Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Hey Jenna:
Yes we have had this happen about 4 or 5 times in about a 6 year period. The way we discovered it was through our 3rd party listing software. The first 3 or 4 times we were using WonderLister and these programs keep all of your records for every transaction forever, including stats, financials, sales history and even buyers home addresses, phone numbers and eamil addresses. We run a cross check every quarter for sales vs. existing inventory and found 3 or so that had been sold and were still showing as in stock. We delted the Ebay listing and our WL was accurate.
But a few years ago we started our Etsy store and cross listing about half of our stock there. We had a buyer want 2 of something that we only had one of and she bought the one on Ebay and then within a minute or less bought the same one on Etsy. Well turns out that the new SixBit sogtware we now use, couldn’t process the transaction quick enough and we had to cancel one and complete the other. The buyer was very understanding.
The last instance was an item we sold but it was our own fault. We use a numerical inventory system and can find most things in a heartbeat. But in a case where we have to go and pull an item because of a buyer question and then replace that item back into storage but in the wrong bin, we are screwed. We told the buyer we couldn’t find it and had no record of a previous sale, but if we found it we would send it to him free of charge. He was the only one who gave us a neg. feedback and said we were full of bull. But we did find it about 3 months later and sent it to him free as we promised. Not a peep out of him.
But we did have some sold items that Ebay must have never deleted or got relisted some how.
But as you said it has only been a few times in years and years, so we just rolled with the flow.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art.
Aperture: To add a little something extra and agree with your comment about these prints. The lighter fading / graduating tone in a couple areas in the landscape “could” be a hand done wash over the base printed ink. But that subtle fading could also still be wet printing ink being pulled off the paper during the process of it “sticking” to the bottom of the silk screen or having sticky [too thick ink] on a planographic surface such as a Lino block. But to do a lino block, usually done in a reductive process”, thus inking larger areas, then cutting away some of lino material, inking, cutting away more and then inking the next color, would eventually reduce the lino surface down to just a few thin tree areas [the darkest color] and that would mean every bit of the lino material would have to have been carved away by the time the artist got to this last color.
That is a lot of lino removal and leaving very thin lines. But from what I can see the dark color was printed last and over printed the underneath lighter colors. Labor intensive, yes, doable absolutely.
But as we both agree can’t tell too much without seeing the actual print.
The last thing that got me thinking about these prints again is the nomenclature area under the image. This is where the artist pencil signs, dates, provides the title and the “state” of the print. Well here we have a pencil signature only. But no title, date or state which is very important in items getting a higher value.
The state in an edition is usually presented as a fraction number. Example : 23/125 meaning this is the 23rd print done out of a limited edition of 125 total prints at which time the printing device, plate, screen, lino block, wood block is supposed to be destroyed by the artist so no more can be printed or after death repro houses buying the plates or screens and doing re-runs of what was supposed to be a closed limited edition. Several houses in NY used to do this all the time with Picasso plates and others.
But my point here is that neither of these prints states they are a limited-edition print. So, is it an artist proof just being done to see where he is at in the process, but he-she signed it? Is it a staged image, Hor’ Commerce print, part of an edition and it has the flaws we discussed and the artist culled it out as a reject and didn’t include it in the numbered run and if it is a reject the artist should have destroyed it.
OR IS IT A MONOPRINT, which is a process of changing the ink colors and printing pressure on each print and resulting in a different look on each print. But if that is the case “Monoprint” should be pencil stated on each print.
Digital prints and print on demand technology have opened a whole new school of ethics on original, hand done limited edition prints. Basically, limited to anyone and everyone who is willing to keep buying them. i.e. Danbury Mint, Thomas Kinkade, and so forth.
