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The Fall of the House of Etsy

spy.com

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Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#81

Post by Sabinus »

tensor wrote: post #33
sbierwagen wrote: post #7

This isn't new. The Regretsy blog extensively complained about dropshippers in 2010. The problem is that operating a two sided marketplace connecting small makers to customers just really sucks as a business. Tons of churn, intractable problems with quality and fulfillment, having to pay for a lot of customer service agents who fundamentally can't solve any problems, since they don't actually work for the person who…

Shopify did very well connecting small makers/vendors to customers. Granted, to your point they are now trying to go for big vendors, thinking they can somehow unseat amazon. Probably won't work out well for them either.

Shopify last year gated a lot of customisation functionality behind a 2.5k a month subscription. They certainly are pivoting away from small shops.

Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#82

Post by nytesky »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #77

I'm sad. When I saw "spy.com," I was hoping that Spy Magazine[0] had risen from the ashes. No such luck. :'( [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_(magazine) (It was the only dead-tree magazine that I have ever personally subscribed to).

I had same expectations

Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#83

Post by alright2565 »

derefr wrote: post #28
noodlesUK wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real answer is where they always have: local markets and craft fairs. Most towns and cities have some kind of periodic craft market, which is often related to a farmers and/or food market. They usually have some kind of weird schedule like first Sunday of every month or similar. You can also see if your local arts centre/university/whatever has some kind of market. There's also usually different kinds of conventi…

Why are you so sure that an item being sold at a local craft-market gives you any guarantee of its local origin? The "hobbyist jeweler" standing at the twee little booth in the community center on a Saturday afternoon, could just as well have 1000pc boxes of identical "artisanal" rings and pendants from Alibaba sitting under the table, ready to replenish your purchase. Mind you, you can at least be sure that food ite…

You can have a conversation with the vendor about the product. Ask them about their techniques, and where they source materials! Folks are happy to talk about stuff they're passionate about, and making earrings isn't exactly rocket science with lots of proprietary information.

Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#84

Post by seattle_spring »

noodlesUK wrote: post #11
acheron wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do people actually handmaking stuff sell now?

The real answer is where they always have: local markets and craft fairs. Most towns and cities have some kind of periodic craft market, which is often related to a farmers and/or food market. They usually have some kind of weird schedule like first Sunday of every month or similar. You can also see if your local arts centre/university/whatever has some kind of market. There's also usually different kinds of conventi…

Even those sometimes are just MLM huns and mass-made garbage branded as homemade.

Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#85

Post by bradleyjg »

readyman wrote: post #48
marcinzm wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your desires (and mine) will require a reorganization of society as we know it. So far every attempt to do this has done the exact opposite.

Nonsense. Capitalism was a great success compared with feudalism. It is outright defeatist, senslessly conservative, and frankly anti-scientific to insist there is nothing more to be done merely because it has yet to be realized.

So long as you aren’t proposing things that were tried extensively in the last two hundred years and failed every time.

Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#86

Post by lll-o-lll »

sbierwagen wrote: post #7

This isn't new. The Regretsy blog extensively complained about dropshippers in 2010. The problem is that operating a two sided marketplace connecting small makers to customers just really sucks as a business. Tons of churn, intractable problems with quality and fulfillment, having to pay for a lot of customer service agents who fundamentally can't solve any problems, since they don't actually work for the person who…

Why not go the Uber route. Both the seller and buyer get rated for each interaction. Enforce a little bio about the seller.

Then a small maker can quickly establish a good reputation, and cautious buyers can only buy from such, while more adventurous might take a punt on someone new. The open market needs information to be efficient; it looks like lack of reliable information is the root of this.

Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#87

Post by toast0 »

lll-o-lll wrote: post #86
sbierwagen wrote: post #7

This isn't new. The Regretsy blog extensively complained about dropshippers in 2010. The problem is that operating a two sided marketplace connecting small makers to customers just really sucks as a business. Tons of churn, intractable problems with quality and fulfillment, having to pay for a lot of customer service agents who fundamentally can't solve any problems, since they don't actually work for the person who…

Why not go the Uber route. Both the seller and buyer get rated for each interaction. Enforce a little bio about the seller. Then a small maker can quickly establish a good reputation, and cautious buyers can only buy from such, while more adventurous might take a punt on someone new. The open market needs information to be efficient; it looks like lack of reliable information is the root of this.

And then once you've established a good reputation, you can do some high volume dropshipping.

Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#88

Post by lll-o-lll »

toast0 wrote: post #87
lll-o-lll wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not go the Uber route. Both the seller and buyer get rated for each interaction. Enforce a little bio about the seller. Then a small maker can quickly establish a good reputation, and cautious buyers can only buy from such, while more adventurous might take a punt on someone new. The open market needs information to be efficient; it looks like lack of reliable information is the root of this.

And then once you've established a good reputation, you can do some high volume dropshipping.

Hmmm, perhaps I am too naive to the devious nature of humans.

Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#89

Post by Eisenstein »

UberFly wrote: post #24

The best version of Etsy is long gone. Hand crafted items from their original source just won't satiate IPO investors. There REALLY needs to spring up a (good) Etsy alternative that's content to be what it is and not an exponential growth machine that poisons the roots they originally built on.

Tindie is a good replacement for some things.

Re: The Fall of the House of Etsy

#90

Post by saulpw »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #51
readyman wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not an exponential growth machine This is increasingly impossible under capitalism for fundamental reasons, which are illustrated most clearly in modern financialized capitalism by shareholder interests. Your desires (and mine) will require a reorganization of society as we know it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendency_of_the_rate_of_prof... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_accumulation

> increasingly impossible under capitalism for fundamental reasons Most of capitalism, historically and today, is about preserving capital and making a small return. High-growth ventures are a minority, despite how it feels in tech.

In 1995 the richest person in the world was Bill Gates with $13 billion. Today there are 10 people who each have more than $130 billion (including Bill Gates), and 70 people who have more than $26 billion. Jeff Bezos himself has $200 billion (and this is after the divorce).

Inflation over the past 30 years (since 1995) is 105%--prices have doubled. Global wealth has doubled (inflation-adjusted) too. But these centi-billionaires are a whole new level.

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