Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Shantell, it's not you, your bears are lovely.  In the two years I've been following the eBay artist bears category though, I've never seen it more... I don't know... picky? persnickety? unfathomable? ... than it is now.  I used to be able to see trends in what sold and what didn't, and if you saw a good bear from a lesser known artist, it still had a chance.  But now, I'm not quite sure what's going on.  I see VERY good bears sell for very little money, and others not at all.  Bears that are definitely good enough to be given a chance, aren't necessarily.  I don't think it matters where you start the price, whether you have a reserve, what size or type of bear you're offering, whether it's a private auction, what day of the week you list... I'm just not seeing ANY trends right now.  It doesn't make sense.  (We need a smiley face that's going HUH????? to insert here.)

Anyway, I've been studying and studying those auctions to try to see something, anything.  The only thing I'm thinking now is that it's the first bid that is the most important.  I watch bears sit there with no bids for days on end that should really be selling well and wonder 'what are they thinking?'  But as soon as I see ONE person bid on the bear, all of a sudden there are three or four people bidding on the bear.  Know what I mean?  This has been stumping me.  I'm almost wondering if offering some sort of special offer to the first bidder of the auction might help encourage that first bid.  I dunno.  I've been selling on eBay forever, and I've never come across a tougher category to sell in than the artist bear category is right now.  I know people will recommend that prices should be dropped to encourage bidding, but there is a level that each of us have that we should not go below.  Especially if you sell just fine in other venues.  Don't drop the bottom out from your pricing just because one place you're trying to sell in is quirky.  Hang in there!

Hugs,
Kelly

Oh, Sandi, I didn't mean that you or anyone else was arguing  :hug:

When I said 'that old argument', I was referring to the long-standing Mac vs. PC debate in the computer world, which has been around as long as Macs and PCs.  (And frankly, has been around in my immediate family for about that long as well.)

Hugs,
Kelly

Sue Ann, I'll have to try to get a copy of that book, you're the second bear artist I've heard recommend it.  I can use all the help I can get, I'm a total introvert and being put in a forum where I really, really need to interact with a group of strangers can be very intimidating.

What I have been trying to do at shows is find something interesting to point out to people who have stopped at our tables.  I think it helps to start the conversation.  If they are looking at a bear with a double-jointed neck, I'll point out the neck piece and tell them to have fun looking at all the poses he can do.  If they're looking at a fur bear, I'll point out the different types of fur we have represented on the table.  The last Schaumburg show was fun in that we had a wide range of fur bears, and I was able to talk to people about some of the more unusual types of fur, as we had nutria and bassarisk bears with us.  They loved touching the different types, oohing over the softness of bassarisk and aahing over how the nutria fur looked prickly but wasn't.   I think what I'm saying is that it seems beneficial to get people to interact with the bears on some level, whether it be touching, picking up or posing them on the table.

I have a joke with my mother at the Schaumburg show that I don't even need to be there.  The show only has her listed as the artist (I really am the other artist, but my tag says 'Assistant').   She loves to start conversations with people by saying 'My daughter is really the other artist at this table, even though she's not on the sign and her nametag says 'assistant'.  But this is her bear, and this is her bear, and this, and this, and this... and have you seen her bunnies? There's one, and there's one, and that over there...'  She sells more of my bears that way, go figure.

Cheers,
Kelly

Winney, I'm the one that does my hangtags in Word.  Post #8 on this thread discusses how I format them with Word's built-in templates, so you do NOT need to buy anything other than appropriate business card printer paper.  Good luck and have fun experimenting with it!

Regarding Macs vs. PCs, I'm not touching that old argument with a 10 foot pole.  I've used those and several others, and it's really just a case of what you're used to.  Macs do have their niche in graphic design and 3D rendering type areas.  But if you think Mac and PC users enjoy trading barbs with each other, you should hear what UNIX or Linux users have to say about Mac AND PC users
:D

Cheers,
Kelly

Wow, I have no idea what could be used as a substitute.  In that situation, I'd probably take a look at the bear and consider making it fully wobble-jointed.  You can go down a disc size all around and it just adds to the look.  Just a thought????  Will be interesting to hear other thoughts on this.

Kelly

Congrats congrats congrats to the entire family! 
:clap:

Hugs,
Kelly

OK, the private message thing is news to me.   LOL!  Luckily, nobody had contacted me, or I would've left them hanging FOREVER!!!

