Yes, it certainly is. I've also been selling for many years, never had a problem. Using PayPal is great if you ever should have a problem, as you're protected in the event of theft. If you were hacked somehow would be the only way it would be a concern for me, so I am careful about using good passwords and changing them often (Etsy password) I would not worry about the safety of Etsy direct at all.

As far as I know they have never leaked my personal information but with that being said they have done some shady business to our store.

1.) we sold a bunch of products in one day on etsy so they held all of our funds for a 3 week time frame(they offered up a bs excuse and said they couldn't do anything about it, it was a computer error). So we had no access to our money at all (its very difficult to run a business with no funds) Now that we could and did live with but they decided to charge our account for all of the seller fees (over $1000) even though we have yet to receive our money we were owed and in doing so they over drafted our account. Even though they admitted it was their fault they still refused to pay back the overdraft fees they caused.
2.) When they shut our site down they still charged us for a month worth of advertising fees and listing fees when we didnt receive any of those services for that month. We have since closed that checking account and I still get notified constantly that I have an outstanding bill.

I have made a lot of money on Etsy but I feel I have lost a lot as well because of the wrongful withdraws from my account and overdraft fees they caused. If you partner that with their absolute disregard for the sellers and lack of customer service, I personally would look at the other options available. If you don't want to take my word for it then just please sell on mutiple platforms and make Etsy your smallest store.

I hope this helped and feel free to ask any other questions.

With so MUCH FAKE COUNTERFEIT HIGH END MERCHANDISE that etsy refuses to do anything about despite all their lawsuits I would not say that this is NOT a safe site. Steer clear of ANY brand name items on etsy and only buy non-branded hand made goods. No wonder amazon is going after this business since hopefully this will be all that is left on this site after all the litigation for the sale of counterfeit merchandise.

I have never had a problem. The only problem I have ever had was a purchase from China. I only deal with the U.S. now.

We just use PayPal.

Yes. I would say it is just as safe as paypal if not more.

Yes, however, Etsy and I had a dispute over fees and I cancelled my authorization for them to charge my bank account for fees. They attempted to charge the account anyway.

Yes. I have never had any problem and have never heard of anyone else who has had a problem. You can also just have your customers use PayPal.

It is safe. Besides, you can also offer PayPal