I was an early adopter of Etsy.com - I signed up and started selling in 2006. (They used to list when you became a seller, I noticed it's no longer in shop headers.) I loved everything about it.
I remember when we could do trades with other artisans. Can you even imagine that now? I'll send you this if you're willing to send me that! It's true! Good ol' days for sure.
We would all vie for a front page spot, a guarantee of a big shop boost. We would promote other artists' pages and curate our favorites in lists called Treasuries that had a chance of landing on the front page wholesale with our name featured. Good! Ole! Days!
Look at this ancient piece of internet history: A screenshot of my very first front page feature (my necklace is the bottom row, middle image)
I've seen the website evolve and grow, in many ways beneficial but in a few ways I didn't agree with. But I kept saying 'that's the price of using someone else's service.' The ease of Etsy kept me around. The community I built during my years growing my business and creating art for people kept me going with my Etsy shop.
It was so easy early on when Etsy was a little website with a collection of makers. Now it's a publicly traded company. It only looks out for its shareholders. No matter how much they say they appreciate their sellers, they keep raising fees and cutting their services, which certainly doesn't make me feel very appreciated.
I'm tired of seeing all my money go towards paying Etsy fees and not into my own bank account where I can spend it on other goods from Etsy sellers. I want to support my community as well as sell in it, and right now, how Etsy is structured, I CAN NOT. It's not right to continually raise my prices when I feel like they are set to where my consumer is comfortable paying them. Etsy constantly raising their fees only makes me alienate my customers and puts ME out of business. With record profits off so many others' work, including mine, Etsy should have enough to thrive. Taking Etsy public was the biggest mistake. Etsy no longer works for their makers. It works for shareholders. What a waste. To see small sellers and artists driven out of what was supposed to be a space just for them -- US! -- is infuriating and heartbreaking. The cost to do business on Etsy has more than doubled in the last few years, and that is just the basic level fees.
To read more about the strike, specifics about why it was organized, and how sellers would like Etsy to respond please visit https://etsystrike.org/
I support the Etsy strike; I support all creatives; I support my maker community. I've told Etsy my thoughts and hopefully they'll hear me. If not, hopefully they'll hear our collective concerns and make necessary changes.
Thank you to everyone who supports me, shops with me, shares my work. You make my world go round and I will keep making things to make you happy!
If you have a moment, please consider signing the petition set up: https://etsystrike.org/help-us/