Import Shop Berlin

As a rule, I don't care too much for trade fairs, but the Import Shop Berlin is an exception.  Most of the exhibitors sell goods from foreign "exotic" countries, and most are traders not artists, which I find a shame.

I found myself homing in on the smaller stands, which looked less like trading posts, and more like a collection of the work of single artists, but regardless who I talked to, trader or artist, no-one had heard of etsy.  I didn't spend the whole day there, and I didn't stop at every stand, so I can't speak for very many people, but what was being sold there is exactly the kind of thing that gets sold on etsy, so I did find that surprising.

I think the main reason is that the majority of the sellers at Import Shop Berlin were foreigners, and mostly from the southern hemisphere.  That part of the world will inevitably join the online market, its only a question of when and how, in other words how soon, and on which platform.

My favorite seller this year was also my favorite the last time I visited four years ago. Enamel jewelry from Budapest:

One of the stands I most liked sold all kinds of crafts from peru, and the stand attendant explained to me that the stand owner didn't have a website because she said that export taxes are so high for anyone selling more than 17,500 dollars worth of goods annually, that it just wasn't worth it.  Which means that the total sum earned by the exhibitors during the four days of the trade fair was substantially higher than the reported "sales of around 5.5 million euros" I wonder how much higher.