#i also have to send photos to the seller on etsy bc this was NOT what i ordered and im >:(

[altruistic-meme]

i want to go to the cafe. i want to go to the cafe. i have to get up in order to do that.

[xmoonlitxdreamx]

Hi! Feel free to ignore if you don't feel like answering. I see you've been posting about selling pokemon merchandise, and I wanted to ask if you maybe have any advice for someone who's also interested in selling merchandise but isn't quite sure where to begin?

Sure, I can give a little bit of advice! Sorry if this is super haphazard, I'm just talking off the top of my head.

Ok tbh the first thing to be aware of is that making merch is expensive. I really do not recommend getting into making and selling merch if you're struggling financially. I don't make a lot of money from this.

If you're interested in learning more about manufacturers/where to get stuff made, there's a list of them on the account @howtobeaconartist under the "resources" tab. They also have a lot of advice for selling merch in general, tho they're mostly geared toward anime convention artists.

There's also vograce, a company based in china that makes a variety of things:

I use them a lot but there's also often communication issues/minor printing complications, and shipping can get quite pricy if you're ordering a lot of things. (for example, shipping on the order of submas pillow cases + misc merch samples was almost $100.) (also I live in the US.) That said, I like to use them because they have low minimum order quantities; I don't sell a ton of merch, so it's convenient for me to be able to buy small quantities of items. They also let you split up orders between multiple designs (again, useful for lowering quantities).

Anyway, my personal recommendation for your first merch would be buttons. I get them made by cheapestbuttonsnet on Etsy:

Their prices are very affordable, and they also let customers split up an order between multiple designs. Typically I order a batch of 50 buttons, and then split it between 5 designs to end up with 10 buttons of each design. Customer service is also very responsive; if you have further questions I'd recommend messaging them on Etsy or sending them an e-mail.

Anyway you don't have to start with buttons, but that's just what I think would be the best balance between affordable for the artist + affordable/attractive for customers.

Also, keep in mind that artwork you draw for merch should be sized at least 300 PPI for prints, charms, buttons, and stickers, and at least 150 PPI for fabric printing (like pillows). This means if you want to print a 1.5 inch button, the canvas you draw on should be at least 450 px by 450 px (because 300 * 1.5 = 450). Typically I draw larger than this anyway (like 2500 px by 2500 px for most things), but note that if you draw larger that some small details may get lost.

There's a bunch of other logistic things you'll need to do before selling merch, including:

setting up an online shop (I use Etsy because they're convenient for shipping and send tax forms at the end of the year to make it easier to report income, but they have a lot of random fees)

Purchasing shipping materials (for buttons/charms, usually just bubble mailers from amazon or wherever are fine)

Setting prices (I reference other sellers on Etsy to gauge a good price for products. Another thing people often do is take the cost of manufacturing one unit, multiplying it by 3, and using that as the price.)

Purchasing business cards to include in orders (optional; I get mine from catprint.com bc I like their holographic finish and I get prints from them anyway, but there are much cheaper options out there for business cards)

Taking product photos/making graphics for products (this goes with "setting up an online shop" tbh. i hate taking product photos LMAO;;;)

Drawing the actual artwork for the merchandise lskdjflsdjf

There's probably more than this and there's more details that I'm not mentioning because this is just a short little intro, but tbh a lot of merch making is about learning along the way and seeing what works and what can be improved on.

[okaywowcool]

a while ago an anon asked me this: 

hi paige! do you know the reason shops like harajuku fashion and other stores on storenvy have such similar products to really cheap but generally quality stuff on eBay and aliexpress, but they're much more expensive? im kind of confused as to whether it's the same product because wholesale, or if it's a better quality version of the same product, or...? because i see what looks like the same product for five bucks on aliexpress, and for about thirty bucks on storenvy!

and since i think it’s a really good thing to talk about the reasoning why storenvy shops (or any retail shop) mark things up, and when it’s benefitting you as a customer and when it’s not, i thought i’d repost my answer here!

the reasons for this price disparity are fairly numerous and definitely vary from shop to shop, but here are some of the reasons places do this and also the reasons they are able to do it and people still purchase from them:

profit gauging - should be obvious. some places are worse about this than others, like think about what i’ve talked about w/ inu inu in the past for example….

