eBay headaches!

Are you an occasional seller on eBay? If so, they have a new rule you'll want to know about. If you sell less than 20 items in 12 months, then they will place a hold on the Paypal receipt of your money from the buyer until they show the item as either received by the buyer or you receive a positive rating on the sale from the buyer. I was on the phone with the people at Paypal last night about this as I have a 100% rating and have been buying & selling for nine years on eBay, but I do only list items a few times a year. My auction ended last night and the buyer paid me right away (how awesome is that?!), but I got an e-mail from Paypal saying they may hold my money up to 21 days. That's right - the buyer paid, but Paypal is holding my money hostage! Good grief. When I called they told me that once the buyer leaves a positive feedback, they will release my money. I said that many times buyers do not leave feedback - what about then? They said to e-mail the buyer asking them to leave feedback - I ALREADY DO THAT!!! And as for shipping, I have to take my item to the UPS store to ship it, so I can't get a confirmation through Paypal of the shipment as they would like.... They really need to go after the people abusing the system! For example when I listed one of my items currently up for sale, I got a bid right away. I did have a Buy It Now price, but they chose to bid. The person then e-mailed me and asked if I'd end the auction if they'd pay me directly, for about half of my Buy It Now price. Are you kidding me? This person had a 96% rating. When I responded and said that I do not end the auction once bidding has begun, she threatened to retract her bid as she "couldn't wait for the auction to end!" The point was moot as someone else had outbid her in the meantime.

Do you have problems with eBay? With Etsy? I'd love to hear from you. I know it's all part of dealing with buyers & sellers... but sometimes I wonder why I do it!

Enjoy,

April Showers Bring May Morels!

For anyone familiar with the taste of morel mushrooms, it doesn't get any better than this - we found three morel mushrooms growing in our very own yard this last weekend! We had them for dinner on Tuesday. Yummy! We love them so much, that tomorrow we are driving out to Muscoda, Wisconsin which proclaims itself the "Morel Mushroom Capital of the World" for their weekend Morel Festival. It is our first time there for this event and we cannot wait to experience it. Of course, between that and the first major flea market of the season on Sunday leaves me with very little art studio time this weekend.

My blog redesign will be taking place within the next few weeks, so watch for that. I cannot wait! I've been experimenting with my new Quickutz Revolution (which I absolutely love, by the way). Unfortunately, Quickutz has announced (this week) that they are discontinuing the Revolution and coming out with a new die cut machine called the Epic. Good grief. Don't worry, Cuttlebug fans, I still love my Bug, but find that the Revolution works a little easier on some dies than the Bug, but that just means that they complement each other well. I really love the magnetic plate on the Revolution and the machine works really smoothly. The buzz on the chats is about a new 12" die machine, but I don't feel the need for that as I don't do scrapbooking besides digital, and I try to limit the size to 6x6 or 8x8. 12x12 is just too huge for my storage abilities. I am still selling my Spellbinders machine (see info below), so if anyone is interested, let me know. My next step is listing it on eBay. There are so many people that swear by their Spellbinder machine. I did not like it, but that's me. This arts and crafts thing is very personal!

Enjoy,
-Roberta