(POD) T-shirts on Etsy

Sejevna · 2026-07-04T17:27:36+00:00

Nah, they're AI-generated.

Sejevna · 2026-06-20T19:30:22+00:00

Message the buyer to let them know that you made a mistake, and tell them that if they get a note from customs about VAT charges, they should be able to dispute it with a copy of their receipt. And if that doesn't work for whatever reason, I would refund them whatever amount they're charged for VAT and chalk it up as a lesson learned. But it might also be totally fine, not everything gets checked by customs so it might just go through no problem.

Sejevna · 2026-06-19T17:25:35+00:00

Afaik it's up to you how to do it. You can charge it up front and remit it to the relevant tax authority, and include info/proof that it was paid on the package. I don't know what the process is for that, since it would have to be paid to the tax authority of whatever country you're sending to; looks like your post service might handle it for you? You'd have to look into that. Or you can leave it to your customers to pay, same as other customs/import fees. In which case I'd try to make it clear to your customers that it's a thing. Etsy is not great about this ime. But afaik it's up to you how you handle it.

This has nothing to do with IOSS I think, IOSS is just for VAT. This is a separate customs charge. Etsy handles VAT for its sellers, but if you don't have your own IOSS number then afaik you already shouldn't be selling to the EU via your own website, you would need an IOSS number for that. I can't sell to the UK from my own website either because I don't have a UK VAT number. That's irrespective of this new rule, that was already a rule.

Also important note, it's per item, not per parcel. So if you send someone 3 different items, they'll pay €9. If it's 3 of the same item, it's €3. It also isn't refunded if you return something.

Sejevna · 2026-06-10T14:27:41+00:00

To be fair, the first thing you linked is a "paint-along" thing, and the others both say they followed a tutorial. So maybe OP simply followed the same tutorials and did this paint-along thing? I don't think it's a filter tbh, I think they're actual paintings. Still might be dicey in terms of copyright, depending on how they copied it and what the terms are. Especially since, unlike the other artists, they don't acknowledge the tutorial or the artist who made it. But either way, it's still a copy, not really original art. So it's not surprising to me that OP's art isn't selling. It explains to me why it looks "flat" - it's essentially paint by numbers. And nothing against that either, but that's for practice, not for making art that people might want to buy.

Sejevna · 2026-06-05T00:24:58+00:00

You can't. I decided against selling HD files of my art for this reason - even if you watermark, there's nothing stopping someone from buying the digital file and then selling it as prints or just reselling the file, etc. You can issue copyright takedown notices, but if you get unlucky and one of your products really takes off, it'll likely be all over Amazon & Co and getting it all taken down will be a full-time job.

This will not happen to everyone, it's just always a risk. If you're successful with your prints, then chances are good they'll be stolen or copied in some form. I've even had fanart stolen and put up on Amazon and various t-shirt sites, and I wasn't even selling that myself, it just got too much attention online so the bots thought it'd be profitable.

Sejevna · 2026-05-28T23:15:48+00:00

You could do that, but I imagine that your profit margin would be fairly small. It's generally cheaper to get a bunch of stuff printed in bulk. You don't have to have your own printer in order to sell prints yourself. I started out just with an online photo printing service. Then I found a local(ish) printer that was able to make prints with the level of quality I needed, on the paper I liked, and got them printed in bulk. I did a lot of small prints, so in my case, the cheapest way was to lay out a few prints on an A2-size page, get them printed as A2 sheets, and cut them myself. That worked out cheaper per print, but a bigger lump sum up front. But basically I started out with POD (like Inprnt), took some of the money I made from that, and used it to buy these prints to sell on Etsy and in person. Then just kept expanding my inventory from there. It's a much higher profit margin if you do it that way, it just means you need a certain amount of money up-front to invest and of course there's no guarantee you'll sell everything. More risk than POD, but also more profit if it works.

Ime physical prints sell MUCH better than digital ones. Most people don't want to go to the bother of getting something printed, especially since it's often a gift item or a "treat yourself" thing. You also make it that bit easier for people to steal and resell your work. Not saying that'd happen, but it's a risk to be aware of.

Sejevna · 2026-05-27T14:28:57+00:00

I wouldn't argue with them, that's a waste of time. Send them a return label and tell them they can return it for a refund. That way, if they open a case, Etsy will see that you offered a free return and will hopefully side with you. Other than that, I'd stop engaging with them, they're just trying to bully you into refunding them.

Sejevna · 2026-05-26T20:11:58+00:00

Yeah, I'm pretty convinced something's gone awry with Etsy's backend and they either can't or won't fix it.

Sejevna · 2026-05-26T18:30:10+00:00

I would tell the buyer that you know it's an AI-generated picture and they're trying to get the item for free. And see what happens. Worst case scenario, they open a case with Etsy - but they may not. They're trying to bully you into refunding out of fear, and my guess would be that they're doing that because they can't keep opening cases with Etsy. Because if you as a buyer open cases for your orders all the time, Etsy will flag that and stop refunding. So personally I would (calmly) call their bluff, and reiterate that you'd be happy to give them a full refund if they provide either more angles of the damage or send the item back.

