[wgerard]

This was a constant complaint about Etsy 10 years ago when I worked there. This was a complaint that predated my time working there, even. At one point we even had to ban people selling spells (yes, as in the seller would offer to do a magical incantation on your behalf).

The exact details might've changed, but the symptoms look the exact same. I remember we had to deal with a lot of people trying to skirt OFAC regulations, for example, by doing all sorts of things to hide the country of origin for something.

Optimistically I will say this is a very hard problem to solve. Pessimistically of course the company benefits from it, so I'm sure it's not a problem anyone besides maybe a few diehard advocates look too deeply into.

[curiousllama]

Low key, I would buy a spell for my friend, as long as I got a video or certificate or something proving the spell was actually "cast"

Sounds like a great sibling gift tbh

[wgerard]

I mean sure, I think that's why it flew under the radar for so long. The dark underbelly of it was people buying love spells and the like, which starts to feel a lot like preying on peoples' desperation.

[yamtaddle]

Do a video of it and it's basically just Cameo, really. And people pay for that.

[greenie_beans]

yeah i don't see the problem with selling spells, that seems like something i should be able to pay money for if i want to.

[xwdv]

What’s wrong with selling spells? Is it because Etsy believes they are fake or because they are real and too powerful?

And where would you even go to buy spells in real life?

[Nursie]

Etsy generally doesn’t go into selling services IIRC, and a lot people selling this stuff on Etsy sell “I will do a spell/psychic healing/remote reiki/whatever”, which is a service.

Also, even in the case of having the parts of a spell shipped to you, how do you do a payment dispute when the spell doesn’t work?

[reaperducer]

And where would you even go to buy spells in real life

There's places in pretty much every major city, and even in some surprisingly rural places. Even in ritzy neighborhoods, there are private and public palm readers and tarot card shops catering to the upper crust who will sell anything they can get away with.

In places like New Orleans there's an entire tourism sector for it.