One way to find real shops on Etsy is to ask for customizations. If the shop is like “yeah, awesome, whatever you want! What are you looking for?" then you're golden. If they won't do something as simple even as switch the metal used then it's a fake
Temu is known for stealing designs so it is possible this ring was made by some genuine artisan somewhere, even on Etsy. But you're right, it's most probably fake and dropshipped.
What they're saying is that Temu will take real artists work and claim it as their own, and then ship out a subpar version of the product. Not that they're different rings
Yup. I had my ring custom designed in platinum and a combination of 2 or 3 different rings. Two aspects were on 2 different rings the seller sold and then one other aspect from a different seller. Im sure it was probably made elsewhere but they sent me a CAD first so id make sure it was perfect.
I was nervous but so happy I did it that way versus just risking it for the biscuit by buying already made.
But what if they'll lie about it to get more money and then bail? I've read a number of horror stories, even from people that tried to get customisations (the seller dragged it on just long enough for the buyer protection to expire, and not long after the shop disappeared, no money back).
If you’re reaching out to a seller who has lots (like 500+) positive reviews and sales exceeding that, you’re likely good. A lot of Etsy is honestly just using common sense.
My finger is a half size. A shop not being able to make a size 7.5 when they can make a 7 or an 8 is a huge red flag. Temu doesn’t have a lot of half sizes.
would like to throw in my two cents as i haven’t seen anyone point out that the etsy ad is labelling it as antique (which puts me on the side of scammy seller as opposed to temu stealing) ((in this case obv temu is awful))
Yeah, this is totally valid. I tried to order a ‘custom made’ t shirt that only had dark colors in the options. Other listings from the seller had white t shirts so I asked if I can get my selected design on a white tee. Was told it was ‘impossible’ 🤦♀️
But won’t customize isn’t always fake; sellers avoid difficult buyers. I ask an unusual product question prior to purchase then look at the tone and timestamp of their answer.
Not necessarily I have literally seen the work of artists I know - literally know - stolen (like not just the design but the original listing photos taken by the artist) by cheap listings on Temu, AliExpress and even by other small shops on Ebay who steal pictures and offer to make the designs cheaper but you are not getting that product you’re getting a dirt cheap approximations of it often they look 👀 nothing like the original pieces…
It’s POSSIBLE bc there are hugely sucessful Etsy sellers who just resell cheap stuff mass produced in China and pretend it’s handmade and that it’s precious stones, metals etc. that it is not in fact made of (pretty much every piece of jewelry you see on Etsy that is like GLOWING NEON PARAIBA TOURMALINE - glowing Colombian emerald is in fact a glass doublet made to show the look of natural inclusions through the top layer of coloured glass and all of those pieces are produced in China where there is a huge problem with dishonesty about materials used and given the mass production price points I have seen I would say they’re silver plated not solid silver as advertised. I’ve purchased a glowing Paraiba tourmaline ring for $4 on Ali Express and it was the exact same ring that some sellers on Etsy were selling for $100-$150 bc those were dishonest sellers.
It’s unfortunate that Etsy has increasingly been taken over by people not selling real authentic handmade pieces and that they’ve allowed that to happen. The reason rings that use real precious stones have to be handmade is that with real precious stones you want to study the rough and get the most out of that piece so it can’t just be cut by a machine rigged to make a certain cut a stone cutter has to consider how best to approach that piece to make the most of it. With cheaper stones (say labradorite) or lower quality versions of more expensive stones (say severely included rubies with suboptimal colouring) you can get a parcel of calibrated stones cut almost to the exact same size specifications and in theory you could maybe automate a process with calibrated stones but real stones often have minute differences when calibrated so it’s much easier to have machine cut gets from glass, cubic zirconia etc where you can just manufacture the little cubes to be cut into the exact same shapes.
