I am going to be very blunt in the fact that I utterly detest the site Wish.com. Yes, there is a certain allure of being able to buy tons to craft supplies, socks, or even reenactment jewelry for mere dollars! But the reality is that these items are sweatshop labor. They sometimes even buy an item from a legitimate artisan, and recast it more cheaply, and then sell it. They go further to even swipe the very photos the original artisan professionally took to market their second rate crap. Sometimes they are even stupid enough to leave the original logos on the marketing images.
Yes, this vile company allows their vendors to not only STEAL original designs from your SCA artisans, but they ALLOW them to steal the promo photos as well.
This is unethical. There is no way around it. I would even go further and say it is pure evil. This should never, ever be supported.
And even worse is the corporation Wish itself. They simply do not care. These same goods can show up on Amazon, but there is at least some recourse there to report that type of vendor. This is far beyond unethical.
And you know what else? Merchants there can have multiple storefronts with the same crap. If they do get one banned, it doesnt matter because they just keep going with the others.
Why would they get banned? Well, some of these vendors don't actually sell ANYTHING. They take your money, move on, and leave you with nothing. And you know what else? There is no quality control with any of this knock-off crap. How much lead is in that bit of cheap Viking bling you bought? Sure, put that on your kid.... Go online and do searches for the horror stories out there about items people have received. Do you know some have even gotten infections from certain products?
And why am I posting this here? Because one of the things they have been selling like crazy are viking brooches. Some of them are even quite beautiful. Some are based on extant pieces. Most of them are very low quality junk (even though they are indeed pretty).
Understand that if you order these items that the oval brooches usually have the pin aligned in wrong direction. They cannot hold the straps of your dress that way. That is actually good, because the pin is thin, similar to a brooch your grandmother would wear to church, not the sturdy hardware requisite of brooch meant to hold a garment, beads and bling. The same friend who has this oval brooch depicted below also had a trefoil, the pin broke off (and it was under no strain at the time as it was not holding a dress up).
Unfortunately, some of these items are also now bought in bulk and being resold by vendors at SCA events. I think they might make lovely accessories (assuming the pins don't pop off) with modern garments, but they likely will not hold up to use in the SCA or reenactment. They might even be a decent decoration for a newcomer who wants to feel pretty. But be warned that you get what you pay for (or not, because you might just be getting ripped off). There are so many amazing artisans out there who do the work and research and put together incredible items that we can use. I highly recommend tracking some of them down! Far better to support our own vendors, and just own less bling, than to continue to support these unethical vendors and the utterly horrid company that houses their online storefronts.
If you already own these brooches, my recommendation is to sew the straps of your aprondress down to the garment on both ends and just pin the brooch on the strap as a decoration. It will likely flop around oddly but you wont risk it breaking and your dress drooping!
Yes, this vile company allows their vendors to not only STEAL original designs from your SCA artisans, but they ALLOW them to steal the promo photos as well.
This is unethical. There is no way around it. I would even go further and say it is pure evil. This should never, ever be supported.
And even worse is the corporation Wish itself. They simply do not care. These same goods can show up on Amazon, but there is at least some recourse there to report that type of vendor. This is far beyond unethical.
And you know what else? Merchants there can have multiple storefronts with the same crap. If they do get one banned, it doesnt matter because they just keep going with the others.
Why would they get banned? Well, some of these vendors don't actually sell ANYTHING. They take your money, move on, and leave you with nothing. And you know what else? There is no quality control with any of this knock-off crap. How much lead is in that bit of cheap Viking bling you bought? Sure, put that on your kid.... Go online and do searches for the horror stories out there about items people have received. Do you know some have even gotten infections from certain products?
And why am I posting this here? Because one of the things they have been selling like crazy are viking brooches. Some of them are even quite beautiful. Some are based on extant pieces. Most of them are very low quality junk (even though they are indeed pretty).
Understand that if you order these items that the oval brooches usually have the pin aligned in wrong direction. They cannot hold the straps of your dress that way. That is actually good, because the pin is thin, similar to a brooch your grandmother would wear to church, not the sturdy hardware requisite of brooch meant to hold a garment, beads and bling. The same friend who has this oval brooch depicted below also had a trefoil, the pin broke off (and it was under no strain at the time as it was not holding a dress up).
Unfortunately, some of these items are also now bought in bulk and being resold by vendors at SCA events. I think they might make lovely accessories (assuming the pins don't pop off) with modern garments, but they likely will not hold up to use in the SCA or reenactment. They might even be a decent decoration for a newcomer who wants to feel pretty. But be warned that you get what you pay for (or not, because you might just be getting ripped off). There are so many amazing artisans out there who do the work and research and put together incredible items that we can use. I highly recommend tracking some of them down! Far better to support our own vendors, and just own less bling, than to continue to support these unethical vendors and the utterly horrid company that houses their online storefronts.
If you already own these brooches, my recommendation is to sew the straps of your aprondress down to the garment on both ends and just pin the brooch on the strap as a decoration. It will likely flop around oddly but you wont risk it breaking and your dress drooping!
"it's like a cheaply made nightmare" - quote from the friend who bought these pins, lol
And example of Wish's assortment of cheap Viking items.
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