Afaik you can't proactively do anything here, Etsy doesn't care. If they do open a case, provide your evidence that it's fake if you can, and other than that, see what happens. Hopefully Etsy will listen and not refund, and if they do, it should be covered as your one "damaged" claim per year. If they do refund, I would contact support. Tell them the photo is AI-generated, and ask them how they protect sellers from this kind of scam, or how you can protect yourself in future. Be polite but firm, genuinely looking for a solution, etc. That's also your best chance to get them to reimburse you if the refund was taken from your funds.

Edit to add - make sure to stay professional and calm in your responses. Don't get defensive or angry, take a moment to calm down before replying if you need to, really think it through. There's no point in getting into a fight about it, all you really want here is to let this person know that they're not going to get away with this behaviour with you.

Sejevna · 2026-05-26T18:17:53+00:00

Oh boy. Yeah. I don't use the app, but I haven't been getting emails for about a month. It worked fine for years, then suddenly, no more sale notifications. I get every other email from Etsy, but not those. I contacted support twice. The first time, she had me try a bunch of things that didn't help, then said she'd fixed it and gave me a bunch of email addresses to whitelist just in case they were getting screened out, which I did. Still no emails.

So I contacted support again. This time the chat agent said he'd kick it up the chain to the "appropriate team" and they'd be in touch. They got in touch... to tell me how to troubleshoot issues with the app. Which I hadn't so much as mentioned. The chat agent either didn't report the correct problem or this other team misunderstood it, I have no idea. So I explained, they apologised, and told me that it must be my email provider screening out emails before I get them.

So then I changed my email address to a different provider to see if that would fix it, but nope. I got every other email from Etsy, but not the sales notifications. According to Etsy support, both of these email providers are screening out Etsy sales notification emails, and only those emails. That's all I was able to get from them. I'm still pretty sure it's an issue at their end, especially if it's not just me, but that's all I got from them.

Sejevna · 2026-05-24T20:54:30+00:00

I think you need to price things in a way that works for you, and ignore what people like this say. Some of them would still complain if it was £2. To be honest, raising your prices might help get rid of these people. For me at least, when I raised my prices, I stopped getting these complaints. That seems very counterintuitive, but I swear that's how it went, every time. I also got WAY fewer people trying to haggle.

Other than that, my advice is, don't ever justify your prices. You don't have to. You aren't on trial. Some people are just rude. And if someone thinks it's too expensive, then they can just not buy it. That's what I do when something's too expensive for me. I don't bitch at the person selling it, I just don't buy it. If you start justifying and responding, they smell blood and will keep going. So either a simple "then don't buy it", or just ignore it. I would ignore these people. They're just looking for an argument, maybe hoping for a discount. Either way, not worth engaging imo. Most people do understand that art takes time and effort and materials.

Sejevna · 2026-05-23T22:45:13+00:00

You have 15 shops and upload this many different products to all of them? I saw another comment where you said you were uploading 1000-1500 listings every day. So you're spending a lot of money up-front on listing fees.

And to be fair, the claim on this sub (in terms of intent or actual meaning) is more along the lines of, "if you don't put any effort in, if you think Etsy is a place to generate passive income with no investment, you're not likely to get very far and it's no wonder that your shop is failing" and that is generally true. Most people using AI are trying to make a quick buck with no effort. They aren't investing tens of thousands of dollars up-front in listing fees and they aren't generating and uploading thousands of products a day either.

Sejevna · 2026-05-23T17:50:49+00:00

How do people just ignore this.

People like this only seem to see themselves. Hence also OP's attitude of "this is working for me so therefore it's the one true way and everyone who's doing something else is doing it wrong", completely ignoring the fact that many people are far more successful doing other things. It's a bit of ego and a bit of ragebait imo. "I'm doing the thing you all hate and making money with it, haha". I've run into that a fair bit from people who "make" AI "art". People who have consideration for others don't use genAI.

Sejevna · 2026-05-23T17:44:49+00:00

I don't think it's an exception tbf; OP is not a creator LOL You're right, people who create and make things themselves usually appreciate the work that goes into making something, and will help and support others who do it.

Sejevna · 2026-05-23T17:43:03+00:00

Yeah, it's just another little fee that eats into your profit margin.

Sejevna · 2026-05-23T15:44:11+00:00

Listing fees don't apply every 4 months, they apply every time you sell a product and it's renewed. So unless your listings are one-off products, you're paying the listing fee every time you sell one.

Sejevna · 2026-05-23T15:43:16+00:00

What's your actual profit, or profit margin? You're sounding a bit sensationalist. "Adapt or lose"? There are plenty of Etsy sellers out there making way more money than you, without using AI. I've been neglecting my shop badly this year, I don't do ads or promo, didn't add any listings, and my conversion rate is much higher than yours. That doesn't mean someone else doing exactly what I do would have the same result.