Most hand done originals, litho stone, etchings, collagraphs, screen prints, monotypes and such should be limited to under 125 per run, 250 is OK and 500 pcs. is the cut-off point. But is “Offset” lithos where the speed of the auto presses [non-hand done inking and printing process] is 3k to 5k impressions per hour there is no way to control such a small run and get a stable consistent image on each sheet. Thus, we see “repro” editions signed and numbered as 2,500, 5,000 and I have even seen signed, titled, and numbered pcs. reaching 10,000 and above. That must take forever to sign, date, title and number that many by hand in pencil. Even at 1 print per minute that is 167 hours [about a month at 40 hours per week] of just having the artist sit down and complete that task.
And the value after what we call a large edition [500] starts to go down. Even very famous, well selling primary first market level gallery represented artists don’t go much over 250 or 500 max. Working artists are more interested in getting on to exploring new and different work, not depending on selling the same concept over and over.
Or is it a student in an art school printing class learning the process, only did a few prints and put his name on them.
So, there is so much to think about when evaluating art, and who the artist is, is of little value if you still have a low-quality work in front of you. That is why many galleries in NY or other artists from New England came to me and our company or other New England Fine Art Atelier’s and paid us to print their limited-edition artwork for them.
So that is a jumble of art goopy gop to start your morning off. BTW… very hard to sell quality, hand crafted art on Ebay. Most people just buy an image they like and don’t give a hoot about the intrinsic quality or value of a piece of art. They just “Buy a Purty Pitcher”!!! LOL
Man, I didn’t need that third cup of coffee this morning and I should have been listing used glass and brass “stuff” during this time. That’s where the money is, “used bowls, dishes, china, candle holders, flower vases, and kitchenware. To heck with fine art.
As I always say, my opinion and a Master of Fine Art Degree and 35 years in the printing business along with a whole $1.00 these days will buy me a third of a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Oh BTW, I can make more selling a vintage, rare Starbucks coffee mug than I can selling a hand done, pencil signed original limited edition print these days.
As the wicked witch in the “Wizard of Oz” movie said, “What a world, what a world”. !!!!! LOL 🙂 🙂
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art
and Master Printer LOL 🙂I can’t tell too much from the photos either. Close personal examination would tell the story.
I think they are both serigraphs. Probably done with Tousche and glue technique directly in the screen.Look up tousche and glue to familiarize yourself with the technique and look at some examples to help you identify. The over lapping of colors and the thin lines are hard to do in a lino block print, but not impossible. I think the voids I see in some of the solid areas would indicate silk screen ink that is too thick and a too hard of a durometer squeege blade being pulled across the screen at a too low of an angle and possibly not enough downward pressure. And with a vacuum table to suck and hold the paper down to the press or print table surface, the paper stuck to the bottom of the screen and when the artist pulled and or peeled the print away the thick tacky ink remove some from the surface.
The mis alignment of the colors to the degree I see also indicates not much knowledge of a good registration system for both a lini block or silk screen print.
In either technique I also would not have used such a heavily textured substrate. Thos high and low peaks and valley’s in the paper create some of those bubble like voids. That hard squeegee isn’t flexing enough to push the ink down into the valley’s and is riding across the high spots of the paper.
Mid level student grade work in my opinion. Given about 1 semester I could correct and bring this artist efforts up a few notches and eliminate these mistakes from happening in the future by teaching them some control techniques.
But all of this as I always say is just my personal observation and opinion and that and $.50 will get you a quarter of a cup of coffee.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art.
Yes ++ to what Sharyn said. Ebay has a long list 300 to 400 companies [I think I recall] of companies who are on the list. Many have company names that are branded and products that contain their name or they have patents on the products. Kleenex is one, John Deere [I have had several items unlisted by John Deere, Jack Daniels, Velcro of course, etc., etc.]
For Velcro you have to say “Hook and Loop” [the male and female pieces that stick together.
Here is the Ebay list of companies that are in the Verified Rights Owner Program.
Also, worth a large note is even if the brand is not an issue many of these companies also do not want anyone reselling their products unless you are an authorized reseller. John Deere is one. Try selling John Deere hats, shirts, bobble heads and newer toy tractors and you will get a VERO because they don’t want anyone that is not a John Deere “Authorized Seller”, meaning part of their network who sells their new products. Also, many companies don’t like the old “used” versions showing up on the market.
