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I mostly make jewelry for my shop. I wanted to do clothing and knits too, but my sewing machine needs work and knitting takes a lot of time.. So, simple jewelry designs it is! My shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/mizufusion I'll see about making some goon-only coupon codes if there's any interest. Right now I'm trying to get better pictures of everything because the lighting in here kind of sucks, and my camera insists it's never bright enough for anything.
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Jan 25, 2011 18:21
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Chaco posted:I've been weaving like a fiend the last couple days, and here's what I came up with: Well, it's not my cup of tea, but it's a pretty cool idea. I bet you could make a killing selling those to my neighbors, though. I live in Berkeley so I immediately thought of hippie dreadlocks when I saw the tassels.
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Jan 26, 2011 19:10
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Namenlos posted:I make necklaces (and occasionally cuff-links and bracelets) out of Magic the Gathering cards and vintage photos/cards/etc. I just sold my first ever pendant today, so I'm feeling very happy! That's a really dorky and adorable idea. I know people that would probably wear this sort of stuff too, but I don't know if shipping to the US would be worth it.  Pokemon cards are probably pretty cheap now, and the franchise still has a huge following. Might be something to experiment with. The Delicious Japanese pendant is cute too. Weird product packaging would make cool pendants, and I'm sure there's enough people out there that would poo poo bricks for it.
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Jan 29, 2011 02:11
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No problemo. I don't know how popular Pokemon is over there, but it's still big here, especially with Black and White coming out soon for the DS. I have several friends in the 20-30 age range that still play the games, and a guy friend who's 32 and just picked it up. Maybe it would be good to experiment with just one or two cards? I'm not sure it even matters what Pokemon you choose as long as it's cute or badass-looking, and there's a lot of those to choose from. You can probably even attract the internet meme crowd (though I'm not sure if that's a good thing) by choosing Pokemon like Magikarp, Slowpoke, Mudkips and Snivy. Freecycle might work. Magazines and packaging from things you normally use are good too. Hell, you could probably even make bizarre collages out of everything. I totally would if I had the supplies to make something like that. I mean, if the stuff in this shop sells, I think your stuff will too.
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Jan 30, 2011 03:14
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Chaco posted:Even with the improvement, though, I feel like the pictures could probably be better. Does anyone have any tips for photographing hats on a head mannequin? And, is that actually a good way to go, as opposed to having someone model them? I went with the fake head because I thought people might be weirded out about buying a hat someone else had worn, but I see that lots of people photograph hats and other clothes on a person, so maybe buyers really don't care? I can't speak for anyone else, but it kind of weirds me out when the sellers (or models) are wearing the product they plan to ship you. Clothing and other washable things aren't as bad, but what really gets me is earrings. I don't want to see the earrings you're trying to sell me jammed in your crusty ears. For some reason it's totally.. 
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Jan 31, 2011 23:12
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So, I found a bunch of tiny tea cups and espresso cups at the thrift store for less than $1 each. Couple of them have saucers too. I was thinking of turning them into kitschy little pin cushions, maybe with a bit of potpourri inside. I know there has to be a market for trinkets like this, since it's Etsy and you can sell drat near anything there. What I'm wondering is what I should charge, and what materials would be good. I figure some heavy cotton fabric to cover the cushion, and some polyester fill topped with a bit of steel wool to keep your needles sharp, but I'm not sure what kind of glue to use. Superglue comes to mind since it's easy to find and use, but I'm not sure how well it'll hold, let's say, a cup to a saucer. Maybe use that to attach trim, and use something like rubber cement for the saucer? Would that even work? I also added a coupon code for 20% off: YAYGOONS
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Feb 3, 2011 01:53
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Question about treasuries.. I just started a couple, and every now and then an item will disappear. Is it because the seller deleted it, sold it, or is Etsy just being a bitch? I'm guessing the items were deleted, but I'm not sure why, since they were all awesome. Either way, I've been meaning to post this here.. It's a sampling of goony arts and crafts that I've compiled for your viewing pleasure. I would buy all of these things if I could.  I'm thinking of making another list for art and craft supplies.. Convo me on Etsy if you want to get in on it and I haven't already included you.
