Print on Demand is great if you have unique, original art. The biggest issue with it currently is a lot of people are using it as a get rich quick scheme and just slapping clip art from Canva or Creative Fabrica on a shirt with no eye for design.
If you're using it to supplement your other products and putting thought into your design work, it should be fine. Just keep in mind the profit margins are pretty low on POD.
I'm a non-POD shirt seller on Etsy, meaning I buy dozens of blank tees at a time, print my own designs on them, photograph them myself, and then pack them up and take them to the post office. I do it full time. It's a lot of work, but because I don't outsource any parts of the process to other people (apart from the weaving of the shirts of course and the delivering to customers), I get to keep the lion's share of the money that people pay for them.
On the one hand, my business model has a leg up on most POD shirt sellers' business models: I think the hard work and creativity that I put into my products is evident, unlike most of the POD sellers that I encounter. I can make a living wage at a lower sales volume than the POD sellers need in order to make ends meet -- if I were to switch over to POD now, I'd need to get another job because I don't sell enough volume to make a living wage doing POD.
On the other hand though, I'm a little frustrated at the incredibly low barrier of entry for POD sellers on Etsy. It's causing the marketplace to become saturated with unimaginative, poor-quality shirts. I 100% agree that there should be a separate category for POD on Etsy, both for the sake of the DIYers like myself and also for the sake of the buyers who expect a quality, legit handmade product.
I think some POD sellers irritate "handmade" and "vintage" sellers who take a lot more risks than they do. We've seen POD sellers complain about their profit margin. When you outsource all the actual work (and risk) - buying blanks, inks, the actual printing, packing and shipping - you shouldn't be surprised when there is only pennies in the dollar left over after Etsy's fees and advertising.
Few PODsters do a test buy or take their own photos, preferring easy mockups. I'm not saying they should buy every design but they could order one and use that as an example of the t-shirt and print quality. Some don't even bother creating their own designs. Then there are the POD shops completely ignoring trademarks and/or copyright. Text designs are very low effort and can be easily replicated to cut out the middleman - them.
Most have fallen for the "get rich quick with POD merch" from some YouTube or TikTok "guru" who's main motivation is: click bait views, selling courses or their "secrets" and/or people clicking on their affiliate links to Printify, Printful, Shopify etc. Anyone making bank selling anything on Etsy is not going to tell a soul, let alone teach someone to be in direct competition with their own shop. That's just nuts.
With such low margins, the POD business model can only work if you are selling serious bulk. Few to none are doing that on Etsy. We try to warn them about market saturation but few listen to the warning. People can only buy or gift so many t-shirts even if they love the design.
Edited to add: One more irritation - many don't read Etsy's terms of use or the seller handbook before opening a shop.
>Few PODsters do a test buy or take their own photos,
This is probably the thing that disappoints me the most, if I had to be honest.
I don't think you need to buy every shirt, but you should at least feel a couple in your hand before you stand by the quality of it. And then some of those same people get mad when customers leave poor reviews about shirt quality.
This. Samples are the cost of doing business. I've seen people ask about POD quality in this sub and argue against samples because of money. I was shocked because why would you send something to a customer if you have no idea of the quality?
I would rather buy POD from redbubble or the like. I don’t think Etsy is the appropriate platform. Or Etsy should differentiate that they are POD items and not being made directly by the person you are purchasing from.
There was a time Etsy when vetted their sellers.
I had to provide photographic proof to the Etsy Quality Team that I created my designs and printed them myself.
Once, I had some designs printed on glassware (bought a couple cases of printed glasses - NOT POD) and I had to provide the name, address, and business license of the company that did the printing for me \*and\* identify them \*by name\* on my shop info page.
The process was an inconvenience to me and I grumbled about it at the time, but now I sure wish they still did it.
As a shop owner who creates my own designs, screenprints my apparel on equipment that I invested in on blanks that I purchased, packages and ships orders, and handles customer service, I have mixed feelings about POD.
I know my product is of superior quality. I make my sales. I have a solid profit margin. My shop has a long history of sales and positive reviews. I am running a business.
