As I trundle around the site picking nice things for Folksy Friday boards, I am noticing more and more items where the photo of the item is purely a mockup. For example a stock photo of a bag with some wording over it, and it’s obvious the bag is the exact same one each time. Or a generic plant pot with wording on it, and the wording doesn’t follow the curve of the pot so it’s obvious it’s just been photoshopped on top. Or a digital representation of a gift item with an equally digital representation of a personalised gift label. Wall art, T-shirts, stickers… You get the picture. I utterly loathe the picture and wouldn’t personally buy from a shop with images like this - but I can’t find anything in the Folksy ToUs that says the image of an item for sale must be the image of the actual item, so am I just being old and cranky when I wonder why I don’t just make a cutout image of a spoon and type some wording onto the photo whenever I think up a new slogan? It would save me actually hammering, cleaning, photographing and storing the thing and I could just grab any old spoon and hammer the wording on to it if it happened to sell. Do customers really not care what the actual item is going to actually look like and how the actual typeface will actually look? Have I been kidding myself for seventeen years that ‘You will receive the item shown in the photographs’ is a selling point for my stuff?
(The nearest I get to a mockup is still a photo of an actual spoon but sometimes with ‘your name here’ added to the photo if it’s a personalisable one.)
Starting to feel like ebay !
What do I think of them? I hate them. As someone who hand makes individual items with each one being unique, and thus impossible to photograph until the item is finished and ready for sale, and no other item will look exactly the same, etc etc, the idea of having something that could even be considered to lend itself to a mock up photo makes me cringe, as it means a large percentage of the item must be mass produced in some way for it to be the same on so many listings to warrant a mock up.
It’s unforgiveable.
I think this feeds into the ongoing discussions about the new search function as there is now so much stuff that is mass produced with, as you say, photo after photo of the same T shirt, bag or mug etc with an AI generated image. I’m not sure how this feeds into Folksy promoting why customers are choosing them over E with their number 1 reason Everything’s genuinely handmade - you won’t find any mass-produced ‘gifts’ here.
If it’s an artist who wants to show what their painting/ print etc looks like in a different setting (eg minimalist apartment vs country cottage) then i can understand why they might use a digital back drop not everyone has easy access to a range of settings.
But for all the mugs/ t-shirts/ tote bags/ cards etc mock ups scream of cutting corners to me - if you are using a printer to get your design printed onto an item then order a test one and use that for the photos. That allows you to test the performance of the company (how quickly do they ship orders, how well do they pack things) but also the quality of the print and the item it is being printed onto.
I’m with Judy. Sorry but this is supposed to be a handmade site and generic words printed onto a generic mug/tee/bag just don’t cut the mustard for a “handmade marketplace”
As for the faked photos - it’s lazy but it’s probably quite a smart thing for this type of seller to do. Why waste time actually making an item if we can fill our shop with “make believe” items and wait for an actual sale before we make the darn thing. I don’t think they sell much so it’s a savvy business decision, for them.
It’s absolutely $&*^ for Folksy though. Makes the site look scabby and cheap. Still, I guess their listing fees are as good as mine.
My thoughts exactly. I don’t have such a problem with digital backdrops for wall art but I do have a BIG problem with a site that prides itself on handmade items allowing listings that are entirely mockups. And yes this has become more obvious with the current ‘clumping’ in the new search results… But is there anything on the Folksy ToUs that says sellers can’t use mockups?
Before long it will look like E..
I thought AI wasn’t allowed on here but there are a lot of items that seem to fit that category. Obviously these have been approved by Folksy as handmade.
I might as well buy a bulk load of crap teddy bears from china, sew a flower to one ear and call it handmade.
Better still go to vistaprint. Ask google/AI to send me an image of a bear and have it printed onto whatever they sell and I can fully stock my shop in a day.
Seeing as anyone can list anything, there’s only anything looked at if it’s reported.
The Gifts For Dads test on search really did bring it home to me, starkly, just how many of these items are on Folksy’s “shelves”. Hundreds of them in just 7 pages of search results. I was gobsmacked. Id hate to be a real ceramic artist making beautiful mugs and them being absolutely smothered by “best dad” mugs that are everywhere.
Glad to know it’s not just me. I’m not about to start reporting loads of things though, that’s not my job and it just makes me depressed! Also it’s Folksy’s call as to what they allow to be sold here, just as it’s our call to decide whether to sell here. It is a conflict of interest for any platform whether to take the selling fees from something successful (but mass produced) and lose a few low-volume handmade sellers, or whether to spend time and money tightening up the rules when people will break them anyway. I’m glad I don’t have to do the Folksy staff’s jobs!
There is nothing in the TOU’s that says you can’t use mock ups but with a lot of the items that do use mocks I suspect (but don’t know for sure and it would be up to admin to decide) they fall foul of the rules regarding original design and mass printing. To quote from ‘what can i sell on folksy’
Mass-produced items - like mugs, t-shirts, phone cases, cushions, keyrings or plastic water bottles - that have basic text, clip art or licensed images added are not allowed. I have reported a number of shops in recent days because I feel that they are using basic text (standard widely available font and generic phrase) and / or clip art on their mass printed items.
There are so many different sites selling that sort of printed stuff that it must surely be a bad decision to join them, when there is such an opportunity for Folksy to get known as THE place for Genuine handmade items, much as Etsy was back in the day before they made their way down that slippery slope.
Thanks Sasha, that’s helpful!
Thank you for understanding. @Beesandblossoms
Totally agree although I have to confess that when I make multiples of one item (all slightly different due to being handmade) I often photograph one and put a disclaimer in the description to state that the buyer may not receive the exact one seen in the photo - otherwise my entire life would be taken up photographing and listing almost identical items!
Thats sensible
Well that’s fair enough, at least the customer can see a photo that’s representative of what you’re actually selling!
That sounds perfectly acceptable. Totally different from a seller showing a " photograph" of what someone else has made that they may arrange for someone else to print something on, if someone was to buy it!
It smacks of mass produced. Not a good look for this site.