Queries, Questions, Chit Chat

[#1]

If anyone has any problems or questions then please feel free to reach out here. And I hope if anyone knows anything that would be useful then please comment.

[bohemiantrading]

The above should have said "after" it hits the ground.

[bohemiantrading]

Gena, let us know if your father is doing any better. I know he's been in ICU before.

[VintageVogueTreasure]

I did not realize you can't insure to Russia! I always insure items going there. Through the Etsy labels. Is it covered that way?

[Kissisjustakiss]

Lynne;
My father is now in a rehab facility. They are still trying to figure out where he is bleeding from. He is very weak and tired right now. He will be 82 in a few months.
Thanks for asking
xoxoxo to all.

[VintageVogueTreasure]

Prayers for dad, Gena. xoxo

[bohemiantrading]

Mary Ellen, maybe things have changed with U-PIC since I tried to insure to Russia. This was a while ago, and maybe due to political tensions, at the time? I can't say for sure, but I looked on Endicia's website, and they excluded Russia, so I cancelled the transaction.

[bohemiantrading]

Hi Gena, At least he is safe and under observation. Hoping they can figure out what the cause is, and that he'll be back home soon.

[Kissisjustakiss]

Lynne;
As least 20 more days. I am a real mess. but I am hanging in there!

[MarlosMarvelousFinds]

Hi Teamies,

I'd like to share something I've started doing since I heard on the news a few weeks ago that sitting for long periods is the "new smoking" as to how it adversely affects our health. I already knew this of course, which was why I bought my living room laptop desk - Its top part can be raised and lowered pretty easily, even for me. So I've been setting my timer for 20 mins. while sitting and working. When it goes off, I raise up the top of this desk and stand to work (as I'm doing right now). I'm not timing the standing, I'm just standing until it becomes tiring. I hope I can go for longer than 15-20 mins., but I doubt it, LOL.

Here's the desk I'm talking about. I finally found it in my 2013 orders on Amazon, and it's still the same price! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BBNROI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

I LOVE the shelf below the top. And it has another shelf below that, and a large open compartment at the bottom. I also find that my feet are in the perfect position (while sitting) on the raised areas on each side.

It's Very Sturdy AND has held up amazingly these past 3 years, with one exception. It has thick plastic wheels, but one broke last year. I contacted the company that makes the desk, and they ordered me a new one and sent it to me for no charge. Now THAT's customer service!

I hope someone who is looking for something like this can get one.

Hugs,
Marlo

[HauteVintageJewels]

That's a great idea Marlo! Thanks for sharing the link. I know I sit way too much these days and it's not doing me any good!

[PlumsandHoney]

I just now ran across this on G+ and thought I would share. I don't know if the other SM sites do something similar, but it might be worth considering as we're blitzing. 🙂

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/115679977025153432435/communities/104872764793430018607?authkey=CM7xo6...

[PandPF]

Hi, I want to get some thoughts from my teammies on items being pilfered from Mailboxes. I have had 5 of these in the last two months and I am getting a little worried now. Any item over $50 ships with a signature confirmation. Should I be requiring that on lesser items, too? So far my insurance (shipsurance) has covered these even though the post office shows them as delivered. I am afraid that they might raise my rates or drop me if I keep claiming losses.
I thought I would add something to my policy page and add something as an upgrade in shipping for signature confirmation. What does everyone else think and is this something that you have experienced? I saw a blurb on ECommerce about porch theft too.

[Former_Member]

Hi Team
I got a query on a ring, with a Japanese king/person on it, can you identify him? i have posted him to twitter
https://twitter.com/GlanYrAfonJewel
thanks in advance

[seasidecollectibles]

Hello Team! FYI Chit Chat
I love books. They are my passion.
I have been working on building a Vintage Book following on Pinterest and was recently rated 3rd in followers on Pinterest. (PinGroupie.com)

The group name: Vintage Books at Seaside Collectibles. There are presently over 10 books collectors /etsy sellers posting there and it is an interesting collection.

Books and paper ephemera can be posted here. From your personal collection, blog links as well as book that you may have for sell.

If you would like to join this growing vintage book group, please convo me your Pinterest link & request to join us!