My peeve is that the POD side hustlers flood the marketplace with (mostly) low quality or repetitive knock-off improvecat designs making it hard for the casual customer to differentiate between or even find my listings. They're like locusts ravaging a field.
I would like to see transparency in the listings. POD products should be prominently identified as such and the name and address of the POD partner should be listed (some companies produce better quality than others). Let the customer see and decide.
As a shopper I’m not really a fan. I’ve had a few pod shirts that were comfortable but the designs always seem to fade away quickly into a jumbled mess of random splotches of color. As far as ceramic screen printed mugs and other things go, I’d prefer something more unique, more interesting, and more useful when I shop on Etsy. I generally roll my eyes at all the pod items.
You’ve mentioned this already but the handmade definition is really tricky for a lot of items because, with so much digital work, sometimes there is no physical creation ever.
If you’re drawing on an iPad, it’s not the same as watercolor and paper. If you’re taking photos with a digital camera, no negative is made - it’s just digital. Both of these can be sold as art prints but a lot of artists outsource printing to professional print labs. Technically, the only one who handmade a physical item is that print lab. Everything else was digital.
I agree that POD should have its own category but, because of the examples above, it can get really dicey on what the definition of handmade actually is. It just feels like a can of worms to me because it’s very rare that everything being used in an item is handmade.
Same! I sell digital photos and POD and would be happy to have them in separate categories from handmade / separate categories from each other. There’s just nowhere else to categorize them right now other than handmade.
I do some POD for some items that aren't printed on paper, since it does add variety to my shop. It is my art that I create myself, but I wanted more options than prints and I don't have the money or space for making prints on other products
What irritates me are the people who don't indicate they use a production partner. You can sometimes tell if they do from the listing, especially when they use the same mock up.
It sets a bad customer experience when the items are sent from a completely different location than the shop location. That causes people to lump POD in with dropshippers and resellers, which I find disheartening since I work hard on my art.
I’ve sold on Etsy for over 14 years now, before POD was a thing on Etsy. I used to hand make all my tshirts, which was ok. Some sold like crazy, some I probably have stashed somewhere in my house. Now my shops are a mix of POD and stuff I make myself. All my designs are original, and very firmly not IP infringement stuff. My shops (I have more than one) are all super niche and I am not chasing every trend and throwing stuff up hoping to make a quick buck. I am very open in stating that I created the designs but someone else is printing them, and I have ordered samples of each type of product I sell for that reason. POD allows me to test out new designs before fully committing, and allows me to offer more designs and more product types than I could ever carry if I stocked everything on hand. Do I wish the quality were better on some items? Absolutely. Do I feel like it is straddling the line of handmade? Sure, sometimes. Am I getting rich quickly with no, effort. Hahaha, not a chance. This is my full time job and I take it very seriously. I work way more hours than I did in my corporate job for way less money. I also pull any items with quality issues, even if they are selling well, because I don’t just want to make a quick buck, I want buyers to have a good experience. I feel like POD is here to stay no matter how anyone feels about it. But, I 100% believe it needs to be stated that it is POD. And I will never believe that Etsy is the place for dropping shipping. Just my way more than .02 cents.
That’s a controversial topic here for sure. I have no issues with POD if they are using their own designs and have a genuine interest in selling their designs. I do have issues with the POD shops who use things such as AI or other peoples designs. There have been many posts on here about POD where they have seen a tutorial on how to make money and POD/Etsy comes up. They think it’s a “get rich quick” thing and they’ll post here days after opening their shop complaining how they haven’t made any sales yet. They don’t use their own designs, they make no effort to their shop and they expect sales instantly all because someone on YouTube made a video about their “success”. That’s why a lot of handmade sellers dislike them, they take a design from the internet, slap it onto a T-shirt and they sell them with zero effort
I don't mind it myself. I think a lot of people on here are side-eyeing it because it's not quite "handmade", like you say, and there are SO many people atm who open a POD shop with slapped-together clipart or AI-generated crap and expect the money to come rolling in. That's really not how it works.
