Mattea B.

When you do discover a legit artist, who creates their own wares and is ultimately professional in all their endeveaours, Etsy is truly an amazing craft marketplace. Topnotch service, hassle free sales & purchases, quick & efficient help from Etsy staff should transactions turn sour...

However Etsy lately has been inundated with mass-produced Chinese re-sellers, counterfeits, art thieves, copy-cats, and the cherry on top are the otherwise real artists who will fight tooth & nail to NOT issue you your entitled refund as per Etsy & Paypal's policies. They will drag it out for weeks to escape handing out refunds or replacements should an item not arrive, arrive damaged, or incomplete.

I have had a lot of Etsy sellers start off sweet and friendly, only to become quite hostile, once I have patiently waited for a missing order to arrive after eight weeks. Or if it were not at all what I had purchased.

Etsians have sent me threats, looked up my prior buyer history with other sellers, accuse me of cutting up/damaging my own purchase to receive a petty refund, track me across the internet, and make threats against my own family members, all because I had opened a Paypal and Etsy dispute once refund negotiations had failed. Etsy staff did not take kindly to their illegal activities, suffice to say, but it is an ongoing, growing problem in the Etsy community.

Buyer beware: not all Etsians are calm, professional, and mature. Quite a number are juvenile, have meltdowns if you have any issue with your orders, and threaten you if you do not accept their refusal to send a refund despite their own store's policies, Paypal's, and Etsy's. Thankfully I have resolved these issues with the help of Etsy and Paypal stepping in to shake a fist at the Etsian for violating their ToS.

I've been sending in antiques and vintage items to be appraised for over a year. And been relatively impressed by their valuations.

I have been a serious antique collector for well over a decade. There are no local antique appraisals contacts, so Value My Stuff, a supposedly reputable online business was just the ticket.

You do get what you pay for, having to rely on your own photographs and personal history, taking a risk with an online appraiser, but lately my experience with Value My Stuff leave a lot to be desired. Their service is no longer what it used to be, a quick and trustworthy business. The initial appraisals have been good; matching up with other dealers.

The Express service is a rip off: you will indeed get an answer within 24 hours, but at the cost of a proper valuation. I receive next to no history on the item, a little under a paragraph of glossed over details. Half of it will be direct copy/paste info from a book they have, as believe me you will get the same 'history' every time you submit an item from that era.

The regular 48 Hours service has been suffering lately to the point where it is also becoming a rip off. I have received several quite hostile valuations from these so-called experts, using language and talking in a manner that does not befit adults. What is worse, half the time the valuations are done as quickly as the expert could handle; the certificate is riddled with glarring spelling errors and other typoes like it were written by a person whose first language is not English, and put no effort into proofreading.

Some valuations return half-finished, with missing auction quotes and insurance recommendations, plus with virtually no history on the item. These experts do not give you any help other than what you can find in an eBay community (for free). Recent valuations I had requested have been wholly incorrect and quite disturbing.

I seriously doubt their 'silver expert' was justified in pricing an antique solid sterling silver item of considerable weight, age, and condition at $20. This is not an exaggeration: they quoted me $20USD. Other items quoted at ridiculous, inaccurate quotes ($50 or less) go against second opinions and auction houses elsewhere. What Value My Stuff will quote you $50, another auction house will quote you at $500.

Antique collectors, beware - avoid Value My Stuff. They are thieves and give you false appraisals.