Why do you see many, many listings that don’t heed the VERO list? Because Ebay can only police just so many violations and only the few whom they see or find get caught”, or if a company itself sees a listing and reports you.
To add to that, many companies who are very strict about their brand and policies have their own employees and teams who scour the internet daily searching for their brand names and products being listed by non-authorized sellers, re-sellers and the appearance of their key words in listings and then they report these to Ebay, Etsy and the other platforms. Ebay really sticks by their big brand name companies and will kill your listing in a heartbeat once you get reported by the main mfg.
So read, study or print and tape a copy of the VERO Program companies and learn which ones to avoid.
As Jay says, “it’s like speeding, many do it but only a few get caught, but those who get caught pay a hefty fine”.
Good luck,
Mike and our management team for
MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art
SmartParts Small Equipment divs.
Capitol Atlantic Properties, LLC
J&R Sprayfoam, LLC-
This reply was modified 2 years ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
See if this is of any value to those thinking about the New Dim weight and how to figure if it applies to your items.
How is Dimensional Weight Calculated?
First, you need to find out if the package is larger than one cubic foot. The equation for that is:
(L x W x H)/1728
The 1,728 is because there are 1,728 inches in a cubic foot. If the result of the above equation is greater than 1, you need to find out the Dimensional Weight of a package. To do that, you need the Dimensional Weight divisor, which for USPS is now 166 (for FedEx and UPS the divisor is 139 for all sizes).
(L x W x H)/166 = Dimensional weight
If the result of the above equation yields a higher weight than the actual weight of the package you are shipping, you must pay the Dimensional Weight instead. It’s also important to note here that Dimensional Weight will replace what was formerly referred to as Balloon Rate on Priority Mail packages (Priority Mail pieces weighing less than 20 pounds and measuring more than 84 inches, but 108 inches or less, in combined length and girth, charged the price for a piece weighing 20 pounds.).
Let’s look at a couple of examples where this would and would not apply.
Example 1:
16 x 12 x 10 package, weight 15 lbs., shipping Zone 3
Is it larger than one cubic foot: (16 x 12 x 10)/1728 = Yes (1.11 cubic feet)
Dimensional weight: (16 x 12 x 10)/166 = 11.56 lbs. (round up to 12 lbs.)dimensional weight calculator
In this case, you pay for the actual weight of 15 lbs. rather than the rounded up Dimensional Weight of 12 lbs.
Example 2:
14 x 12 x 14 package, weighing 12 lbs., shipping Zone 4
Is it larger than one cubic foot: (14 x 12 x 14)/1728 = Yes (1.36 cubic feet)
Dimensional weight: (14 x 12 x 14)/166 = 14.17 lbs. (round up to 15 lbs.)2019 dimensional weight calculations
In this case, you’d pay the Dimensional Weight of 15 lbs. rather than the 12 lbs. actual weight. This can prove to be extremely costly. Looking at what a Priority Mail package would cost for Zone 4 at 12 lbs. versus 15 lbs. in 2019 increases the shipping cost from $15.93 to $18.42.
If that box were 14 x 14 x 14, the Dimensional Weight would increase to 16.53 lbs. (round up to 17 lbs.) and you’re looking at an increase to $20.35! A couple inches of box size could cost you $4.42 more to ship a single package.
As you can see, this can multiply quickly and drain any shipping margins you might have.
This change in calculating shipping for larger packages makes it crucial for merchants shipping larger packages that contain potentially lighter items to optimize packaging. If you can reasonably fit items into a smaller package, you’ll absolutely want to explore your options.
mike at mdcgfa
08/20/2019 at 7:09 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 424: 1 Year Later, Our New Rental is Done! #66626Hey Jay.. Looking at the new rental photos, I think I got “lost”. How do you get into the place? Where is the door / entrance? Down the side stairs to the sides or back, then back up a set in inside stairs to get to the top level? Not through the main store level?
