Research shows many “handmade” products on Etsy found to be fake

and on sale at B&M stores for quarter of the price as was shown on bbc rip off Britain

True, but there are also some very lovely - and genuinely handmade products - on there too. You've just got to be careful (as you should when buying anything online). I've had some lovely personalised things made specially from Etsy sellers.

I have found the same. I liked some cushion covers and they were priced at £45 each on Etsy as I needed 3 I thought no. I scrolled through Amazon and found the same covers for £5 each.
In a way, Etsy is doing a disservice to some sellers who are genuine. I know of one such their name was passed to me by a friend who knew the person. They no longer appear to sell on Etsy.
I have been bought a necklace from Etsy and found the same one on "Not on the High Street", for half the price.

Etsy hasn't been totally handmade for years. I used to sell my handmade items there but I don't do it any longer.

I looked at the jewellery on Etsy and some of it looks machine made .

Etsy has been in the news for years for selling non-handmade, non-vintage stuff. BBC Watchdog did a piece on it over a year ago.

This link is to a discussion piece following the BBC Watchdog review
www.ecommercebytes.com/2022/02/16/bbc-watchdog-exposes-mass-produced-items-on-etsy/

I remember, pre-Etsy, buying a "handmade" poppy brooch on eBay, "in aid of" the official poppy appeal. Around £9.99, maybe.
I later found them on sale in local markets for £2.99. Boo.

Same as craft fayres. I used to enjoy seeing what people had made by hand but seldom visit them now. A lot of stuff is just “assembled” rather than handmade. I am thinking about jewellery like earrings especially.

It's a real shame, because as I said, I've had a few really nice personalised handmade things from Etsy before. In particular, I've got a beautiful handmade glass rainbow bridge which has some of my dog's ashes fused into the glass. I've also had some lovely personalised photo frames made, which I've given as gifts when friends have had babies.

Do you have to register for Etsy?

Yes I think sometimes Hand-Made should read as Assembled-by-hand

ell - if you buy from etsy or eBay there is a chance that the product will not be 100% handmade, if at all. It is not even safe to buy from single sellers, since they have been known to cheat. Not even "this is a one-off" is a guarantee. And a back-search means nothing, because the design may be copied. There are foolproof ways of getting a unique thing - and one of them is to hand over a few beads to the maker, nd ask for them to be incorporated into thee design, or design something yourself and get it done. I am saying this because I make jewellery for fund-raising, i.e. I earn nothing from it, and so I have no agenda.

I’m an Etsy seller and I can tell you it drives us nuts. There are copyright infringements and selling of stuff that is defo not handmade or vintage. You can report these sellers but Etsy doesn’t seem to care. I’m guessing it’s about the money. I’m very disheartened as a seller but I just keep trying with my handmade jewellery. Each piece individual .

I agree that "hand made" should be just that, not bought in.
I found that craft fair organisers would allow sellers who made a silver setting using mass produced gemstones but would not allow hand cut stone in mass produced silver settings.
I make my own cushion covers and use purchased fabric and zips but decorate them with antique lace made by a family member. How would that work, percentage wise?

Out of interest what is the dividing line between hand made and machine made? Are you allowed to use a sewing machine? A riveter? Etc. a knitting machine but made to a personal pattern? This is a big subject of discussion in the small tool industry in which we work, so interested in others points of view.

I wrote a long post on Etsy but is seems to have disappeared. I used to sell antiques and vintage there but closed my shop about 4 years ago. I disagreed with many of their policies.

The posters who state that there are some very talented handmade sellers there are correct. However Etsy does not apply their policies fairly or consistently. Some shops are allowed to go on selling obvious fakes because they generate huge revenue for the platform. Others who sell genuine handmade are targeted by competitors and snitches and driven off. A quick visit to google will reveal many stories of this.

Communication with Etsy staff is poor and they are often rude and patronising. I returned to selling on Ebay because I had some very negative experiences on Etsy.

I have been selling online since the late '90s and would not recommend this platform to any vintage of handmade vendor.

I was buying from craft fairs, nice individual things that you don’t see in the mass produced shops, I bought a beautiful necklace from a lady for my daughters birthday it broke first time she put it on I rang the lady and she redid it
I bought myself a rose quartz pendant from a craft centre again first time I wore it the gem came off the chain i rang them and they changed it (or redid it)for me, all was good, a few weeks later I went to take the necklace off and only had the chain on me, the stone had again come off.
So that’s it I won’t try again

If you buy something from Etsy that you suspect is not as advertised you can always pay to return it if it's in original packaging and unworn.or unused.

I bought some hand made things on Etsy from America, never again as the tax and associated costs were more than the items original price. I tried an enquiry via the HMRC forms and the reply took so long (took weeks and was irrelevant) that the items disappeared from the system, presumably were returned to sender, and I lost my money.

Primrose53, I think maybe you should try a curated craft show which checks out the stallholders before they are offered a place.

I have sold items at such fairs and haven't seen anything that wasn't hand-made.

You may find people have hand-made several of something (eg, a weaver or knitter making a few of the same scarf or a costume jewellery maker who makes several bracelets the same.

Goldsmiths Fair, Lustre, London Craft Week venues and the Great Northern Contemporary spring to mind.

There is a similar British site called Folksy which has a stronger control on whether stuff is handmade.
blog.folksy.com/2022/11/21/buy-less-buy-better-buy-handmade-campaign
blog.folksy.com/sell-on-folksy
folksy.com/local-shops

Etsy sellers are victims of the same market forces that drive industrialisation everywhere. Making stuff by hand is quite hard and more importantly takes time; it takes an hour(-ish) to make and bake a cake at home, but a factory can turn out many thousands in the same time. Think about how long it should take to handmade the object you like and then multiply by £20 per hour; if you're not paying at least that then either the maker is working as a slave (possibly voluntarily if they're self employed but I'm not even comfortable with that) or the thing has been made in a factory.

I have an ETSY site and very unhappy that others are allowed to sell mass produced items. What keeps me on there is the fact that the shop front is easy to administer and payments are safely collected. Buyers have to be discerning. I may have a look at Folksy as someone has suggested.

Handmade is an absolute minefield. I ran a 'Homecrafters Fair' for 4 years, but had so many issues with copyright infringement, bulk bought items etc. One lady claimed an item was homemade as she folded fabric scarfs, massed produced in China, and put it in a plastic bag! I was even known for forcing people to disassemble their stalls and leave before opening.

Eventually I had wonderful makers, but ended up with the same people month after month...so not so interesting for repeat visitors. Sadly this was why we ceased after 4 years - our visitor numbers dropped to 70-80 a month. As someone said 'they'd seen it before' but finding enough genuine makers within my allowed distance was just impossible I still miss the wonderful people I did find though x