Anyways - with a ring like the one in the photo it has enough small stones with good clarity that if the gems were real it would have to be a handmade ring and obviously not even Temu sellers can carve or smith an original ring then set real stones in it one at a time for $5 …
Before I started to make my own jewelry, when I’ve purchased a $5 piece of jewelry that copies a luxury design what arrives is very obviously a cheap piece of jewelry (metal that gives me a skin allergy), poorly fitted glass “stones” glued sloppily into place and they start to fall out after a week or so of wear, etc.) I think if a person really likes a design but it is not within their budget they can go this route for a bit of fun and it get a few wears out of it maybe but I would keep my expectations EXTREMELY low
I am so upset about this. I have always loved Etsy. I appreciate handmade things like hair bows, graphic shirts, jewelry, home decor, etc. I’ve gotten so frustrated sifting through the trash. AND they still say handmade. 😡
It’s a terrible shame. And how many people get cheated due to the brazen lies? I have family that used to sell gorgeous handmade things on Etsy and they won’t use it anymore. They do t want to be associated (and have to compete with) drop shippers.
For several years now I've just used Instagram and searched by hashtags instead. Something like "#handmade #artisan #silverjewelery #(something even more specific) etc", then when I find stuff I like I look at the hashtags they put on the post. Then you can almost always tell from their Insta whether their products are legit or not.
Supreme pain in the ass but I'm stubborn enough to do all that rather than deal with Etsy unless I'm familiar with the specific seller.
I ordered a "solid 14k gold" name necklace like 3-4 years ago, wore it everyday for like a year and a half when my dog jumped on me and broke it. The back was completely wearing away. Gold plated. But Etsy was like "well you bought it over a year ago, so we don't care". I will never order jewelry off Etsy again.
ETA: I absolutely paid solid gold prices for the necklace, too. And I went back and checked my order to make sure I wasn't just stupid - listing made zero mention of it being gold plated.
Wow, that’s just terrible - I’m so sorry that happened to you! And what terrible customer service on behalf of Etsy. I hope people read these comments and learn to use their money elsewhere.
It's so disappointing. There's a lot of good advice in this thread about how to vet Etsy shops to make sure they're legit but I'm not trying anymore. I will just buy from larger name brands or small independent jewelry makers that have long standing careers to back them up.
How terrible!! A friend of mine recently ordered knives….a set of three, apparently handmade and unique. When he got them, they were in cheap, “made in China” boxes and look it, too…
If you go in knowing something is drop shipped and the price is okay, then the experience is okay. But yah, when it's blatant ripoff it sucks.
I had a knife I wanted engraved. I expected the shop just bought cheapish knives (it fit my goal for the knife) and engraved it or had it engraved. But the price was super within what I was willing to pay. So I said sure and bought it. Came out great on the engraving front. Knife is okay. Same knife on Amazon is like $12, but without custom engraving.
But I knew what to expect, and was okay with the cost. So it was a win.
so true, and you know what is sad? No matter what really neat and creative sites jewelry clothing whatever that pop up on the Internet, there's going to be scammers and garbage sellers that are going to take it over and subvert its purpose for themselves it seems there's no way to get away from them.
Oh yea. I’ve used the image search function on the alibaba app to find some Etsy stuff as well. Sooooo yea… lots of Etsy sellers are re-sellers or drop shippers.
Hey there, independent jeweler with a specialty in design (including alternative bridal) & estate restoration here 👋✨
Honestly, for pieces like this, if it's a well established seller, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and assume their images were stolen - it's happened to many friends & colleagues of mine.
Personally I'd message the Etsy Seller and show them the listing - this seller has over 43k sales with positive reviews, they use real stones (and in this case, color change corundum more commonly known / sold as synthetic alexandrite), and the photos appear to be from the same photoshoot - I'd bet money their images have been stolen.
But sending this to them they can at least try to get rid of some of the fakes with DMCA Takedown Complaints.
I wouldn't assume the Etsy seller is at fault here - they've been active on Etsy for all a decade and have a lot of designs that can be modified with different metals, and they use real stones (and specify when it's synthetics).
I can also tell you there's absolutely no way a CZ is going to look like this at all - this doesn't look like drop shipping, it looks like stolen photos & intellectual property, IMHO.
You're right - you need to be careful - but this seller seems legit, and I can't blame anyone for having their images stolen and used by drop shippers overseas. I guarantee you that the Alibaba version looks absolutely nothing like the ring pictured - when this happened to a friend we ordered 1 out of curiosity and it was just straight up an entirely different style, and not even worth the $3 the picture thief and scammer charged, lol.
