Someone wrote a guide on eBay that said sellers should NEVER charge a handling fee. I wrote a rebuttal there and I'm adding one here.

 

If a seller is cleaning out Grandma's attic, hopes to make more profit than they would at a garage sale, has access to a furniture store giving away free bubble wrap, lives within a mile of a post office and feels capable of giving customers what we call ACTUAL SHIPPING--in other words, charging no more for shipping than the seller must pay to ship the item at the post office window--I salute that seller.  This is a great policy. The buyers will love it. 

 

But if you are a seller who is running a business, who must buy wholesale goods to resell, you may not be able to adopt this business model.  If you are an artisan who buys materials for crafts, makes said products and must factor in materials, labor, shipping and packaging, I think it is unlikely you will be able to charge actual shipping and stay in business.  Wait, I'm getting to the best part.  If you are said artisan who receives many small orders that ship in small envelopes with a lot of bubble wrap, just kiss off the idea of charging actual shipping.  You will have to factor these expenses into your shipping and handling or your merchandise. Period.  Am I wrong? Anyone out there able to refute me? If you have found a way, share it. But I assert that handmade artisans won't be able to keep product prices low and maintain an Actual Shipping policy for very long.  The constant search for free packaging materials will wear you out unless you are receiving goods in the mail every day.  Even then, did you ever try to recycle TAPE?  Uh-uh, darlin', it will not stick.

 

I do charge a handling fee and the fee varies depending on the merchandise. I came by my fee structure honestly.  I added up what we spend on tape, boxes, bubble wrap, etc. in the course of a year and divided that dollar amount by the number of packages we ship in a year.  When I did this back around 2004 or 2005, this math equation told me to charge $3 per package. So I implemented a $3 handling fee.  The recession has made that impossible so now I charge around $1 or less. "Gee," you may ask, "isn't that hurting your business?"  That's an understatement. The bottom line isn't pretty, but I am hoping to wait out the economy. That could be another entire blog post, so we won't go into that now.

 

BACK TO HANDLING FEES. There are some variables I take into consideration.  When I wrap a handmade stone castle that requires a lot of TLC and bubble wrap, I will usually charge a higher handling fee.  The more fragile an item, the more likely I am to charge up to $5 for packaging.  I don't go over $5 yet I know there are people who charge more than that. If I order from someone who charges more than $5 for handling, I assume they have their reasons and I will generally accept their judgment.

 

But once I ordered some toiletries for which I paid a $10 handling fee. I assumed the seller's handling fee was justified until two plastic bottles arrived in a Tyvek envelope without cushioning. That, my dears, is just plain wrong.

 

I think the variable that kills a budget the most is the tendency to receive small orders.  Orders that weigh over 13 oz., require Priority packaging in the United States if they go through the postal service.  You can get those boxes and envelopes for free from the post office.  But if you sell lots of breakable glass beads, requiring a small bubble mailer, maybe an extra layer of bubble wrap and/or a gift box, you must pay for those packaging components yourself and those things are not only expensive, they add up quickly.  Jewelry designers have my sympathy.  So do soap makers, whose shipments are always somewhere between a little bit heavy to a lot heavy to...sinking a battleship heavy.

 

Okay, dollars and cents.

Here are some of the expenses I consider when I calculate a handling fee. These are amounts I collected a couple of years ago, so they are just approximations:

