It is time to celebrate with me again.  It was in October that I told you that I hit my 200th sale.  I had sold my first 100 sales in 11 months.  Then it took 4 months to do another 100 sales.  On Thursday I just hit 300 sales in just over 3 months.  I am so excited how well my Etsy shop is doing.  My 300th sale was these pink melamac plates.  I just listed them earlier this week.  I am pretty sure my customer bought them for Valentine’s Day.

Just so you know that not everything I list sells that quickly, look at my 301st sale.  It was this military canteen and cup.  This item was one of the items had been in my shop the longest.  I listed it back in Oct 2011.  Sometimes it takes just the right person to find what I have.  Patience is important on unique items.

So in 18 months that I have been selling on Etsy, I have been privileged to sell to 300 wonderful people.  Each one has touched me in some way.  My goal is to continue to sell about one item a day at this point.  So if all goes well I will hit my 400th sale by the end of April.  Wish me luck, and know that I will be working hard to make it happen.

I just had to share the news….my Etsy Shop, It’s Still Life, hit 200 sales.  My goal with my shop was to hit 100 sales in one year.  I opened my shop on July 12, 2011.  I hit my 100th sale in early June this year.  I was thrilled.  Success and hard work set me up for more success.  I really worked hard to get more items in my shop over the summer.  I am now over 120 items listed.

This week I had my 200th sale.  Yep.  It took 11 months to get 100 sales.  Now it took 4 months to get another 100 sales.

So if you are thinking of opening an Etsy Shop, I strongly encourage you to do that.  It isn’t as hard as it looks.  Don’t get me wrong, it takes a lot of work and time, but it isn’t hard.  Etsy is responsive. When I have had questions, I have had quick, good responses from them.  Customers have been awesome.

At first I was thrilled when I had one sale a week.  Now I am averaging 5-6 sales a week.  It has been a great ride.  Now I need to think about what my goals are for the next 8 months of my second year of sales.

Thank you for reading my blog, the encouragement I have received, and the pat on the backs through comments and emails.  You make this journey, even my life, a whole lot of fun.

Look at this adorable house music box.  I listed it this week, and it has sold already.  It was so cute.

When you open the roof the little ballerina spins while the song, “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” plays.  I loved it.

I was excited to hear what the woman who purchased it is going to do with it.

“It is going to become a gift for a sweet little girl for her birthday. She loves Wizard of OZ book and I think the ballerina can easily get ruby slippers and a blue over dress. A pair of curled up and black and white striped “stockings” on the ground outside. Miniature Toto-like dog beside her inside and Maybe, may be a cute green-faced witch on the roof.  I wish it played “Over the Rainbow” but, we can’t have it all.”

That just makes my day.  I find a cute item some one was getting rid of and make it available for someone who will make a little girl’s day.  It doesn’t get any better.

What is the best feedback you received on an item you sold?

The Capitol Building from my post the other day is in Boise, Idaho.  My family and I lived there for almost 8 years.  We moved in 2006.  This was the first time we were back.  Loved seeing everyone.  Didn’t like the traffic or the horrible air quality, this time due to smoke and not the inversion.  Now it is time to buckle down and get back into school, junkin’ and blogging.

Thank you to all those who have served and who are currently serving.  Your service is so very much appreciated.

Here are neat item put together in a treasury on Etsy (created by Pamela Leo) in honor of all our service men and women.  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTE3OTc1NDh8MjcyMDMwNTc4NQ/in-flanders-field

This photo I took has nothing to do with this post, it just makes me happy. Taken at the foot of the butte near Badlands Ministries near Medora, ND.

I just had one of the most difficult sales ever, and it has me wondering if I should be offering International sales for breakable items.

In late February I made a sale of a glass pedestal tray to someone in Australia.  Wow, She paid $53.75 for shipping. I think I missed changing the shipping on this item when shipping costs went up in January.  So it cost me $55.91 not considering packaging, etc. I carefully bubble-wrapped it and sent it out.  I had contact with the buyer.  She wanted to know how long it would take because she was buying it for her wedding in April.  I told her about 2 weeks, but hopefully sooner.  I live in rural, upper midwest of the United States.  Mail is slow around here. It took 2 days just to get to Chicago.

One week into it, there was no update on the USPS site about where it was, but it was still early.  However I received a message asking about why it hasn’t arrived.  Knowing we had discussed that it could take 2 weeks, I responded nicely, but casually.  My mistake.  I then received three nasty, mean messages right in a row…calling me a Fraud, using capital letters, etc.  Nope, I do not have thick skin. I even let a tear or two slide down my face when my 15 year old read the messages and promptly got up to give me a hug without saying a word. Those notes really hurt.

I pride myself in good customer service.  Doing what I say I am going to do, and going beyond that if possible.  I know there are people out there that are Frauds, take advantage of the system, and try to take you, but it was only a week later, I had communicated quickly and sent it out the same day I received the order with information about it sent to the buyer. I did not deserve such treatment.

However the customer is always right.  I did what I could to get info.  Have you ever tried working through the USPS mail system?  It is a nightmare.  Basically was told we would just have to wait, and they would open a claim.  They have an agreement with Australia that they can take up to 23 days to respond.  What? They said there were weather and strike conditions that had been delaying mail to Australia.  I gave the information to my buyer and was basically told that was not true.  What could I do, but wait?

10 business days after it was sent, it was scanned into Australia’s system, and we had to wait for it to be delivered.  Delivered it was, all broken, smashed, not usable.

What could I do?  The buyer sent a photo, and I promptly sent a full refund.  Nope, it wasn’t my fault.  USPS messed up, but I have to put this one behind me.  I will try to work through the USPS get some sort of compensation since I ended up losing about $65 on this transaction because of the high cost of shipping to Australia, fees, and purchase price.  Yikes.  I don’t make that much on several sales combined. I do not have much hope of recovering any of it though.

So needless to say I feel horrible.  I am trying to decide if I should stop my International sales of breakable items.  I have about 12-17% of my sales go International.  I find that sending them International isn’t any more difficult to do than domestic mail.  Just a few more clicks to fill out customs info.  Do I just chalk it up to a part of doing business? Do I have thick enough skin to deal with someone who is probably a wonderful person but stressed because of her wedding coming up?  By the way the buyer has been very nice about it since those original messages and has left me positive feedback.  I would have been sad if she didn’t, none of this was in my control. I did everything and more than I promised in my listing.

So those of you that do online sales do you sell International?  Have you had issues like this?  Any advise to make sending packages overseas easier, less likely to get lost or broken?  This whole transaction will bother me for a long while…how do I develop thick skin?

I think I will go hug my kids and get a few more items listed in my Etsy Shop.