You definitely still can find real people making cool handmade stuff, but yeah there is a fair amount of just bot-posts reselling cheap wares.
You need to be somewhat tech-savvy (at least in terms of distinguishing automated accounts from humans, which might be more of a social skill) and knowledgeable about whichever craft you seek to purchase, though. And Etsy as a platform has gotten pretty bad for small-scale creators, demanding more of them (such as encouraging them to offer “free” shipping at their own cost) and offering less support.
The Artisan’s Coop is building itself right now. Only time will tell how successful it will be, but they’re taking their time to try to build a useful and real cooperative.
Sometimes it’s possible to contact people via their social media accounts and figure out a way to make the transaction happen without a middleman, but I imagine that’s not all vendors. I’m not aware of any alternative platforms to Etsy at the moment, sadly.
You definitely still can find real people making cool handmade stuff, but yeah there is a fair amount of just bot-posts reselling cheap wares.
You need to be somewhat tech-savvy (at least in terms of distinguishing automated accounts from humans, which might be more of a social skill) and knowledgeable about whichever craft you seek to purchase, though. And Etsy as a platform has gotten pretty bad for small-scale creators, demanding more of them (such as encouraging them to offer “free” shipping at their own cost) and offering less support.
Is there any alternative?
The Artisan’s Coop is building itself right now. Only time will tell how successful it will be, but they’re taking their time to try to build a useful and real cooperative.
I heard of indiemade but idk how good it still is and how long until they too enshittify…
Sometimes it’s possible to contact people via their social media accounts and figure out a way to make the transaction happen without a middleman, but I imagine that’s not all vendors. I’m not aware of any alternative platforms to Etsy at the moment, sadly.