apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Just FTR, while the stuff at this shop is pretty, the recent trend of opening little "vintage knick-knack" shops on Etsy kind of irritates me.

Etsy is supposed to be for handmade goods, and supplies with which you could make handmade goods. A great outlet already exists for selling stuff you find in garage sales and thrift stores: ebay.

I feel that people are opening inappropriate shops on Etsy because Etsy A) is prettier in terms of page design, when compared to an eBay store B) is the trendy place to sell online lately, if you want a hipster/"design-conscious" audience C) is something less of a jungle than ebay. You can't have a precious little shop full of "carefully curated" objects -- the un-prettiness of eBay and the way items appear in the listings mean that you'll never be able to develop a cohesive feel for your shop.

But that doesn't mean that you should be misusing Etsy as a substitute.

(Those aren't sarcastic quotes, by the way. I'm trying to express a style of presentation... there is nothing about ebay that would make your online resale biz feel "carefully curated," but people starting Etsy shops are apparently aware that there's no way they could hack it as a stand-alone e-commerce site, even if they set up their own Paypal cart buttons. How do you get the people to come?)

Or maybe I'm just bitter about Etsy in general, because I registered for a specific name on Etsy in the first few weeks, which was somehow given to someone else a year later. (That someone has pretty much now leeched up my entire online identity, but that's another story. It's not a case of identity theft so much as a case of someone not bothering to google to see if someone else was already using a specific name. Meh.)

It seems, Miranda, as though you have a personal vendetta against Etsy, which lead you to use somewhat inflammatory words like "misuse" and "inappropriate" in describing vintage sellers on Etsy. If it is a practice that Etsy has come to embrace, there is no "misuse" or unethical activity of any kind going on here. It is merely not what you were used to or expected out of Etsy, which I know can be hard.

To imply that Etsy vintage sellers are purposfully usurping Etsy's role in promoting a handmade-centric commerce alternative is laughable as they are simply doing the same as everyone else on Etsy, trying to make a living or suplemental income by doing what they love.

Part of an eco-conscious, handmade lifestyle is purchasing pre-owned items instead of buying them from Wal-Mart or Target. And why wouldn't those trying to be a part of this culture by selling their wares, handmade or otherwise, use the best-looking site available to them? You have clearly outlined the very good reasons people choose to use Etsy to sell vintage items and it is part of Etsy's policy to allow these sellers. It seems "misuse" is less the issue than "sour grapes."

This is, btw, coming from someone who's full-time job is making and selling handmade items.