Etsy sellers fabricate impossible ages for contemporary products, pretending they are 20+ year old vintage. Watch the pants catch fire and burn. #etsysellsvintage

I dunno if a picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes.

But these hilarious Etsy listings for products pretending to be "vintage" (at least 20 years old) prove that a picture can disclose the dishonesty of a seller.

I found these items while I was browsing through the "vintage" items at the Vintage link in the upper right corner of Etsy's pages.  Items are displayed in order of relevancy, so out of 10 million or so listings the sellers claim are "vintage" the 12,000 items shown at the link are what Etsy corporate wants shoppers to see.

LythaStudios sells supplies for making jewelry, but it seems that the shop owner is one of those Etsygirls who can't resist seizing a Tag-o-rama Moment.  (Tag-o-rama was a suggestion made by Etsy's management and staff that sellers should list their items in categories other than those that are the best, common sense, match for them.)  LythaStudios rammed her Kumi Loom Kumihimo disk into Vintageville even though it's a perfect fit for Crafting Supplies and Tools.  Dated by this mendacious seller as "Vintage from before 2000", the smell of combusting pants (on fire) becomes unmistakable as soon as you view the main photo:  the item has a date stamped right on it, and it says 2008!  UPDATE JUNE29:  the mendacious LythaStudios has revised the item, stating NOW that it is simply "vintage", which it will be according to Etsy's 20+ year old standard in 2028.  Why do Etsygirls get so obsessed with lying?  This item is clearly a tool for crafting, and would be listed by an honest seller as a (non vintage) Supply.  3 units in stock.

How would you like one of Etsy's "vintage" sellers to create a custom item for you, traveling back in time 20 years after she receives your order?  That's what FiregypsyVintage is selling in her listing for an embroidered patch with up to 17 custom characters -- and it's listed as "Vintage from before 2000".  Only in the Etsyverse can you order an item to be created for you in the future that is already 20 years old.  Except, of course, it's not vintage.  It's brand new.

Etsy has done it again:  on June 20 a handmade to order listing was featured as "vintage" as part of the "throwback Thursday" promotional email.  Just to remind you, Etsy shop owners can list anything handmade as "vintage" as part of the site's "tag-o-rama" concept of categorizing items in irrelevant ways to make them visible to more shoppers.  And doing this with Vintage has two additional benefits from corporate's point-of-view:  1) it increases the count of items listed AS vintage without adding additional authentic Vintage items to the site and 2) it discourages shoppers knowledgeable about authentic Vintage from shopping on Etsy (see too many fakes, and you click away) which, in turn, encourages Vintage sellers with declining sales to close up shop and leave.  Win, win.


The email, titled "Vintage summer staples" included these silver earrings with turquoise and blue topaz which the mendacious sack of a seller JanPalomboDesign listed as both "vintage from before 2000" and "handmade".  The seller's Description clearly states "Handmade to order", but the listing says there are 16 pairs of the earrings in stock.  There are so many contradiction here that Etsy's promotional curators found the listing impossible to resist!

Currently the link to the online version of the June 20, 2019 email has been disabled, and half of the images originally visible in the email version are gone.  If the link becomes available again, I'll post it here.

Etsy fake vintage reseller 20thcenturydesignsny has a second undisclosed Etsy shop Goodtimesvtg that also resells new items as vintage #etsysellsvintage

Etsy long term reseller 20thcenturydesignsny has another -- undisclosed -- Etsy shop Goodtimesvtg  Etsy sellers are supposed to include links to ALL the shops they own on their Etsy user Profile -- which this deceptive seller does not.

I discovered the two shops were the same seller because they have some of the same (supposedly) vintage items listed in both shops, and the two shops have favorited many of each other's items.  Oh, and I recognized this pair of Chinese import earrings from this decade as having been listed originally by 20thcenturydesignsny.  Recognized, because who could forget these photos?

Seller claims these are "Vintage from before 2000" but they are contemporary, and you can still purchase them new on AliExpress for a dollar and change


Let's have a look at some of the items Goodtimesvtg lists as "vintage", along with sources to buy for less in case you really want any of these items.  Remember:  don't let a mendacious Etsy reseller rip you off!


Goodtimesvtg says this resin family sculpture on a wooden base is both "Mid century" and "Vintage from the 1980s".  Since the 1980s are not the "mid" of any Century, one of these claims can't be true.  Actually, both of them are deceptive:  this is a contemporary product, from the early 21st Century.

Buy the same item on Amazon for less than $15, compared to the $35 price in Goodtimesvtg's shop.


This Chinese knock-off of a Scandinavian Modern ceiling lamp is priced at $249, and is pretending to be "Vintage from the 1970s".

The same lamp was featured in this blog on April 18, 2019 as sold by her other shop 20thcenturydesignsny  It's still for sale in both shops, but the price in the 20thcenturydesignsny listing has been increased to $273!  Current price on Amazon is $85.99; many listings on eBay under $100.


With the discovery of the second shop, following the mendacious antics of this long time reseller has become twice as amusing.