• $27 or so for a six-roll pack of cheap, clear packaging tape.  The stronger kind of packaging tape costs more.  Strapping tape is even more expensive. And please do not even think about using masking tape. It falls off in the mail. Ditto for "scotch tape" unless you use the old-fashioned, hard-to-find, very shiny scotch tape. It's usually sold in a red plaid carton or package.  Not the green plaid; that is "magic disappearing" tape and that is fine for wrapping a birthday present, but not for mailing packages.  Tape is a big issue. I use tape on everypackage I mail. The cost for one of the components used to make packaging tape went up a few years ago and therefore the cost of tape rose.
• $3 to $4 for a ream of printer paper.  Recycled is cheaper but thinner.  I use paper for printing mailing labels off my computer.
• $15 to $49 for a pack of 25 bubble wrap mailers for books and blank journals. The biggest of such envelopes can cost almost $2 each, but they are more durable and stable versus brown kraft paper over bubble wrap.  I use first class plastic or Tyvek envelopes for yarn and the latter is pricey but if you ship yarn in a paper envelope, the envelope can break open, the yarn can roll out, the package can get wet and ruin the yarn and so on.  Sometimes I use two manila envelopes, one over the other for strength, and use extra tape.  Depends on what I'm mailing. I have had a very high success rate with my packaging--and by that, I mean, minimal complaints come through--although once in a while someone will tell me I over-package.  But I'd rather have a complaint for over-packaging than for under-packaging.
• Up to $3.05 for a cardboard box. Fortunately, we usually skirt that cost by either recycling the boxes that come into our home or by using Priority Mail boxes that the post office provides free of charge.  By the way, I have had dozens of eBay customers insist on Parcel Post rather than Priority Mail because they think it will save them money.  Surprisingly, Parcel Post might raise the packaging fee, might cost the same or even more in shipping, might save them only 38 cents, and/or take up to three or four weeks to arrive.  Sometimes I patiently explain this to the buyer and they understand and they trust me.  Other times, I write up an invoice for them showing the Parcel Post option as legitimately higher than the Priority option and just let them choose.  Okay, I'm a smart-aleck.  I admit it. 
• 26 cents per square foot for bubble wrap.That sounds cheap until you realize how many square feet it takes to cover a birdhouse.
• $20 a bag for loose fill packing peanuts.
• Around $20 to $75 for one or two printer ink cartridges, depending on type, brand, quantity, etc.  Long story on this one.  I find that recycled ink cartridges either burn out more quickly or do not work at all. That's just my experience.
• $16 a month to have an eBay store although I have since closed it. You can sell on eBay with or without a store.  See their site for a detailed explanation.  And when I had a store, I paid about $60 a month to list 500 inventory items in addition to auctions.  Note that this $60 estimate changes somewhat depending on whether you use gallery photos, list items for under $25 versus over $25 and/or you are a powerseller.  These fees have changed for me since I now list much more of my merchandise on other web sites.  But those other web sites also have fees.
• Commissions to the web site if something sells, depending on which site we're talking about. Not all sites charge a commission.
• Another commission to Paypal and I realize many people are not fond of Paypal, but for a seller, it is a godsend because it eliminates a lot of bookkeeping.  If I must spend time on bookkeeping, that is time I could have spent finding, designing, creating, investing in or shipping merchandise.
• $10 a month for a business checking account.  Plus the cost for blank checks.

       

The worst expenses of all are computer expenses.  Printer ink tops the list. If only we could use Chanel No5 in our printers instead, we would save a bundle there.  Then there are hardware, software and internet expenses. Since beginning this business, I have had to replace my computer once and my camera and printer twice.  My funky old monitor is still hanging on but that cannot last forever.  I use McAfee virus protection, file back-up services, Comcast internet connection, a Yahoo web site and picture hosting, etc.  Overall, it's a lot. In fact, I grow disgruntled writing this, so I will stop for now.

No, wait, a word about the post office.

Travel to and from the post office varies in cost. It was a huge eye-opener for me when I learned about a seller in an urban area who must take packages to the post office by bus. What a hassle!  I can just see him making his way down the aisle of the bus and banging each and every knee with his humongous shopping bags filled with packages to mail.  Do you think that seller is making a ton of money and should absorb the cost of bus fare? Most buyers would say, "Yeah!" Well, be careful what you wish for.  If that seller IS absorbing the cost, he may go out of business soon if he's not careful. I sure hope you didn't like his merchandise too much, since it may not be available next year.

I have been getting my packages picked up off my doorstep for years now and love the convenience of it.  The one type of package the USPS will not pick up is International First Class, which saves customers money, but actually costs the seller more in terms of time, money and effort. I rely on someone to take those packages to the post office for me and I cannot necessarily get these mailed within 24 hours. 

Are you thinking, "So what? I live in Australia, and I will not pay for faster Priority mail just so you can get free package pick-up!"  No, you are not saying that because my Australian customers are super nice and patient and are happy to pay whatever it takes for shipping.  Since 2003, I have never had a disgruntled Australian customer.  They trust me.  They say "cheers!" a lot and I like that. And if I offer to save them money by using First Class, they wait patiently until I can get someone to take their package in.  Bless those Aussies!

But my point about package pickup and post office visits is this:  just because it is easy for me or for you to get to the post office doesn't mean it is easy for everyone.  Just because your post office is close by doesn't mean some seller in North Dakota isn't having to drive 20 miles round trip.  So sellers, please take this into consideration when you set up your online business.  And buyers, please cut your seller some slack when you are thinking, "Just take it to the post office! What's the big deal?" Your life in your town and your gasoline prices are not the same as everyone else's.  And did you ever consider that a number of buyers and sellers are disabled? Maybe that's why they like to shop online.

