Reselling Knock Off Celine Sunglasses on Etsy as Handmade to Order

Thread today in Etsy's forums here shows that even shop owners are confused about what reselling is and what a reseller shop looks like.  As one post mentioned, reselling is just plain old ecommerce:  buying wholesale and selling retail.  It's a normal business practice.  The problem with reselling on Etsy is that resellers pretend to have designed and/or made the products themselves when in reality the items were purchased -- designed and made by others.  Etsy's staff encourages resellers by coaching them in creating deceptive wording for listings and shop information pages, if the items they offer are in line with Etsy's site branding.  Deceptive selling is not plain old ecommerce or a good business practice. 

Yesterday I compared the number of sellers on Etsy and Ebay selling knock offs of Celine gold chain sunglasses.  Etsy wins (no surprise there).  Etsy dominates the online retail marketplace now for certain types of reseller goods.  Ebay had one seller, honestly disclosing the item is not marked, is a copy (inspired), and is new with tags.  The Etsy knock offs (all the same product sold on Ebay!) listed by 6 different sellers are deceptively sold as handmade.  A couple of extra special resellers list their purchased knock offs as "handmade to order". 

Here are the knock off Celine gold chain sunglasses sold on Etsy (no links to the actual shops, but you can find the listings from the titles or images).

Shop No. 1:  Celine Gold Chain Sunglasses Celebrity Sunglasses

 

Seller claims they are (hand) made to order, but you can see the "Made In China" gold lettering inside the ear piece on the pair at the bottom!

Shop No. 2:  Gold Sunglasses

These are also (hand) made to order, but description says:

"MATTE BLACK sunglasses

&

GLOSSY BLACK. sunglasses

brand new, never worn."

Yeah, isn't that what all the artisans say about their handmade creations? 

Shop No. 3:  Celine Gold Chain Sunglasses with Black Frames

Shop No. 4:  Celine Inspired Gold Chain Sunglasses -- HOT (Black Back In Stock)

This seller claims to have this item available with a pink frame, but no photos of that version are shown.  I've seen these replicas with pink tinted lenses, but all the frames are black. 

Shop No. 5:  Celine Inspired Chain Link Sunglasses

Shop No. 6:  Celine Inspired Gold Cuban Chain Link Sunglasses/ Celebrity Trend/Metal Arms,excellent quality guarantee

So, if you want to resell designer brand knock offs and avoid paying the high fees to use Ebay, Etsy is the venue of choice.