Why Buy Handmade? It's Way Too Expensive!

I have seen many forum posts on etsy with questions about PRICES. Yep, Oh yes I did! I said the P word. LOL. Now before you grimace and immediately jump to another page just hear me out. If you visit the etsy forums at all you have seen these same posts. You know the ones I am talking about. The ever popular ones asking how to determine prices for your items and then the ones that discuss comments like " I can get that same thing at xxx for half that price" or the terribly uncomfortable debates between shop x who is upset because shop y is "underselling real artists who are trying to run a business" (someone elses' words not mine). Well, for some reason this topic has been stuck in my head lately. I'm not sure why, maybe its the low views or non-existent sales but something about them has been kinda bothering me. So I decided to blog about it.

Now, don't change the channel just yet. This isn't going to be a big poor me pity rant or anything like it. Rather, I decided to do a little compare and contrast, completely unscientific, research. I am not even going to address the how do I price my items question because I can't tell you how to do that. You have to figure that out for yourself. And I won't go near the shop x and shop y debate with a ten foot pole. Nope, no way. What I do want to talk to you about is the " I can get the same thing at xxx for half the price" kind of comments.

As a handmade artist (I use that term very loosely in my case), comments like these really hurt my feelings. First of all, they are completely false. You may be able to find a similar item but I guarantee you it is not the same thing. The items that you see at xxx are made by a large company with many employees who are often working in substandard conditions. Also, they are often made in a cookie cutter way meaning every one is exactly alike without any personalization or unique character. Whereas with my items and with many of the artists items on etsy each item is made with a great deal of thought and design time invested. Each one is unique in some way simply because the human body cannot reproduce the same exact item over and over again, it just isn't possible. I can make 100 bead links and will never make a single one that is exactly like another no matter how hard I try IF I am truly doing everything by hand.