 

Any seller who is running a business must pass part of the cost onto the buyer and this is just obvious.  How you pass the cost along is up to the seller. But if you don't do it, you will go out of business.  My advice is to be honest, pass along whatever cost seems fair, apply the cost to the merchandise or the shipping or both, hope people like your products enough to pay a decent amount for it and then....well, then bite your lip when someone gets snippy.  Sometimes a customer places a large order with me and the shipping calculator goes through the roof.  I take pleasure in giving that person a hefty rebate. Often they appreciate it and often that is the best I can do for them. So perhaps what it boils down to is this:  calculate your costs and do the best you can for as long as you can. The day you learn you are giving away too much for too little is the day you will wonder if you need to fold the business.

 

I have other blog posts about writing an online business.  Maybe soon I'll write one about how to wrap, unless of course, I forget to write it.

dj runnels

Life's an Expedition

 

Yet another customer wrote to me to say she had run out of such-and-such yarn. Did I have any of that color? She needs it for a project she is working on.

[banging my head against a wall]

WHY does it have to be that same color and same dye lot? Because she started with Famous Brand Boring Beige #11111 and by golly, she needs to finish with Famous Brand Boring Beige #11111 even though the results are going to be just as predictably boring as any of us can imagine.

I'm not trying to tell knitters or crocheters what to do. I know solid color knits have their place in this world...um, I guess.  But honestly, if you CONSIDER this piece of advice, you will never have this problem again.

• Look at your project and figure out how much yarn you need.

• Find three or four color-coordinated yarns in the gauge you think you will need--keeping in mind that you will have to test that gauge and/or use a different size needle.

• Buy 20% more yardage than you estimated.

Now, it just so happens that I sell yarn in harmonizing color families. I have a huge selection in my own home, so running out of yarn is inconceivable to me. But if you get a whole gaggle of color-related yarn, you can use whichever yarns you liked best, add a pocket later, change the collar, whatever, and likely still have some leftover. Save the leftovers for a hat or something.

Today, I am wearing a brown sweater that I knitted from a vast assortment of brown yarns that I sell. Many of them were close in color or from the same color family, but many were not. They were just brown. And I could gaze at this sweater all day. I am gazing at it now as my fingers slip off the keys and ,u tu[omg siffers as a resi;t/

Do you think it was hard to make this? My knitting skills are near nil. I never learned to do intarsia, cables, entrelac or any of that stuff. I just use straight garter stitch or stockinette or maybe if I'm in a really fancy mood, I will do a seed stitch. I knit while I watch TV and I scarcely look at what I am doing. And no one has sweaters that look like mine. Well, okay, in a few cases, that is probably a good thing, because I make mistakes while I work and often refuse to unravel, but still... I have the most creative sweaters in my neighborhood, I promise you. And I never, ever, ever run out of whatever yarn I was using, because I use a wild hodgepodge of ONE COLOR FAMILY and make sure I have extras.

If I did not have extras--this doesn't happen, but if it did--I wouldn't hesitate to shift to another yarn that sort of harmonizes and just repeat that yarn somewhere else on the project. What is wrong with having a sweater with slightly contrasting collar, cuffs, pockets? That is tame compared to some of my projects, where I make the sleeves different colors and the front and the back are different lengths. Or the hem deliberately slopes to the left.

You CAN get wild and funky, people. But if that is not your taste, that's okay. I know some people like classic, traditional clothing. But please, at least contemplate knitting outside the dull beige box. Please. You will never run out of yarn again, but more than that, it will be good for your soul!

If the sight of this motley assortment of brown yarns confuses you, please see my blog post on yarn blending.

dj runnels

This has nothing to do with cake, but it needed an illustration.

If you have leather shoes that are so scuffed that polishing them won't help, yet they're in decent shape otherwise, might I suggest using shoe dye?  Yes, I know, it's not a brilliant stroke of genius, but not everyone would think of it.  And even if you did think of it, I have dyed dozens of shoes and wanted to share some tips.

