Madrona Pencils

Oh gosh. Lot’s of stuff going on behind the scenes here at Madrona Pencils. August was a busy month for the tiny pencil personalization workshop.

First, I guess this the biggest change. I am closing the Madrona Pencils Etsy Shop. There are a lot of reasons.

I guess I should back up a bit and give context. The number of shops has increased a whole bunch since the beginning of the pandemic (2020). I think there is a about 7 million Etsy shops now. Historically, Etsy hasn’t vetted new shops or listings. They rely upon complaints to weed out the bad actors. But because of the sheer number of listings and shops, it’s not possible for one human or even a team of humans to fully evaluate if a listing is handmade, vintage, or a supply.

Which is a huge problem. If you search certain products, it’s clear that some shops are buying wholesale and reselling the items on Etsy. (I suggest that anyone buying anything on Etsy, do an image search to see which other websites the picture shows up.) Compounding the problem is that many legitimate Etsy shops have had their pictures stolen by the wholesalers. It’s a complicated issue that deserves a nuanced reaction.

Basically, is Etsy a hundred percent handmade, vintage or supply? No. Do I know the percentage? No. Like I said, it’s huge problem that one person can’t calculate.

In response to that Etsy had responded by closing the barn door after the horse escapes by unleashing bots on the listings. For example, Amber Teething necklaces are banished because Etsy was successfully sued by a parent whose child was using an Amber Teething necklace. In order to do that the word ‘amber’ has been targeted by bots who remove listings. It removes anything with the color Amber, made from Amber, and at least one person who is named Amber.

I had to dedicate about 4 hours each week maintaining my Etsy shop to find out from Facebook pages, reddit posts, and the Etsy forums to find out what the latest thing that was triggering listing shutdowns. The common thread is that shop owners generally found out they had an infraction, was when Etsy penalized their shop. Etsy customer service for shops is pretty slow. It might take a few weeks to hear back from them. And even then, it was a form letter. The customer service agents weren’t empowered to tackle nuanced situations. If you have been on hold with your bank, and they tell you to read the terms on the website, that’s what it’s like. Very frustrating!

So even though I had a perfect record of shipping on time, communicating with customers, and around 250 five star reviews; I never felt like it was easy sailing with the whole Etsy Shop experience. And totally, not the image that Etsy portrays in it’s Ads. 🙂

(For example, the terms of their ‘*****’ program, which rewards shop owners for doing a good job, I’m not allowed to mention on this website.)

August was the month, that there was one rule too many. I couldn’t justify the cost of having an Etsy shop with the benefits of having an Etsy shop. I’ve truly enjoyed working with all the customers there. Each one had a unique and special pencil purchase that would light up the room.

Tips for Having an Etsy Shop? Read all the rules! Understand the rules! Make Good Choices!

I enjoy making small batch personalized pencils. The art of imprinting foil onto custom pencils dates back decades.

There are of course much larger foil imprinting machines available. I like to focus on small batch personalized pencils vs. a large manufacturing system.

It allows me to provide a custom pencil without require people to buy hundreds of pencils at a time. Most of the pencil orders are 12 pencils or less.

How are you doing? It’s been a year since the lockdowns for covid-19 have started. It looks like the vaccines will be available to everyone within a couple of months. It’s been a very long year for everyone. Do this, don’t do that, an acrid news environment. It’s just whole bundles of stress for most people.

I made the ‘Do Your Best’ pencils because when you are stressed out, you don’t get as much done. And maybe other people need that reminder as well. It’s okay to operating at the level that you can maintain vs. a high flying goal. Keep the goals simple and attainable.

Do Your Best 6 Green Pencils Set – Madrona Pencils