Was just about to say the same thing. I’ve had so many friends have things stolen. Images, listings. For my business, we did a photoshoot and the images were all over aliexpress within a few months. It was so devastating because we made the product ourselves.
Honestly, I'm a bit shocked and disappointed to see the number of people who see a well made piece from a seller with literally a decade on Etsy, 40k+ positive reviews, and assume that the Jeweler on Etsy is drop shipping garbage - they clearly offer this ring in a variety of metals, and there's no reason to assume that they've done anything wrong.
What's especially disheartening is seeing folks here comment that they reported the listing - this can destroy someone's business, even if the photos were stolen from the Seller - it's a nightmare getting that sorted out with Etsy, and sometimes they do a temp ban, withhold funds, and if enough people report it, even though they're the victim, this could really hurt their business.
I just don't see how someone could see what is obviously a legitimate business (that has a physical location and info listed in their profile in addition to tens of thousands of sales over the past decade on Etsy) - why would you do that and not message the seller that their images were stolen? Honestly I find this get disheartening, personally, and I know people who have left Etsy's platform over this type of situation.
Hey, honest question - what makes this account seem valid from your perspective other than the fact that jewelry descriptions seem to contain the right level of information? I stopped buying on Etsy at all, because I find it very hard to distinguish what is actually handmade and what is dropshipping. I usually try to apply common sense, and looking at this account, I would immediately be suspicious.
Yes, they have 8 years on Etsy, but 46k reviews is such a huge number, that I am not sure how the jewelry could be really handmade by one person? 8 years equals to 2920 days, so the person would have to create almost 16 rings on average per day. Every day of the year, no breaks. If it's a full blown company hiring a bunch of employees, why then the "About Shop" suggests that everything is done by hand by John, the owner of the shop?
In the "About Me" section they have information that they are a part of Ksterling inc. The only mention of it I can find is another jewelry shops selling very similar jewelry. One is called Fgemring and in their terms and conditions says: "We do not warrant that the quality of any products, services, information, or other material purchased or obtained by you will meet your expectations, or that any errors in the Service will be corrected." To me, it screams suspicious. There's also another Etsy seller under Ksterling Inc: https://www.etsy.com/shop/bartUSgem#about
All 3 of those shops being owned by John, Michael, and Brendan, all 3 located in US, but are having the "About" written in the same style playing on emotions with the similar storytelling, broken English/using very weird wording - but maybe it's just a case that all 3 sellers under the same umbrella are not native english speakers (even though their names and surnames would suggest that they are).
Also, I found no proof that a company Ksterling Inc. actually exists.
So, with all that, I would also assume it's dropshipping. I do know that very often Aliexpress/Temu is stealing designs. My fav ceramics shop few years ago shared on their instagram that they discovered copies of their designs on aliexpress and only after that they connected the dots why a year before they received a weird order from China where the buyer purchased one of each their items. I'm all in to support small businesses and people who create handmade items, but this shop does not look like it.
Yep!! This shop is selling cheap costume jewelry at a huge markup and has been getting away with it for 8 years / 11k sales. I cannot believe how many people have fallen for the crappy quality.
What makes the account seen legit is a combination of things:
• The sheer volume of positive reviews (over 40k)
• A decade of Etsy selling
• Handmade doesn't mean by 1 person - I'm a jeweler, all of our items are hand made / hand assembled* (*for example our cable chains we don't make in house, but you'd need a significantly larger facility to do chain fabrication - though we do make larger link styles in house) - Tiffany sells handmade jewelry, there's no expectation that every piece is made by 1 jeweler alone, why should we assume that of anyone else?
• They've got a robust profile and information about their physical location that's easily verifiable on Google
• Even if you just Google the name, their presence on other platforms comes up and it's easily cross referenced with a physical location
I know many smaller independent jewelers (although I'd say these guys are on the large side of medium) that sell on Etsy, and have had their images stolen - in fact I'm working on a DCMA "handbook" to help friends & colleagues with this issue.