• Use Fiebing's shoe leather dye. Don't use any other brand.  Maybe there's another good brand out there, but I haven't found it.  I have found brands that wash off and brands that leave color on your socks or hosiery.  Does that sound fun? No? Well, you're right, it isn't. So just trust me when I say that I have had good luck with Fiebing's and zero luck with other brands.
• Choose a color close to the current color of the shoe.  You'll get better results.
• If you want a very different color, go ahead and be adventurous, but you will need to apply several coats.  Going from light to dark is much easier than going from dark to light.  Also, the underlying original color may affect the appearance of the color you are applying. I have not actually tried dying a red pair of shoes with green dye, but I've heard it tends to appear brown.  On the other hand, I used a dark oxblood red over brown and came up with results I loved.
• Don't leap into dying a pair of shoes that look fine just as they are.  If you hate the color, you have nothing to lose.  But if you are just itching for change, you might be risking a disaster. About 5% of the time, I wish I'd just left the shoes as they were.
• If there are major problems with the fit of the shoe, the insides, etc., don't bother. This is just a cosmetic fix.  It won't do anything for run-down heels or major cracks in the leather.
• Fiebing's makes several shades of brown and I have been happy with dark brown, British tan, oxblood and a few others.
• I would suggest you put down newspapers and tackle this project outdoors.  If you cannot go outdoors with it, at least make sure you have very good ventilation.
• Mask off the heel, any buckles, etc. Remove any shoelaces.
• If you are dying a pair of very-creased athletic shoes, you will still have those creases. But they will probably look better anyway.  The shoes are not going to miraculously look new.  Just somewhat better.
• Use smooth, even strokes.  Let the first coat dry before attempting the second coat.  Two or three coats is usually sufficient.
• After the dye is completely dry, buff them to remove any excess color. I like using an old sport sock turned inside out.
• The first time you wear your newly colored shoes, avoid wearing brand new white socks and/or going out in the rain and/or going on a job interview.  JUST IN CASE.  I have never seen Fiebing's wash off, though.

I have never used shoe dye for suede.  I have only used smooth leather dye on smooth leather. Also, I have never tried dying leather coats, bags, etc.  But those sound promising.

It's likely you will prolong the life of a pair of shoes by months, maybe even years. I've had great success with this stop-gap measure.  Wish I could say the same for all the clothing I've dyed over the years. I'll write about that in another post.

dj runnels

 

Some years back, I wrote a novel that contained a bit of sex.  Nothing graphic or horribly tawdry, but, well...you know, it was part of the plot and it needed to be in there.  And I agonized over this section of the novel because I was afraid my very religious Southern Baptist grandmother would read it and disapprove.  She passed away, but to this day, I still wonder: had I gotten the book published, would she have reprimanded me?

I'm less concerned over seeking or maintaining the approval of others than I used to be.  It's a nasty habit to get into because it inhibits creativity, BIG TIME.  Whether you write a spicy scene in a novel or paint something purple with lime polkadotas, there will always be this nagging voice in the back of your head.  Will they like it?  Will they approve? Will they tell everyone what a lousy writer or artist I am? 

Who is "they?"  I try not to think about "they."  There will always be a "they" or the "others" and you cannot possibly please them all.  Gather a thousand people together to comment on your craft and you will find at least one who doesn't like it, at least one who DOES love it and every variation in-between.  So why allow your stomach to churn?  You might as well make what you like and let the chips fall.

If somebody hates what you made, they can move on to something they like.  If 99% of people hate what you make but there is still a 1% who likes it, then let that 1% enjoy it or buy it. Sadly, your work may sit in your online store or on the table at your craft show for a long, long time. But if your work brings you joy and speaks to you and eventually (slowly) sells, so be it.  You'll be happier for having been you.  

On the other hand, if you are trying to earn enough money to pay for your kid's orthodontics, you might want to at least consider making some semi-tacky, easy to sell Chicago Bears type birdhouses that will be a big hit at the Oswego, Illinois county fair to offset that funky handbag line for which you are so well known.  A smidgen of autobiographical data just slipped out.

I like being me. I take my cue from a line in the Disney Aladin movie, "Beee yourself."  The more I adhere to it, the better I feel.  The better I feel, the more I create.  The more I create, the more fun I have.  And sooner or later, everything gets sold. Yes, everything.

I laugh when I get an email from an eBayer that reads, "I notice you tried to auction this for $50 and it didn't sell.  I'll give you $15 for it."  Silly, silly eBayer!  So what if it didn't sell in a week? I have more patience than that.  Sometimes a product sells within a day. Sometimes within a year.  Sometimes it takes five years.  I've been in business since 2003 and I know to just wait it out.  I keep listing and listing away, because eventually it resonates with someone and that someone will buy it.  