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Mar 14, 2011 11:51
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TastesLikeChicken posted:Yes! I am very late because I'm a dork but thank you, you awesome mizufusion! Aww, no I'm not. Goons are just talented.
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Mar 20, 2011 01:17
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Two things I keep hearing on the Etsy teams and forums are: 1) Don't under-price yourself: You may not think your item is worth more, but people may look at it and automatically assume it's crap because the price is low. Increasing the price adds a perceived value to the item. Of course, you don't want to gouge your customers either (unless you're a prick, which it sounds like you're not), so pricing can be kind of difficult. 2) Try to fill your shop. I know this can be tough when you're just starting out (or short on cash for supplies and fees, like me), but there's something about a well-stocked shop that inspires confidence in your buyers. I've heard you want at least enough items to have a second page of listings before you start any serious advertising campaigns. But hey, I've only made two sales since I opened shop in November, so take my words with a shaker of salt.  Joining teams is a good way to get exposure, too. There's a goon team, and if you're a fan of Regretsy, they have a team named April's Army. That team has been the primary source of traffic to my shop since its creation last week.
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Mar 29, 2011 07:36
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I tried to set up better lighting to get good photos today, but I could only find one of the gently caress-all halogen lamps.. and even then my camera thought there wasn't enough light for anything. I kind of gave up after that because I had been up all night and was getting the caffeine jitters.  Maybe tomorrow.. Also, for those of you on the Etsy team.. I started drawing this for a potential icon: 
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Mar 30, 2011 05:41
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Wandering Knitter posted:That's perfect! Aww, thanks. I'll be sure to watch for that. I just posted a colored version of the bee on the discussion board for the team to critique. I was going to draw it with more crafting tools, but I decided it was way too early in the morning and they were hard to draw. 
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Mar 31, 2011 04:03
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Wandering Knitter posted:I would make the red eyes white, but that's just me. Hm.. I tried that and I didn't like it as much. All of my bees tend to have dark red or brown eyes. Ars Arcanum posted:Those pumpkin earrings are the cutest thing I've seen today. I'm rather fond of the mini baguette. I also have a goony coupon code for my shop. Enter YAYGOONS for 20% off! I started a thread for coupon codes in the Goon Squad team, too, so they're easier to keep track of.
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Apr 1, 2011 12:39
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Wandering Knitter posted:Hey, can someone please make me an avatar out of the Goon Team's drunken bee? Wow, yes it is. You want that on some sort of background? Maybe just transparent? I did the original image in layers so adding something isn't too hard.
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Apr 29, 2011 20:18
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Wandering Knitter posted:Transparent sounds lovely, thank you. Transparent PNG, 125x125  
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Apr 29, 2011 21:08
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Lealoo, those are gorgeous! I really appreciate how elegant and simple they are, too. I'm going to be listing some Pay It Forward pieces soon, which I'm kind of excited about. Several members of one of my teams have been posting some lately, so I picked up a couple necklaces super cheap. They're actually my first Etsy purchases, since I'm broke and everything else I want is expensive..
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May 12, 2011 09:52
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There is nothing wrong with being bitter, especially about Etsy.
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May 13, 2011 09:48
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I've been wanting a dead fish hat, kind of like this but fleecy: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/PATTfishy.php If I had the money I'd totally buy one or make it myself. 
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Jun 13, 2011 03:52
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Lealoo posted:ooooh I ran across her shop recently and I LOVE her shop. I seriously wish hats like that would come back. I saw her shop recently too! I love pillbox hats and wish I had some, or an opportunity to wear them..