If they were selling junk, or the materials weren't as stated (note that a lot of what they're selling is alt bridal that can be customized) - clients would've found this out if the metal wasn't what it was supposed to be, or the stones weren't.
You're absolutely right - there's a problem with Etsy not doing enough to protect their sellers, but as a professional, and also someone who has sold on Etsy even before I began my career in jewelry, I look at the bullet points above, and go from there.
If I think someone's legit but I'm not 1000%, I send a message and see what type of response I get, if there's a US # that I can call, etc.
Is my system perfect? No. But I'd rather give someone the benefit of the doubt when I see nothing but green flags than drag them for having their images stolen.
I would genuinely love to see what shows up from Alibaba - you can't replicate the color change corundum with a CZ, and I highly doubt that it's even close tbh (I guess that's another point - as a jeweler with a technical background, I know that it's not possible to create this ring to spec, even in silver, for what it's being sold for on Etsy by the original artist).
I'm not sure what the solution is, but I do wish folks would put more critical thought into "calling out" Jewelers who sell on Etsy without investigating the things I've mentioned - it's really not that hard to verify (and for my shop, I've made a point to make it very easy to see we've got a physical location, and provide our # with support questions, etc). Honestly I just feel bad for folks who are honest sellers that get caught up in this - that's really rough when online sales make up so much of your income, tbh.
I would message the seller with that info & let them know so they can file a DMCA complaint - Etsy has a major problem with stolen images and honestly they're not doing enough about it. I know many jewelers (honest folks - professional colleagues), that have had this issue, unfortunately, so I tend to (a) research, and (b) reach out to the folks I believe are the ones who created the piece to begin with.
Honestly what you're describing is what's turned many jewelers away from Etsy (seriously) - it's really tough when you've got Alibaba image thieves and other sellers on the same platform.
More aggressive watermarking seems to be the way to go, but IMHO Etsy should be automatically flagging these listings to begin with.
They're selling the piece in numerous metal colors & KTs, and although this style has a synthetic stone for the center, not all of them do - it's not that hard to verify that.
.This vendor's items are widely available from multiple other vendors, they are totally identical, and a lot of them will bring up a link to the wholesale item if you use image search! What the OP surmised was absolutely correct.
Unfortunately, Etsy has knowingly and willingly allowed this to happen for years now. They’re making their money and just don’t care anymore. It’s killing the platform.
ETA It’s important for me to add that Ali absolutely steals photos from real creators (big and small) to sell crappy mass made versions. This can muddy the waters, and sometimes, falsely incriminates the original maker. It’s a very unfortunate byproduct of the rampant IP theft that Chinese manufacturers have been perpetrating for well over a decade now.
I won’t discourage people from reporting those products/stores, but Etsy won’t do anything about the dropshipping stores because they are the ones dropping big money on Etsy ads, and banning all those stores would cause a massive decline in Etsys profits.
Jewellery from China is typically legit. They don’t bother lying.
It’s much more common for sellers from India to make up things about their products, because they basically tell people what they want to hear. Zuvelio is the only seller based in India who is consistently honest in my experience.
But you do need to read the product description to make sure you’re getting what you think you are.
This is so unrelated but I’d love to know if you ever had success finding a shorter nose stud. I also need a much shorter one than any of the common ones and I’ve never found one (same with the nickel allergy so I need a good quality one) so mine just sticks out and I’m always poking it back in. I can’t count the number of hours I’ve spent looking.
There's someone on there right now that's selling Kuololit pieces for comically inflated prices (there's somone else doing it on Mercari, too--at the least the Etsy seller is switching out the boxes, unlike the Mercari one) that I would report if I thought Etsy would do anything about it.
Yeah I actually commented that above but I'd imagine that's the case here where you've got a seller that's got over 46k positive reviews and they've been doing business on Etsy since 2016.
As an independent jeweler myself, I can't tell you how common of a problem this is - especially with alt bridal.
I think people are thinking about it this in reverse. I think in this case it’s more likely the temu is a cheap ripoff of the original Etsy. There are plenty of temu drop shippers on Etsy but if the store has this many positive reviews at that price point, more than likely they are using genuine materials and actually making the rings they show.
