Christine's Cross and Lessons: The Destiny of Things, Story LXXXVI, Part 1

Christine's Cross and Lessons:  The Destiny of Things, Story LXXXVI, Part 1

This transaction went a little haywire in the shipping department, but turned out all right with multiple stories. 

 

It came with  one HoarderRehab story and two Etsy lessons.  If you've read my postings under "Techless Hoarder Etsy Newbie," you know I'm not sure what I'm doing, except going with the flow concerning anything to do with computers, hoarding and/or Etsy.

There are many Etsy shop owners who on a regular basis come to VintageToGoEtsy to favorite newly listed items and I go to their shops and fav't theirs.  Eventually I started to recognize their names and shops, but didn't know what I was doing or why!  I'm still not sure how favoriting and following works on Etsy, except that I favorite items from people who favorite mine.  Until....

One day at my shop, VintageToGoEtsy, I was reading Christine Behren's profile, (I read as many profile's as I can because most of them tell an engaging story) and she gave the favoriting back and forth from shop to shops a name!!!!  She called it "cross marketing" and explained it as a way to support other shops as well as your own and all of a sudden a light bulb went off!

Christine was one of the many Etysians who favorite my items in return consistently, so I cross marketed  her shop, COLORS OF THE SOUTHWEST from VintageToGoEtsy to HoarderRehab and guess what?  It worked because that same day she ordered these crosses!  Many thanks, Christine!

Here's her email with her story and some of the shipping information I had no idea about:

Christine Behrens

4 days ago

 

Kennedy,

Thank you, and you're welcome.

This is the first time I've had to pay extra postage for a thin envelope. I buy many items, and when they are coming from overseas, they often send them in thin envelopes. I think it probably depends on who is processing the items.

My postal person told me that many people stuff the envelope with bubble wrap to make it thicker. So you can do that too until all of your envelopes are gone. Another suggestion that MAY work is stuffing the envelope with tightly crunched up paper to get the thickness, which will definitely be less costly than bubble wrap.

Yes, I plan on using the crucifixes on a couple of men's leather beaded wrap bracelets. I hope to bring a line of leather beaded wrap bracelets online for the Christmas season as they are big sellers. I just have to find the time to make them. They are tricky, but easy, to make, but they are time consuming, and, as you can see, I spend a lot of time on my store marketing

I will keep watch on your store for other items I may use in my jewelry making. I am always on the hunt, and when something interesting pops up, I buy it go later use.

Again, thank you so much for your attention to this matter. I'm sorry this had to happen as I know you certainly didn't make anything on your sale with having to refund an additional $$$.

Have a great weekend, and it's been a pleasure doing business with you. I will leave you positive feedback.

Chris

Kennedy Miranda

4 days ago

 

Hi again!

Thank you so much for dealing with the PO and finding out what happened for me and I will try your suggestions for stuffing for my hoard of envelopes!

Thank you for your story too! I will post it and link it to your shop on my blog sometime this week and send you the link. And I will mention your cross marketing on it too!

Thank you for your empathy on the sale loss, but it's one of the better cheapest school of hard knock lessons I've learned on Etsy. Most of the others were rather expensive lessons!

Thank you for the positive feedback and will leave your positive also. More than a pleasure doing business with you too and hope you are having a good weekend making leather jewelry for Christmas!

I so look forward to seeing the crucifixes transformed with new life and even more beautiful!

Thank you so much for everything and taking part in my Hoarder Rehab in more ways than one!
~Kennedy

Saying Good-bye:  There was so much going on at the time of this transaction, I was "just" happy that Christine had "cross marketing" in her profile in a way that made sense to me and I chalked up the loss as a big profit in knowledge and learning more about USPS shipping!

USPS shipping is another mystery to me and if weren't for mr. oz doing the shipping, I'd probably only have one shop!  I'll write about what I learned about shipping on Monday.  Basically, when she received my package it had extra postage due and was charged USPS priority rate which I'm still not sure why.

From my understanding, her postal agent said it was because of the thickness of not being packed thick enough and I read on the USPS site, it depends on which way the address label is facing.  I'll research more over the weekend to write a post about it what I do know about USPS shipping.

What I Learned:

1.  It's been a year now, since we opened VintageToGoEtsy and as a techless hoarder Etsy newbie, I've learned a lot and still learning new things daily from all over!  I still have many unanswered questions to demystify about Etsy, USPS shipping and hoarder recovery!

2.  I have a lot to learn about USPS shipping and hope that as my home becomes more uncluttered, so will my mind, especially when it comes to explaining anything to do with computer, shipping or Etsy information.  There's a whole hoard of stuff going on in my mind and sorting it out is just as complicated as in my home and vehicle.

It's as if my brain has reached it's finite limit and needs dehoarding too!

3.  As of today, 294 items have been given new lives and more than 86 stories from Etsyians have made their way to me to help me on my HoarderRehab journey in countless forms!

Thank you Christine from COLORS OF THE SOUTHWEST for sharing your story, giving me postal information from your state in several emails and defining "cross marketing" at a time when I need it most! I hope you have fun breathing new life into the crucifixes as leather bracelets for Christmas shoppers!  I look forward to seeing them and would love an update!

She makes and lists beautiful jewelry inspired by the southwest colors of Arizona!  Some of my favorites are a sunset red necklace here, a traditional round turquoise one, here and this chunky black dragon agate necklace here.  Right now, she has many pieces with "free shipping."  Check out her entire shop here!

Thank you Etsy for a connection that turned out quite positive in more ways than one and will hopefully also help other Etsy newbies.

Thank you mr. oz for running the behind the scenes show and making it seem so effortless and fun!

Thank you US, France, Australia, Netherlands, Canada, Germany, India and Saudi Arabia for reading my posts and taking part in my HoarderRehab and  The Destiny of Things!

Click on the highlighted links of the shop names to see newly listed daily hoard at VintageToGoEtsy, HoarderRehab and The Destiny of Things!  Thank you for stopping by!

Related Stories:

I am intimidated or shy trying to explain things I just learned and don't know well, but for other Techless Etsy newbies out there, I dared to try and only because I was so lost when I began on Etsy and I couldn't find much out here to lend me a hand:

You can click on the link here to go to see all my postings, "As a Techless Hoarder Etsy Newbie" or click on the titles below to go to the specific postings:

I would welcome and find it helpful for any information clarifying anything in my posts below!  Thank you!

1.  How I List an Item on Etsy:  Mind you I wrote this in Jan. 2012 and it needs to be revised, so it can be read more clearly, but I am still waiting until I feel more knowledgeable about listing with an uncluttered mind.

2.  How I Tag on Etsy:  This needs to be revised too, but still has helpful information on my experiment on which works better when using tag words:  2-5 word tags or 1 word tags.

3.  Google and Etsy:  Many of my buyers seem to come from Google. I've noticed it can take as long as two months for a listing to kick in on google, but it seems worth the wait.

4.  Why and How I Started this Blog:  I never thought I'd have a blog, let alone one with pictures.  It's as if my mind is cluttered with "who knows what," I have limited room for knowledge of computer use and am very overwhelmed with the photo side of Etsy marketing.

I can move pictures around once they are loaded on to my computer, thanks to mr. oz's days of teaching patience and Windupkitty who was very encouraging in her emails and said it was easy to submit with pictures on Allee Willis' Museum of Kitsch.  That's where I practiced until... one day a glimmer of hope surfaced to the top of my head and I actually thought that maybe, just maybe I could start a blog!