I see from the front view a set of stairs on the left and a shot up a set of stairs, guess that is one and the same.
Love the 3 horses and large “jack stone” on the top shelf over the coffee area! 🙂
mike at mdcgfa
T-Satt: I will check our SixBit for the process you outline, but first to clarify a point.
isn’t the 12x12x12 just the USPS way of saying 1,728 cubic inches. In the past, and I will check this out today, that DIM WEIGHT always applied to items over 1,728 cubic inches, [lengthxwidthxheight] and the USPS just uses the 12x12x12 as a model.
To ship a long, folded up tri-pod or a fishing rod that both are 5 ft long [60″] x 4″ wide x 4″ high is only 960 cubic inches and would NOT be an oversized DIM WEIGHT package, at least in the past. So a box that is 18″ long x 16 x 10 is 2,880 cubic inches and IS OVERSIZED and priced with the DIM WEIGHT and the new ZONES. BUT that same object-item that would fit into an 18″ long x 9″ High [cut down to be a better fit] x 10″ wide is only 1,620 CUBIC INCHES and would not be an over sized package.
so the 12 x 12 x 12 I think is just their way of stating the 1,728 cubic inches, and not that all dimensions have all got to be less than 12″ period! At least that is the way it has been for years now.
So before I go changing every thing in SixBit on all of our items and then the fact we are cross listed on Etsy, I think I will call USPS today and verify this. If the 1,728 cubic inches is still the real bench mark they are going by, then most of our listings are safe except for a few.
And in those cases we always list 3 or 4 shipping choices and a buyer can easily see that FedEx Home delivery is their second line choice and it would show as much cheaper and they could select that. If the buyer will read and think, AND DO MATH which many don’t.
This whole thing is a good reason to gravitate toward free shipping, take our lowest seller cost to ship to Zone 8 and just build it in on top of our already high mark-ups. Due to the new forced Etsy policy of FREE SHIPPING we are having to seriously think about that anyway.
Will have to see what USPS says today.
mike at mdc galleries and fine art
08/19/2019 at 8:54 am in reply to: Am I the only one who still takes an enormous amount of time to edit photos? #66542Also agree with Sonia and Jay but with a slight twist. Most cell phone cameras have gotten sophisticated and have many adjustments even in automatic mode. Most, including ours even switches over to “manual mode” which it then works just like a 35mm SLR camera which we used to use.
While you don’t have to go as far as manual, controling the shutter speed, aperature opening, knowing to watch for depth of field, adjusting the ISO and white balance setting, it does not hurt to know about these.
So the point is, we do no editing at all, both myself, Susan and one of our helpers can take photos as we go and they come out pretty well. Good enough for both Ebay, etsy and our own store.
Like Sonia we do have a quick grab shelf with a few props that Susan throws on the first photo to dress the item up for Etsy, and several rolled up backgrounds we can drop down in 3 seconds along with photo lighting around our photo table. This gives “stable” lighting rather than natural light which causes some color issues for many products and with clouds passing over, causing brightness changing constantly.
So learn a little about your camera settings, get a few backgrounds, use proper stable lighting and shoot the items so that you don’t have to come back and edit. Some sellers even shoot using a wireless connection to their computer so that as they shoot photos, they are sent directly to their photo storage area, ready to be attached when you create your listing.
Just some food for thought. Shoot to use not to have to edit.
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
08/19/2019 at 7:12 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 424: 1 Year Later, Our New Rental is Done! #66538Hey DT. May I make what I would think would be an obvious suggestion? Try just bidding on the good stuff. You may only win 1 out of 50 bids but at least the trip would be for an item that would be worth the trip. 🙂
mike at MDCGFA
08/18/2019 at 4:03 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 424: 1 Year Later, Our New Rental is Done! #66504Congratulations guys. Good job! Now you want to come visit Atlanta and help me on the next two spec houses. Bet you guys are old hands at the scheduling subs and dealing with city and county officials by now.
