Etsy has proved it is incapable of making money and demonstrated that online companies can fall into a familiar retail trap. The trap is the old one of ever-increasing sales that generate no real money. Dozens of retailers; ranging from Whole Foods to Rite Aid to Overstock.com, have fallen into over the years. The only way a company can profit from this trap is to sell itself to a larger retailer or private equity organization in search of market share or other resources.