Which reminds me of another great line from Aladin:  "Patience, Iago."

dj runnels

Isn't this photo of the lipstick just yummy? Someone in China thinks so, too. I have no idea why they are using my photo with my name plastered all over it, but they access it every few months. Can't explain it.


One of the biggest misconceptions about the internet is that the color you see on the screen is the color you will get. That is virtually impossible to guarantee on the internet OR on television, for several reasons.

• You can put two computer monitors or TV sets side by side--same brand, same model, same year, same everything--and see a product displayed in different colors on each screen. No two monitors can be exactly alike in how they portray color, ever. If you are shopping for something RED and the shade of red matters little to you, this is probably not a problem. But for some buyers (and sellers) this issue is a huge problem. And what are the odds that buyer and seller are even using the same brand of monitor, anyway?
• Aside from make/model, the seller can also ADJUST his/her monitor so that colors look accurate to him/her... yet customers, who are using all different types of monitors with all different settings, cannot adjust their monitors in exactly the same way because that is impossible to do. It's not the seller's fault or the buyer's fault. This is just reality.
• Now add LIGHTING to the equation. Your favorite fabric seller may have taken her photographs of that supposedly bright red fleece with a Sony or a Nikon (my Sony tends to distort certain shades of red), a high-end megapixel or a low-end, a digicam or a still camera, outdoors in bright sunlight or indoors in bright light or indoors under poor light. Or at the bottom of the Grand Canyon at dusk while riding a mule. I'm sorry, but no two photos will show the same bright red and that's assuming it IS a bright red according to all who look at the fabric. Which brings me to the next point...
• PERCEPTION varies widely. Your seller may tell you those shoes you saw online are denim blue, but how do we know what they mean by denim blue? To you, denim blue may be deep indigo or stonewashed or a faded blue. What does denim blue mean to the seller? You do not know. You can ask. But even if they say, "Dark blue," what does dark blue mean? What you call dark blue may not be the same as what everyone else on the planet calls dark blue.
• DISCREPANCIES: What if the color shown in the photo looks lime green and the seller describes it in text as olive green? Which one should you believe? Photo or description? If you trust the description instead of the photo and the product arrives looking lime green, then what? Accuse the seller of lying? Some buyers do that.
• DEFINITION: What if the seller says the color is orange-red and the photo does indeed look orange-red (to you)... but the seller also says, "It's not nearly as orange as shown," what are you supposed to believe? Is the seller wrong? Is the photo wrong? Is your monitor adjusted poorly? Is the seller's monitor set poorly? Or is the seller's definition of red-orange different than yours? Are we talking about bright red-orange or more of a rust red-orange?
• VISION ABNORMALITIES: What if the buyer or seller has cataracts and doesn't know it and perceives colors differently than most people?
• RIGHT v. LEFT EYE. What if the buyer or seller's left eye sees color differently than the right eye? Guess what, folks? THIS IS TRUE. It's true of you, me and all of humanity. Now who can you believe?
• CLOSE-UP, LIFE SIZE, DISTANCE: What if the close-up of the product looks different than a view of the product from four feet away? Take the IF out of that sentence. The color of a product will almost certainly look different depending on the distance between the camera and the product, especially considering lighting, type of camera, etc. plus whether or not the product has a pattern to it. I recently got a comment from a buyer who said the close-up of my yarn was deceiving. Well, a far-away photo would also be deceiving. So I have begun showing both a close-up AND a faraway shot of my yarns. Sounds like a good solution, doesn't it? Think again. Now I have customers asking me, well, which one is right? Both of them! No, they do not want to hear that, because they like the close-up more than the faraway shot. What can I tell them now? "After you knit the sweater, stand right up next to people and do not let them walk away so that all they ever see is the yarn in close-up." I predict that people who try that will eventually get arrested for standing way too close to the wrong person.

How prevalent is this problem? It is not generally a problem for people who buy and sell books, CDs, anything in which the color is going to be predictable, uniform or irrelevant. People want to know that the DVD is new or in mint condition. They won't care if the DVD case is a slightly different color than expected.