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Jun 29, 2011 11:17
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Well, the unthinkable happened, and someone bought my terrible hat. I'm thinking of making more like this, in other colors because good god I have a lot of ugly yarn. Maybe with some simple lace designs, because they knit up quick, and the internet seems to like ugly. I'm also discounting all of my knits, since it's the middle of summer here, and there's also a 20% off coupon code in my shop!
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Aug 8, 2011 04:40
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Bewildrbeast posted:"It may be ugly but the wool* is upcycled and it was made in America so gently caress you!" *Acrylic!  (Seriously though, thanks!)I have a ton of ugly 70s-orange acrylic sitting around that I want to do something with, and godawful hats seems to be the way to go. I also have pink, navy, and what may be cotton in yellow, blue and orange. I also have a ton of leftover sock wool, because I seem to inherit everyone's destashes. Three people have given me yarn in the last year, and it's usually in big quantities. I just need to use it all. I've made a couple headbands with the sock wool, but I need to photograph them and list them.
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Aug 9, 2011 06:07
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Ashcans posted:I don't know if this is the right place for it, but it makes the most sense to me. My wife sells stuff on Etsy, and she would like to start participating in local craft fairs/art shows/etc. The issue is that in order to make the best of it, she needs to be able to process credit cards, and we have no idea how to go about that. I'm not sure how effective/efficient this is, but I have a friend who sells jewelry and brings his laptop so people can pay via Paypal. Not sure how I'd feel about using a stranger's computer to do this, but it seemed to work for him.
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Aug 24, 2011 09:45
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You can also try U Name It, I Make It. I haven't tried it, but it's supposed to work like Alchemy used to. Name the product you need, your ideal price and materials, and hopefully someone can make it for you.
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Aug 31, 2011 09:19
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Eh, I still put cutesy descriptions on some of my work. I just make sure the first few words are more descriptive, like "Pink Knit Kitten Plush - Mindy the Soy Cat" or something like that. What really bugged me was redoing all of my tags. I used to have single keywords, but phrases are apparently better.. Though I've also heard that using the same word too many times in your keywords can hurt you, and you can't cram multiple adjectives into one phrase like "black and blue". It's getting loving confusing. I've been reading this blog by a member of one of my teams, and it's been pretty helpful, but it's still a pain in the rear end. I've managed to snag a few sales recently, though! I made some Jayne Cobb hats a while back, including one for a friend's baby. I used the pictures and listed them as "made to order", and apparently Jayne hats for babies are popular right now.
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Sep 12, 2011 16:43
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electricgoat posted:Mizu, you always have the best item titles. Stick it to the man and keep it up! Aw, that's not true. I just call stuff whatever comes to mind, even if that's "good god this is an ugly hat and I don't know why you'd want it  "No wait, that's my descriptions. My titles are more like "<color> <adjective> <adjective> Ugly Hat". zoecore posted:I've always used descriptive keywords in my tags... So now, does that mean that I have to duplicate tags and titles? For instance, the Oh Happy Day / Oh Crappy Day ring set had the tags "plastic, kawaii, sunshine" - to get found, does the title have to have the same keywords? I just can't let the tags be and get found that way? It is very redundant, but it's supposed to help with search engine optimization (SEO, and holy gently caress I hate this acronym after seeing it everywhere). Say for example, your title is "Plastic Kawaii Sunshine Ring" and your description and tags all say the same. Sounds like a redundant pain in the rear end redundancy, but if someone wants a plastic kawaii sunshine ring, yours is much more likely to come up in search. Maybe try something like "kawaii plastic sunshine ring - Oh Happy Day / Oh Crappy Day". It's obnoxious, and I have no idea what the title character limits are, but might be worth a shot. Alternately, stick it to the man and keep your titles the way they are like electricgoat says.