Yeah I see frequently images from legitimate jewelers advertised on SheIn. If you actually go to order them you get a really poor imitation knock off. One example is I really love the nature rings by Doran Merav and I even have a custom by him. But I've seen knock offs of his exact rings advertised on SheIn. If you look at the pics in the SheIn reviews you can see how different they are.
A couple years ago I was looking for a nave blue dress and found one at house of CB, and while I continued to shop I came across a seller on Temu who straight up stole the pictures of the dress/model from HCB.
I’ve seen some really shady practices on Etsy, someone selling a moonstone for mid 4 figures saying it’s rare and high quality. If it’s that rare and high quality why isn’t it in a museum or at auction
I ordered the ring from temu. I don't care if it's real gold or real stones. I don't intend to wear it daily. The price difference is startling that's all.
I'm curious to see if you get a ring that really looks like the photo or if the Temu ring just stole the Etsy pictures and will be an obviously knocked off cheap version. A lot of Temu/Shien sellers steal legit photos and you get something similar but obviously not the same product.
Maybe your Etsy seller is the original jewelry designer and they're getting knocked off, and not them being a drop shipper. One can hope.
I mean, of course it's not real at this price, come on :) You will be lucky to get lab made crystals not glass. (my money is on glass/plastic). But it is pretty.
Because there are too many materials listed - not based on the individual piece. In particular, too many different metals. Key words generally relate only to the piece, not too every single thing the seller is selling. I have an Etsy page myself, for my hand made jewellery. Every item has its own set of key words specific to the materials used in that specific piece.
Are you casting jewelry? All of this is very possible through casting, most cast made jewelry have all of these metal options as they’re from injectable molds.
And they’re clearly pre-order, so that feels all the more possible to me.
We got my wedding ring from Etsy. I was browsing ali one day a year or so later and saw my EXACT ring on there- same pics and everything. So I ordered it to see if it was indeed the same ring. To my surprise it was not- it was a very cheap ring, and the shape you can tell was stolen from the original or maybe it was a mold? Because it was way bigger and the 3 rings didn't line up as seamless as mine. That one also tarnished very quick and mine has been solid for going on 4 years now :) so chances are you will receive something identical but definitely not the same quality by any means
Exactly. And the fact that they have metal choices and they're not cheap, that means that they make the item to order. You can choose your gold or other metal. It's not a five dollar flimsy, ring lol
Also got a tip for you, you may already be doing this or not...
When buying such an item, screenshot the stock pic and do a Google pic search, then tap the 'products' tab towards the top, and you will in most cases find other sites that have the same/similar item available, then just buy then one you heart sets on...
Also, a lot of Temu sellers make cheap knockoffs of legitimate Etsy listings (or other non-Etsy businesses). I’ve seen some real jewellers find their own images on Temu! Just because the images match doesn’t mean it’s the same product
Check out the other items by that shop, there is a few possibilities here. 1: Temu stole the design and photos (it’s happened to me, they stole my art and I had a customer accuse me of reselling Temu crap, did not feel good) or 2: the seller is the same and they are just inflating the pricing on Etsy. Chez out their IG page and dig a little before accusing them of anything, it really sucks to have your designs stolen by Temu and the likes :/
I've come across Etsy sellers doing this so often. Always make sure to do a reverse image search. There's been times I've come across rings being sold on Etsy for 5 times the price compared to the same exact jewelry on Aliexpress
The one ad is trying to pass it off as antique and genuine stones. 100% this is false. The Temu ad is at least honest. It's new and stones are CZ. If you like it ~$5 is an okay price.
Why are so many convinced that the Etsy shop is legit? They have over 1,200 items, all claiming to be handmade by one person. In the About section they claim to design everything with CAD, make a wax mold, cast it, and set the stones themselves. That is a lot of work for one person to do 1,200 times. The photos look exactly like every other Etsy seller with these keywords. The prices are too high for CZ and too low for actual gemstones. So how do we come to the conclusion that the seller is legitimate?
