In the beginning, Etsy was an online shop where you could find genuinely handmade items. Many of them were one-of-a-kind.

My husband and I still make one-of-a-kind jewelry items by hand. He does often work in a series, but each item in the series is still made by hand and is still unique.

Bernd has made a number of iterations of this design.

These days, it seems that what the consumer wants is more mainstream. It seems they want something they saw a celebrity wearing or something they saw an online influencer touting. They want to look like everyone else.

This has led to more and more mass produced jewelry being offered on Etsy. I’m not a good judge of what is handmade, or not, in other areas. But I can spot a pendant made in India without any trouble. Or something stamped out or cast.

Yes, someone in India probably did make it by hand. But I’ve seen those production lines where one worker completes one part and hands it on to another worker who completes another part, etc.

I don’t know what it was like to list jewelry for sale on Etsy when Etsy first began, but now there is a section in your listings for establishing core details of each item. They offer categories to choose from. The buyer does not see these core details:

1. First you decide if it is a physical or digital item and who made it (I DID, A MEMBER OF MY SHOP, or ANOTHER COMPANY OR PERSON)
2. Then, is it A FINISHED PRODUCT or A SUPPLY OR TOOL TO MAKES THINGS
3. When was it made comes next. There are groups of years to choose from. Anything from 2006 and older is considered vintage.
4. Then you choose how it’s made:  IT’S MADE FROM SCRATCH, IT’S ASSEMBLED FROM PURCHASED PARTS (ex.:  A necklace chain with jewelry charms attached or a denim jacket with patches sewn on), IT’S AN ITEM THAT MY SHOP ALTERS, IT’S A CURATED SET OF PURCHASED GOODS, IT’S A NATURAL MATERIAL.
5. Then you describe the tools you used to make the item:  HANDHELD OR HAND GUIDED TOOLS, COMPUTERIZED TOOLS OR MACHINES, AN AI GENERATOR, or NONE, I DON’T USE TOOLS.

It’s not really a sour grapes thing. I’m just trying to figure out why sales in our Etsy shop are so slow. I think it’s because our stuff is unique. It doesn’t look like every other mass produced thing out there. Some of our creations are fairly eclectic or what you might call statement jewelry. Definitely not run of the mill. Definitely all made by hand.

Currently available at jewelrybysyzygy.etsy.com Look in the Necklaces section.

Right there in the very first part of the core details it’s obvious that Etsy allows people to list for sale things they did not make … things other people made and were likely mas produced.

I know why this is so. I understand the need to compete. Etsy makes a point of telling buyers that these are small shops run by individual people. And at the most basic level, that’s probably still true. But it isn’t the whole truth.

Shoot, maybe it is a little bit of the sour grapes thing.

We’ll give it a year and then see where we want to go from there. It doesn’t really cost a lot to list items on Etsy. It’s only $.20 per item. Where Etsy makes its money is in the multiple fees it charges when a sale is made. But each listing is only for four months and then you have to renew (or not).

If you only have a few items in your shop, it’s not a big deal. But we have closer to two hundred than to one hundred items and the renewals on the first items listed will start soon.

Our hope is that there still are buyers out there who want something unique and genuinely handmade by a person they can communicate with.

The question is, are there enough of that kind of person to actually earn us some money in our retirement? I guess we will find out.

Things change all the time. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes not. I have a tendency to want something I perceive to be good to remain the same. Forever. On the other hand, I want things that are not favorable to change. Right now.

And maybe the Etsy of today is what’s best for right now. Maybe it will turn out to be what’s best for our shop too. Time will tell.

Top image courtesy of Etsy. Quote courtesy of Kayse Morris. I wonder how true this quote might be.