Cheers,
Kelly

I absolutely do not count as someone who makes a living at this, though wouldn't it be nice?
:whistle:

Anyway, I do try to stay very organized.  We keep discs in their own drawers, cotterpins and such in theirs, ultrasuede and such in its own place, and so on.  It makes it easier to see when you're running low on something.  As we work on such a wide variety of shapes and sizes of critters over here, I can't say 'every other month, I'll need to order 100 of those!' on any item.  Instead, I just try to keep an eye on things.  For something like discs, once I see I'm down to say 10 of a favorite size, I'll order another bag.  We are always working on multiple projects at once in various stages of completion, so it would be a mistake to say 'we have enough for one more bear!' when there are four or five bears waiting to be finished.  We do not tend to do editions, but in the very few cases where we've wanted to make multiple bears out of the same fabric, we just make sure we have enough for that number before we start.  Too many times I've gone back to order a fabric and found it is either out of stock or discontinued, I would hate to be stuck halfway through a bear or an edition of bears and run out permanently!

So I guess the answer is that we don't order when we run out, we try to time it enough in advance that we receive the replacement before we run out.  Not that it always works smoothly 
:lol:

Best wishes,
Kelly

OK, back now, had to have a dentist appointment
:doh:

Shantell, here's a couple of ways to figure out text vs. an image of text.  You can highlight real text with your cursor, like if you wanted to copy and paste it somewhere.  You can't highlight an image like that.  Another check would be that if you right click over an image, one of the options on the menu that appears is 'Save Image As'.  It only gives you that option if you're clicking on an image, it won't do that if you're clicking on real text.  Try highlighting or right clicking on the main page of Shelli's site (images of text) versus her Contact Me page (real text).  You'll see the difference.  Third way is the source code, of course, which shows a very long list of links to jpg images instead of displaying text.

Deb, you're on the right track.  Maybe it is makes more sense to say that though it looks like text, it is only a picture of the text.   It looks the same to us humans, but computers see it as completely different entities.  Kind of like if I had a big chocolate cake in front of me, versus having a picture of a big chocolate cake.  Hmmm, I could go for some chocolate cake...

Shelli, you have my utmost respect for the work you've put in on your site, I don't want to sound like I am belittling or criticizing your work in any way.  The text thing is something that you can ignore completely if you wish, obviously people are finding your site any number of ways.  I think I just added 20 or so to your counter just in going back today and checking things as I'm writing this out.  (Try as I might, I can't accomplish the same feat with my site as it is only set to click up for unique visitors... what was I thinking???)   
:lol:

Anyhoo, I'm not familiar with Coffee Cup but it sounds like I'd hate it if I couldn't work with the source code directly    I have no idea if the TEXT versus BUTTON TEXT option would solve your problem (though sounds like that's a problem in itself!).  But whatever you did on the Contact Me page and also the top of the links page is true text so I'd aim for that if you can force Coffee Cup into submission.  Anyway, it is very good that you have the right kind of info in your META tags, looks like everything you've been test searching for is in your META tags, so that's why it's showing up. 

This isn't going to help you (don't know if I've helped yet, actually, I think I'm just throwing kinks in the works!) but I almost always code by hand.  WYSIWYG editors make me crazy.  Dreamweaver is a good option for you to move up to when you feel the need for change, you can flip back and forth between accessing the source code directly or using the WYSIWYG interface.  It is well respected in the industry. 

Kudos to Hayley for mentioning embedded fonts!  Never actually done that myself, but it shouldn't be too difficult to look up the how-to's for anyone who wants to do it. 

By the way, my apologies if I am coming off sounding badly with any of this.  I posted about the text as an image thing only as an FYI.  I am somewhat over-trained in things Info Techy, so I am a big geek and, occasionally, a social moron.  Anyway, I don't think I need to tell anyone that Shelli's site is gorgeous
:thumbsup:

Cheers,
Kelly

This is interesting.  Looking at your site, the vast majority of text on your site... isn't text.  You've designed your site to be a series of interlaced images, with text included within the images.  That actually doesn't count as text, your viewer's computers aren't thinking of it in terms of a font, size or anything else, it's just displaying an image.  So to that end, if you put text in an image, you can use ANY text and it will display exactly the same as you see it on your computer just like the photo of a bear you see on your computer looks the same on my computer, too.

