Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Why must I be so sensitive?!

I've been all excited about my new etsy shop. The thought that I could make a little extra money doing something I love. Crafting is great. My psychiatrist says it's important for me to have not only a creative outlet, but something to help with my esteem. Staying at home, while a hard job, brings no income & sometimes I feel as if I don't really 'earn my keep'.

So I sold my first product the other day. Awesome. I really hope my 1st customer likes it! So, I started thinking- 'wow, this little business really could be good!' then I get a conversation asking about doing a couple custom ones. Great! Fabulous! So We're chatting back & forth. She's asking me questions about it and telling me what she'd like & when she'd need them, and I'm answering every little question to the best of my ability. Some of the questions were kind of strange, though. Like I can understand wanting measurements, but she was asking about EVERY measurement. She was also a 'new' user. Signed up that day. So we ended that she'll finalize the order in the morning after she gets to work, because she & her friend that she work with were ordering them together. I told her I'd start the preliminary work, so it'd be ready to go ahead with detail work when she purchased. As I was working on them last night, I told my husband about the feeling I was having, but tried to tell myself I was just being paranoid.

Today I'm on the computer first thing. Checking my email & etsy back & forth. Nothing. The suspicion mounts. I finally accept the truth. She just wanted to pick my brain and have me tell her how I make them so she can just copy it. More power to her if she wants to take the time to make them herself. I think what's wrong is to mislead someone. I don't like having my hopes raised, my time wasted & my exact pattern taken. Have a little creativity and make your own design. It's not so original that you couldn't.

*sigh* Anyway, it just hurt my feelings. :(

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's disheartening at times to know that it is the chance we take when we put our 'creative talents' out on the world wide web. You are certainly entitled to those feelings of disillusionment and hurt. However, nothing good can ever come from stealing someone else's work...therefore be comforted in the fact that karma does come back and bite individuals like that in the butt...eventually. Keep your 'secret ingredients' secret...and if you see them somewhere else online...claim them.

Pandora Wilde said...

I used to sell soaping supplies on eBay and the one that used to tick me off is having people ask me for catalog and manufacturer information on my fragrances, as if I'd just hand out proprietary information just for fun. It was hard to be kind in saying no, but that's the answer they got :)

Beth from the Funny Farm said...

I hope that isn't the case...that someone wants to steal your idea!

Big hugs to you!

Hope your having a better day!

:-) Beth

Anonymous said...

That sucks. I'm so sorry you just got your creativity ripped off.