![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elisemThe boycott-that-they-keep-calling-a-strike is scheduled to start tomorrow, April 11, and run through April 18.
This is not something I feel I should do, because I have a previous commitment to be Artist Guest of Honor at Minicon on the 15-17. I am attending virtually, so the access to my work is through my Etsy shop, other than a few special pieces that a friend (Shawna Brown, whose work you may have seen at WisCon) will be displaying for me at her table. My art might get talked about in a panel or two, and Etsy is where people can see a hundred-some examples of it, and it does not seem right to take my work offline with no warning while the convention is happening.
Some of you know my take on this whole Etsy thing, which starts with "But we're customers of Etsy, not employees, so what you're proposing to do is a boycott rather than a strike," takes a ride through "they're increasing sellers fees from 5% to 6.5%, and while yes that is technically a 30% increase, it feels a tad misleading to put it that way" and the neighboring land of "Consignment shops were taking 50% or more last time I checked them out, so it's hard for me to get upset about fees under 7%" and "Etsy is still lower cost than most other online options," and winds up in the hinterlands of grumpiness with me muttering about labor action cosplay. I do in fact agree with "they should live up to the TOS and crack down on resellers" and "the mandatory Offsite Ads program and its 12-15% fees should not be imposed upon us without our consent," and so forth. I encourage people to take what action they feel is right. But if one more person exhorts me "Don't Cross the Picket Line!" about this thing, I am gonna make up some new verses for "Put It On the Ground," so help me Eugene V. Debs and Festus Claudius McKay.
tl;dr My shop will be open this week, including this coming weekend when I am Artist Guest of Honor at Minicon.
P.S. Arrangements have been made to bring purchases to the hotel the next day, if you buy something on Friday or Saturday, so you can pick them up there if you like. Or just have me ship them as usual, if that's better logistically.
P.P.S. There is traditionally a Sunday sale in the convention dealers' room, which I like calling the "Please Don't Make Me Pack This and Carry It Back Home" Sale. While that particular reason isn't in play for a virtual appearance, I'll probably do some kind of Sunday sale just for nostalgia's sake and because it's fun. You know how I get.
This is not something I feel I should do, because I have a previous commitment to be Artist Guest of Honor at Minicon on the 15-17. I am attending virtually, so the access to my work is through my Etsy shop, other than a few special pieces that a friend (Shawna Brown, whose work you may have seen at WisCon) will be displaying for me at her table. My art might get talked about in a panel or two, and Etsy is where people can see a hundred-some examples of it, and it does not seem right to take my work offline with no warning while the convention is happening.
Some of you know my take on this whole Etsy thing, which starts with "But we're customers of Etsy, not employees, so what you're proposing to do is a boycott rather than a strike," takes a ride through "they're increasing sellers fees from 5% to 6.5%, and while yes that is technically a 30% increase, it feels a tad misleading to put it that way" and the neighboring land of "Consignment shops were taking 50% or more last time I checked them out, so it's hard for me to get upset about fees under 7%" and "Etsy is still lower cost than most other online options," and winds up in the hinterlands of grumpiness with me muttering about labor action cosplay. I do in fact agree with "they should live up to the TOS and crack down on resellers" and "the mandatory Offsite Ads program and its 12-15% fees should not be imposed upon us without our consent," and so forth. I encourage people to take what action they feel is right. But if one more person exhorts me "Don't Cross the Picket Line!" about this thing, I am gonna make up some new verses for "Put It On the Ground," so help me Eugene V. Debs and Festus Claudius McKay.
tl;dr My shop will be open this week, including this coming weekend when I am Artist Guest of Honor at Minicon.
P.S. Arrangements have been made to bring purchases to the hotel the next day, if you buy something on Friday or Saturday, so you can pick them up there if you like. Or just have me ship them as usual, if that's better logistically.
P.P.S. There is traditionally a Sunday sale in the convention dealers' room, which I like calling the "Please Don't Make Me Pack This and Carry It Back Home" Sale. While that particular reason isn't in play for a virtual appearance, I'll probably do some kind of Sunday sale just for nostalgia's sake and because it's fun. You know how I get.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 04:16 pm (UTC)I think a lot of people on Twitter in particular, are missing that point.
You obviously fall under the heading of 'if you are able to' and are, obviously unable to. *A lot* of small handmade artisans cannot, even for a day.
Honestly, I doubt Etsy will even notice. They only way they notice anything, is when sellers actively *leave immediately*. And a lot of people can't afford to shut down completely and start over elsewhere, they have to do it gradually, if they can afford to do so at all.
