Ten Thousand Dollar Baby

 Yesterday I read the latest Bytes newsletter. In this newsletter was some enlightening information about Etsy. Glad I caught it before I hit the threshold. I had been excited to refresh items in my shop and keep selling, but this took the wind right out of my sails.

Last year during the pandemic, I left one singular thing languishing in my shop. Suddenly I got an e-mail saying it had sold. 

When I went to pack it I was informed that the sale came through "offsite ads". 

When I originally listed the plates, LONG before they sold, the shipping had been around $16.95, so that was what was charged. They actually cost about $22 to ship. That alone sucked, but then I found out that I had been opted into "offsite ads". I wound up with about $19 on an order the buyer paid $58 for. Thankfully I got the plates for like what worked out to about a $1 at an auction, however, I was pissed about it and opted out immediately.

Now, in aforementioned newsletter there were a few sellers discussing the offsite ads. I see now that once you reach $10K in a 365 day span - you're opted in - permanently. I had assumed once you opted out, you were out. Not so fast, sucker - there's always a fucking bottomless pit of despair for you to fall into when it comes to online selling platforms.

I have been selling left and right, hand over fist at Etsy, no free shipping, no offsite ads, I've been going great guns. Hell, I'm already around $3K. This royally sucks because now, when I reach around $9K I'm going to have to deactivate everything in my shop until the year passes, to avoid that buttsucking ridiculous fee.

I'm really disappointed because I thought I finally had my main escape chute from eBay. Fair prices paid, people actually pay, less entitled assholes, less fees. But 30% in fees ain't happening - ever. I pride myself on offering shit for a decent price, and I cannot do that when I've gotta tack on at least 25% extra to try and offset fees. You KNOW that each and every larger sale after you're opted in is going to be from offsite ads, even if it isn't. *eyeroll*.

I feel like Etsy is retarding its own growth by implementing this. For each shop that keeps chugging with that fee added on, there are several more like me that are like "Well, we're at $9500, time to quit for a few months". If enough people are doing that, there goes your "extra" fees. You won't even be getting the 10% . Lesson being, take the damned 10% and be happy, word will get around like it had been before this that Etsy is a better place to sell. So much for that with a mandate hanging over people's heads.  

These platforms get greedy, then start mandating shit, and one cannot help to think about how this must backfire on them. They make so much still, that they don't even notice. But they could stop the bleeding if they'd just stop mandating shit and fuck off. 

Happy sellers spread word-of-mouth news and gain you more sellers - unhappy ones are even louder. This is one case where what eBay did makes sense - don't force the offsite ads (IE promoted listings), offer them. 

Dumb fucks like the people from the cheerleader board will actually pay for that shit voluntarily. I wouldn't, but they would. 

We see how well mandating shit is going in this country...take a life lesson, Etsy, eBay - let people do shit their way and they'll be more happy and productive, but if we feel like we're toiling under the wheel, we'll rebel and it will winding up costing you and your shareholders money when people bail to greener pastures.

There's Poshmark, Mercari, Facebook Marketplace, Vinted, Instagram, Twitter, Personal websites, even stupid nearly useless Bonanza...brick and mortar is starting to uptick again because of USPS prices. You guys aren't the only place to go anymore - keep pissing us all off. Fuck around and find out.