Well, after over a decade, and thousands of and thousands of dollars invested in our business... We might be done with Etsy. Their choice, not ours!
Our very first sale was May 5, 2012. It was pretty great up to the last 2 or 3 years. But we have noticed that gradually over the last 3 or 4 years that they started banning anything related to guns. Sure, you can still buy a holster there. But I doubt that will stick. We started out making leather cuffs, gun belts and holsters. We have outstanding customers and an outstanding reputation on Etsy. We have literally had only 3 returns in 12+ years across all platforms! Well and 1 person that we couldn't end up working things out with. Other than a handful of customers that ordered the wrong size of something, everything had been amazing.
But then all of the sudden right about 2 years ago... We started having listings pulled down... bogusly... claims that our knife sheaths were switchblade knives and other nonsense. We never did get any answers from Etsy. In fact that is one of the biggest headaches with Etsy, and Amazon!!! They won't get back to you. Support is a joke. Once you finally get to someone that will take a look at your situation things go pretty well... but that can take 5 to 10 days! While your listing is pulled down and you're losing sales. It always seems to happen around busy times like the holidays or hunting season. Go figure. Their bots are a joke and so is their support who just keep sending you the same canned responses over and over... Here's information on why this could have happened... It's bogus! Look at my messages and items and you can tell I'm not selling a freaking weapon!!! Their appeals processes are the same. A joke! And with Etsy you can't even get a phone number to talk to someone!
Our current go around with them is because we make and sell leather buttstock covers. Now they have pulled them down in the past, but always reinstated them... Well when I finally get through to someone. Previously it was because we sold leather rifle slings... They changed their rules a while back making it so that you couldn't sell anything that was attached to an ASSAULT WEAPON Yup you read right. Now keep in mind they didn't tell any of the sellers this... So we got hit with that... It took 4 or 5 messages to get someone to actually answer me to let me know what the heck is going on. And when you go on the forums to get help, all you get is crazy cat lady's celebrating that they took your item down. If you're lucky you'll get 2 or 3 real people who don't celebrate in other people's misery.
So now the same thing happened with buttstock covers. You'll be lucky to find 2 or 3 on there, and that's just because they haven't caught them yet. When a week ago there were hundreds! I have screenshots to prove it.... So because you make something that laces onto a hunting rifle, you're a bad guy. The rule change this time is that you can't sell anything that ATTACHES to a weapon. I hadn't seen that until they permanently banned us and rejected our appeal. Which of course only took a couple hours!!! Go figure!!! Still that person didn't read anything or look into it. You're a joke! So our impeccable reputation and 12+ years selling on Etsy meant nothing.
Just a bad company making stuff for big bad scary guns.
We responded to the appeal response but aren't holding our breath. When we started having issues and seeing how WOKE Etsy was getting, we started our own online store. But it doesn't bring in a quarter of the traffic. Etsy did more for us than eBay, Amazon and Public Square put together. It's great for handmade authentic items. But not for long.
When we're caught up on leather orders I'll post an update and more information. We have a ton to share. Stay tuned and please wish us luck!!!
If you're a customer you can reach us here, regardless of what platform you used to make your purchase.
Joshua & Amber Best
Evil Duck Studios
A true small mom and pop shop (for real, it's me and my wife :)