Etsy Observations

[voxwoman]

So I've had an active Etsy store for a couple of weeks and I've been getting active on the Etsy forums and doing some other Etsy-related things, like joining a couple of "street teams" which are groups of sellers banding together for mutual support and marketing. And these are my observations:

1. There is a fair amount of drama there, maybe not more than any other unmoderated community, but I've been around a lot of civil people of late, so it's a bit jarring. But I'm glad I discovered the regions of snark and scammers (not necessarily related) so I can tread these waters with awareness.
2. Regresty is funny, and the other etsy call out place is interesting.
3. It seems that "resellers" are starting to populate Etsy (which is against the Terms of Use for the site), and are not being policed as strenuously as some Etsyzens would like. These people have decided that it's a plot by Etsy to make money, and they also think it demeans the whole place and "brings it down"
4. Regardless of #3, it's still a much better deal than eBay - only 20 cents to list an item and a small percentage of the sale price paid after an item is sold. Plus you get to set the price of your items. I suppose #3 can become problematical if you are counting on the "freshness" of an item posting to make a sale. I am not.
5. I haven't quite figured out how one gets to be "popular" on that site yet, but I'm not really worried about it, as I don't plan to make Etsy my sole source of income.
6. it seems to me that Etsy is only one marketing tool and a convenient storefront for selling hand made items (or vintage items or craft supplies), and that if you are planning to make money from your arts or crafts, you need other ways to raise awareness of your existence. I'd rather send people to my online quilt store (which has Etsy hooks), and generate publicity/traffic that way.
7. Oh, and the "Alchemy" feature seems to be another "marketplace" where buyers are attempting to take horrible advantage of people, offering pittances for people to make their invitations or design logos. I keep seeing requests for  mockups with bids, and similar stuff. It makes me want to smack people.