Sending Parcels to the US, Take Two.
If any of the three parcels sent to America today get returned by customs I’ll have to rethink how I ship to America, or if I continue shipping there at all. If it’s the cheap courier, I’ll switch to a more expensive one and increase the shipping charge and subsequently throw in more free art to compensate the customer. If it’s not the courier, I don’t know. The best audience both my music and art have is America so I want to keep selling there. Especially for our music. Most people in the UK think our band’s a joke. If I could move Emma, my family and Aon to the US, life would be so much easier. We’d all live up in Oswego near the Throop’s, do street and home exhibitions, gigs where we’re not just playing to the other bands and sound engineer. If my crypto goes to the moon I’m going to the US. I’d never have to deal with customs again. Really, I’m moving to Thailand but the US is the pipe dream. Here’s one of the free artworks I added to the parcels being resent. Each parcel got an extra two free drawings, on top of the free extras that were already in there. FREE ART FREES ART.
Figuring out what to do would be a lot easier if I knew why the parcels are being refused, but until the courier company has finished their enquiry I’ll have to just keep sending paintings and hoping they get through. One of my big paintings sold today, as usual to someone in the US. If it gets refused again for no apparent reason, resending it will wipe out any profit and waste a load more time. Feels a bit rich for Mr. FREE ART FREES ART to be moaning about profit margins but the online shops are supposed to be the big money spinner that makes FREE ART FREES ART self-sufficient and expandable to anyone, regardless of how rich they are. Not just a hobby for people able to subsidise it but a feasible alternative to the current, and massively inferior, gallery system. The online shops have to be first and foremost, profitable. Here’s the painting that just sold and is about to make its way to America and preferably not back again:
I’m forgetting there’ s no guarantee parcels even get through the second time. Stopping selling to the US would mean closing one of my online shops that almost exclusively sells there and moving all my art into the other one. So I’d be down to one shop. Every problem’s an opportunity though. If my competitors are having the same problem, solving it could make all this ultimately to my advantage. My enemy's enemy is my friend. Mooney Ra Ra will be getting an education in all this when she’s not being the STRAWBERRY CAKE chief violinist and singer. If only I knew what I’m learning now at her age. When I was at school they told us that all the thicko’s like me would end up having to learn a trade and work for peanuts while all the uni kids would fly off into the sunset. Despite any problems I’m having being a sole trader, at least it’s not what some call a real job. Here’s another of the extra free artworks sent out as bonus compensation. A hand:
