Waiting for Spring - Again!

Two weeks ago I wrote this. So, what now? This morning I had to shovel snow again :-( Makes me longing for fresh green even more.

What on Etsy is a treasury is a collection on Artfire. A selection of (hopefully!) beautiful items, grouped together nicely. Collections on Artfire are much easier to create than treasuries on Etsy - technically. But when it comes to good photos - uh, there is still some need to catch up!

But I've found what I wanted, lovely fresh spring green ♥

Click on it to see it in full and to be able to get to the beautiful finds.
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Shipping Costs Significantly Decreased!

Thanks to Deutsche Post, sending letters to international destinations has become much cheaper as of today.

Deutsche Post has restructured its prices for letters completely. Instead of three destinations (Germany, Europe and World) there are left only two now, national and international.

Whereas previously I had to pay €6,00 for my prints to be send to the US, today postage for this same letter (international Großbrief up to 500g) is €3,45. That really is a huge difference, isn't it? Standard letters international are €0,75 now (were € 1,70 [World] previously).

Postage within Germany is pretty much the same. Postage to European countries has slightly increased due to combining this group with the world group. But the savings for the ex-world-destinations by far outweigh this small increase. At least for me. Thank you, Deutsche Post!

I've amended all my shipping costs in both my shops, Etsy and ArtFire accordingly. See you there?

2010 – Etsy & ArtFire

In 2010 there was a lot of Etsy-stress. You may or may not have heard about Etsy moving away from a 'normal' marketplace into the direction of a social networking site. This wasn't stated clearly but there were so many changes that after a while it became clear to those who wanted to know, that Etsy somehow is connected to Facebook. 

I didn't do very well on Etsy but after having analysed my shop and my competitor's shops I finally got an idea of the changes I should undertake. But before I even could start with these improvements Etsy had changed the search function. More precisely, they have limited the search results of any given search in a way that now sellers are forced to renew there items even more often to get seen at all. This is a slab in a seller's face. Small sellers are unable to cope with this procedure. Keeping in mind that renewing is Etsy's most profitable earning and being concerned about the increasing fraternisation with Facebook, I finally decided to open another shop. On ArtFire ;-)

After having done that I worked on my photo formats. I only had larger photos in my shop previously. The idea behind these larger photos was to give a customer as much photo as possible for the given shipping costs. Shipping internationally, it is these costs that dictate what I can offer. I have added to both my shops smaller formats now (5“x5“ and 5“x7“), which I sell as sets. Instead of getting one larger photo at least a customer can choose to get several smaller photos now. We'll see how this works out.

Something else quite important: Etsy has implemented a feature that allows sellers to add and show prices in their countries' currency. I've changed my prices on Etsy to EURO. For those, whose curreny is EURO, this is the cheapest way to buy from me.

On ArtFire, my prices are in US-Dollar. If you want to pay me in $ US, my ArtFire shop would be the best option for you.

New Rocking Horse Prints!

If you like rocking horses you may like my two new prints, too. I took my photos of the Dappled Grey and the small mahogany rocking horse and gave them a vintage feel with some discolouration, blur and scratches.

You'll find them in my Etsy shop www.SimplyPictures.etsy.com. The price for one print is $ 23.00 plus shipping or $ 41.00 plus shipping for both prints.

That's how they would look being framed with a bit of outer trimming but without matting in standard frames size 23 x 23 cm = 9” x 9” from IKEA. The frames are not included! The size is scaled properly - look at the wine bottles!