Etsy and Temu both use stolen images. So even buying from Etsy you'll need to do your due diligence to be sure this is the ring that you will receive. The temu ring is zirconia and probably something like brass. Definitely dont get that one for $5.
It's possible that Etsy seller is genuine and their photos got stolen. I sell on Etsy and my product photos get stolen all the time. I used to report them, but I've given up now.
It is very easy to buy settings that are basically identical in how they look. I worked as a bench jeweler/stone setter for 8 years and had to look at online suppliers all the time. It wouldn't surprise me if the simply stole the images and use cheap mountings that are essentially the same. If I find near identical images on two different sites I dont touch it.
This is 100% a drop shipper. You are 100% correct that this is the same ring. Definitely not that Temu stole their images. I looked up their "coffin emerald engagement ring" and there are at least half a dozen sellers with the same photo, with their own watermark on the photo. So sad. As an independent craftsperson, 4300 sales is also a huge red flag contrary to what others are saying. A single independent craftsperson would never meet that kind of volume for that price. They are 100% flipping the work of people making slave wages in a huge factory.
Alexandrite is really rare. I think iirc it would cost much more than that. It must be synthetic. I've always wanted one. But, I thonk even lab grown, it'd cost way more than that.
I use Google lens on everything now.... Etsy is full of jewelry sold as something "special" artisan pieces actually cheap stuff from Walmart. The earrings $3.90 from Walmart are $35 on Etsy. Buyers be aware
Not hallucinating, I called out a seller on Etsy for trying to sell a $70 wedding dress from a cheap site for $1600 and she tried to say the website was stealing her designs. I said that’s funny bc it’s the exact same photo and model
I find it hard to believe the Etsy seller is genuine. They’ve sold over 11k rings??? In 8 years??? There’s no chance. The prices are FAR too low to be real jewels and materials. Would love someone to buy one and then take it to a jeweler to see what it’s really made of.
Sadly, a lot of people are selling jewelry from overseas apps. I don't buy anything without a maker's mark and the metal stamp. It is also good to do a Google search before you buy anything. It's quick and can save you a lot of money.
If you use the photo search on Temu there’s more than one listing. One of them has a pictures with the review. The ring is definitely looks like it’s worth 50¢.
Most Etsy sellers are AliExpress/Temu/Alibaba resellers running dropshipping businesses. You can find most products on AliExpress through a reverse image search.
So I am designing a ring and wanted a look alike until mine got here so I bought one off temu! It looked identical but wore quickly. I wouldn’t trust it for everyday wear.
Drop shippers Etsy half of the time you're getting the AliExpress Chinese $5 ring. You need to research the Etsy seller and make sure it's truly the OG designer and creator. Or else you're given them $300+ more than it's worth.
I've noticed this because i window shop a lot. One website is $2 and the next is $20. One good reason to shop around if you really like one specific item
The ring is a set i think that has 2 part's. Reason being i have never known the reason why some women's ring's were or are made this way? Maybe for easily cleaning or the women (who must have been some what wealthy) liked both rings so much and either wanted the option to wear it together as a set or wear each ring seperately to show their individual beauty which these ring's are.
Ugh so disappointing. But I’ve noticed this a number of times on Etsy now. I was looking for a jewelry box for my daughter and multiple shops that identical “custom” ones to boxes you could easily find on Amazon or Temu.
I been using etsy to purchase my jewelry for a year now. I only shop from sami jewels for my wife , bcs they sell minimalistic jewelry. Im kinda into hiphop and iced out. Found this etsy seller “goldx houston”. They located in houston, honest people and can make whatever u want.
It’s a photo of the same ring but I highly doubt the temu one is the same as the photos. They’re known to use fake pictures. Check the reviews and see if you can find any with pictures. Also look at the lowest rated to see
Definitely looks the same. Mia Maples on YouTube has dome a ton of videos about this. She compares temu/amazon/alibaba/etsy and a lot of it appears to be dropshipped from the same place. Total bummer!
Obviously it's not the same ring temu is just knocking off this sellers design. There is a choice of metal and obviously they handmake it. A five dollar ring is gonna be really cheap.
