Opinion: Resellers at Markets

The Facebook post that helped inspire this week's blog post.

Late 2024, a post written by an anonymous member of the Market Stall Holders South Australia Facebook group came to my attention. It was in regards to the frustrations that they have experienced with resellers (of websites like Temu) taking up space at markets, and becoming more and more prevalent across the community.

This is something I am intimately familiar with and frustrated by. And after seeing some of the responses to this Facebook post (which was deleted shortly after my own comment), I felt inspired to move this blog post further up in my schedule than it originally was.

When I originally opened the post, I was expecting to see a cluster of people in support of the anonymous poster.

A comment made on the Facebook post (identity blurred for anonymity).

Unfortunately, I was met with an alarming number of people – even alleged artists themselves – condemning the poster for being ‘judgmental’ and ridiculous for caring so much about what others sell. Take, for example, this comment, that truly made me see red.

This isn’t about ‘small businesses just trying to get by’ or people ‘just trying to make a profit’. This is about ethics. This is about quality. This is about our customers. This is about the market community, which expects and deserves handmade and high-quality creations.

This commenter also shared a picture of their alleged handmade items – but how can you believe anyone who handmakes anything can truly be ok with someone reselling from cheap and unethical sites such as Temu, SHEIN or AliExpress? As a potential customer and an artist, it leads me to wonder if their items truly are handmade.

The comment I made before the post was removed.

After reading a disappointing number of comments condemning the anonymous poster, I couldn’t keep myself from commenting, which I have included here.

A reseller can sell anywhere. Why rip from hard working creators, many of which are already struggling?

If I am going to lose a sale, I want it to be from someone who has worked for it, someone who has paid in blood, sweat and tears and spent countless hours trying to make something. Not someone who went online - much less a cheap, mass-produced website like Temu or SHEIN - repackaged it as their own and made a 90% mark-up just because they can.

An argument can be made that we are in an economical crisis, and people cannot always afford the hefty price tag that often comes with handmade creations. However, if we continue down this current path – there will be no handmade creations. This is not an exaggeration.

A wide variety of handmade creations caters to more people; benefiting both customers and stallholders.

Artists will lose their niches. People will turn to the cheap alternative more and more. Hard workers will stop attending markets that are overcrowded by replicas of resellers. And when the people come, looking for something new, they will only find cheap, overproduced hunks of plastic that are guaranteed to break. The market will die. The communities will be flooded with disappointed. And the resellers will go ahead and blame the market organisers and the small businesses, that actually work for their accomplishments, for the lack in customers.

A market that only sells meaningless junk is no different to a cemetery for the living. It is worthless.

An oversaturated market of (Temu, SHEIN, etc.) resellers gives little to no variety; disappoints customers and hardworking artists and small businesses suffer.

It is your choice, as a consumer, to whether or not you support the resellers – whether it be online or in person. But before you do, I urge you to consider another immoral side effect of shopping from imported sites.

Imported sites (like Temu and SHEIN) do not have their own ideas. I have lost count of the sheer number of artists that have devastatingly shared that their own artworks have been stolen and remade as cheap, mass-produced products. Things like pins, stickers and artworks stolen and remade with the profit margins over quality concerns.

It may be cheap. It may be ‘free’ and you only have to worry about the shipping. But everything comes with a price. And if it’s too good to be true – that is because YOU are the thing being sold.

I will not be silent on this topic, nor will I ever back down this hill. Small businesses, artists and creators NEED your support. Resellers, that do not have enough time, dedication or respect to make their own wares, have no place in a market space. Stick to eBay – less fees and less efforts. That’s what resellers want, right?

I am disappointed and disheartened, because there are so many layers to this. And within all those layers, there is struggling and suffering.

It is frustrating to see artists turning away from handmade creations purely because they realise it’s more profitable to not put any effort into their stock. I have far less qualms by the people who purchase their supplies and turn it into something that isn’t necessarily a single product itself (such as a collection of items that people can use to make into bracelets or other DIY activities). At least they have put effort into selling things, they have tried to sell an enjoyable experience and actively partake in their own methods of creation.

Our creations will always be proudly handmade by us, with a passion for uniqueness and high quality products.

However, the people who simply buy items (such as the sudden influx of crochet flower bouquets) on the cheap and resell them as ‘handmade’, have no respect from me.

Like I said, there are a lot of layers. There are exceptions and not exceptions. And who is to say what can and cannot be sold at markets (excluding the events marketing specifically and only handmade items)? And after all, some people are naturally gifted at presenting manufactured products as their own (also known as lying, being two-faced or insincere) so it can be hard to identify who is legitimate or not.

However, if market organisers truly want their events to thrive into the future, they must ensure that their events are not wholly resellers – because a market cannot survive on garbage. Perhaps consider an 90/10 ratio, with resellers falling into that lower portion.

Times are tough, and handmade items will not always be affordable to everyone. Be mad at the economy – but do not allow small businesses to pay the price for trying to survive, all the while providing their customers with quality.

What are your thoughts on resellers? Have you visited a market and been disappointed by the selection of stallholders because they have been resellers? If you are an artist or small business, do resellers frustrate you also?

Kimberley (they/them)

Accessories by Antoinette