cafepress

kellysue · #1 10-11-2002, 09:51 AM

I am so glad I read this thread! Carly, I followed your link and went to CafePress, where I ended up starting my own shop. (I gave your shop name as the referral) This is a great place to hang out and play--I don't expect to have scads of sales, but I love the idea of it all and the gift possibilities. I have a few items with my recent still-life paintings on them. My store name is Kelly's Art, or kellysart as the actual I.D. Maybe this'll work:

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/members/...reid=kellysart

I'm still learning to navigate in the online world.

So all you artists who haven't checked out Cafepress: it's a lot of fun. Two thumbs up!

Helen Zapata · #2 10-11-2002, 10:43 AM

This is really neat!! I saved the link so I can play with it more later.

If you don't sell anything within a given month, do you still owe them the base price?

Helen

CarlyHardy · #3 10-11-2002, 07:17 PM

The basic shop is free and there is no monthly costs.
carly

toddjunck · #4 10-14-2002, 10:29 AM

....and set up several (3) stores. It was very easy. I ordered some samples for myself to see what the quality was like. I should recieve them tommorrow.

I set up a store front on my website that links to each store. Take a look and see what you think.

www.geocities.com/sweetwaterstudio/store

Thanks,
Todd

kiwicockatoo · #5 10-15-2002, 11:36 AM

Todd, the link's not working for me - from your website either.

Great idea! I noticed right away that you can only have one item each in the basic shop. ie, you can't have three different mousepad designs. So you would have to have a different "store" for each design. I'm going to put a shop link on my homepage with the different designs available, each of which would take you to that design's particular store.

I may not sell alot but boy this site is just so much fun - and I'm dying to have a mug with one of my own designs on it!

Now, if only I could wrap my head around this "dpi" and resizing stuff.

toddjunck · #6 10-15-2002, 11:51 AM

I disabled the page so that noone could order, before I could tweak the images and reload them to the CafePress site.

The samples that I ordered arived yesterday and I was not happy with the images that were printed....however, it was not their fault, my images were not prepared as well as I thought they were. Don't get me wrong, I'm still impressed with the quality.

My only suggestion would be to make SURE that your images are as clean as they can be before uploading. I have been in PSP all morning using the magic wand and paint tools to make sure that the entire background is perfectly white, otherwise you will get an off color or splotchy background.

The packaging that they use is excellent. All breakables are well wrapped and protected with packing peanuts. Delivery was prompt. I requested 2-day delivery, which means the items would ship the next business day, which they did, and arrived on time. They even send you an email to notify you that they shipped.

BTW, I even had a question that I asked thru the cust. service form and I recieved an email response the same day.

That's all for now!

Todd

ps I will put the page up again shortly. I will let you know.

kiwicockatoo · #7 10-15-2002, 01:25 PM

Thanks for the info Todd

The do say to print out your image to make sure it looks good, but I think I would order something for myself just to make sure it looked good before offering it up for sale.

Sounds like everyone has been very happy with their quality and service - a class act all the way!

toddjunck · #8 10-15-2002, 04:06 PM

Ok......The store is back up again!!!

Click the link at the bottom of my signature.

Todd

kiwicockatoo · #9 10-16-2002, 09:40 AM

Looks good Todd - nice layout.

CanadianMe · #10 10-16-2002, 02:51 PM

They have a great idea if only they would have a Canadian distributor, I just can't sell their stuff here, after the exchange and all the other associated costs, I feel as though I overcharging my fellow Canadians .... ah maybe one day we will have something like that up here .....

Keenataz · #11 10-20-2002, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CanadianMe
They have a great idea if only they would have a Canadian distributor, I just can't sell their stuff here, after the exchange and all the other associated costs, I feel as though I overcharging my fellow Canadians .... ah maybe one day we will have something like that up here .....

I totally agree! I have purchased some of their items on sale ($3 off t-shirts, mugs until tomorrow) which I will have at Christmas craft fairs. I will probably have to price them at cost.

Maybe Canucks should encourage cafepress to expand into Canada! I'll write them. Perhaps if you will and any other Canucks in Wet Canvas will - we can at least put a little "seed" in their heads.......

kiwicockatoo · #12 10-21-2002, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CanadianMe
They have a great idea if only they would have a Canadian distributor, I just can't sell their stuff here, after the exchange and all the other associated costs, I feel as though I overcharging my fellow Canadians .... ah maybe one day we will have something like that up here .....

Well, maybe not many Canadians might want to buy because of the exchange rate, but do you really care? Cafepress has no problems with mailing a cheque to Canada, and I would suspect most of the people browsing the site would be American, which is a huge market anyway!

CanadianMe · #13 10-22-2002, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kiwicockatoo

Well, maybe not many Canadians might want to buy because of the exchange rate, but do you really care? Cafepress has no problems with mailing a cheque to Canada, and I would suspect most of the people browsing the site would be American, which is a huge market anyway!

Yes it does matter, most of my traffic to my sites including the last Gallery site I was involved in were Canadian. Even if it wasn't I prefer my items or items sold through me to be in the currency where I live. I feel even if one person bought something through my site here in Canada the cost to them would be to much and I would feel I was cheating them, so it does matter to me. I rather not make a cent than to feel I am taking advantage of someone who may not know better, at least if it was in Canadian currency my American customers would pay less.

kiwicockatoo · #14 10-23-2002, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Keenataz
Maybe Canucks should encourage cafepress to expand into Canada! I'll write them. Perhaps if you will and any other Canucks in Wet Canvas will - we can at least put a little "seed" in their heads.......

Ok, maybe I'll drop them a line too. I didn't really make my shops to make tonnes of cash (although, that would be alright too). Mostly to buy my OWN stuff to include little "treats" with my more expensive commissions. Really, when you do a $500 commission, it doesn't cost much to include a mousepad with a repro of the commission on it - and it is really impressive for the client to receive. Right now I'm very thankful for every commission I receive and it's my little way of saying thank you. I know, I'm not a very good business person.

I've been ordering from the states from so long that I guess I just take if for granted that I'm going to lose money. I wonder if the Canadian dollar will ever be stronger like in the good old days when I was a kid and we used to go to the states just to shop!

As for feeling like I'm "cheating" someone - if someone really wants a mug with my artwork on it that bad, that's their choice. It's not like I have a huge markup on my stuff. You're right though, there are just not many options for us Canadians. Except for ebay where the weak dollar here is an advantage if you want it to be.

Bottom line, I'm doing it for fun.

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