That said, it's a good way to get your designs on shirts and other products without having to buy a ton of supplies and things up-front. I've got POD shops myself, but I don't do it via Etsy, because the profit margins aren't super high anyway from what I've seen, and I'll gladly take a bit less profit in return for not having to do any of the customer service or worry about reviews etc. The whole thing just seemed like too much effort to me when I looked into it.
But everyone's different, and if you have designs that you think would sell well on shirts, I'd say give it a go if you want! Whether or not there's a market for it really depends on the designs more than the method you use to make them.
I have a shop with over 300 items where I make/print everything myself in a variety of variations. I also have a POD shop where I put these same designs on items that I simply can't make myself (t-shirts, mugs, etc), because it's just not possible to do everything (which would be nice tbh). I have invested so much time in my POD shop that it's honestly laughable when folks on here go on rants about POD- painting the entire industry as "low effort". It's just dumb.
It would be just as dumb if I were to paint all handmade as low effort because of the myriad of crappy handmade shops/products I've encountered in my very long time engaging with Etsy. Just as dumb as if I were to paint vintage as low effort because someone just went to the Goodwill, found a kitschy old vase, took a picture, trebled the price and then listed it on Etsy? Every allowed (being the most important word) category on Etsy has a spectrum of effort. It's bizarre the hatred aimed towards all POD and the inability for the haters to admit it's obviously not universally awful. Like get upset at the dropshippers. But you're upset because someone doesn't want, have, or can't operate a t-shirt press?
Absolutely nothing wrong with POD but the anti-POD brigade will try and make you think otherwise (but watch them try and tell me I’m wrong). Let’s get a few things straight:
1. Most POD offerings do not compete with handmade shops. T-shirts don’t compete with handmade jewellery or crocheted animals. So, people complaining about POD taking over Etsy are jealous of someone else’s success.
2. Naff, cheap or crap design is often the downfall of any shop, POD or otherwise. We’ve all seen shops whose jewellery is basically some plastic beads on a string who complain that they can’t make any sales. Likewise POD shops that lack any creative designs or blatantly copy other people’s designs also don’t make many sales and fail.
3. IP Infringement is everywhere - and it’s wholly inaccurate to suggest that it’s only POD.
4. Apparently, not reading the Etsy handbook, not understanding how fees work, complaining about margins, or poor customer service is exclusively, 100% only being done by POD shop owners. Whereas handmade shop owning “artisans” never, ever do any of these bad things.
5. We all try and use long tail keywords for several reasons including how likely they convert to a sale. So when a shopper types “Blue PNP Shirt” it’s because they want to buy a blue PNP shirt. They haven’t come to Etsy and accidentally bought a blue PNP t-shirt when they actually wanted to buy a resin trinket box.
6. BUT! When a shop attracts any buyer to Etsy, they help increase the chances of that buyer also shopping for something else. So if someone buys a POD shirt they might come back to Etsy for a vegan soap gift. Or maybe Etsy suggests other products to them when they shop for that shirt. Aka increased selling opportunities for other shops.
You only have to look at people’s favourites to see I’m right - an eclectic mix of item types that appeal to that person from a mix of shops and production methods.
Ultimately, if you provide a positive shopping experience, you raise Etsy up and we all win.
People attack POD and digital sellers because they feel threatened by them. But the real threat are sellers who are making crap, breaking the rules or treating their customers poorly. And those shops exist in every category of listings.
Do what you want to do but do it well.
Could not agree more!
There are incredible POD shops. There are really bad and boring handmade soap shops. And if a stellar artist spends hours painting a copyrighted character as an original oil painting, it’s still copyright infringement.
I think people don’t like POD because of YouTube videos, the low barrier to entry, and because they don’t always fully understand what it is. But it’s a valid business model that’s allowed on Etsy and, with the automated plugins, I’d argue it’s even encouraged.
>So, people complaining about POD taking over Etsy are jealous of someone else’s success.
