<story><title>Etsy was a twee culture punchline, now it’s a Wall Street darling</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/business/etsy-masks-wall-street.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ehvatum</author><text>We are well beyond material scarcity. If you need something, you can buy it on Amazon, made in China, and it will do a great job of brushing your teeth, boiling your tea, or whatever. But it will not be unique.&lt;p&gt;And so, every need met, our lives are hollow. Hollow and without objects of meaning and power - nothing that your distant offspring will inherit, that will make them think, “holy shit, my ancestors WERE INTERESTING PEOPLE!!!” No totems. Just disposable Apple ear buds with dead batteries glued forever into plastic shells. No diaries. Just tweets that were lost in the great lizard war of 2031, when the data centers were turned into lizard egg incubators.&lt;p&gt;So, people hunger for robust, interesting wares. Maybe most don’t know it, but they’ll buy those things anyway.&lt;p&gt;Based on this lizard-apocalypse thesis, I listed stuff on Etsy: custom CNC titanium pistol grips, solid metal wood keys, childproof jewel boxes milled from scrapped train knuckles, and etc. I listed all kinds of stuff I made when I wasn’t filling “normal” orders for big industry titans like Boeing. Just whatever the hell I felt like making, as long as it’s something I would be proud to own. And it all sold. Every weird thing I make eventually sells on Etsy. Etsy has featured my stuff in big advertisements, because my thesis is correct.&lt;p&gt;There is a new kind of scarcity, because of the upcoming lizard war.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.etsy.com&amp;#x2F;shop&amp;#x2F;HenryVIIIdotSpace&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.etsy.com&amp;#x2F;shop&amp;#x2F;HenryVIIIdotSpace&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Etsy was a twee culture punchline, now it’s a Wall Street darling</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/business/etsy-masks-wall-street.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jameslk</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not just Etsy&amp;#x27;s stock that&amp;#x27;s up, but also the stock of Shopify, Amazon, Overstock, Walmart, Ebay, etc. And all the tech infra companies that support these ecommerce sites.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a huge ecommerce bubble, and to a degree a tech bubble, being driven by all that disposable income that used to go to restaurants, travel, events, etc. instead being redirected to online shopping and online activity. Compounded by the money being printed by Fed which also doesn&amp;#x27;t have a lot of places to go.&lt;p&gt;I doubt it&amp;#x27;s sustainable to expect that this is the new normal and nobody will want to go back to the way life was before. If that&amp;#x27;s the case, I can&amp;#x27;t understand how the PE ratios that imply someday the future value of these companies will be worth 100x-1000x multiples in 10-20 years are justified. But this has lead to an incredible transfer of wealth to a lot of tech companies. I just wonder when the party will end and we&amp;#x27;ll see a correction?</text></comment>