When are we going to see Luray tourist guides having entries like “visit the Jay and Ryanne Valley”, or “visit J&R Estates while touring the Shenandoah Valley”. Hey that sounds like a RANCH.. J&R Cattle Ranch. Maybe get a local blacksmith the make you guys iron branding rods and burn your J&R logo into local wood products like rough sawn round stake platters, wooden coasters, screen print the J&R Logo on BBQ aprons. A whole line of self made products based on the J&R Branding. Soaps, mugs.. etc., etc.
Build your rentals around the “Alpine”, “Farm”, “Small Town, and “Ranch” themes and offer discount coupons to area activites that tie into those themes. Let a local farmer have some land beside the Farm House and plant a large garden and in return guests to the Farm House get to help plant, weed, pick some veggies, City folk get coupons to local events, music, visit town hall, city court, whatever and whatever. 🙂
Strike while the “iron is hot” 🙂 [sorry about that, couldn’t resist]. LOL
All kidding aside good job. Onward and upward.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
-
This reply was modified 2 years ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
I agree 100% with Temudgin: We also use Worthpoint and see the exact images and listings for the NASA Lunar Lander. You state you see them on Worthpoint and state prices so I assume you may have a subscription.
Our approach is to take the highest price sold on Worthpoint and then mark that up even more so you can run a few Sales from time to time and also take offers and give Free Shipping and you will still come out just a little underneath the higher price tiers you see on Worthpoint.
ALSO if you have a Premium Ebay store and above you get a FREE Terrapeak.com subscription. TP shows what has sold on Ebay over the past 12 months where as WP is anything older than a year back to about 10 years +/-.
TerraPeak shows 14 have sold in the last year, the highest being $2,050, the top 8 of those 14 have sold for all above $700 and the remaining 6 sold for between $675 to $265 all selling from Jan. of this year up until a few months ago.
You just need to “grade” yours as far as condition, flaws, what is included like original box, tags, paperwork, etc., etc.
Hope you have one of the $1,000 and up priced ones.
Hope this helps and Good Luck.
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art
SmartParts Small Equipment divs.Sonia: We lived in CT for 22 years and my wife susan worked at the competitor store Sage Allen for many years. The G. Fox and Company was on the opposite corner of main street. You notice the pendleton has the label G. Fox and co. in it. Google G. Fox and Company and then click on the Wiki link and read up on that company. It was almost a founding company of Main Street in Hartford. Very well to do family owned business. Any G. Fox and Co. labled items will draw a collector group of former employees and family friends whom were very wealthy for many generations.
I have an old friend, he is about 92 years old now. He was the son of one of Mrs. Auerbachs friends and she gave Robert a job in her store. To show the influence of Mrs. Auerbach Fox,she was having some kind of an big, wealthy shin-dig in Hartford during the war back in the early 1940’s. Robert had been called into the service. She wanted robert at her event so she called up some general Robert said, 2 MP’s came to the place he was stationed, they got him, placed him on a plane back to a base in Mass. somewhere, I don’t recall and the Army then drove him to the event. Robert said the first thing she said to him after how glad to see you Robert, was now go clean up yourself and polish those boots, we musn’t be seen in company without a finished look. he said he said yes ma’am’ and did so. Then she proceeded to introduce him around to guest. After about 3 hours, Robert said he had to leave and the driver who drove him from the base, took him back, got him back on a plane and he was back at his station and regiment. His commanding officer asked if he enjoyed the event and stated who ever that lady was that arranged all this knows some serious people in the right places.
But all said the G. Fox and company was well known in New England and anything associated with the company is still desirable.
Just thought I would pass along a little info. to make the Pendleton with that “private label tag” a little more interesting.
Mike at MDC Galleries
@ Amatino: Yep pretty much as Sharyn states and some of the older posts I made previously.