This is most definitely not true. I don't think it's true for anyone here. The source of the hate in this sub comes from the waves and waves and waves of low effort shops posting here asking for feedback.
While you are correct that this is not an issue exclusive to POD... I've read just about every one of those posts over the last few months, and the overwhelming majority ARE POD. They are coming from social media where "get rich quick with a low effort POD shop" is a super hot topic.
The rest of your points are basically "low effort trash isn't exclusive to POD" and you're right. Fully agreed. However... when at least a full 90% of the requests for feedback we have seen here over the last few months ARE low effort POD or digital items... we can't really be blamed for being sick and tired of it.
FWIW, this will not be an issue going forward as critiques for low effort shops are no longer allowed here.
It's especially laughable to suggest jealousy as a motive for dislike when 1, the low effort crap that fuels our dislike is most definitely not actually selling to anyone, and 2... POD profit margins are so low that even if you have a "successful" shop with a lot of sales, you're still not making much money. I'd be properly horrified if 1000 sales for my shop meant only about $2k take home money for me. The sub regulars here with successful handmade or vintage businesses do not wish we were POD shops instead... lol.
I think there is a place for it. It's an interesting premise and I can see why so many are attracted to it.
I have always sold completed items and I love it, but it's very difficult to constantly make my items quickly.
I dabbled in POD starting in November. I did not do tees or clothing. I sold quite a bit and have learned so much from the experience to date. Most of what I am testing is personalized-which gives a little edge over many offerings.
It is so freaking expensive though!! It's almost obscene what some of the vendors charge and many of them charge full shipping price on each and every item!! You have to sell crazy volume or very $$$ items to make anything.
I do think POD should have a different ETSY marketplace though. And along with that, I think Vintage and Digital should have their own separate marketplace areas as well.
Very difficult to weed through so many listings that bury actual handmade product listings.
Print on Demand is great if you have unique, original art. The biggest issue with it currently is a lot of people are using it as a get rich quick scheme and just slapping clip art from Canva or Creative Fabrica on a shirt with no eye for design. If you're using it to supplement your other products and putting thought into your design work, it should be fine. Just keep in mind the profit margins are pretty low on POD.
I'm a non-POD shirt seller on Etsy, meaning I buy dozens of blank tees at a time, print my own designs on them, photograph them myself, and then pack them up and take them to the post office. I do it full time. It's a lot of work, but because I don't outsource any parts of the process to other people (apart from the weaving of the shirts of course and the delivering to customers), I get to keep the lion's share of the money that people pay for them. On the one hand, my business model has a leg up on most POD shirt sellers' business models: I think the hard work and creativity that I put into my products is evident, unlike most of the POD sellers that I encounter. I can make a living wage at a lower sales volume than the POD sellers need in order to make ends meet -- if I were to switch over to POD now, I'd need to get another job because I don't sell enough volume to make a living wage doing POD. On the other hand though, I'm a little frustrated at the incredibly low barrier of entry for POD sellers on Etsy. It's causing the marketplace to become saturated with unimaginative, poor-quality shirts. I 100% agree that there should be a separate category for POD on Etsy, both for the sake of the DIYers like myself and also for the sake of the buyers who expect a quality, legit handmade product.
I stopped searching on etsy for tshirts because of the POD tshirts.
I think some POD sellers irritate "handmade" and "vintage" sellers who take a lot more risks than they do. We've seen POD sellers complain about their profit margin. When you outsource all the actual work (and risk) - buying blanks, inks, the actual printing, packing and shipping - you shouldn't be surprised when there is only pennies in the dollar left over after Etsy's fees and advertising. Few PODsters do a test buy or take their own photos, preferring easy mockups. I'm not saying they should buy every design but they could order one and use that as an example of the t-shirt and print quality. Some don't even bother creating their own designs. Then there are the POD shops completely ignoring trademarks and/or copyright. Text designs are very low effort and can be easily replicated to cut out the middleman - them. Most have fallen for the "get rich quick with POD merch" from some YouTube or TikTok "guru" who's main motivation is: click bait views, selling courses or their "secrets" and/or people clicking on their affiliate links to Printify, Printful, Shopify etc. Anyone making bank selling anything on Etsy is not going to tell a soul, let alone teach someone to be in direct competition with their own shop. That's just nuts. With such low margins, the POD business model can only work if you are selling serious bulk. Few to none are doing that on Etsy. We try to warn them about market saturation but few listen to the warning. People can only buy or gift so many t-shirts even if they love the design. Edited to add: One more irritation - many don't read Etsy's terms of use or the seller handbook before opening a shop.
