I guess that is how I find all the resellers, now if Etsy would just hire somebody to do that, we the community wouldn't have to do all the flagging just to get frustrated when they aren't removed!

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Mule Races

Every year my daughter and I go to the mule races, mother/daughter tradition. This year there weren't as many mules as there usually is. I have yet to bet on them, maybe I'll get brave enough next year! They are very fun to watch, high spirited animals.

Streak the Cat

This is "Streak"
Loves to take a nap on top of the cupboards.
He's a shy cat, surprised me that I was able to get this photo of him.
He walks very softly, almost like prancing.
He loves for my husband to rub his feet, a nightly ritual!
He is about 4 and in that time I have only heard him meow once.
When sleeping on the couch, he has to be completely covered up with a blanket!

Getting rid of the original header border

When you put your own banner in your header of your blog, depending on the template you are using, the original header borders still show up behind your banner. Most people don't remove them and so their blog header to me, looks weird. So to correct that, here's how atleast on the Minima template I am using. Go to your template html, always back it up before changing. Look for this code:

#header-wrapper {
width:800px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:0px solid $bordercolor; }

#header-inner {
background-position: center;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;}

#header {
margin: 1px;
border: 0px dotted $bordercolor;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;

I have already changed mine to 0px, yours will probably have a 1px, just change it to 0px.

Supplies & Vintage on Etsy

I decided to check to see how many pages of items each category on Etsy contained. This was done on April 19th. These are the top 10.

1. Jewelry-21,531
2. Art-9132
3. Supplies-8028
4. Accessories-4626
5. Children-4215
6. Paper Goods-3728
7. Bags & Purses-2942
8. Vintage-2675
9. Clothing-2432
10. Housewares-1902

As you can see Supplies is 3rd and Vintage is 8th. A lot of people wonder why supplies and vintage are even on Etsy and some are beginning to think because they are allowed they are taking over Etsy. From what I can see jewelry is doing a good job of that!

On another note, since supplies seem to be doing so good, shops that sell handmade are opening supply shops because that is what is selling. So what happens when that many more shops figure this out and do the same? I had made a comment to support that since our handmade items weren't selling maybe we should get on the bandwagon and start a supply shop!

Admin say they have something in the works in order to define how supplies and vintage will be managed on the site but it won't be implemented until the end of the year sometime.

I read the forums a lot and see all the different viewpoints on the subject. I am not sure of the exact number of members but I do know that most do not frequent the forums and that most do not state their opinion on them if they do. So who truly knows how the rest of the members feel on this subject.

So the question is, is Etsy the right place for supplies/vintage or should they just be handmade period? Should Etsy continue allowing supplies so that people that live in small towns or people looking for unique supplies/vintage items can do all their shopping in one place? Should Etsy leave them be, due to the fact they are making money off of them?

My feelings on this are if you are going to keep them on Etsy, limit what is a supply. Now some might say to a crafter/artist everything is a supply! That might be true, yet I have saw items that are marked supply/commercial that can't actually be used in the making of an item, so I
believe they should not be allowed.

I mainly focused on supplies as I believe that they are the items that are discussed the most.

Please leave a comment on your feelings about this subject. I moderate my comments but will publish all viewpoints!