Buyer Beware: Is it REALLY Handmade?

 Despite touting themselves as places to find only handmade goods, which they do have a good selection of, both are highly saturated with resellers of mass-produced, low-quality jewelry, particularly wedding bands. On Etsy, this is a current topic of contention. Earlier this month, there was a week-long Etsy strike by 100s of shops who went on vacation mode in an attempt to protest their frustrations with Etsy, including beliefs that Etsy doesn’t make a concerted effort to crack down on resellers of mass-produced items across a lot of categories and not just jewelry.

Or, way cheaper than most other sellers offering the same or similar ring. Higher quality, made to order rings generally come at a premium price.

If the price looks too good to be true, it probably is.

This gets tricky. Just because another store offers it, doesn’t always mean it’s mass-produced. There are a lot of the same and similar designs among both mass-producers and true makers. One thing to keep an eye out for is a mix of photography styles and images. Shady resellers steal product imagery from reputable sellers.

These rings have a similar design, but only one is handmade and not mass-produced (top left).

(e.g. Tungsten) vs. precious metals (e.g. solid gold and platinum). Tungsten rings are THE most commonly mass-produced wedding bands. Especially the plated varieties, which include blue, black, grey and rose gold.

This ring isn't really gold. It is tungsten with a micron-thick layer of gold plating.

Most real wedding band artisans consider plated rings (with the exception of rhodium plated white gold, which is a common practice in jewelry making) to be very low quality. We’d much rather work with non-plated alternative metals or solid precious metals. Learn more about why plated rings are a bad choice in our blog.

Plated rings are usually mass-produced.

For example, there are many wedding band resellers who sell very cheap meteorite wedding bands that are made from fake meteorite inlays. Learn how to tell if it’s real meteorite jewelry in our blog.

The "meteorite" in this ring isn't real: it's thin metal foil.

Many makers don’t have the resources to build a substantial stock for rings in a variety of ring sizes. It also isn’t cost effective to do so, if they are a small shop. But resellers buy in bulk for cheap and simply ship from stock.

It takes more than 48 hours to handcraft a wedding ring.

For example, if you can only order whole ring sizes such as 7-10, which is the most popular range of men’s ring sizes. If a ring is truly made to order, it’s not difficult to make it in a variety of sizes, including ¼, ½, ¾ and plus sizes. Real makers can and will strive to get you the perfect ring fit!

Only sizes 7 to 14 in full-size increments?

(e.g. change the ring metal, finish, width, profile, materials etc). Ordering one-off, personalized items isn’t cost-effective for resellers. They’d prefer to order styles in bulk that are popular to the masses. On that note, some may offer “custom designs” that take longer to ship, but don’t be fooled. This means it’s a special order from a supplier that takes longer to get from the supplier. It’s not because they require the extra time to personally make it just for you.

Jewelry by Johan lets you customize any ring design with any of our unique materials!

(e.g. gemstones). Not every true maker will offer this option because it’s a significant liability. For example, at Jewelry by Johan, we will use your supplied gemstones, but you must sign a liability waiver.

Reputable makers will allow you to use an old gemstone for your new jewelry.

Most makers welcome and find the most joy in working with someone to create a one-of-a-kind ring design. At a minimum, a real jeweler would be willing and able to listen to your idea. Then, tell you if it’s viable with their skills and resources.

This trophy ring was customized with customer-supplied deer antler for an added personal touch.

Not a tried and true indicator of a reseller or fake business, but should make you leery of the product quality. It’s REALLY easy to delete the negative product reviews from one's own proprietary website. Ideally, product reviews would be found outside of their personal website. The sad reality is, it’s really easy to purchase and/or falsify positive reviews across the web and reviews are getting less and less credible.

All 24 product reviews gave 5 stars? Really?

Most legit makers love showing off their rings on Pinterest, Instagram, etc. and they’ll take the time to do it even if it’s not on the regular! Search the site for social icons and, if they are nowhere to be found, that is a red flag.

Reputable brands have a presence on at least some social media platforms.

This one is specific to the fake makers with fancy websites. If there’s no live chat, contact form, email address, address, phone number, etc. that’s suspicious. If they have a preferred contact method listed, but don’t respond to an inquiry within a reasonable timeframe, that’s not a good sign.

A real business should be easy to reach; sketchy companies that sell mass-produced rings can be hard to contact.

Keep in mind, however, that many legit Etsy shop owners and ring makers operate solely out of their homes. In fact, that’s how Jewelry by Johan got its start. Johan made simple wood rings in his dirty garage and opened an Etsy shop in 2008.

Come visit our storefront - it's a real place!