There is a down side (there's always a down side).  Your site would have virtually no content to someone browsing with their images turned off (I have a blind cousin who surfs the web, so I try to remember things like this).  Sometimes even sighted people turn their images off, if they are on a really lousy dial-up connection.  But the BIG (really big) drawback I can think to doing text this way is that search engines cannot 'read' your text if it is only in an image.  So the things that you are referring to in your text, like galleries you are in, magazines you've been published in, awards you've won... a search engine cannot see.  If a search engine cannot read your text, you might as well not have that text on your site.  Try this and you'll see what I mean... go to google and type in something that SHOULD return your site within its results.  Type this:

"potbelly bears" "golden teddy" chauncey

The results include links to Jones Publishing, the Theodore Society, Bears and Buds and Intercal.  No mention of your site, though it should link directly to the Noteworthy page on your site because all of those words are mentioned on that page.  But the text is not text on that page, it's an image... the search engine couldn't see it, so no match.  Your site is lovely, but the image / text thing may be losing you a lot of traffic.  Thought you might like to know and hope this helps!  (You can punch me when we meet sometime in the future.)

Hugs,
Kelly

Here's a screen shot of what my hang tags look like (printed in Word with a business card template as described above, first print one side, then the other).  Very easy, very inexpensive, very customizable (is that a word?).  The line down the middle of each side is not printed, that shows where the fold occurs.  Keep in mind that a small hole punch is used once the card is folded so that it can 'hang'.  You will notice the text and image veers slightly away from the top of that center line to allow space for the hole punch (otherwise you punch through important information).

Print side #1 of the hangtag, when folded the image of the bear is on the front and the text information is on the back.

Print side #2 of the hangtag, this is the information on the inside of the tag.  I handwrite in the information.  There is a lot of space for the artist's signature because my mother and I are two artists under the same business name, most people could use a lot less space for the signature, of course
:)

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Hi Gail!

If after you select 'New Document', a new page opens that looks blank instead of having little rectangles on it, try this...

With that same 'New Document' open, go to the upper menu bar and select 'Table'.  In the submenu that appears, down near the bottom, is an option that says either 'Show Gridlines' or 'Hide Gridlines'.  If your option says 'Show Gridlines', click on it and the lines should appear.  Hopefully.

Let me know if this works for you!  If not, we'll think of something else to try
:)

Kelly

Hi all,

I'm updating my site and wondering if anybody else wants to swap links?  Just drop me a note or post here!
http://www.cannabearpaint.com/

Bear hugs,
Kelly

Good luck and I hope everything turns out for the best, Laura!  Maybe this is the house for you or maybe the perfect one's in your future a little further down the road, but I'm glad you're looking into it!  Good luck with your next show too, of course
:)

Hugs,
Kelly

Hi again Jenny, I just noticed that Mindy addressed your concerns in a follow-up post on the TB&F message board.  Here is the link:

http://www.teddybearandfriends.com/foru … owtopic=46

So sell, sell, sell!  (We should all be so lucky, right?)
:lol:

Kelly

Hey, did anyone else catch that they've moved the TOBY Awards?  I really liked that they were attached to the fall Schaumburg show, but I guess now they are at the IDEX location in Las Vegas!  Show date is the middle of the summer, so the TOBY awards will now be presented July 1st (as opposed to the end of October).  The voting issue of TB&F will be moved one issue earlier than usual to accommodate.

http://www.bearexpo.com/
http://www.teddybearandfriends.com/foru … owtopic=46

Guess I won't be able to attend the Golden Teddy or TOBY presentations, as long as they are that far away from me (Washington D.C. and Las Vegas!).  Oh well, me and a lot of people are in the same boat.
:cry:

Kelly

Helena, Rascal is just gorgeous and such a character!   I don't mind raccoons or squirrels or whatever, though my dog LOVES squirrels on a whole other level.  Her current record is:

Dog - 1, Squirrels - 0
Dog - 1, Chipmunks - 0
Dog - 0, Bunnies - 2

This leads me to believe that the fastest thing in the backyard are the bunnies.  Definitely the bunnies
:D

Cheers,
Kelly

Hi Jenny,

Both the TOBY and Golden Teddy awards judge artist bears by photograph only.  They do not mind whether an artist bear is sold or not, they just want it to have been made within a certain time period (this year).  The comments about shipping the bear are intended only for manufacturers' entries, who have some different guidelines to follow (and the manufactured bears are used as prizes in contests associated with the competition).