You're not customers, per se, of Etsy, you're defacto employees, in the sense they provide a service you pay for, yes, but without the sellers, they wouldn't exist. That's the same for any large company- without the employees, companies wouldn't last long. Etsy also likes you use sellers as test subjects too, when they roll out new changes. So I guess you could say that's what you are as well. :P
That whole consignment shop thing is stupid, very apples and oranges. Consignment shops don't force you into free shipping, don't force you to keep a star rating at 5 stars or you fall in search rankings, consignment shops don't ban your shop if you report some other shop for copyright infringement of your items, consignment shops don't force you into mandatory advertising that you pay for.
They won't crack down on resellers because that's where they make the big money. That's why they allowed them back in 2015/2016, why they started silencing people who made too much of a fuss about it and why I left when it became obvious they were pushing resellers more over actual handmade. (I still support several sellers who cannot leave there, by going directly to their shops, by passing the front page, search, etc. Less clicks for Etsy as a whole.)
At any rate, I hope you have many, many sales and have to carry nothing but your profits back with you, come Sunday.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 06:32 pm (UTC)Without customers, companies wouldn't last long.
I am a customer of Etsy's display services, shopping cart services, payment brokerage services and the other things that come bundled with that. I am not an employee of Etsy. Both the NLRB and the IRS are pretty sure of that. :)
If a person is looking at closing their shop on Etsy and finding other alternatives, local consignment shops are absolutely one of the options to consider. Before there was an Etsy, and before there was an Internet as we know it today, consignment was one of the few avenues open to us if we wanted to start a craft/art business. (I've been doing this since 1998.) I did also look at other options on line, including having a Squarespace shop for a year. (It fell short for me in multiple ways that Etsy does not, cost being only one of them.)
You get a pass on the word "stupid" for the moment. Go in peace.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 06:42 pm (UTC)Etsy is still not the same as consignment shops, that comparison is still apples and oranges. Like you, been selling handmade since 1995- it was my actual first option after getting out of the Marines, by selling my handmade items at local craft shows, etc, before the advent of online shops. They are, however, a good option where you don't have to worry about the overhead, shipping fees, etc- they do all that. But they don't also try to make you pay for advertising you didn't agree to, free shipping, have to have a 5 star rating, etc. You just need to have a good working relationship, essentially.
Squarespace never really did me any good either. :/ In fact, out of all of them I tried over the years (Etsy, Big Cartel, Artfire, Square, 1000Markets, Shopify, even Zibbet), only Etsy, Big Cartel and 1000Markets worked well for me, and then of course, 1000Markets was sold to Bonanza and went belly up, Artfire became a trashfire and apparently shut down last Dec, Zibbet is... well, less said the better.
I know people who have and can make some of those places work for them, which is awesome for them, but they didn't for me.
Anyway, I digress.
Hope you have an excellent event!
no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 06:54 pm (UTC)And also thank you for taking the call out well. That means a lot.
(Also, I'm thinking of trying an experiment and asking my customers about dropping the free shipping so that I can drop my prices back down by the amounts it took to absorb the shipping costs. Since most people looking for me are looking for me specifically, I'm not sure that being less favored in generic searches will even matter for my shop.)
no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 07:16 pm (UTC)I *prefer* to be called out when I screw up. I can't correct things if it's not pointed out when I mess up, you know?
Is this your first in person con since the pandemic started? If so, extra stress is understandable. I think you'll do great, regardless. Your stuff is amazing after all.
Yeah, if customers who know you do like I do, and go straight to your shop, by passing the front page and search altogether, then being lower in search rankings isn't going to matter. But, it's a catch 22 of sorts, if you have a number of word of mouth sales or random searches, *then* it might matter in the long run, being higher in the search rankings.
Always something to think about and explore options of, isn't there? Keeps us on our toes, I guess. Heh.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 07:32 pm (UTC)We are entirely on the same page with that. Yes indeed!
Minicon is an in-person convention but not for me; I have a ridiculous amount of silly body shenanigans to deal with. Even if I were low-risk enough to go back -- which I'm not; it's comorbidity city over here -- I got smacked with a Crohn's flare which started a couple of weeks ago, so that particular autoimmune stuff would have sent me virtual anyhow. They're doing video stuff so I can do panels and workshops and so forth, and I'm arranging for some of my things to be there in person even if I cannot be, but the bulk of "oh, look at this one" is happening through Etsy rather than on a dealers' room table or in an art show.
I'll keep you posted if I do my experiment. Sometime after Minicon. :) And yep, it's always something new to look at. Whee!
no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 07:36 pm (UTC)Ugh, Crohn's. I have a few (other)friends who deal with it, it's no fun at the best of times.
Definitely keep us updated on the shipping experiment, it'll be interesting to see what results you get.