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Comment by rightbyte | Hacker News Reader

I got this feeling most Etsy sellers nowadays are fronts for actual sweatshops or stuff sold on Alibaba.

They killed the site to hunt metrics.

Absolutely. Esty is a shell of its "handmade goods" pitch that put them on the map.

The legit boutique sellers still exist but they are buried in a sea of mass produced, private label junk you could find on Amazon or eBay.

I went on to see if I could find a hand knit toddler sweater.

Sure can! Easily.

I just see the same ones on Amazon by OXIIK brand. I had, some grandmother in Canada in mind.

Just wondering as someone who sells handmade things on etsy, Ive noticed my sales dipping the last 6 months. is there any websites you recommend to buy/sell handmade things?

Make your own using wix, etc. Advertise on social media

tried that but the content creation side of that was taking way too long and etsy has a larger flow of people just browsing

And that's why it's flooded with product.

You can have ai do that for you now.

Check out journalist.ai, etc.

Discovery is still a problem.

It's generally more fragmented now, but specifically for handmade goods there's https://goimagine.com/ (5% transaction fee non-inclusive of payment processing + monthly subscription of $2.50-$10 for sellers, application required)

There's no other handmade marketplace with nearly the same buyer reach. I've been on GoImagine, MakerPlace, etc for months and they literally generate zero sales against Etsy's hundreds in the same time.

I've seen local flyers for https://artisans.coop/, but haven't got any metrics or anecdotes for 'em

What's your craft? I like artfinder.com, though it's mostly paint on canvas. There's occasional sculpture, collage, and photography.

I've given up on trying to find such goods on the web, to be honest. Instead, I've gone back to the old-fashioned method of hitting up craft fairs and the like in person.

I guess it depends on what you're looking for. I've seen some of what you're talking about, but most of the type of stuff I'm looking for still has a good handmade selection.

I've learned that I can't reliably tell which sellers are real and which are just resellers.

This is my problem as well. I try to use context clues from pictures and reviews but often I can only find out once the product is delivered and in my hands.

Totally, the original founder was literally in tears as he left

They ruined the culture and ecosystem, it's just ebay/amazon/aliexpress now

It's important to remember this the next time you're excited for a new tech company.

Remember it about anything you’re excited by. The pursuit of the almighty dollar dilutes and ruins everything over time.

Its human nature.

There are a few exceptions. Some are covered in the book "small giants". It's great.

Ebay itself has gotten notably worse with the rise of the drop ship, arbitrage, get rich quick idiots.

Now I actively avoid sellers with too many sales and never buy anything that looks like it has a stock image for the listing.

I get extra annoyed when I buy something on eBay and the "seller" just ordered the thing from Amazon and had them ship it to me.

I don't buy things from Amazon for a reason, and it's incredibly annoying to have been forced to do business with them anyway, even indirectly.

Well at least you are trying.

I heard people are saying 3d printed when it's injection molded plastics as if 3d printed is artisan.

It can be difficult to tell what is drop shipped and what is still being handmade. I'm much more hesitant to use it than I was years ago.

My city had a lot of Etsy marketplace events and I'll pretty much only buy online from people who I've seen in person at one of those events. Even then, some tables are a little... suspect. I also follow a bunch I like on Instagram and see regular updates of what they're doing which gives a lot more trust. Kinda sad it takes all that these days. Side note about the market places: After the last one I went to, one of the creators posted about how they sold around $900 but the table cost $500. Looking back at how some tables were being passed over by everyone, or selling low-value items, it's brutal. I really wonder how many broke even. It must be a sea of crushed dreams out there.

> Even then, some tables are a little... suspect.

In what way? I mean if you got good enough tools it can be made Ikea straight, right?

In a "the vendor is selling the same rings/earrings fixtures as another vendor I've seen before" way. Specifically, I've seen amber jewelry imported from Poland sold by multiple vendors.

Ah I thought you meant the literal tables. It is probably easier to do a factory perfect table than earring.

If it's difficult to tell, does it really matter?

It's difficult to tell when browsing. It's fairly obvious when the goods arrive.

If the appeal to shopping on Etsy is (like it is for me) that you're buying handmade goods from the individuals who make them (and paying a premium to do so), then yes -- it matters a ton.

Usually, when you buy things that are drop shipped they are also marked up a ridiculous amount.

I don't find it at all difficult to tell which are legit. If you can't tell and want to be sure, then message the seller and ask questions.

Some are but many are still legit sellers. We’ve sold on there and were handmade items. Their algorithm is very unpredictable so it was hard to rely on Etsy as a source of revenue

It sounds like you shouldn't rely on Etsy to drive traffic to your store.

Definitely, it is unpredictable if you are relying on that income. If it’s a side business it’s probably ok

Does anyone know of any good alternatives which actually focuses on personally-crafted goods and actually bans imported manufactured junk?

You'd have to work really hard to vet, and then continue to re-vet, your sellers in order to keep the crap out. There's just too much potential for profit in abusing the system, managing to sell your $1.50 sweatshop knit hats for $40.

You'd want to start off with carefully-selected invites to specific sellers, and then maybe do a referral-based system to bring on additional sellers. Video calls and photo ID for verification. Reporting systems if buyers get mass-produced junk.

Sounds like it would take quite a bit of human effort and care so I can't imagine it getting funded :)

That's exactly why I stopped using Etsy.

Counterpoint: Etsy still has a lot of products that are just different than what you get when you search on Amazon or AliExpress or Walmart.

Example: search for toilet paper holders. You'll find stuff like a railroad spike, animal sculptures, pipes with valves...they are far more creative, weird, and eclectic than a typical Amazon search.

Hot take: Etsy's customer doesn't actually want something handmade, what they want is something that's thinking "outside the box" of normal home goods. They want a marketplace of unique ideas.

Whatever Etsy has done is working: https://www.statista.com/statistics/409371/etsy-annual-reven...

"If you want something truly made by an individual artist one-by-one you are going to eventually have a hard time affording whatever that item is."

Yes! Especially an artist in a rich country. You're paying for the artist's time, and in rich countries that's very expensive.

On Etsy I found some great wood art from a Chinese artist, priced at a few hundred dollars.

I do like Etsy for household knick-knacks like napkin holders or nightlights or photo frames. I can go on Amazon and get some random made-in-China junk, or go on Etsy and with a little digging find something a bit more interesting at, say, $50. That's probably ten times what some Amazon dreck would cost but I can splurge on a napkin holder or photo frame.

I wouldn't mind an assembly-line hand-painted painting. I like the texture of hand-painted things instead of a print.

Yup. I still occasionally buy stuff there, but I now do a lot more diligence on who the seller is and what they're offering so I know what to expect.

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