Supplies from Etsy? (And perhaps some scams)

General Discussion
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Hi I just wanted to bring up a topic that, from the looks of it, came up one before but had a very different focus.

So being that some herbs, or crystals that I’d like to use or just like to have around (as well as some insences) can be a bit hard to track down (aside from the magic of the internet of course) I googled some stuff I was looking for and went to the “shopping” tab and while other places had them I noticed about 85-90% could be found on Etsy. Now I can’t pass up some good ol one stop shopping. Even though I know it’s something of a treasure hunt to find what you need (because of the way the tags work) but dammit my mama ain’t raise no quitter! :joy:

So I’m poking around, found some herbs and crystals I wanted, with a fair amount of options and decent prices (for the most part), I even found some quality insences Which I’ll be testing one when it arrives in a couple of weeks. But then came the part I wanted to bring up, forgetting about the offers to have casts or readings done for you, I noticed a lot of oils, ingredients, dusts, powders, candles, special “waters” (war, tar, ghost, moon, etc) and more. These struck me as things used in ingredients and rituals, from the old ideas of witchcraft and voodoo, some even having the labels as being for that.

Among the options were things like goofer dust, coffin nails, D.U.M.E. powder, various skulls (though real ones of anything still are far and few in between) and well honestly too many things to list. And this on it’s own raises some questions I’d like to ask. I’m almost 100% certain in my belief that making your own blends, spells and supplies is better, same for gathering things like graveyard dirt. Id like a bit of a discussion that weighs the pros and cons of using pre made, or DIY. So I can get a better understanding and maybe help those looking for things to make an informed decision.

Second thing, as I was looking into some crystals I did some browsing (I window shop alot, it’s fun okay? ) And I want to point out that alot of the sellers appeared to feel genuinely about what they sell and seem to do their best to provide goods with honesty and integrity. (Disclaimer is done time for the tea :tea::ghost:) there were a few specific vendors that, if you don’t cross check prices and claims (told you I’m a natural thrifter) or have the knowledge yourself, appear to be selling VERY high quality, and rare items that would be a tremendous asset to any aspiring practicioner. Here’s the issues though, not only were the claims just a little too over the top, and the descriptions written just vaguely enough to apply to a lot of people while still feeling very personalized to them (in some cases preying on the feeling of being alone, abandoned, shunned, or not good enough. And in others capitalizing on the mindset of an addict or person with mental or behavioral problems who are so desperately trying to fight their issues) which is bad enough. But instead of marketing to them (which I think is bad enough already) the items they had listed were listed at insanely high mark-ups in some cases what would be a 40$ item was going for close to 300$! Which earns them a big ol “Go F**K Yourself” from me. As I don’t think I’m supposed to link to sellers of any kind, I won’t be calling them out by name but i wanted to put that here, in the hopes that it helps people not get scammed or cheated.

Unless I’m sorely mistaken and that a single crystal with almost no work on the users side will make them ascend to the highest plane of consciousness and Grant them an almost supreme clarity, including psychic abilities, access to the akashic records, and divination abilities. And in more obvious cases promising to give them strength and other powers. If I’m wrong about them bullshitting, I’ll take it back and apologise to the seller’s directly, even though this is the only place I’ve mentioned it, hell I’ll even buy a crystal from them.

Disclaimer: yes Im aware that crystals do help with a lot of things and by working with them major improvements can be made in areas. I also understand the power of the mind and manifesting has on things. My issue is with the sellers exaggerating these effects to intentionally mislead. Most of the effects they mentioned are in fact part of the crystals properties, just with a much much smaller scale.

Important disclaimer
I also want to make sure that it’s known that not every crystal from the vendors i discussed is over hyped, misleading or egregiously over priced, I had noticed a trend in their marketing and pricing that the vendor appeared to have no qualms about using repeatedly. And while I find the practice abhorrent I’m not calling for any bane, harassing, or anything that might have a negative effect on their ability to sustain a living or their health

TLDR:

  • What would be the pros and cons to using ingredients, tools, and supplies that are premade versus doing it myself?

  • Please be diligent about the sources you do buy from online and double check all claims of use, materials, sources, and pricing to protect yourselves (and your wallet). Above all trust your judgement and intuition, feeling too good be true may be just that.

Look forward to hearing from you guys, much love and stay safe

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Pros of pre-made items: convenience, mostly. Also, your supplier may have access to a resource you don’t.

Cons of pre-made items: How are they sourced? Are they good quality? Are they worth the amount of time you will have to work to pay for them?

Pros of DIY: cost, knowing for sure that no one is scamming you

Cons of DIY: time, might still be expensive, do you have the skill set to make that? can you get access to a certain ingredient directly if it doesn’t exist in your area?