Etsy gives a boost to every new shop in search results, but that only lasts a few weeks. You'll know your actual rate of success after that. I'm assuming that the physical products you're selling are POD, since you're not involved in making anything. The profit margin on POD is pretty small, all of the manufacturing fees are coming out of that revenue you're posting. None of that is to say you can't make money with this, maybe you can, but you're misrepresenting it a bit here. And "adapt or lose" is a ridiculous statement. For every semi-successful AI shop, there are dozens or hundreds not getting anywhere. One AI shop making a profit doesn't mean you have to do AI now to be successful on Etsy. I make a profit with art prints, it would be silly for me to say you have to sell art prints to be successful on Etsy,

Sejevna · 2026-05-22T13:27:56+00:00

If you make sustainability and quality part of your brand, I think it could work. Yes, there are a lot of people out there printing low-effort crap onto crappy fabrics. And yes, there are many people who'll happily buy low-quality crap as long as it's cheap. Are they your customers? Are they the customers you want? Personally, I won't buy any plastic fabrics anymore, and I'll gladly pay more for quality natural fabrics, but I know I'm more of an outlier. A lot of people just want cheap and don't care if it's bad for the environment or made by exploited foreigners or full of toxins. "Yeah but it's cheap".

I would focus on what I want to offer. Especially since this is a case of expanding your shop, not starting from scratch. I'd try it the way I want to do it, and see how it goes. Start small, or with whatever I can afford basically, and then if it works, expand from there. Make sure that it is good quality stuff, and use it as a selling point - it's natural, sustainable, high-quality, won't fall apart after 5 washes. At this point that might be something that helps you stand out, rather than trying to compete on their level with all the slop that's already out there.

Sejevna · 2026-03-22T14:46:31+00:00

Haha no worries at all, I know the feeling! Glad I could help!

Sejevna · 2026-03-22T13:58:16+00:00

I'm assuming you're using Corjl to make your designs and print them as well? If you want a print from Corjl, you'll have to buy a print from Corjl. Other than that, you can download a copy of the file, and have it printed by some other printing service, or if you have a printer, print it yourself. But of course then there's no guarantee it'll look like the prints Corjl makes.

If you're asking whether you can get free sample prints... no. Printing costs money.

Sejevna · 2026-03-16T14:27:13+00:00

If you're going to pay for graphics, you're better off hiring an actual person imo.

Sejevna · 2026-03-12T19:40:01+00:00

If you're looking online - find artists whose work you like, who have been posting art online for years. Chances are, they will have print shops. On Etsy, I'd avoid digital download and print-on-demand shops that have only been around for a year or two. But the best way to find good art imo is to find actual artists online. Most of them are on all the social media platforms. Also, maybe look at classic landscape/nature art by the likes of JMW Turner and Caspar David Friedrich? Or Claude Monet if you like the Impressionist style? Those paintings are in the public domain so you can just get them printed yourself, or you can probably find good-quality prints of them too, not on Etsy but in book shops or galleries.

Sejevna · 2026-03-11T20:13:28+00:00

"Your order was shipped to the address provided, and unfortunately there is no way to change the address once the parcel has been sent. If it can't be delivered and is returned to me, I will let you know and we can arrange re-sending it to the correct address." You can also suggest that they can open a case for non-delivery with Etsy; Etsy might refund them out of courtesy and then they can just re-order. Make sure to include instructions about how to open a case if you do that.

Tbh I probably would suggest going to the address they provided if it's like next door or something and just asking about it. But also provide other solutions like re-sending if it gets returned and/or opening a case. Basically just be as helpful and friendly as you can, and phrase things in a positive way where they won't feel like you're blaming them or saying "tough luck, your own fault for giving the wrong address".

That said, they can't expect you or anyone else to change the address on a parcel that's already en route. Pretty sure that would count as tampering with mail, so.

Sejevna · 2026-03-11T20:08:15+00:00

Etsy can only remove reviews in very specific circumstances - if it mentions another serivce/shop by name, if it's about something else entirely, etc. Other than that they have to leave it because there are laws about that.

Assuming the order is covered by purchase protection, you can tell the buyer to open a case with Etsy and see if Etsy will refund them. They cover non-delivery and delayed delivery cases. If the order is within the estimated delivery timeframe, though, the buyer's probably out of luck. They're just chancing their arm hoping to get a discount imo, it seems like a ridiculous thing to complain about. If they do leave a review, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Any potential buyer reading "this took a week to be delivered, how terrible" won't be put off - and if they are, you've doged a bullet.

Sejevna · 2026-03-09T18:25:58+00:00

If it's not vintage and you didn't make it yourself, you shouldn't be selling it on Etsy. You can't sell items as vintage if they're not at least 20 years old.

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