Good luck with your show, and good luck if you decide to enter the contests!
Kelly

Thanks for your input, ladies!  Kim, I have always admired your precious minis so it was very much appreciated to get your opinion.  Patsy and Dilu, I agree about the 'name' part of pricing, it's one of those things that affects us all, we're all either on one side of the 'known name' spectrum, the other, or trekking along in between.  And Dilu, those were excellent thoughts on pricing, thank you for them!

I have a sliding scale for my regular bear pricing that has been working very well, the bears are either more or less expensive within the scale depending on features such as size, difficulty, special features and cost of materials.  Looking ahead to doing minis though, I realized that taking size into consideration as a I normally do, would completely throw off my pricing.  Hmmmm.  I will probably need to start fresh and come up with a completely new and fair scale for pricing minis that has nada to do with the big bear pricing.  Well, I'm always up for a challenge
:)

I wish I could let eBay determine mini pricing for me, but I will only approach eBay with a fair market retail price firmly in mind on any bear.  I usually have the minimum acceptable bid a little below my retail price, and a BIN a little above retail price.  I sell well at shows and off my site at my prices, so even though eBay is 'iffy' at best about sales, I will not drop the bottom out of my prices or leave them open-ended just because it's a more unstable market.  I don't mind trying to sell bears on eBay from time to time, my feeling is that either someone is willing to pay my price or not and that's OK.  I think if I *just* had one location to sell in, that would be a different situation.  But by selling in different places, the pricing has to be consistent across the board, or it's not fair to anybody, including me.  I would love to take some minis with me to shows next year, and sure, I'd love to try them on eBay, so I just need to get the pricing issue resolved in my mind ahead of time.  Thinking cap on!

Sorry, I think I'm rambling  :lol:

Cheers,
Kelly

I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, I did a search but didn't come up with much of anything.  I'm wondering, is there a standard for pricing true minis (say 4-5" or less)?  I know with the bigger bears, $10/inch and up is the norm, but this seems way too low for minis (3" for $30, I don't think so). 

For those of you who do both minis and medium / large sized bears, how do you resolve your pricing to keep the minis from being too cheap on a 'big bear'-biased scale, or alternately keeping the big guys from being too expensive on a 'mini-bear'-biased scale?  All input would be appreciated.  I've recently done some 'simplified' versions of some favorite patterns, so that they can be done in a more difficult medium, such as a true mini or real fur.  Looking forward to experimenting!

Many thanks,
Kelly

I've been in school long enough that people accept the answer 'I am a perpetual student' from me.  I have convinced my mother to answer such questions with 'I am a soft-sculpture artist', which usually confuses them enough that they don't ask follow-up questions
:lol:

Don't tell them that!  They'll inform you that you can teach them everything you know so that they can quit their day jobs and make tons of money, too.

<sigh>
Kelly

I see him now, what a cutie! 
:thumbsup:

Thanks for the thanks, but don't think I did too much of anything!  Kudos to Laura for remembering eBay's revision rules.  I had to go look the silly rules up... now if they just had less than 9 gazillion regulations for various things, maybe I could remember them better
:rolleyes:

Cheers,
Kelly

Yup, Laura is correct.  Because you have bids, you can only add to the item description, not change the original.  However, you could add all of the images on as an extension to the description.  Shelli, if you have uploaded the images to the web somewhere, email me where they are, if you like.  I could do a brief html listing of images then email you back the code to add to your auction.  Just a thought?

Cheers,
Kelly

Hi Shelli,

Nope, I can't see your photos either.  The only one showing up is the gallery image.  Checking your source code, the photos in your item description are linking to a location on the C: drive of your own computer.  In other words, you're the only person that can see all the photos because you are on your computer.  Everyone else cannot see what it on your home computer, only what you upload to the Internet.  The solution is to change the links in your auction from their C: drive location to the same photos' location wherever it is you uploaded them on the web (http:// etc.etc.)

Man, you have some dedicated collectors that are fighting essentially 'sight unseen' for one of your bears 
:)

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Fran, is it possible she paid you by e-check through PayPal?  You need to look at your transaction history in your PayPal account, not just your account balance in dollars and cents.  Being paid by e-check means that the funds will take several business days to clear, your account balance will NOT change to show the payment until they have cleared.  The only way to see this is either through the notice PayPal sent you to confirm a payment was received, or to go into your PayPal transaction history and look at the payment.  It should tell you exactly when funds will clear.

Hope this helps!
Kelly