I plunked myself down in the passenger seat of the car exasperated, “Well that didn’t work.” I declared.
Then I explained to Jon how I was charging $3 with free shipping for my Yoni Tree buttons and they cost $3.44 or more to mail.
I thought by wrapping them in a layer of bubble wrap and putting them in a regular envelope they’d cost about the same as it does to send my postcards which is seventy-five cents.
Wendy at the post office even took my package to the backroom to get a second opinion about how to send the buttons in the safest and least expensive way. But there’s no way around it. Shipping a $3 button costs more than button itself.
“Yeah, so you spent $50 cents more than you expected, so what, ” Jon said. He obviously didn’t get it.
“I’m basically paying people to buy my buttons”, I told him, then explained it all again.
“Those aren’t buttons,” he said looking at the Yoni Tree button on my bag. That’s a pin. This is a button he said pointing at my Flying Vulva button. A button is round. But that’s really a pin too. They’re both pins.”
I’m sure I stared at him with my mouth hanging open. Jon had rendered me speechless.
Either he really didn’t get it, really didn’t care, or just thought the whole thing not worth commenting on.
(I found out later that he thought it so obvious that I should have figured out the shipping before selling the pins he didn’t understand why I was going on about it. What he didn’t realize, and what I only discovered later after thinking about it, was that I had been in “shipping denial”.)
So after reality set in, I began to think about different ways to sell my buttons or pins, or whatever they are. Etsy is really pushing the idea of not charging for shipping. They even have a new policy of not putting anything on their first page that charges shipping.
I know, because of Amazon, it’s what people have come to expect. And I’ve been trying in to work with this new way of selling online in my own way. But shipping is a real expense for a small business like mine. Not only is it the cost of mailing something, but it’s the packaging and time spent doing it all.
But who wants to pay more for the shipping than the thing they’re buying?
So I did what I should have before putting my Yoni Tree pins up for sale in my Etsy Shop. I went on Etsy and looked to see what other people selling pins were charging.
(And even though I hadn’t asked Jon his opinion about whether they were buttons or pins this is when I realized that Jon was right about them too [ugh]. On Etsy, they’re listed as pins not buttons)
People seem to sell pins in a few different ways. Some charge seven or eight dollars including shipping. Some charge $1.50- $3 for the pin and $3.50 for shipping. Then there’s the term “free shipping eligible” which means when you buy something else over $35 you get free shipping.
Apparently, I’m behind the times in my thinking, pricing, and vocabulary. That means it’s time to get creative with them all. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I plan on spending however long it takes this afternoon to do just that.
When we got home from the postoffice Jon asked if he could have a Yoni Tree Pin, so I pinned one on his sweater.
I do realize that selling these pins is hardly worth the time for me. I’d have to sell hundreds and hundreds of them to make any money on them. But as with all my work, it’s about more than just the money.
Because when Jon asked for a Yoni Tree pin for his sweater, I was glad to have one to give him.
