A Cautionary Consignment Tale

In my last blog I went into detail about where a buyer's money goes when they shop on Etsy and where a crafter's money goes when they produce an item.  I also mentioned that for a year I made the majority of my sales on the sock monkeys I design and make in a little local consignment store and that I no longer sell there.  I also said I'd blog about that.

Consignment is a great way to get a handmade product into the hands of a buyer.  Unlike a web store, the customer can see it, touch it, in the case of a stuffed animal, hold it and look it over carefully.  Colors are more accurate (I once sold one simply because the socks I chose were the same color as a family was using in the nursery for the new baby!).  I made between $50-$90 a month selling in a consignment store, which is far more then I have ever made online in even a year!  It doesn't pay the bills, but it does keep production going.  So why did I ever stop?

Early on in the brief existence of my online shop, I was contacted by a friend of the owner who told me she was looking for new sellers for her children's store.  Tucson has an excellent reputation for "buy local" awareness and I really did want to have a few of my monkeys in a store where the customer could see them because I think tangible purchases you don't have to wait two weeks or so to enjoy give a lot of people more satisfaction then items purchased through the Internet (even though it is exciting to get a package in the mail).  So I took a few by.

The owner was a nice lady with a store full of used and handmade items for children (great idea!).  The consignment rate wasn't too bad.  60-40 is better then 50-50 by far, after all who's buying supplies and assembling the item anyhow?  So I agreed to leave something like four monkey in the store.  I went back one or two months later to discover they had all sold and she made a check out to me for a nice little sum of money, which I spent buying more supplies and I brought her more monkeys.  And so it went for a whole year.  Normally she does 6 month runs on consignment items, but after 6 months they were still selling, and there are two street fairs where the store was located which draws in buyers, as well as the impending event of Christmas.  So she kept taking monkeys.  And they kept selling.  Some of the employees at the shop regularly told me that not only were my monkeys their favorites- but favorites of most customers as well.  Whether that was totally true or not, it was nice and encouraging to hear.

Whenever the owner would cut me my check, she also would send me an invoice via e-mail for what was sold, for how much each item was and what her cut was for my records.   I don't always get the e-mail.  But I always get paid, and since I don't make enough selling the monkeys, I don't have to pay taxes and therefore the records are irrelevant to me.

But as spring was on the way it seemed like coming by to see if anything sold and collect payment due was becoming an irritation to her.  And I assumed for my own peace of mind that she had her own worries.  And I was right, the lease was coming up, and there were sentiments in the selling "district" that a children's store was not right for the area and rather then pack up and move (for a second time) she was thinking on closing and moving away to a new opportunity.  Then someone with money, seeing the stores potential and the market for a children's clothing exchange and all the great locally made items stepped in and offered to buy the "store" from her.

At this point the consignors were asked to retrieve their merchandise and I came by several times trying to do so and each time the store was closed and I only was able to get them the very day before the doors on that location were closed forever.  I had sold two monkeys since my last payment and she told me she owed me something like $33 and some change.  But- she wasn't paying consignors right now, she'd send me my e-mail invoice and then the check would be in the mail in the next week.  I was unemployed and could sorely use $33, but it was not a large sum and I could see that she was extremely preoccupied and was content to wait a week.  I took my merchandise and she told me that the new owner has my e-mail address and would contact me if they wished to have the monkeys in the new location.  This was back in February, which as fall approaches, feels like an eternity ago.

I never got my check or my invoice confirming the two sales.  Weeks passed and I noticed on the Facebook Page for the store that there were a few other consignors trying to appeal to her to send them their checks (some were clearly angry and impatient) and the former shop owner herself had completely disappeared from Facebook.  I commented that I was in the same boat with them.  The new owner deleted our comments.  The new owner sent out a mass e-mail inviting all consignors to come by with their merchandise for them to look over.  Included in this message was a note that they were aware that the last owner had not yet paid several people and that complaints should be made to her personally, not to this new owner because that was none of her business and not her problem.

I can't sue for $33.  That would be ludicrous.  And I wanted to message her, but seeing as how I was not alone in being stiffed- what's the point?  To my knowledge, she has moved to South Korea to teach anyway.