But color is a HUGE problem for anyone selling or buying fabric, yarn, almost any type of fashion or jewelry that isn't black (few people disagree over black), handbags, cosmetics, home decor and more. I get many questions about my yarn and I answer to the best of my ability. Over 99% of my customers are either happy with the color or realistic enough to deal with it. For the other less than 1%, nothing I do will ever be enough. A year ago, someone ranted at me for describing a yarn as ivory/beige. She insists I should have called it "very light tan." Don't laugh. This is true. Hundreds of people bought THOUSANDS of skeins of this same yarn and loved it, but this woman is outraged. Who is right? Well, she was in the minority, but does that make her wrong? And if so, how can I tell her that? One thing I have learned from this business is that each person is absolutely certain that they are right. I no longer believe that I am 100% right any more and pride myself on having this Zenlike level of awareness, but based on emails I sometimes receive, I am pretty much alone in taking this stance.

Last year, I received a ranting email from an eBay customer who said the lipstick I sent her was red, not pink. She wanted pink. The photo showed a deep pink lipstick with a photo flash on it that gave the impression it was dark pink except in that one spot. Most people could tell it was photo flash and the customer even mentioned the photo flash as part of my "evil marketing scheme." (I told you she was mad.) But the NAME of the lipstick color included the word fuchsia. And that name came from the manufacturer, not me. Most people who see the lipstick or the photo agree that it is, indeed, a deep pink, magenta or fuchsia. Every customer who has ordered this fuchsia lipstick has been happy with it ... until now. This woman screamed that it was red. What would you say to someone in this scenario? "Sorry, ma'am, but you must have cataracts." I can't say that without getting a punch in the face. Or how about this: "Return the lipstick for a full refund and I will sell it to someone else who will never suspect that you opened the tube and applied it to your germ-free lips." Eeeeeewwwww. I think not.

If you buy or sell merchandise in which color description or photography is a large factor, I have little advice to give you, but having sold over 5,000 things thus far, I am offering the benefit of my experience and the few solutions I have ever been able to think of:

SELLERS: Be prepared to offer a refund policy. This is not a good solution for every seller, because if your product cannot be resold--i.e.: opened lipstick--you may get so many returns you will go out of business. It is also not a good solution for sellers whose acceptance of returns is iffy. I would accept yarn returns in a heartbeat if I knew that every customer could be counted on to return the yarn unused and not exposed to smoke or pets. If I did accept returns, what am I to do if the returned yarn reeks of cigarette smoke? Charge less for it? What if it smells like expensive perfume? Charge more for it?

For sellers of clothing, I urge you to at least affix a sales tag to each garment such that it cannot be removed and reattached. Tell the buyer they must return the garment unworn with the tag still attached. That way, if they wear it, they either must wear it WITH the tag dangling from it or try to reattach it. Just make sure the tag is in a place they will not like wearing it; use your imagination; I can think of several options. And when that garment arrives covered in cat hair and dander, you had best have a ready answer for your customer who is impatiently drumming her fingers waiting for that refund.

If you offer a no-questions-asked guarantee, you will likely have to raise the cost of your merchandise to compensate for returns. Sadly, your satisfied customers will have to pay more for the privilege of having your return policy. The bargain hunters will not like that. I do not know what to advise you.

BUYERS: My solutions for you are not nearly as good as the advice I gave sellers. For that, I apologize. I am truly searching for solutions because I am faced with this dilemma every day. Here is all I could come up with:

• Shop with sellers who take the clearest photos AND write the most detailed description ...and then, for crying out loud, read and study both of them. A high percentage of my buyers look at the photos without reading the entire description. How do I know this? By the questions they ask. Most of these buyers are trustworthy and honest enough to admit that they did not read the listing carefully and do not leave a nasty feedback. I love you guys for your understanding, but please, just read the listing and you will be disappointed far less often.
• Continue shopping with the sellers whose goods you have purchased and have been happy with.
• Shop with sellers whose DESCRIPTION star rating or karma rating or whatever on their feedback page is pretty high. That means that most people found the listing or the photo (or both) to be very accurate. If the seller has not earned much feedback yet, try to cut them some slack. NOTE: On Artfire, many shoppers do not have accounts, which means they will not leave Kudos.  So if you see a seller without Kudos, it does not necessarily mean a lot.  But on eBay, where every buyer can write negative comments about every seller, pay close attention if you see a gazillion negative remarks. 
• Try to be realistic. If you want a pair of shoes that exactly match a skirt, you are taking a risk. Do not trash the seller for a photo or description that seems a little off. It may be your computer monitor or your vision that is a little off. Remember the woman who bought fuchsia lipstick from me and swears it is red? I'm sorry, but everyone else says that baby is PINK. It's hard to hear the truth, but the erroneous perception may, indeed, be yours.

-- dj runnels (c) 2008-2009
Owner of Life's an Expedition