♦♦♦♦ Alberta Street Team CHAT THREAD for November 2 ~ 8, 2015 ♦♦♦♦

[#1]

Hello and welcome to the Alberta Team Chat Thread for November 2 ~ 8, 2015. Posting here counts towards your team participation and is the main place to get up to date on what we are doing as a team!

Post your New Listings in our promo thread:
www.etsy.com/teams/5084/alberta-street-team/discuss/17008534/

Post your Treasuries or social media links here (posting in this thread counts toward your team participation):
www.etsy.com/teams/5084/alberta-street-team/discuss/17008566/

WHERE TO FIND OUR TEAM & PARTICIPATE:
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/AlbertaStreetTeam
TWITTER: twitter.com/etsyalbertateam #EtsyAB
PINTEREST: www.pinterest.com/ABStreetTeam/
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/etsyalbertateam/ #etsyalbertateam

If you have any questions about the team or how to get more involved please contact Ann, the Team Captain, at www.etsy.com/shop/MagpieQuilts.

Previous thread:
(October)
www.etsy.com/teams/5084/alberta-street-team/discuss/16982527/
(November 2 open thread)
https://www.etsy.com/teams/5084/alberta-street-team/discuss/17011250/

[Former_Member]

T. G. I. F. This weekend is "where are we going to put the tree?" furniture moving. The tree won't actually go up until after Remembrance Day. This will be year #2 with an artificial tree. :-)

[myCorabella]

Hi everyone! I hope you are all well.

This is a whirlwind month for me, starting this weekend with Millarville, Spruce Meadows the following 3 weekends, and then Festival of Crafts which is the same weekend as the 3rd weekend at Spruce...gotta go!

[Former_Member]

hi all. I have now got four shows booked this month. yikes! Julie, I am with you, old-ish and not quite getting the apps thing. I struggle with photos for Instagram as it is, so another way to do them is challenging to say the least.

happy weekend.

[WireExpressions]

Ahhhh! The Tuscany drugstore which houses my post office had a fire yesterday!!!! I have such a wonderful relationship with the staff there. They're so good to me and I have had such terrible service experiences at the next closest PO (Silver Springs). What an inconvenience this will be! Can anyone recommend a NW Calgary Post Office that may be worth driving to?
Thankfully, I didn't bring in any packages yesterday! Don't need that stress!

[minibytes]

Oh Kristi! That's terrible news! I live in the SE so I'm not much help. :(

Hope everyone is coping ok with the early christmas insanity of craft shows and orders and general stress. I'm head down trying to get a wholesale order out the door for Tuesday, and then trying to finish a custom mobile for my best friend for her baby shower, I'll be sure to post photos once it's done.

Definitely TGIF over here today. :)

[JenGregoirePhoto]

Woohoo Kathy! I will see you at All things pretty I'm there as well ! And Ann I see you tomorrow at crazyforcrafts! Super pumped for Christmas craft season!

So I got a 5 star review from a lady I did a custom order for. Awesome! but she said in her review that I charged too much for shipping? I charged her $3.00 extra on top of the shipping rate to accommodate my cost of shipping supplies box and foam wrap , tissue paper. It was a parcel not a envelope and also took some time to wrap. Am I wrong to charge her extra?. Do you just charge the postal rate and eat the cost of packing materials etc? I don't think so?

[LogeePhoto]

Ugh, I just spent all morning creating a stock photography pack in time for the holidays. I wanted to sell it as a digital download on Etsy, but the file limit is 20mb. That's a single image in the entire pack and I wanted to include 22 images... Now I have to think of a way around this...

[ASecondTime]

Jen...often the easiest way around the shipping/packaging cost concern is to build those costs into the item. That way you are covering all your costs associated with getting that item out the door when it is sold, the buyer is paying actual (or close) shipping and everyone is happy :)

[Former_Member]

Just checking in! All ready for the Mount Pleasant Potters Guild show next weekend & sent more stuff to the ACC in Edmonton- hope it sells! I have been working on pictures too- outside with natural light. Neighbours will think I'm nuts out there photographing lamps but I have a good set up under the deck.

