Why Etsy Banned Me (And What It Means for Makers Like You)

Last week, Etsy permanently banned my shop. No warning. No phone call. No actual human review. Just a form letter.

If you’ve been part of my community for a while, you know I’ve been selling fabric, notions, kits, and tools for years. These are real supplies - physical products made for makers. I had nearly 6,000 five-star reviews on Etsy. I’ve always been transparent, community-focused, and committed to uplifting the handmade and quilting world.

So why did they ban me?

Because a third-party app I used to sync my Shopify listings with Etsy auto-categorized my items as “Handmade” instead of “Craft Supplies.”

That’s it. A dropdown field. A metadata mistake.

The tool was meant to help me keep listings synced between platforms, but what I didn’t realize—while I was managing a rapidly growing business, navigating C-PTSD, fighting for long-term disability, and juggling fulfillment, livestream sales, content, and hiring—was that the categories were being applied incorrectly behind the scenes.

When I finally figured it out, I assigned my assistant Brittany to recategorize the listings correctly. She was actively fixing them (literally in the listings) when Etsy permanently banned me.

No conversation. No grace. No consideration that a real person was trying to fix a technical error in good faith.

And if this can happen to me - someone with a visible platform, a loyal customer base, and an established shop - what happens to the smaller sellers who rely entirely on Etsy for their income? The ones who don’t have an audience to explain themselves to?

Etsy claims to support handmade sellers, but what they’re actually doing is relying on bots, flawed AI systems, and automated enforcement that leaves no room for nuance, no room for disability, and no space for correction.

They didn’t even review the items themselves. They banned a real shop full of fabric and craft tools because of a category mismatch.

This is what their “Creativity Standards” enforcement looks like now: punishing real makers over dropdown menus, while AI-generated products and mass-produced goods flood their marketplace with no oversight.

I’ve filed a formal Notice of Dispute under their Terms of Use. Arbitration is scheduled for 60 days from now. But regardless of the outcome, I’m moving forward.

Because I already have a site I love (mxdomestic.com) and a community that has stood by me in ways I can’t even fully express.

If you want to support:

• Shop directly: mxdomestic.com
• Comment on Etsy’s Instagram posts and tag @mx.domestic
• DM Etsy and ask them to do better
• Share this story with anyone in the maker community
• If you’ve had a similar experience, speak up. We deserve better.

This story isn’t just about Etsy. It’s about what happens when platforms stop supporting the very people who built them. And it’s about what we build in response.