ETSY is installed on 3D printed products. Here is how it can affect you

It seems that everyone needs side bustle these days. If your hobby can help you make some additional income, it seems that it is at least a mind at least trying to do so. 3D printingand Laser inscription And the use of vinyl partns, such as the famous Cricut machine, all gives you an opportunity to make something beautiful, unique and capable of sale. ETSY was the preferred store interface for nearly 20 years, and despite the availability of other options, it still has 8.13 million active sellers in 2025, according to a hadith. Contimod report.

Recently, the company has clarified its policies surrounding the “MADE by A Peller” category, specifically related to “produced elements using computerized tools.” Hidden updates, but they can mainly change the way many small companies work to go forward.

If you have searched for the 3D printed draft on ETSY, you have likened to a screen like that mentioned above. While each dragon looks very similar – all of them are clarified with a little painting – there are no exactly two themselves. It has been made almost all the dragons you will see by a small group of designers whose digital models of the seller, who use small printing farms, or even 3D printers, have been made to print the physical model for sale. The last ETSY update has led to its company’s policy on computerized tools to remove a major component that allowed this type of license, leaving many sellers confused about their place in the place where they are standing.

The elements that were produced using computerized tools: the physical elements produced by the seller in their personal store or home, using computerized tools such as laser, 3D, CNC or CRICUT printer. These elements must be produced based on a The original seller design It is often customized or customized according to the buyer’s specifications.

ETSY spokesman told me that the above policy has always been the standard ETSY position on the products made by sellers. The area you added is the edited part. Originally, ETSY guidance included the phrase “… or the use of a concrete design or pattern …” which seemed to allow the use of designs from 3D designers. By removing this section and maintaining the part of the original design, it appears that each seller must design the digital file themselves, as well as printing it, post -process and shipping.

ETSY said this update in politics is to clarify his position, rather than changing it. According to Creative instructionsThe unprecedented element is “a primary component that is commercially available with superficial change, such as adding simple decorations with great production.” The barbed point seems to be the “commercially available” part, as many 3D printing sellers on ETSY use a commercial license from 3D designers as a source of material models.

3D printing works

3D designers who sell commercial licenses through sites such as sites Patterionand ThangsAnd Editions Over the past few years, it has emerged to a lot of success and prizes across the three -dimensional printing space. Christian, or Craftykid3D, as is known Patterion and Social mediaIt creates 3D models that depend on books and reading, including beutiful Dragon Booknds and small book holders to help you look at your paper. Patreon has a commercial license layer that allows you to sell material copies of its digital models online or in craftsmanship and farmers’ markets. He currently has 860 subscribers in Patreon, their subscriptions for $ 10 per month constitute a large part of his income.

The updated ETSY policy is likely to reduce the ability of subscribers to Christians to use the models he calls on that platform, causing the ability of all of its purchases to preserve themselves. Worse, because policy is mysterious, sellers can find ETSY themselves in violation by not knowing the location of the line. Even ETSY customer service seems confused, as they provide contradictory answers to the questions asked by sellers.

My colleague and colleagues, enthusiastically printing, said, Russell Holly, said that the ambiguity may be the goal of drafting. “I think the current guidance intentionally is to bend these huge production groups of making one small change and moving forward, but this reality is inevitable.” My question about answering this is, where is the line to make small changes, and who affects it?

It is clear that these two prints are the same model, but each of us used a different color material and a different level of voltage to paint the model in the cutting program. Digital files can be “drawn” in the program to set different colors to certain areas of printing. My version (on the left) is a fairly easy change from a tone to give me a brown interface surrounded by green, but Russell’s (right) uses different colors and spent more time determining the areas that are colors. This is a digital process, not manually as, for example, removing Cricut Vinyl and sticking to it on the Stanley, but it still takes time, effort and changes the appearance and feeling in a material way. The question then becomes enough change to form an original piece? This will be up to ETSY to make a decision on the basis of each case separately, which itself provides many problems.

A large site police like ETSY is very difficult and depends greatly on IP violations that are reported by this IP holder. This is not the same as the scenario that creators agree in 3D models, the people who use it actively to produce material copies, so they will not report the use of ETsy. This means that ETSY will have to spend resources on the police of these models themselves. ETSY has been said to use reports from other sellers to download IP violations, but there booklet It states that no “… accepting reports about the violation of anyone only – only from the owner of the intellectual property or the authorized agent of the owner …” so it is unlikely that this path will go, but they will have to do something if they want anything that actually changes.

In a conversation with me and other members of the Patreon Craftykid3d community – I am a member, and I use his models to test the best 3D printers – Christian expressed his concern that ETSY will face a problem in applying this change in politics. “ETSY has always been poor in moderation. They are companies like Universal, Sony and Disney, which will connect to ETsy to remove copyright products. But even ETsy cannot keep it under control.” He went on to say, “Unless they have a new technology, I doubt that they are able to impose this ….”

What does this policy mean to you as a seller?

If you use ETSY to sell your 3D printed products, you will need to think about the products you make and how much you are ready to change them. One of the largest profit considerations is the period that takes the post -process a printed three -dimensional model. Most of the profits always come from something that can be sold with some basic cleaning and not much, so if you have to spend time and materials to change a print significantly, your profit margin decreases.

Holly said: “If you have printed an archaeological helmet designed by someone else, but then passed the work of sand and drawing and all of this, the same is no longer when I got out of the printer and will not be subject to this policy.” And I agree with him that this state of use will allow this ETsy, but we have no clear idea if this is true. In this picture, you can see Mandalurian helmets that you printed. The file on the left is the original file without adjustments I have printed it in a soft PLA So she can wear my daughter without fear of breaking her if she drops her. It took me some time to remove and clean support, but I could sell them to make a good profit because it is a different way to print helmets.

One on the right took a lot of time. The steps I had to go to:

• Remove 3D printed support
• The whole helmet sand until smooth
• Fill any layer lines that left the first sanding
• Dried filling sand so that everything is smooth and even
• Spray filling/preliminary over the helmet to create a uniform layer
• Sprinkle the helmet with black coats black
• Sprinkle the helmet with silver paint
• Glue cut the separate ear on
• Spray with a clear shine to protect silver paint

Now, I can sell this second helmet on etsy. I am sure that the policy will cover this type of modification, and I can even make a decent profit, but it will be much lower than the first helmet, although I can get a lot for that. I don’t think the first helmet will qualify as my original design.

If your work depends on the files of others, whether it is detailed from the dragon Cindywing Or the book of angles from Craftykid3dIt is likely that you already sell it in other store fronts like Facebook Marketplace or the hand -made Amazon website, as well as in physical sites. If you do not do that, it may be useful to diversify the place where you are selling. There are a lot of things that we do not know about how ETsy has the police its amended policy, so that there are ways to other revenues a good idea.

It will be interesting to see how much this change will go. Will Cricut makers need to design their own badges instead of buying SVGS commercially available? Will laser rescue makers need to do the same? The entire Maker community uses these types of services, and it has enabled a huge business sector that converts hobbies into a legitimate way to achieve income. According to Contimod34 % of all sellers on ETSY are cited as their only source of income, so the possible loss is great. ETSY is not the only store interface there, but it is one of the largest, and its decisions here may have a permanent impact across this sector.