Early on, Etsy got rid of all of the 'vintage' stores, and there was a good deal of backlash --- but proper crafters were totally behind the move. Back then, i

Early on, Etsy got rid of all of the 'vintage' stores, and there was a good deal of backlash --- but proper crafters were totally behind the move. Back then, if you wanted to get some great traction, you got into the chats with the 'Moms' -- basically a small group that could easily get a lot of traffic to your shop. Sadly, that aspect of the site died out, they brought back the vintage, and ultimately accepted the non-handmade stuff. For me, I left Etsy when they dropped / changed the chat part. Etsy kind of followed the trend of my local indie craft scene. At first it was a small, tight-knit group of actual crafters -- then over time folks who used to visit the shows would blatantly copy another product and start selling... then came the vintage sellers... and then the sellers who sell other sellers, often when they're at the same show as those sellers... and ultimately people selling items that were made overseas that they either designed the pattern for or just purchased and glued something. It's weird. But overall, as the local craft scenes became more popular, they also became more diluted and generic. There were more people selling, but roughly the same categories of products. That being said, if you get into the right shows, you can still make bank... but, like Etsy, the maker spirit has died off.