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Sep 13, 2011 10:36
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I loving need this octopus clutch. drat you for tempting me with your wares!  Alas, I am broke, so I will send you an invite to the goon team instead.MallcoreMotion, I'm not sure about selling food, but I know the idea of buying it on Etsy kind of creeps me out. That and underwear. Jewelry and knitwear can be very difficult categories to get noticed in, since there's so much of it on Etsy. Be prepared to market the hell out of your wares, and take good pictures. (These are things I'm struggling with too--not meaning to discourage you!) I have a lot of yarn I've acquired secondhand too, and if I don't know the fiber content, I just say so. Most people don't have a problem with this, if they like the item enough. It could be a problem if they're allergic to something like wool, but you can always do fiber testing if need be. Usually this involves burning a bit of the yarn, or soaking it in different household chemicals to see how it reacts. Might not be 100% accurate, but you can at least tell the difference between natural and synthetic fibers easily. Wool pretty much dissolves in chlorine bleach, natural fibers have fairly distinct smells when burned, and synthetic fibers just melt. It can get tricky if you have mixed fibers, though..
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Oct 5, 2011 09:11
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The team isn't terribly active, but we have threads where you can post your new items, sales and promotions, and stuff like that. Sometimes it's just nice to have all of that stuff in one place, especially the coupons.
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Oct 6, 2011 04:01
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I started a small ad campaign yesterday, and so far I have nothing interesting to report. I've had three views and zero sales from about 200 impressions. For the same 20 cents I could have just listed or renewed something and gotten actual traffic. I'm only running ads for my knit items though, so your results may vary.
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Oct 8, 2011 20:23
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I'd be down with pitching in for the banner, but I have less than a buck in my Paypal account right now. I'm running into that classic "need money to make money" scenario here. If I can find the right cable for my tablet, I'd be willing to do some quick graphics for it, though. I did the derpy Etsy Goon Squad bee for the team logo, and I can do something similar for the banner if everyone likes it. I'm also jumping on the "search ads suck" bandwagon. I ran a small campaign, against my better judgement, and got 4 clicks out of about 1000 impressions. Renewing is still a much better way to get views, especially if you stagger your listings a bit, and pay attention to your Google Analytics. I tend to get the most views on weekdays between about 1pm and 9pm, so that's when I'm most active on the site. I've also had 130+ hits for the tag CF4L this week, since I tagged one of my Regretsy-inspired items with it. Kinda cool since I got three times as many views as usual one day, but still no sales. Right now I'm thinking of adding knitted Christmas ornaments to my shop, after seeing a pattern in a knitting magazine. They're cute little six-pointed stars, and look like a good way to use up my sock yarn scraps. The magazine also had a pattern for a cute but totally impractical chain-link scarf (like the paper chains kids sometimes make during the holidays) that I might try. There's a similar crochet pattern on the Michaels site here. Another site I saw earlier in the week had a pattern for knit leaf ornaments, made with fluffy yarn and thin wire, but it specifically said not to use their pattern for anything other than personal use, so I'm going to make my own, dammit.
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Oct 20, 2011 11:45
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Comrade Quack posted:I guess I'm confused as to the "proper" usage of the CF4L tag. I was under the impression that "CF4L" was for the type of Useless poo poo that finds its way to the front page because the photograph of it looks pretty. (And perhaps listed just for that reason) I think the CF4L tag might be a little more popular than normal right now just in terms of treasury bait. Comrade Quack posted:I've been using "Regretsy" for items that are regretsy inspired, like the Goatse katamari. I've been using "teamapril" for general stuff that you wouldn't have to be a Regretsy fan to appreciate, but you want Regretsy fans that support other fans to find. I love your katamari and kind of want to hang one from the ceiling..
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Oct 21, 2011 00:39
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Schoenoplectus posted:I recently started an etsy shop a few weeks ago, but so far no sales. I think if you're going to sell reconstructed "upcycled" anything, Etsy is the place to do it. Sales can be pretty slow starting out, though. Joining a couple teams and participating can help put your name out there, as well as using Twitter and Facebook. There are tons of teams that are willing to help out new sellers, and can explain things way better than I can. 