[myCorabella]

Jen - could also add in your shop policies that the "shipping" charge includes costs for insurance, handling & packaging, or something to that effect.

[SnowmanCollector]

Hope day 2 is better at this Christmas sale. So far sales were dismal to say the least. If day 2 and 3 are the same I will be lucky to recoup my costs.

[Former_Member]

Ah shipping. I made a rough guess and stick with it. I say in each listing that I partially cover shipping cost.

[Former_Member]

Ah a slow market/show day. Not fun. Hope the weekend goes better.

[minibytes · Accepted solution]

Hi all! I'll be organizing another secret santa this year if people want to participate. If you do head on over to the thread and sign up:

https://www.etsy.com/teams/5084/alberta-street-team/discuss/17035266/page/1?ref=team_page

[LogeePhoto]

So, I discovered this the hard way last night, but the digital download listings are limited to 5 files, max 20mb each. I ended up listing each colour individually, when I had really wanted to include everything together as one big pack and not have to pay $0.20 per colour.

But it's an experiment, so we'll see how things go! I've never done stock photography before, but if it works out, it's a nice way to keep the shop running when I'm out of the country.

If you know anyone who's looking for holiday glitter photos for place cards, greeting cards, or holiday art, here's the link:

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/LogeePhotography?section_id=18080644&ref=shopsection_leftnav_8

[Former_Member]

Hey Jillian when I list items for digital download I include them in a compressed zip folder. That way there's only one "file" and you can include way more images when they're compressed.

[tinydaisiesdesigns]

Jen - if you print off your own shipping labels, you can choose to not have the price displayed on the package. That might help?

[quirefly]

Hi all,
Hope everyone's weekend shows are going well. I heard that Millarville was packed. Heard a few people talking about how busy it was-said they had to park down the highway, walk 45 minutes to get there, and by the time they did a lot of vendors were sold out. Don't know if that's true, but it is a popular and busy market for sure! I was in Okotoks yesterday and today. Lots of traffic in the main hall. I was in a smaller hall to the side (maybe 13 vendors in there) and we had rather less traffic than the main hall. Some people were making good sales, I hear, but apparently it is not the right market for me.
I did make a super special sale today though- a lady was looking for a pair of earrings to match a necklace she has with a wee amethyst stone in it, and I happened to have my amethyst in my tool kit. As I was making the earrings, she was telling me about the importance of her pendant- it contains the ashes of her sister who passed away a few months ago. She was so happy she cried, Then I cried.
She absolutely made my day, and after chatting with her, the slow market day seemed less serious.

[LogeePhoto]

Shayla, the problem for me was that the images were too high-res, so even if I compressed them, it didn't bring the image size down by much. Not a big deal to list them individually. :)

[PurplePonyArt]

Glad you were there for that shopper in Okotoks yesterday Christine. There were sales in Chestermere and Airdrie too. The Chestermere sale was fairly quiet, although it could have just been that people didn't realize there was a second room (which Mom and I are in). I was so thankful the weather was good!

[MagpieQuilts]

I don't know what the final count was in Chestermere, but I think it was double what we've had in years past. Normally it trickles to nothing by about 2, but in the main room we had shoppers right through to 4. It was a good sale for me.

I did have a notebook with me and actually took down names & phone numbers of people who wanted something I didn't have. First time doing that and I think it will be in my toolkit at every show for that purpose.

[Splurge]

I hope all in shows this weekend and prepping for future shows do well.

I love the warmer weather this weekend! hard to believe it is November. I'm realizing I need to buckle down and get some of my own shopping done :)

[Former_Member]

Join us in the new weekly chat here:
https://www.etsy.com/teams/5084/alberta-street-team/discuss/17041266/