You can’t make this stuff up. But Etsy has banned the sale of magical spells on their site. Or rather what they term as a “metaphysical service.”
Here’s the new Etsy services policy in full:
Possibly the most amusing aspect of this change is how much debate, and indeed fury, has been stirred. There’s a petition with nearly 5600 signatures. And there’s bile on the Etsy Forums too.
You’ve got to wonder what led to Etsy picking this particular fight when spells are presumably a very minor aspect of what is sold on the marketplace. But it’s not hard to imagine that it’s part of ongoing corporatisation that’s a result of their recent, so far not all that successful, IPO.
5 Responses
Just following eBay who banned them a few years ago. 🙁
because its easier than trying to make it work.
etsy do have a responsibility for purchases from their site, if they sell something which doesnt exist, how can they accept responsibility for it?
to be fair and open-minded, if they sell a magic spell which really does exist, and the customer claims it didnt work, how do etsy address this, without somehow proving magic exists?
the thing is, they probably could if they really wanted to. the right disclaimers, careful and well thought out policies, etc. people want to buy this, people want to sell this, but the terms are different than physical objects so etsy just dont want the hassle of being involved with it.
everyone is looking for a one-size-fits all solution it seems. the world wasnt made for one-size, people arent made for one-size, marketplaces shouldnt be made for one-size, but it is the lazy solution.
Time to set up a spell based marketplace?
Just type the spell up and send it to the client. Easy Peasy.