“finder’s fee” or “curator’s fee” - a store being able to put good items together like any retail store would to where their brand recognition and look is so strong that people want the items from them specifically (also something you could think about with places like inu inu but also spreepicky. they’re popular so people buy from there.)

repackaging - you might pay extra for nicer packaging, branded tags, things being packed more safely on their way to you and looking nicer etc.

improved distribution - the store, by virtue of popularity and being able to buy and keep stock, might be able to ship items quicker than smaller aliexpress operations can so you might be able to get your items faster. there are diff resellers (some of them based in china and others based in the US) and they do this in different ways, but this might be a reason for higher prices since they need to make up for the initial costs of buying inventory

higher trust - people tend to trust storenvy more than aliexpress. though they also tend to trust ebay more too. this is something i don’t feel like i understand or explain, some of this is based in ACTUAL racism (people are more loathe to buy from chinese people who can’t speak english as well and will bring it up in negative reviews a LOT. this is something that makes me absolutely furious :) it’s also a huge thing that steers me away from trusting certain reviews bc just like. what the fuck is wrong with you.) and then some people just have strange website loyalty/preferences. like i charge more for the same items on etsy and storenvy to cover fees and the inconvenience of using their platforms, but i always put visibly that there are cheaper prices on my own website and link to there. however, people still want to use storenvy or etsy. i have no idea why; i don’t shop this way, but to each their own i guess!

blogger sponsorships - discount codes are frequently given out which reduces the price but these shops then increase their prices even more to cover blogger sponsorships

storenvy fees are fucking ridiculous - 10% of a sale is high, and some places have to jack up their prices to cover that, and that isn’t EVEN talking about the chunk stripe thing takes out. stripe also holds your money for forever so like, it’s just a giant nightmare and you might end up paying more because of that inconvenience to the seller (like i do….)

the misunderstanding between western consumer ideas of a good deal and local consumer experience is also a factor - often times even the cheaper shops, including places like aliexpress, are still charging out the nose for things because they know americans/other westerners don’t even have a remote understanding of how cheap things are. being in markets in china in person, even jacked-up tourist priced markets opened my eyes to this A LOT. i bought a lot of little trinkets while there and bought a lot of food and snacks but i only took out $81 USD for the whole trip. i was there a month, and was never really trying to be frugal. the dollar value difference is just nuts, so even paying like $10 for a tshirt is a huge ripoff, but it’s still good business on our end and we’re helping to make these individual sellers a big chunk of money with their own business which i personally approve of, at least.  

anyway, places tend to have a combination of these things, rather than it just being simple price gouging, though sometimes it’s clear and you can tell what a reseller spends their money on (like sheinside spends hella cash on advertising, though they’re not a storenvy reseller but they have similar wholesale items; inuinu’s is majority profit gauging or modeling/photoshoot prices since they do mostly free advertising and don’t have special packaging, etc)

BUT! the items generally are the exact same. 99% of the time these storenvy shops operate through a method called dropshipping, which is a system where

a customer makes an order on the storenvy shop

the storenvy shop takes your money and goes to the sourced product where it is being sold originally, typically on aliexpress or another wholesale website, and orders the product, entering your address

they send you the tracking information and shipping notification when they get it 

you get the product, likely with absolutely Zero indication that it ever came the storenvy shop you actually ordered it from

i’m not a big fan of dropshipping, since what you are essentially doing is paying the store in the middle to act as a middleman for your products. if some of the benefits i’ve outlined above are met when ordering from a shop, such as them improving packaging or customer service, OR finding a really incredible product that you yourself can’t source elsewhere, then i think the shop (obviously) deserves a small profit off of that work. but most of the time shops aren’t doing much of any of that, and storenvy resellers are all selling like the same 4 products--that’s the case where i take issue with it. 

further more,  if you see an item cheaper on another website (like ebay or aliexpress) the chances of them being the same item is incredibly high. there is, however, a weird phenomena i’ve seen where there are places that do rip offs OF other rip offs, so you’ll see a lazyoaf sweatshirt rip off that is nice looking on one website and then another one on a different website for half the price, same picture. but sometimes if you bought both one is nicer than the other, like maybe it’s actual sweatshirt material whereas the other one is more of a thicker tshirt material? and spotting those is difficult sometimes, i tend to just message sellers for their own photo if i’m suspicious which works out.

i’m also willing to try and help people find duplicates to get cheaper prices, though obviously don’t want to be doing that all day long, but it’s really easy to search for on your own too. i tend to do that whenever i can, though sometimes you just can’t find stuff or you can’t find it cheaper. like those light up platforms i’ve posted are about the same price everywhere, they are just a more expensive item. there are also cases where stores mix in retail products and original ones, like inu inu or spreepicky, so sometimes you can’t get that stuff anywhere else.

or sometimes they’re just really good at finding cool stuff, and in those cases (which are rare but i remember mola mola is p damn good at this) i think they deserve their finder’s fee--i just don’t think it needs to be $25+. it just is all up to the buyers’ preference, in the end, but i do want people to be more educated on what they are paying for and why, which is why i like to talk about it a lot!

hopefully that helps to answer your questions, hopefully this wasn’t toooo long and people still read it lmao, i just have a lot to say on the subject!