A few notes on T-shirts.: seanan

A few notes on T-shirts.

For those of you who missed it, we opened orders for a new run of Wicked Girls shirts this past weekend, as well as the first-ever run of "My Story Is Not Done" shirts (for those of you who have asked for something a little more gender-neutral). Instructions on ordering, and what our options are, are all lain out on that initial post. Kate, using the "seananmerch" account, is reaching out now to confirm people's requests.

Now, the notes.

We cannot provide any special mailing options.

A few people have offered to pay extra for expedited shipping or tracking, and that's swell, but we can't. We are not a store, and the size of these shirt runs means that we have enough trouble just feeding them through the post office as all-the-same. The only way we would be able to offer other postage options would be to cap the shirt run at something around 50, and a) we've already passed that point, and b) no. I can only handle this about once every two years, and capping things like that would be mean.

We mean it when we say we can't promise delivery before October.

We opened this order period as early as we did because we want to be able to get the shirts back from the printer and shoved into envelopes before I leave for Europe in early August, but there are a lot of moving parts involved, and it's possible the printer will miss the deadline for mailing by as little as a day or as much as two weeks. If the shirts hit while I'm out of the country, they're not going to be mailed until October. We will not give refunds in September because you expected a shirt in August. I'm being really upfront about how long this could take, and this is part of why. Which brings us to...

I am not a store; we are not making any money off of this.

The last two shirt runs have netted cost of shirts + cost of postage and packing materials + one pizza party for the people who pack the shirts to mail. I am not a big shiny clothing manufacturer who prints her own shirts and can afford a shit-ton of extras. Teefury can do $11 shirts because they print their own and have runs well in excess of anything I've ever done. I am fighting to keep from needing to raise prices for these short bespoke runs. This is why I request non-CC PayPal and do my best to avoid transaction fees, which nibble away at the already very narrow overage.

Kate and I are both going to be as open and responsive as we possibly can be; transparency is best in a situation like this one. But please, please don't buy a shirt if you're going to approach it like buying something from Hot Topic. We're not that kind of operation.

Thank you.

kyrielle

June 3 2014, 02:30:15 UTC 3 years ago

New comment

Thank you. I think it's awesome that you are willing to tackle these for us at all.

seanan_mcguire

June 10 2014, 22:53:26 UTC 3 years ago

princess_kessie

June 3 2014, 02:38:10 UTC 3 years ago

Just a note for those who only have c/c funded Paypal (like me) - if they make it a "family & friends" payment, they can choose to absorb the c/c cost (for me it was $2.68US) instead of passing it on to you...

filkferengi

June 6 2014, 16:34:12 UTC 3 years ago

Thanks for the tip!

June 10 2014, 22:53:47 UTC 3 years ago

Yes, and that is splendid, and honestly preferred for ALL payments, since otherwise the nibbling is dire.

bkwpotter

June 3 2014, 02:40:16 UTC 3 years ago

I love how upfront you are with all of this. I just need to decide what color shirt I want.

Can't wait to see you in Phoenix this weekend. I'll be the one too nervous to speak.

June 10 2014, 22:53:57 UTC 3 years ago

Aw.

naath

June 3 2014, 10:25:14 UTC 3 years ago

Shirts are superawesome; and whilst I would love to have mine for Loncon I am sure I shall cope JUST FINE if I don't (anyway, I just bought a wig for an AWESOME hall costume, so why do I want a shirt?)

June 10 2014, 22:54:06 UTC 3 years ago

Hooray!

elialshadowpine

June 4 2014, 05:22:50 UTC 3 years ago

I was a bit amused that my partner, who is genderqueer but male bodied (their preferred terminology), went SQUEE for the Wicked Girls shirt but showed no interest in the My Story shirt. They have been looking for easy (ie, not requiring special dress or accessories, etc, because spoons) ways to signal that they are... well, not exactly male... so they LOVED the shirts being available. (They love the song, too.)

As far as the rest of the things you have mentioned, I pretty much assumed that was the case. If you've been getting bugged about these things, I'm sorry for that, and you have my sympathies, and booze of choice.

June 10 2014, 22:54:24 UTC 3 years ago

Hooray for booze!

arcaneblades

June 6 2014, 17:40:49 UTC 3 years ago

Ok, I have a request/query about the shirts again. Can I do a cc-paypal if I mark it friends and family, and take the transaction fee myself? Or send you a check as I've done on previous rounds? I intend at least 2-3 shirts ordered, as I'm ordering for a collective of people again.