Top 5 Reasons to Buy Handmade

5. Personal attention. How good is customer service at your favorite discount chain? How about when you shop online at any corporate run site? Do they really care if you're happy once they've made the sale? Do they know your name? Will they resize jewelry that is too big or small even if it isn't expensive? Buy handmade and chances are, the seller will.

4. Pride in the details. How often do you get something poorly made? Buy from somebody who cares how their product is made.

3. Your money goes to someone who needs it and appreciates it. Any large corporation could do with or without our business, lets face it. Someone will always shop with them. When it comes to buying gifts, who would you rather give your hard earned money to?

2. Custom work, like Etsy's alchemy. Why have someone tell you what you want? Here, you put a free posting on what you want, which could be vague and open to ideas for the impossible to shop for, or super specific, and how much you are willing to spend. Then, artists tell you what they can do in your price range. I use this for gifts and end up getting things I never would have thought of!

1. Have something noone else has! Don't we all like to own something noone else can get? When you buy handmade, you may pay slightly more (and you may not!), but thousands of other people don't have the same thing. Really, how cool is that?