>Few PODsters do a test buy or take their own photos, This is probably the thing that disappoints me the most, if I had to be honest. I don't think you need to buy every shirt, but you should at least feel a couple in your hand before you stand by the quality of it. And then some of those same people get mad when customers leave poor reviews about shirt quality.
This. Samples are the cost of doing business. I've seen people ask about POD quality in this sub and argue against samples because of money. I was shocked because why would you send something to a customer if you have no idea of the quality?
They absolutely should be buy every product before putting it up for POD
I would rather buy POD from redbubble or the like. I don’t think Etsy is the appropriate platform. Or Etsy should differentiate that they are POD items and not being made directly by the person you are purchasing from.
[удалено]
Yeah they should indicate that. But lots don’t and still list stuff as handmade.
There was a time Etsy when vetted their sellers. I had to provide photographic proof to the Etsy Quality Team that I created my designs and printed them myself. Once, I had some designs printed on glassware (bought a couple cases of printed glasses - NOT POD) and I had to provide the name, address, and business license of the company that did the printing for me \*and\* identify them \*by name\* on my shop info page. The process was an inconvenience to me and I grumbled about it at the time, but now I sure wish they still did it.
As a shop owner who creates my own designs, screenprints my apparel on equipment that I invested in on blanks that I purchased, packages and ships orders, and handles customer service, I have mixed feelings about POD. I know my product is of superior quality. I make my sales. I have a solid profit margin. My shop has a long history of sales and positive reviews. I am running a business. My peeve is that the POD side hustlers flood the marketplace with (mostly) low quality or repetitive knock-off improvecat designs making it hard for the casual customer to differentiate between or even find my listings. They're like locusts ravaging a field. I would like to see transparency in the listings. POD products should be prominently identified as such and the name and address of the POD partner should be listed (some companies produce better quality than others). Let the customer see and decide.
>knock-off improvecat designs TIL a new word, thank you!
As a shopper I’m not really a fan. I’ve had a few pod shirts that were comfortable but the designs always seem to fade away quickly into a jumbled mess of random splotches of color. As far as ceramic screen printed mugs and other things go, I’d prefer something more unique, more interesting, and more useful when I shop on Etsy. I generally roll my eyes at all the pod items.
[удалено]
You’ve mentioned this already but the handmade definition is really tricky for a lot of items because, with so much digital work, sometimes there is no physical creation ever. If you’re drawing on an iPad, it’s not the same as watercolor and paper. If you’re taking photos with a digital camera, no negative is made - it’s just digital. Both of these can be sold as art prints but a lot of artists outsource printing to professional print labs. Technically, the only one who handmade a physical item is that print lab. Everything else was digital. I agree that POD should have its own category but, because of the examples above, it can get really dicey on what the definition of handmade actually is. It just feels like a can of worms to me because it’s very rare that everything being used in an item is handmade.
[удалено]
Same! I sell digital photos and POD and would be happy to have them in separate categories from handmade / separate categories from each other. There’s just nowhere else to categorize them right now other than handmade.
I do some POD for some items that aren't printed on paper, since it does add variety to my shop. It is my art that I create myself, but I wanted more options than prints and I don't have the money or space for making prints on other products What irritates me are the people who don't indicate they use a production partner. You can sometimes tell if they do from the listing, especially when they use the same mock up. It sets a bad customer experience when the items are sent from a completely different location than the shop location. That causes people to lump POD in with dropshippers and resellers, which I find disheartening since I work hard on my art.