The Pinterest link for the group is: www.pinterest.com/pj_at_SC/vintage-books-at-seaside-collectibles/

Check it out! All the best. pj

[APPLEPIESonELSTON]

Hello. I was wondering if a Team face book page has been made yet. The one thing I've noticed is it gets a little overwhelming to connect with other members through discussions. I have been pretty inactive recently due to a family crisis, but I am still here, and this is my "go-to" group. I was just thinking that the flow of conversation is much smoother in a fb setting, for me anyway. 😉
**My main question today however is this: I would like to put most of my listings on a deep discount. I need to move my current listings quickly because I am moving. I still have tons of stock, and when I get settled in, I will continue adding, but I don't want to have to pack the things that I currently have listed!! Ideas? Threads? Thank you!

[RadarVintage]

Other teams I belong to have dedicated threads advising members on the new shop makeover, imposed on us by Etsy on Apr 5th. There are various areas of contention - maybe I have missed it, but do we have a thread, and if not, maybe it's a good idea to start one?

[PlumsandHoney]

Question: I haven't been playing heart threads for a while now, because I understand that if we reheart an item our shop is knocked down in relevancy. If that's the case, then hearting 15 above or the first page of a shop probably isn't a good idea. Am I understanding this correctly?

@Kate, could you respond? Thanks, 🙂

[RadarVintage]

Betty - interesting. I would also like to know if this is true...we spend so much time faving that if it's not doing us any favors (pardon the pun!) we should know...

I also asked a question just before yours about whether this team has a thread on Etsy's new design etc., which is being imposed on us on Apr 5...

[PlumsandHoney]

Rainita ~ I saw your post. It's so crazy that I'm going nuts trying to figure it all out. Teams seem to have slightly different information and tips. It would be good for our team to wade in.

You know, in the blitzes we only heart gray ones, but we also have threads where we are supposed to heart all. I'm confused.

[RadarVintage]

Yeah, I think it would be good if this team contributed too to the makeover thing, to try and make sense of what is a very bad design and revamp.

I haven't begun to make my changes yet - but one thing I do know - Etsy has written its own template policies, (one size fits all!) which do not cover all scenarios or country laws. If you don't adopt them, you will be on a lesser search rating, which is outrageous. And if you do, you can't revert to your own, so be careful. I'm keeping my own!

I don't do the blitzes but I do other threads that require me to fave all hearts - and refave if I've already hearted in the past....that is, both red and gray. If it's a waste of time and energy, and it doesn't help with sales, I would really love to know. I don't have spare time...

Late here in the UK so goodnight. Do post if you find out anything about the hearting issue and I will too.

[OurBoudoir]

two things

the etsy revamp is to keep inline with mobiles. Google has since last year started to discriminate and marks down any websites that have poor imagery on mobiles. So Etsy is helping us and in fact the large photos look great. They show how appealing your photos/items are. The current ones are rather small if you look at a page of your shop.

Hearting - I do believe that it is a balance. If you heart grey ones then your relevancy goes up to a certain point, as there are other factors. If you heart red ones it goes down. So the easy solution is to make sure you are hearting a lot of grey ones to compensate for the red ones. I often go and heart all round Etsy - things that interest me and are well presented. But be careful of activities where you are faced with mainly red hearts. Those shops need to keep listing, that is the prime source of relevancy.

We have started to introduce viewing into activities to replace clicking on red hearts. Now that also adds to your items relevancy and may help more as you often have more hearts than views per item.

[OurBoudoir]

Forgot why I came here!

Here is a great app Etsyrank

https://etsyrank.com

which explains what you need to increase relevancy on your items and grades them for you A to F. It explains that Es and Fs often reflect that you have not used all your tags and not to panic. The main thing is to use the first few words of your titles wisely and repeat them in the tags and description. The search engines look for these main tags and not only in the tag!

[RadarVintage]

Catherine - thanks for the clarification. I have a small shop, so items I post in the daily faving threads are likely to have already been faved red. Every so often I try to unfave old items but I don't think everyone does this. Do you know if there is an easy way or app to fave/unfave?

Re the Etsy revamp: I don't mind the large photos - what I do mind is the Etsy default policies and the fact that apparently if you don't use them, your search relevancy will go down (according to Etsy). My policies are based on UK and EU laws and on real-life experiences with a handful of problematic buyers - my policies cover all potential scenarios, which is not the case with the Etsy template.

There are also other glitches with the new makeover and people are struggling.

[RadarVintage]

Well, for the first time ever, since doing view threads, I had the 2nd highest no of views from Lithuania! I've never had one view from there. And several from South Korea - also never had a view from there as well as Uruguay...(1st time too)

[FoxyFineVintage]

Kate, thank you so much for that link to Etsyrank! Very interesting and some great information. Makes it easy to fix mistakes or just make improvements. This will be very useful to me.... greatly appreciated!!