A couple days ago though, during a routine Etsy search, I came across something that looked very familiar:
Nope, that's not one of mine! The second ever bookshelf necklace seller has appeared :(
Now I can't REALLY be all that sad or angry - I mean I can't have a copyright on a necklace that looks like an every day object (and even if I can I think it's a bit unfair...). And it's a free world, right?
They look remarkably like mine - three shelves (with an optional tall model), glued to a silver flat pad bail and strung from an 18" (or 19 in his case... I should switch to 20!) chain. Even the photo shots, like above, seem remarkably like how I model my necklaces. I think I've been copied the source of some inspiration.
There are some differences - these necklaces are made out of recycled leather, and have gold embossing on lots of the parts (which makes me wonder how durable it is?). They're also conveniently priced just a few dollars less than mine are. But I like mine better, I stand by their quality and their crafty creativeness, and... I do get defensive when I take a look at this site!
I don't know if this will mean big competition for my little bookshelves, as so far they haven't sold all that many, and it seems they've only been doing so for about a month. But, they are located in the USA - and since most of my customers are in the US, it might be tempting to buy one of his instead of mine and wait for the longer shipping times, eep...!
But again, I'm telling myself not to worry. Good luck to them as an Etsy seller, maybe we can form a bookshelf necklace makers guild or something. There's plenty of people in the world that love reading and books and bookshelves.
...but if I see them featured on bookshelf porn I'll be green with jealousy!!!
Yes, happens all the time...I even get other sellers contact me pretending to be customers so that they can extract info! Just keep moving forward being one step better and yes yours are much better!
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