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Oct 24, 2011 15:59
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I am suddenly very discouraged. I know it's hard to run a business on Etsy and compete with resellers, but ugh. I just read a thread in Business Topics by someone who spent $150 on junk from a known reseller, just because. They then tried to justify it by saying something like "I used to report their shop but Etsy never did anything so it must be okay LOL". Seriously, every other word was "lol" and I wanted to tear my hair out. She spent more in one transaction on cheap poo poo from China than I've made in the last couple months on actual handmade goods.. 
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Nov 14, 2011 13:31
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Wandering Knitter posted:Welcome to Etsy. Oh, I know. It's just that she had the nerve to tell everyone "I know this is wrong and I did it anyway", then tried to blame her mistake on Etsy for not removing the items so she couldn't buy them. It did get kind of entertaining though, when people told her she was wrong and she started threatening everyone. A bunch of people got abusive convos from her, and she was telling everyone she'd say mean things about us in her blog. Like that's gonna hurt my sales any more than competing with the rear end in a top hat she just bought from. She eventually decided to flounce, so good riddance, and an admin closed the thread after 26 pages of 
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Nov 14, 2011 16:52
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I'm also doing a 20% off coupon through Monday! Just use the BLACKMONDAY coupon code, and let me know you're a goon at checkout; I'll throw in a pair of earrings from my stash of "oh god I have too much stuff!"
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Nov 25, 2011 10:17
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Depends entirely on the style of earrings and materials used. Without knowing that, or seeing the earrings, there's no way to put a price on them.
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Dec 15, 2011 16:34
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alucinor posted:Ok, just had a weird experience. I had a sale, but the buyer's Echeck didn't clear through PayPal. I just went to convo her and it says the user no longer exists. Does this mean she was a spammer? Glad I waiting for payment to clear instead of feeling pressured to ship early for Christmas! Quite likely! Good thing you waited, and avoided losing out.
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Dec 16, 2011 20:16
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If you're shipping from the US, you can always get an estimate online or at the post office. You'll need to fill out customs forms as well, but those are fairly easy to figure out. If you have a postage scale, you can weigh the package and calculate postage here: http://ircalc.usps.com/?country=10013
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May 17, 2012 11:11
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flutterbyblue posted:P.S. Also, if you decide to offer international shipping, just grab a handful of the little customs forms when you go to the post office (if you mail from the brick and mortar building). I keep a stack on hand since filling them out before I head in makes shipping go so much quicker. You can also order this stuff online, for free! Customs forms come in packs of 10, if I recall correctly. You can also get Priority Mail boxes delivered for free, but please don't be tempted to use these for other shipping methods. I know the prospect of free boxes is nice, but if they find out you're misusing them, your packages will be returned to you, at best. Some people do get away with it, but it's not something I'd be willing to risk, especially since the post office is terrible about returning packages in a timely manner. I actually had a metered package returned to me once for insufficient postage (seriously, how does that happen when a postal clerk rang it up?) and it took about two weeks for it to appear in my mailbox. Thankfully the buyer was very understanding, but it's something I'd like to avoid in the future.
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May 24, 2012 03:43
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Funhilde posted:Do they also send a scale? Is there one that you would recommend? They sell scales, but I don't have one so I can't make a recommendation. I usually fill out all of my paperwork and then just take it to the automated postage center. My post office has a machine where you can weigh things and print postage (anything domestic, and foreign letters.. packages you need to actually talk to someone), and it's available 24/7 along with a drop box for letters and packages. I mail most of my stuff at like, midnight.
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May 25, 2012 03:26
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zoecore posted:In other news, has anyone else completed their 'About' page? I struggled with ours a little bit because I don't want to be identified too easily due to my day job. I kind of threw mine together quickly, and used an "artistic" photo that didn't show my face, but shows me working with crafty things. Sorta. http://www.etsy.com/shop/mizufusion/about/
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Jun 18, 2012 08:48
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That sounds amazing. My mom and I had plumeria scented everything the year after my family took a trip to Hawaii.
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Jun 21, 2012 09:11
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