Copy Cat - You Dirty Rat - You Stole Your Mama's Baseball Bat

Oh the pitfalls and hazards of selling online. 

Photo above from - https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThreeFiveEightyFive

 

Maybe it was 2 years ago that I opened my emails and saw a message from a site that I had purchased a couple of supplies from.  They offered a number of ready-made wholesale jewelry but also offered strands of beads and some jewelry making supplies.  Granted they were not on my favorites list as I had once purchased a supply of sterling silver headpins from them.  The headpins were the pretty ones with the fancy ball heads and were 2 inches long and of 20 gauge sterling wire. . . the price made them look like a bargain and would have been if only ....

When I received my order I found many headpins had lost their decorative little ball and I was left with several 2" long pieces of plain silver wire.  Other headpins in the package had the ball placed off center and were therefore useless to me. When I calculated the net price of the usable headpins that were left, I found I could have purchased them more economically through several other sources. After that I shied away from doing business with them.  However on this day, in that email of theirs, I spied the most beautiful string art earrings and it piqued my curiosity . . . I HAD to learn more about them.

I googled Peruvian string earrings and found a plethora of information.  There were tons of "How To" sites, from blogs, to craft-sites, to videos.  My search took me on an interesting journey.  An enlightening journey.

Once upon a time, back in 2006, two young ladies opened an etsy shop and their speciality was making lovey Peruvian String Art Earrings.  They were quite successful and their business was thriving. So it only follows that others began copying them.  Between the spread of crafters making and selling these earrings there was  also all those "how to" sites.  This helped perpetuate an avalanche and soon the Internet had a vast supply of  copy-cats selling their versions of these attractive earrings.

Photo above from - https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThreeFiveEightyFive

When I visited the original shop a couple of years ago, the shop was hurting, their flow of customers had dried up and they were no longer even offering their gorgeous handmade Peruvian String Art earrings for purchase.  It looked to be a very  sad state of affairs.  However they had determination and began making other ethnic types of beadwork jewelry.  Recently I revisited their shop and was happy to see they are still in business and have bounced back quite nicely.  Though they offer a number of ethnic type of beadwork pieces they also take custom orders for their famous Peruvian String Art Earrings.  And it's good to see that there are still people around who appreciate purchasing handmade rather that buying cheap, mass produced knock-offs. 
Oh and by-the-way, those earrings that I saw in that email ?  The site was selling them for 99 cents a pair . . . and , no I did not buy any from them.  :D