April 2022

 Happy Easter!

Can you believer we're already halfway through April? I can't, we still have several feet of snow, and the rain continues to be fluffy. Sunny, warm days will soon be here I hope!

The Etsy Strike!

You may have noticed that many Etsy shops went on strike from April 11-18th, after much consideration I too opted to close down my shop for the week. There were several factors behind the strike

• Transaction fees went from 5% to 6.5% (this fee is also applied to postage) (In 2018 the transaction fee was 3.5%)
• Star Seller program (requires a monthly sales quota, minimum sales amount, tracked postage, 5 star reviews and a response to all messages (including messages that you receive about items you've purchased) within 24hrs.
• Auto-reply messages that don't work, meaning a seller has no down time and has to answer messages 7 day a week.
• Lack of customer service for sellers
• Resellers peddling mass-produced items that are described as handmade.
• Having to offer free shipping to rank higher in search results.
• Forced ads for those with sales over $10,000 with a fee of 12%

So if you were a seller on Etsy in 2018, you were paying a total of 6.5% of your sales for transaction and processing fees now it's  9.5% plus 12-15% if you opt in for ads (opting in is not an option for sellers who make more that $10,000).

Etsy claims that they need the extra money from the sellers to pay for additional customer service, marketing and to remove the resellers, even though they made billions during the pandemic and these are issues that Etsy has had long before the pandemic. Time will tell if it's really to help sellers, personally I doubt it. Just more greed to line shareholders pockets.

Happy News! 

I may have splurged a little this month and added three new girls to my collection, two Paola Reinas and a limited edition Northern Lights by Ruby Red Fashion Friends. 

I purchased Northern Lights from the retailer Samantha's Dolls. She is a dealer exclusive doll limited to 300 dolls. She has reddish red hair and gorgeous blue eyes. She comes with a toque and baby blue parka that are both trimmed with faux fur. She also has a white sweater with blue highlights and matching blue winter pants. Her faux fur boots will keep her toasty warm while she plays outside in the snow.

Both of the Paola Reina Las Amigas dolls I purchased on Etsy from   Paolka Store. This time I choose two dolls with articulated bodies, Christi (redhead) and Carol (a brunette). They will be coming from Poland and should be here in a couple of weeks :)

What's the newest doll(s) you've purchased?  What made you choose that doll?