Wescott Jewelry

So, how about the good news first?

As of right now, everything in my Etsy shop is 20% off. This includes finished jewelry and patterns and you don’t need a coupon code for it at all – the discount will be automatically applied. Please enjoy!

The sale will end on April 11th because I will be participating in the Etsy Seller’s Strike. My shop will be closed from April 11th until the 18th in solidarity with the strike. My patterns and finished jewelry will not be available during that week.

So, why the strike?

Mostly, because I ain’t no scab.

But seriously, if you want a more eloquent explanation, Mashable has a pretty good article here that ends with a bunch of testimonials from Etsy sellers and this petition has a fantastic breakdown of changes that sellers would like to see. It’s specific and accurately reflects my feelings and I would love if you would sign it.

For me personally, my exasperation with Etsy has been steadily building over the last few years, but the recent straw that broke the camel’s back was an announcement that they were going to hike our transaction fee from 5% to 6.5% in the same email that they bragged about their record breaking profits. In 2020, they more than doubled their gross marketplace sales. In 2021, they kept those pandemic sales gains and broke their 2020 record by $3.2 billion dollars. To then turn around and raise our fees by 30% when they are already making us offer free shipping and paying for mandatory offsite ads is honestly insulting.

I really want to believe in Etsy as a marketplace. I’ve made over 15,000 sales since I opened my shop in 2013 and my experiences have largely been good. But the fees are getting ridiculous (.20 per listing plus 6.5% transaction fee plus %12 advertising fee that I can’t opt out of). I don’t like being punished for not being Amazon with a timer counting down when a customer messages me or being punished for four star reviews. I want to be able to reach out to Etsy and talk to a human representative, not an AI chat robot that runs me in circles. I want the resellers and non-handmade items actually policed and removed from the marketplace. I want the choice to opt out of Etsy’s offsite ad program. Basically, I want Etsy the way it was five years ago before it went public and started putting lining shareholder’s pockets above creating the space for small creators and artists it claims to care about.

I really don’t want to move off of Etsy like so many of my friends have. Pattern sales in particular flourish in a marketplace setup. But I’m tired of feeling powerless and bullied by a mega-corporation that claims to be supporting me. So I will be participating in the strike and when it ends on the 18th and nothing changes, I will probably be raising my prices. Between that and my expectiation that Etsy will surpress my listings after being in vacation mode for a week, I am suspecting that this is going to be a bit of a lean month. So, please, enjoy the sale while it’s going! And if you can, avoid shopping on Etsy from April 11th to 18th. We really want them to see that their marketplace is nothing without the creators and artists who have been making them money this entire time.