When we use the triangular boxes, we also use standard calculated size and weight. I take the widest side of the tri-angular box and treat the whole thing like it was a long rectangular box,
Example: If the widest side of one of the 3 sides of the triangle box is 4″. I enter 4″x4″x22″ inches [or whatever length the box comes out at]. When we splice two boxes together, the same applies, 4″x4″x whatever length it comes out at. That will give you your shipping costs when put into the Ebay calculator.
Also, on very long items we also do 2 other things. If the Priority costs are too high, due to the zone, or the new dimensional weight, we also click on the Parcel Rates. If they are less costly, we then just wrap the long box in the Home Depot black and now light blue construction plastic we have on rolls and tape up heavily. The plastic is opaque and between that and the ton of tape it hides from view anything inside of the box, print a Parcel label, slap it on and there it goes.
The second option before you do the plastic cover-up wrap is to check what the FedEx charges are for Home delivery. If FedEx is our best cost, we don’t even wrap the Priority box, just print a FedEx label, slap that on the long box and take it to a FedEx store. We have one just a few miles up the road.
Funny thing numerous FedEx stores have said and confirmed, they take anything and don’t care if it is in a USPS box, their boxes or a plain vanilla generic box. But if you feel funny about that, then still go ahead and do the opaque plastic wrap, then do the FedEx label and take to FedEx.
Also try pricing out the thin walled PVC plumbing tubes in 8′ lengths at home depot. We buy a few 8′ lengths, cut then to 4′ have them in a corner of our office and cut them to needed length with an old hack saw we have over by them. Cheap tubes and thick enough to ship by themselves. Cut, 1 inch longer than your print on each end, smooth the rough edges with sand paper, stuff the two ends with tissue paper, toilet paper or Kleenex [opps hope no VERO will come from SL= :-)] and tape over the ends with several layers of tape. Then slap a label on the PVC and place a piece of clear packing tape over that to make sure the label stays in place.
Shipping a rolled item in a tri-angular box or a tube is no different than if it was a long rectangle with straight sides.
Don’t’ forget the slip sheet and rolling of your poster to a smaller diameter than the inside of the tube. It is extremely easy to tip the tube up and let a smaller diameter rolled up poster slide out than having it unsecured inside, have it unroll and become very tight inside the tube. It is then very hard to get it out and the buyer may damage or tear it trying too. So, slip sheet and roll, making sure to securely tape only on the slip sheet material and not the poster, roll and secure smaller than the mailing tube.
P.S. The PVC tube is very strong. Takes a lot to bend the plastic PVC tube.
Good luck..
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Another thought is the tracking number may not be something that is real. Ebay may not be able to see it and verify if it really got to the final destination.
On a personal note, I don’t careful for people telling me how to run my business. But will try to provide flexible services, but this seems it may have red flags on it.
So as Sharyn says, call Ebay and ask. The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask. In this case just call and ask Ebay.
Let us all know the outcome.
mike at MDCGFA
Ceramic oil lamp. Fill the orb with pure, clear lamp oil available at some grocery stores. do not use kerosene or non-refined oil.
Then trim the short end of the wick evenly across with scissors and then pull the wick from the bottom so that not much more than a 1/16″ to 1/8″ tops is showing above the top of the ceramic stopper.
Then push the long end of the wick down into the filled orb and let the wick sit in place for about 30 minutes +/-. The reason for the short wick is to keep any smoke to an absolute minimum and letting a fresh wick sit for 30 minutes lets enough oil to soak up into the wick to also keep black smoke to a minimum.
If their is any smoke at all after the wick is fully saturated. Snuff or blow out the flame, gently lift the wick stopper-holder up and pull down on the wick so that it is even shorter. Closer to the 1/16″ sticking out. Then your lamp should burn for hours smoke free,
The pure lamp oils come both scented and unscented.
Good luck with it.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
-
This reply was modified 2 years ago by
-
AuthorPosts