FULL VERSION: Everything I know about the Etsy POD Mockup Drama

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[brestephenson]

Yet they leave up all of the Disney stuff so unfair and frustrating !!

[LuKaa]

Can we petition Printify to just create a platform like Amazon Merch where we can sell our POD products?!

[TulipWife]

Maybe Etsy should provide the mockups maybe we can use? I'm a digital designer and I rely heavily on mockups. Tumbler wraps...What do I do? buy a tumbler, learn the skills of wrapping a tumbler, then take a photo of it? For each wrap, shirt, coaster, ornaments, mugs, etc? A part of me is starting to focus on my creative Fabrica account now and leaving my Etsy shop alone. Etsy is going to loose A LOT of money if they do this. Not only from POD, but for those who make the mockups for us.

[lh]

I haven't had my shop closed down, but I've been worried about this for 2 days. We're in Q4 & I'm a new seller, excited about the potential sales rush. Of course I've watched all the youtube influencers who have said buy & use quality mockups & not use the ones from Printify. I just set up a shopify store & migrated my listings from Etsy so all of my eggs aren't in the Etsy basket. I also hope they resolve this soon & if it was a rogue bot, I hope the suspended sellers get their shops back.

[TravelDownUnder]

I’m hoping that it’s just that you have to use a Bella canvas shirt mock-up for a Bella canvas shirt and not just a random shirt that isn’t the brand you are selling. Why would Etsy want to lose all their income from POD sellers? Especially coming up to Q4! Would be a silly move on their behalf. Also printify mock-ups aren’t the actual shirts either they are just AI not so good mock-ups. If everyone used them the Etsy platform would look unappealing and still wouldn’t represent the product itself… I think it’s just a mistake and Etsy needs to update everyone asap!

[DejaDrewit]

Is it possible that the reason they are being deactivated is because etsy has a rule that only 1 seller can sell the same item? So maybe their new algorithm is scanning images and seeing the same image and assuming it’s the same photo aka the same product?

[smilesmakesunshine]

This is so upsetting! I am very particular on which mockups I use because A) I want my POD buyers to see as close to the product as they’re going to get and B) I want to support mockups sellers with their own small businesses, and C) I get this but I don’t get this! There’s just so much surrounding this!

[ElisavetPapadeli]

They have suspended my shop with over 300 listings and denied my appeal saying I was violating handmade policy which I was not as I had printify as my printing provider leaving me with the fees of my listings as 2 last weeks I was listing constantly so there goes my shop and on top I have to pay😢

[StopTheWorld]

I'm relatively new to Etsy, so I'm super confused, but I'm getting the message there have been multiple ongoing problems with how the company serves customers for quite some time. I’m starting to wonder if it's worth the effort to use the platform. Etsy is a publicly-traded company. Maybe there could and should be a petition sent to the Board of Directors. Who are Etsy’s competitors?

[BrandonCowley]

Im dubious about this - when you make a listing, they direct you to PlaceIt for mockups, so how could they say using them warrants a shutdown/takedown?

[DejaDrewit]

If mockups are not allowed then why do they even allow people to open a mockup shop. It makes no sense. Are mockup shops being closed or just listings?

[prescillagcon]

I don’t have MoonlitMocks because some of her mock up doesn’t match the actual colors of the tshirt even though I want to so bad. I bought my own shirts and photographs my own mock-up. I hope this end soon because that sucks.

[pamelastansbury]

If I shop online, I don't expect to look like the model in the photo, and expect the color may be different somewhat as evrrything is online.That's common sense. I can't imagine buying tees in 4 or 5 colors for every design to photograph....or using horrendous printify mock ups. That's gonna be a whole lot of big ugly all over Etsy.

[asmith]

This would make sense if they were focusing on mock-ups that are AI generated-I can absolutely tell when a mock is AI generated and there is a higher risk of getting a product that does not look like what the print provider produced.
I try to search for mockups with real people in real shirts (or whatever the product is), but I can’t always find the color or style I want.

[shirleykathan-sayess]

1. To literally use an actual product would be cost prohibitive if we had to buy one of every product we sell. Especially if it doesn’t sell!
2. Printify’s mock-ups are garbage.
3. I use Placit (increasingly disappointed) for mine specifically searching the actual item, like Bella + Canvas 3001 tee shirt and uploading my design. Even this is getting terrible. I selected “Christmas” as a filter and there were almost no photos and I had to wade through pages of non-Christmas photos and then the ones I found didn’t work. I had to take them into Photoshop and add a Christmas background. SOOOO time consuming! And I HATE paying and then have to do the work myself! 😡 Thanks for the 411. I knew nothing about this.
❤ SayessDesign

[asteroidbunny]

This is really nothing new. Mockups have always been against Etsy policy. For some reason they have finally decided to crack down on it. 🤷

[DerrickWe]

Do not put your shop on vacation mode, you are hurting yourself. Etsy will give you a warning before they take action and at that point, you can take action.