I can see the point of view of this new business owner.  She can easily say it wasn't She who kept our money and that it is not her responsibility to pay us.  I might take up the same stance if I were in her shoes.  From where I stand, this person purchased- not just a store (because the location itself moved) but a Label.  A Brand Name.  An Icon.  A Landmark.  Something a lot of locals know.  And while it was an individual that stole money- they did so under the guise of this business.  If the shop name, licence, bank account, tax ID changed hands in the transaction (and maybe I am ignorant of business practices here) then why not the money that was owed to the consignors?  And therefore- why not the responsibility to pay?   Most of the merchandise moved with the store, why not checks for each consignor?

Its the "I don't care if she didn't pay you, that's not my problem" attitude that leaves a bad taste in my mouth toward taking my products to the new location and the new owner.  I still receive a mass e-mail asking for consignment merchandise, and in the last message a specific request for hand made toys, though nothing addressed specifically to me.  I would prefer to see a gesture of good will of some kind, maybe a little compassion and certainly concern for how cheating us makes the store as a whole look to the community.  Also perhaps the the assurance that this new owner has a more efficient system of payment in place to prevent "stealing" from consignors in the future.  Until then I'd rather be without that potential $50 a month because somewhere out there are two monkeys someone paid for thinking they were supporting an artist- and that artist never got paid.  And I will freely admit that I am angry every time I think about it, partly on the principal of it, and partly because $33 to an unemployed artist is like $300 to an ordinary person.

The High Cost of Etsy-ing

I sell on Etsy.  It began as a way to rid myself of the numerous sock monkeys I started making when I quit this awful job I had and needed a new hobby to fill my time.  Later I was asked to help a friend sell off her grandmother's vintage jewelry and so as it stands, my shop mostly sells jewelry.

I occasionally get some rather wild questions from buyers that have lead me to realize that buyers on Etsy have a lot of misconceptions about Etsy sellers.  So I blog today to enlighten- not to sell my readers vintage jewelry or sock monkeys.

I do not make a living doing this and I think over half the people selling on Etsy work a day job.   I make just enough on a sock monkey sale to go out and buy more stuffing, thread, socks, buttons, felt, or whatever else I need to make them.  A sock monkey purchase is simply financial support of a hobby.  I don't make anything on jewelry sales- I give all of that if there is any left to my friend who owns the jewelry.

Let me break down costs for you on the jewelry first.  

If I am charging $30 for a necklace + $8 for shipping: once PayPal takes their cut I'll have about $37 in there.  I ship with insurance in the $5.35 flat rate box.  I ship in a box because I have had jewelry stolen out of envelopes and the buyer had to be reimbursed, so I insist on insurance.  USPS does not insure envelopes- only boxes.  With insurance, the shipping is $7.95.  So now there is $29.05 in the PayPal account.  Then of course there's the Etsy bill which is always between $7 - $18.  I sell- if I am lucky- one item a month.  So at the end of it all my store has made a whopping $22 for a necklace I wanted $30 for, IF I don't list too many things.  I'd make a little more on it if I didn't do the one week promotional runs- but those usually help draw in buyers.  (Since publishing this blog, USPS has made insurance included on flat rate boxes, up to $50, so this math is a bit irrelevant now)

Why not raise my prices?  Well lately I have been asked by more then one person to lower my shipping costs!  It is completely inappropriate to suggest someone ship something in easy to open packaging without insuring it and then expect to get your money back when the item is stolen and fails to arrive. Not only does the seller loose their money, but also the opportunity to sell the item ever again. Both parties deserve to have reimbursement in the event of theft- so buyers need to be respectful of sellers that use insurance. That being said- it is affordable in my own mind- to insure the pricey jewelry- especially since it doesn't belong to me. I do not however insure the monkeys because they are so big- no one would pay the shipping costs!  (I can always make more monkeys- the jewelry is more irreplaceable)