If buying spell supplies on Etsy (which I have), Read. The. Customer. Reviews. That was how I narrowed down sellers of red brick dust. One highly reviewed vendor disclosed that she made her red brick dust from bricks in an abandoned building in her tiny hometown. By a lucky coincidence, it’s also my grandfather’s hometown, so it was easy to verify this. And the brick dust and black salt I bought from her worked VERY well.

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I’m glad you had a good experience :blush:, as for the reviews that’s more or less what I’ve spent a good amount of time doing recently. I’ve narrowed down my list of considerably, and did some cross checking, referencing, and research on the ones I had an immediate use for, the rest I’ll slowly go through as time passes. I’m kinda using Etsy right now as a revolving door of ideas, inspiration, info, as well as a place to occasionally get materials. In the case of the crystals and herbs I needed I found proper vendors without much issue.
I’ve also found something interesting, that by going through and separating the items, spells tools, supplies, artwork, and “lore inspired creations” while I scroll and looking back at list it’s very interesting to see what kind of pattern emerges and where I seem to be leaning towards in terms of what’s my next area to increase my learning in.

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Please pm me who the seller is on Etsy–there’s some things I need.

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There is actually a reason a lot of etsy sellers have such high mark ups, and i speak from experience. Your average buyer equates price with quality. And quality equals sales. You can have a top shelf item marked more than affordably and people will skip over it for the more expensive option because of their perception of quality. I started making more sales on Etsy after I raised my prices by 5-10 bucks for that very reason. We may be in the witchcraft business but it’s still a business, so if upping the price makes it more enticing then that’s what we gotta do.

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@UnseelieDiabolus I can definitely respect the ways business has to work, and that in areas of mark up and advertising, almost 90% of that discussion revolves around relative morals, so quite the grey area. And I definitely respect the hustle. That being said, I feel a mark up of roughly 750% is overkill, regardless of whether we can agree on the morals of exaggeration and the aforementioned marketing. But hey, I’m not here to diss any opinions or ways of making a living I’m aware of my rant, but the important point of this was to keep any potential consumer informed

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I’m glad this thread came up. It is helpful as I was looking at Etsy to buy an ingredient to make ink for my pact. It gives me some food for thought

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What I have noticed is, if you buy crystals direct from China, say an obsidian pyramid, it will be <$5 or $10 most of the time, and many are marked as artificial obsidian, ie., created from glass or some other method, in fact a lot of crystals are marked from the sellers as dyed crystal, and then you get things like goldstone which are manufactured anyway, these do not exist in nature. The sheer scale of natural and mnaufactured semi-precious gemstones they churn out is also a bit of an eye opener.

Then, the crystals hit the UK sellers and are suddenly rare artefacts chanted over by monks in the Himalayas, blessed by reiki etc., and yet VISIBLY the exact same product, often using the original manufacturer’s stock images.

This is also true of anything made from clear resin, which is in no way a traditional or “crystal” material in the normal sense (not saying it may not have uses, just that it’s not built up naturally over millions of years, and it will usually yellow and eventually look awful).

But that gets passed off in UK and US sites as some kind of rare fabric of great wonder. :man_shrugging:

So staying up to date by searching within China, even if you then choose to buy local, is a good idea, especially with ebay where you can search by region.

The markups once something has left China are sometimes in the region of 1,000% or more, which yeah is how things work right now, and I’m not trying to make any particular point about it, but there are issues when buying raw materials like crystals online which sometimes take some research to discover.

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Honestly, all fantastic points. I have known for years that any cheap Lapis - for instance- is almost always dyed howlite.

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Very good point. Also for the sake of clarity, my issue is only concerning products like herbs and crystals, which while there is work and time put into processing, preparing and growing them (I get the work and space necessary mark up to pay for that. I just think at some point it’s excessive) as for any item related to art, or where the only able way to judge is a matter of opinion I get the one of a kind nature of these items and see no necessary limits for Mark up there

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Cheap moldavite is another one. Nearly always is dyed glass or plastic. That is definitely one you need to know where it is sourced from and what the real deal looks like

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A lot of stuff passed off as turquoise is dyed howlite as well, especially in crafts and jewellery making. There are some very good honest Chinese sellers who disclose this, or that something is dyed agate or whatever. I don’t have any bookmarks handy to share, but you can find them searching for the terms.

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When I get off work I’m probably going to see how good of a list I can compile for recognizing fake products feel like that might be helpful to have access to

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Turquoise too. If it’s smooth, it’s fake. If it feels soapy, it’s real.

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