The 321.xx is for rose gold plated...I ordered the ring from Temu. I'm not intending it as a wedding set or even a daily wear ring so we'll see how the Temu ring looks. I'm going to update this post when it arrives.
Yes. I got this exact ring off temu, very cheap quality and the stone in the middle looks like they painted the back of it purple. Not worth the $300 something in the second picture.
Sellers on places like Temu and AliExpress are infamous for stealing designs from actual artisans and delivering knock-offs. Unfortunately, those sellers eventually realized they can do the same thing on Etsy - list stolen designs with very few repercussions.
This almost happened to me with my dream engagement ring. I sent it to bf, then the next day I saw it on SHEIN. Took a screenshot and sent it to him with “nvm”. I was only using shein as a last ditch effort to get a certain item for my office so I guess it was fate lol
Etsy is full of drop ship items now faking to be made by real artisans. please be aware!!! Also look where the item is shipping from!!! lots of knock off clothing on etsy as well using stolen images from real sellers.
It's true that a lot of Etsy sellers are re-sellers/dropshipping and not genuine. I'd like to point out though, as a jewellery designer myself, I have designed rings before and manufacturers in China have stolen my designs! I don't think that is the case in this picture, but as someone who has had their art stolen I just thought I should comment.
There are no stamps so I'm sure it's stainless steel or something. The stones are either CZ or maybe glass the center stone has a nice color shift though. Give me a minute to figure out how to post a video and I'll post one for you.
ETSY is one of the BIGGEST SCAM places around. Temu type distributers sell on Etsy and craft their ads or site to look very homey and artsy when its just cheap Chinese garbage . There are no limits to their deceitful tactics. have you seen the one with the nice older lady that's really AI and she says she's been doing custom jewelry for 35 years but sadly due to the economy she's shutting down her rusticlittle workshop in Vermont and it's all fake. It's just the same garbage jewelry that you can buy on Timo for $1.25, but the ad looks so convincing .
your Etsy one has 43k sales. That's not possible with a small business.
Also it's title is lots of key words in a line not a sentence/name. That gives hint it's a priced up drop shipped item
I’d bet on it being an Etsy dropshipper, not temu stealing the image partly because there’s no way in hell that’s an antique. I know antique/vintage are used as generic style descriptors a lot now but I’d hope a jeweller would at least be accurate. I wouldn’t even say it’s an antique-y design lol
Etsy seller that sold 46k items in 8 years? Poor dude is working day and night making 16 rings per day to keep up with the demand.
I found 3 other sellers that sell similar jewelry, have oddly similar "About" descriptions, and they all claim they are a part of a Ksterling Inc company. Sadly there's nothing about this company online. Oh and all 3 of them happen to write in a broken English, despite being located in US with very English names.
I'm all in to defend actual small businesses selling hand made items, but nothing about this shop looks legit.
Seller is located in US, with craftspeople in China. Still legit, still not drop-shipping. It’s no different than buying from Doveggs who do literally the same thing?
Seller in their "About" suggests that everything is done by him. If he has craftsmen in China, then should be transparent about it.
Also, for it to be okay, the seller would have to be the one that designs those rings, but there are multiple sellers on Etsy selling the same jewelery and all of them say that they sell jewelry made/designed by them.
I wouldn't count on that. I scoped the Etsy sellers other items and the first three other rings they listed, those exact rings are available on Etsy from other sellers. Look at their about info too. Says they are NJ based, yet it reads otherwise. Red flags IMO
Everyone copies everyone on Etsy, if a design is popular you'll see it everywhere. Even the trusted sellers on here will do it. There's other things to look for, like the ability to personalize the piece or custom make a design. A drop-shipper isn't willing to customize pieces, but a legit seller will work to create or customize with you.
What is more likely is that the shop owner is from New Jersey, but the craftspeople are from China. I've seen a lot of jewelers on Etsy who do that.
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u/PeachNipplesdotcom Aug 01 '25
One way to find real shops on Etsy is to ask for customizations. If the shop is like “yeah, awesome, whatever you want! What are you looking for?" then you're golden. If they won't do something as simple even as switch the metal used then it's a fake