I also get the impression that buyers do not realize that once an item is relinquished to USPS- they consider the ownership of the package to be the recipient.  In other words- its not my property anymore- its the buyer's property.  It is really the responsibility of the buyer to make inquires about missing packages.  But they make it my problem, so I make my own inquires to please my unhappy buyers when something fails to be delivered.  People need to remember that the seller is not flying personally on a plane and delivering this package by their own hand (can you just imagine paying for that?)  The package is entrusted to strangers- untrustworthy strangers as I have learned.  Strangers that will steal or accidentally route an item to the wrong zip code where it will be delayed for three weeks (when the buyer could just drive to their post office or to the nearby town it ended up in and demand it from that post office)- but instead asks me to look into it from clear across the country- so I do because I aim to please when I can do so. 

I want people to buy and I- as a consumer- understand that what people expect to have to pay for something differs greatly from the value a seller places on the item.  An item priced to high greatly limits your clientele. At that point the seller is using the online shop simply to show off merchandise they are proud to have aquired and they don't really want to part with unless its for the "right" price.

In a perfect world (or in the past where I often wish I could live) everyone would have an artistic craftsman hobby/occupation and understand the costs of buying supplies and the time spent crafting the item.  Then everyone would be more willing to support each other and willing to pay what an item is reasonably worth.

So heres a breakdown of production costs on the sock monkeys:

What does it cost to make said monkey?  First of all that depends on the socks.  Most pairs I get for about $2.50.  For Tie-dyed socks I have to buy a dye kit, but it will dye 4 pairs of socks.  For designer socks I have to spend about $7, but one designer demanded Etsy pull those monkeys on the basis I didn't have permission to use their logo (which is a the print on the socks and hard to avoid photographing)- so I can't sell those online. I have seen some really great socks out there for $10- but I won't use them because the cost of the monkey would increase significantly.  The stuffing I prefer (after trying a few brands) is $10 a bag and will stuff about 3 large monkeys.  I use embroidery floss and one roll of it will sew up one monkey.  I often use a second color on the face but thats a small amount of thread.  Buttons are about $5 a bag, with multiple colors and I don't really count this cost because after the first three bags or so, I haven't had to buy more yet.  So a monkey costs roughly $7 or $8. 

It takes me 3 hours to make one.  And that is if I don't make wings or costuming for it (another hour of work and about $2 worth of felt for wings because THAT has gotten expensive to buy since I started making them in 2011)  What should I pay myself per hour to sew the monkey?  I have to hand sew them since I use embroidery floss.  Should I get minimum wage?  That's $22 for 3 hours of work.  Plus supplies: a sock monkey SHOULD cost $30!?!  I sell a basic monkey for $15 plus shipping- AND that would bring us back to the first half of this blog about PayPal and Etsy fees.  Why sell them for so little?  Because that's what Target sells them for and while mine are so much cooler and more unique then Target's- how can I expect anyone to find mine affordable and buy them with the cheap crap coming here from Asia?  (Ironically Target is where I buy most of my socks) 

This guy sold for $50 and is the only monkey to fetch such a high price.

This guy is an example of a simpler "decorated" monkey.

When I began making the sock monkeys and it was suggested I sell them (probably because its weird to have 12 monkeys sitting around your house) a friend that was completing high school asked me to make her one and I was only too happy to make one for her as a graduation gift. She wanted to pay and I said "no" because I always intended to make a gift of it. But I did ask her what she'd pay for one. "$10" she said. When I brought them to a store for consignment, I asked the shop owner what seemed reasonable to charge. "$40, but no one would pay that. What do YOU want for them?" I wanted to make between $15 and $25 on a monkey. We priced them there at that- plus the additional cost of the cut she'd take- which made them cost between $5 and $10 more then I normally charge. For about a year that is where most of my sales came from. Now I don't sell there, and that is a long story about the woes of shop consignment I could blog about later. Most monkey sales lately come from random people I meet that see them and just have to have them. This circumvents the shipping issues I've already mentioned.

And once again- this isn't how I earn a living.  I am an idle housewife and the purchase only helps me buy more supplies to fuel my crafty hobbies.  To make a living I would have to sell two monkeys a day, 5 days a week- and they just don't sell that fast even priced as low as I have them.