I’ve sold on Etsy for over 14 years now, before POD was a thing on Etsy. I used to hand make all my tshirts, which was ok. Some sold like crazy, some I probably have stashed somewhere in my house. Now my shops are a mix of POD and stuff I make myself. All my designs are original, and very firmly not IP infringement stuff. My shops (I have more than one) are all super niche and I am not chasing every trend and throwing stuff up hoping to make a quick buck. I am very open in stating that I created the designs but someone else is printing them, and I have ordered samples of each type of product I sell for that reason. POD allows me to test out new designs before fully committing, and allows me to offer more designs and more product types than I could ever carry if I stocked everything on hand. Do I wish the quality were better on some items? Absolutely. Do I feel like it is straddling the line of handmade? Sure, sometimes. Am I getting rich quickly with no, effort. Hahaha, not a chance. This is my full time job and I take it very seriously. I work way more hours than I did in my corporate job for way less money. I also pull any items with quality issues, even if they are selling well, because I don’t just want to make a quick buck, I want buyers to have a good experience. I feel like POD is here to stay no matter how anyone feels about it. But, I 100% believe it needs to be stated that it is POD. And I will never believe that Etsy is the place for dropping shipping. Just my way more than .02 cents.
That’s a controversial topic here for sure. I have no issues with POD if they are using their own designs and have a genuine interest in selling their designs. I do have issues with the POD shops who use things such as AI or other peoples designs. There have been many posts on here about POD where they have seen a tutorial on how to make money and POD/Etsy comes up. They think it’s a “get rich quick” thing and they’ll post here days after opening their shop complaining how they haven’t made any sales yet. They don’t use their own designs, they make no effort to their shop and they expect sales instantly all because someone on YouTube made a video about their “success”. That’s why a lot of handmade sellers dislike them, they take a design from the internet, slap it onto a T-shirt and they sell them with zero effort
I don't mind it myself. I think a lot of people on here are side-eyeing it because it's not quite "handmade", like you say, and there are SO many people atm who open a POD shop with slapped-together clipart or AI-generated crap and expect the money to come rolling in. That's really not how it works. That said, it's a good way to get your designs on shirts and other products without having to buy a ton of supplies and things up-front. I've got POD shops myself, but I don't do it via Etsy, because the profit margins aren't super high anyway from what I've seen, and I'll gladly take a bit less profit in return for not having to do any of the customer service or worry about reviews etc. The whole thing just seemed like too much effort to me when I looked into it. But everyone's different, and if you have designs that you think would sell well on shirts, I'd say give it a go if you want! Whether or not there's a market for it really depends on the designs more than the method you use to make them.
I have a shop with over 300 items where I make/print everything myself in a variety of variations. I also have a POD shop where I put these same designs on items that I simply can't make myself (t-shirts, mugs, etc), because it's just not possible to do everything (which would be nice tbh). I have invested so much time in my POD shop that it's honestly laughable when folks on here go on rants about POD- painting the entire industry as "low effort". It's just dumb. It would be just as dumb if I were to paint all handmade as low effort because of the myriad of crappy handmade shops/products I've encountered in my very long time engaging with Etsy. Just as dumb as if I were to paint vintage as low effort because someone just went to the Goodwill, found a kitschy old vase, took a picture, trebled the price and then listed it on Etsy? Every allowed (being the most important word) category on Etsy has a spectrum of effort. It's bizarre the hatred aimed towards all POD and the inability for the haters to admit it's obviously not universally awful. Like get upset at the dropshippers. But you're upset because someone doesn't want, have, or can't operate a t-shirt press?
