The Holiday Rush

Well, the "holiday rush" is over. As you can imagine, the demand for expensive fine writing instruments is "selective" at best, so the holiday rush mostly consisted of me "rushing" to the post office to get some packages sent off before the post office shut down for an undetermined period (see the "Sally Field" update from Oct. 22 below). But actually sales have picked up quite nicely lately, and not just from gift-givers. More than one client indicated their order was for themselves and not a stocking stuffer. And orders kept coming in right up to Christmas Eve, well outside my Holiday shipping window (again, damn you Sally Field).

                So that either means my marketing is working or people have no idea how the space/time continuum works. Let's hope it's the former. My Taiwan order went out, but haven't heard from the client yet. Keeping my fingers crossed. The address had both English and Chinese on it, so I'm counting on it finding its way there. The Spain shipment has been gone for a while with no word either. That's disconcerting.  Most clients contact me right away when their packages arrive, so I can't keep visions of it falling off an ox cart on a dirt road in Azerbaijan out of my head.

                Speaking of which, I'd love to hear from my clients. If you're the proud owner of a Hope & Grace Pens product, I'd love to hang a picture of you using your fine writing instrument (or keychain or business card holder or coin rack, etc.) here on the blog and on my stores. And to give you some incentive to send those pictures, let me offer a 10% discount to anyone who sends pictures in from now until the end of January 2013. That discount will be cumulative, by the way, so if you have additional discounts to use, I'll add them together (like the one on Military.com or maybe mentioned in a note in your package, ahem). ** The image must be of the product owner using the product, hopefully with a smile but a chagrinned "WTF" look might get a laugh too.

                Send those images to me at HopeAndGracePens(at)gmail.com, and let me know what you'd like to order and I'll arrange the discount. It's important you contact me via e-mail before placing your order so I don't have to issue refunds. Trust me, you don't want me doing math.

                Happy New Year!

** Someone just pointed out to me the folly of my logic. That's 10% off no matter how many pictures you send. No, if you send 11 pictures I'm not sending you a pen and $10. Nice try.