Ginette C.

I was thrilled when ETSY came along. I am a fine artist, oil and watercolor paintings. But after a few years I got tired about the lack of support for fine art. Even when I list a painting there is no style specific to fine art, like Impressionism, Drawings, line art, etc. styles that pertain to fine art. I can't recall ever seeing the front page promoting original paintings. ETSY became a place much like EBAY huge and a Goliath of rules to wade through. From what I have read from other sellers that were removed, there seems to be an arbitrary removal of sellers over Handmade rules. I see people list nothing but images from Society6, an on demand maker of pillows, bed spreads shower curtains etc. These seller list these items as handmade even using the pictures off Society6. Yet they are made in a factory and basically drop shipped. I stopped listing much of my original art since ETSY simply is not a good place for fine art oil paintings. My average start price for an original is $300+ The exposure and love I get from ETSY is dismal. ETSY is best for under $ 100.00 stuff. If you are a serious artist listing on ETSY is not the way to go especially since the literately hold your lifelyhood in their hands and can drop you without any due processes and without any explanation much like EBAY did. I now have my own online presence, my own domain and a storefront created with shopify and I control my SEO. I have sold some originals already. Now when I spend advertising dollars I promote my art, my web site. Not ETSY. I occasionally I list an original and make it for a limited time only, then it gets moved to my website. ETSY isn't doing anything for me as a traditional fine artist. All my buyers had been happy, and many signed up with ETSY just to purchase one of my paintings or two. ETSY started out as a great idea of uniqueness and handmade and has morphed in to the New EBAY, where true artisans have to compete with lots of junk and mass manufactured items, claimed to be handmade and the high end spenders/consumers don't look at ETSY.

As far as a buyers I can say that I sometimes buy soap or clothing on ETSY and my experience has been positive. It does take time to investigate the sellers and make sure you're not being mislead.