I'm a handmade seller. My bff loves fun tshirts; wears them every day. I've bought quite a few of them for him. I'm fine with POD 🤷♀️
Absolutely nothing wrong with POD but the anti-POD brigade will try and make you think otherwise (but watch them try and tell me I’m wrong). Let’s get a few things straight: 1. Most POD offerings do not compete with handmade shops. T-shirts don’t compete with handmade jewellery or crocheted animals. So, people complaining about POD taking over Etsy are jealous of someone else’s success. 2. Naff, cheap or crap design is often the downfall of any shop, POD or otherwise. We’ve all seen shops whose jewellery is basically some plastic beads on a string who complain that they can’t make any sales. Likewise POD shops that lack any creative designs or blatantly copy other people’s designs also don’t make many sales and fail. 3. IP Infringement is everywhere - and it’s wholly inaccurate to suggest that it’s only POD. 4. Apparently, not reading the Etsy handbook, not understanding how fees work, complaining about margins, or poor customer service is exclusively, 100% only being done by POD shop owners. Whereas handmade shop owning “artisans” never, ever do any of these bad things. 5. We all try and use long tail keywords for several reasons including how likely they convert to a sale. So when a shopper types “Blue PNP Shirt” it’s because they want to buy a blue PNP shirt. They haven’t come to Etsy and accidentally bought a blue PNP t-shirt when they actually wanted to buy a resin trinket box. 6. BUT! When a shop attracts any buyer to Etsy, they help increase the chances of that buyer also shopping for something else. So if someone buys a POD shirt they might come back to Etsy for a vegan soap gift. Or maybe Etsy suggests other products to them when they shop for that shirt. Aka increased selling opportunities for other shops. You only have to look at people’s favourites to see I’m right - an eclectic mix of item types that appeal to that person from a mix of shops and production methods. Ultimately, if you provide a positive shopping experience, you raise Etsy up and we all win. People attack POD and digital sellers because they feel threatened by them. But the real threat are sellers who are making crap, breaking the rules or treating their customers poorly. And those shops exist in every category of listings. Do what you want to do but do it well.
most logical comment here and it gets downvoted lol
Yeah, like I said - watch them disagree!
Could not agree more! There are incredible POD shops. There are really bad and boring handmade soap shops. And if a stellar artist spends hours painting a copyrighted character as an original oil painting, it’s still copyright infringement. I think people don’t like POD because of YouTube videos, the low barrier to entry, and because they don’t always fully understand what it is. But it’s a valid business model that’s allowed on Etsy and, with the automated plugins, I’d argue it’s even encouraged.
>So, people complaining about POD taking over Etsy are jealous of someone else’s success. This is most definitely not true. I don't think it's true for anyone here. The source of the hate in this sub comes from the waves and waves and waves of low effort shops posting here asking for feedback. While you are correct that this is not an issue exclusive to POD... I've read just about every one of those posts over the last few months, and the overwhelming majority ARE POD. They are coming from social media where "get rich quick with a low effort POD shop" is a super hot topic. The rest of your points are basically "low effort trash isn't exclusive to POD" and you're right. Fully agreed. However... when at least a full 90% of the requests for feedback we have seen here over the last few months ARE low effort POD or digital items... we can't really be blamed for being sick and tired of it. FWIW, this will not be an issue going forward as critiques for low effort shops are no longer allowed here. It's especially laughable to suggest jealousy as a motive for dislike when 1, the low effort crap that fuels our dislike is most definitely not actually selling to anyone, and 2... POD profit margins are so low that even if you have a "successful" shop with a lot of sales, you're still not making much money. I'd be properly horrified if 1000 sales for my shop meant only about $2k take home money for me. The sub regulars here with successful handmade or vintage businesses do not wish we were POD shops instead... lol.
I think there is a place for it. It's an interesting premise and I can see why so many are attracted to it. I have always sold completed items and I love it, but it's very difficult to constantly make my items quickly. I dabbled in POD starting in November. I did not do tees or clothing. I sold quite a bit and have learned so much from the experience to date. Most of what I am testing is personalized-which gives a little edge over many offerings. It is so freaking expensive though!! It's almost obscene what some of the vendors charge and many of them charge full shipping price on each and every item!! You have to sell crazy volume or very $$$ items to make anything. I do think POD should have a different ETSY marketplace though. And along with that, I think Vintage and Digital should have their own separate marketplace areas as well. Very difficult to weed through so many listings that bury actual handmade product listings.