Postage

Posted on August 9, 2005

Ever since I put the Artificial Duck Store "advertisement" on my blog sidebar, my T-shirt sales have asploded. I credit this to the fact that Elizabeth Hurley is in the photo. Can you imagine what would happen if I actually had photos of her WEARING one of my shirts for advertising? I wonder how I go about getting Liz to model a Bad Monkey T-Shirt on the cover of Cosmo? Then everybody would want one!

Anyway, this is both good news and bad news.

It's GOOD news because I might eventually be able to break even from all the shirts I've given away for free. It started with the 32 I passed out for my Blogiversary2 celebration... and I still like to send them out as gifts for people who do me favors and such. You can call me weak, but when a firefighter writes to order another shirt because his got "damaged at work" well, I can't really charge for that can I? (I gave him two more and asked that he be careful out there, as Washington State is once again besieged with wildfires). It's not like I am wanting to make money here (otherwise I'd charge more), but it would be nice to have a balance so I am not losing money. Maybe when I release a few more designs (planned for mid-October now), I'll have it all figured out.

The BAD news is that fulfilling all these new orders is difficult...

1. PayPal's shopping cart doesn't allow me to charge exact shipping charges, even though I've got it totally calculated out for each country based on the number of shirts ordered. I'm looking into other solutions, but they're all really expensive. I guess I'll have to write my own shopping cart.
2. The US Postal Service web site is still using some non-standard method of sending postage labels, which means additional hoops to jump through every time I send out a shirt because I'm a Mac user. Yesterday I had to send out apologies to the dozen people who ordered over the weekend because it wasn't sending labels AT ALL. But today it was working again. Bleh.
3. I received my first complaint. It wasn't my fault (thankfully), but it is still really, really difficult to know that somebody is unhappy with me when I work so hard to make sure everything is perfect. I don't care if people want to call me an idiot for stuff I write in my blog, but I am devastated when I feel that I've let somebody down... especially when they are paying me money. Oh well, it was bound to happen eventually. All I can do is try my best to make it right.

But there IS good news from the post office today. My new stamps have arrived from "stamps.com", and they're sweet!! Well worth the pricey cost of admission...

I don't use stamps very often, except to send postcards, so I was happy to know that I could get postcard stamps customized. I am most pleased.

The stamps arriving was a nice thing to have happen on a day when I received a hate-mail so vile, so utterly horrible and racist, that I very nearly broke down. Not because I got yet another hate-mail (like I care), but because people like this actually exist in this world. I outright pity those whose entire existence is so superficial that how a person looks is grounds for such blind hatred. I just don't understand it. Furthermore, I am thankful I don't understand it... I don't want to.

Comments

Don't worry, Dave. I plan on digging in to my coffers pretty soon for a Bad Monkey T-shirt. I just haven't gotten off my lazy butt to do it. I love the shirt which is why I want one. Even my wife thinks it's pretty cool.

And those stamps rock!

No details on the hate mail? Or was it that bad?

Posted by Kevin on August 09, 2005 | Reply

   

Whoa wait one fat second here. Are those useable stamps?? If so, I want you to sell me some. I'm a mail addict and I'd use a sheet in a day... ok, maybe a day and a half.

Posted by girlonaglide on August 09, 2005 | Reply

   

Those stamps are SWEET! I wonder if you can do that in Canada?

Posted by Cavan on August 09, 2005 | Reply

   

Aw, Dave. So sorry to hear you got some evil hate mail. Be thankful you can't understand these type of people - you don't want to. They probably don't even understand themselves, living in their narrow little hate-filled lives. There are a lot more of us who love you than hate you, if that helps at all...Chin up, in no time at all, Hatey McCrankypants will find someone else to unload his self-loathing on, and in the meantime, you'll still have good, supportive people around you, because we tend to stick around.

Yay, happy Dave stamps, though!

Posted by Silvertongue on August 09, 2005 | Reply

   

Personalized stamps? Well I think I've just about seen everything now. I cannot wait to take a picture of my cats wearing top hats and tails (not theirs) to put on my stamps. Then my landlord will know exactly how cool I am when I send in my rent check.

Oh - and sorry to hear about the hate mail. That's just pathetic.

Posted by Jenny on August 10, 2005 | Reply

   

Actually Dave, a photo of Elizabeth Hurley WITHOUT your bad-monkey T-shirt would be much better.

Posted by Harold on August 10, 2005 | Reply

   

Check out www.shippingsidekick.com to compare the shipping rates when sending out shirts. USPS is often not the way to send things anymore, both cost wise and speed. This tools shows DHL, Federal Express, and UPS rates too which are often much lower with better service. I actually just save 20 bucks on a box from LA to NYC (was going to use UPS, FedEx ground was much less). That's my tip o the day:)

Posted by Ted Washington on November 16, 2006 | Reply

   

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