An item is really only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, but hopefully I've raised a small amount of awareness about what it costs to make and sell things online, and about shipping woes.  And if you've read this hopefully you will consider more carefully before you try to haggle with us simple online artisans about our "extreme" prices.

Agave Sweetened Brownies

I ran out of sugar and do not live in the sort of neighborhood in which one goes door to door asking for sugar.  But I did have plenty of agave nectar.  I searched online in vain for a recipe for brownies that not only substitute agave for sugar, but also uses cocoa powder instead of baking chocolate.  I was forced to make suggested substitutions, which meant reducing the oil.  So not only are these sugar free, they contain very little oil and are dairy free as well.  My brownies came out tasty, but they rose less then normal and were more chewy and less cake-y.  I like chewy!  I like sugar free too!

Preheat your oven to 350 F
Mix well:
6 tbsp. of cocoa powder
4 tbsp of vegetable oil

Add:
2/3 c agave nectar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour

Bake in a 9x9 inch pan at 350 F for 20-25 minutes, test with a knife before removing from the oven.

Growing Out Bettie Bangs

Someday I'd like to put together a whole book about bangs. In the mean time- I'll blog all my ideas. Right now I am addressing a concern- growing out those little Bettie (or Baby) bangs.

 Maybe you've gotten tired of them or you let the wrong person cut them, either way, you think you want to get rid of them. I grow mine out about once a year, then I see the deep lines in my forehead that make my age obvious and I cut them again. It's good to grow them once a year so you can re-define the area on your head without the appearance of those pieces of hair that are too short for the rest of your 'Do, but too long to be part of your Fringe.  This also helps avoid the usual bang issue- when you keep adding new hairs to the group and they get thicker and thicker. 

Perhaps you are not even interested in growing them out but you're long overdue for another cut and not brave enough to self-trim, and too busy to go in for a quick bang trim. So here are some tips and styling ideas (though many of them are very "vintage" looking- it is my specialty after all):

Don't cut them!  Don't even trim them.  Bangs are a delicate thing to grow, and taking off two weeks growth will set you back two weeks.  Then you wait two more weeks and go for a cut and you've gotten nowhere- don't let your stylist talk you into cutting them.  You must be patient, mine usually take 3 or 4 months to grow from "Bettie" length to nose length- with no trims.  And unless you're a bleach blonde that swims every day- they probably won't get dry and nasty anytime soon sitting there on your oily forehead absorbing that body oil.  If they do get bad, be careful what you let anyone trim off, take off the minimum needed to get rid of frizzy split ends, or just have them point cut.

The hair at the hairline can sometimes be only an inch long when cut to ideal length.  That makes getting them 4 to 7 inches or longer a challenge.  They can also be impossible to pin back off the face- if not silly looking.  So what to do with the hair in the mean time?  Curls cover a multitude of hair issues.   Bad cut?  Curl it until it grows out!  Bad color/highlights?  Curl it to break up the lines!  In a funk with your bangs?  Curl them! 

There are the tiny baby curls you can create with a 1/4 inch curling iron, or you could set them by using tiny perming rods or other type of curlers (available at all Beauty Supply retailers) if you want a tighter curl.   I call these the "other betty bangs" as seen on the Betty's Grable and Hutton:

Or you can curl them under with a small curling iron to make them look shorter when they are at an awkward length on your face.

Otherwise, you are probably nearing a perfect "Zooey" length!

Once the bangs are at eyebrow length, they're likely ready to curl back into a Pompadour or rolled Pomp style and shorter hairs will stay put with hairspray.  Blow drying them back and away from your face (or curling) will also help keep the shorter hairs back for this look.  Teasing will help achieve lift and volume here.

Combing them into a side swept style (waved or straight) will also change the look and conceal the length for a while.

Marilyn Monroe is a terrific example of what can be done with longer bangs, and styling them off the face.

Of course as they grow into a longer and longer Fringe, you'll probably wear them side swept most of the time, or pinned off your face.  Once you reach an ideal length the only thing left to do is to ask your stylist to include the length in your layered cut to make them fully disappear.  Or you could re-cut them!