Late Summer News 2022

 Greetings!  I have not blogged in awhile.  Most of us endured a very hot Summer.  A lot of the country is impacted by drought conditions. We have been dealing with a lot of upsetting news from the Supreme Court.  I hope that all of you will help to get the vote out this November!

Now on to the news.

I am currently deciding on whether to continue to sell on Etsy or not.  Etsy recently deleted one of my kippah listings (not because it is a licensed team)--the Milwaukee Bucks.  They claim that the term "Bucks" and the picture of a Buck on the fabric aka kippah, goes against their policies.

Well, frankly, this sent me to the moon!  My etsy shop is currenly on vacation mode.  My web site, tuffbags.com is wide open!  I have had a web site long before Etsy was even a thought.

Etsy has instituted many controversial policies as of late that are very bad for sellers.

Etsy has forced my shop (any many others) into an advertisement program.  Whenever you click on an Esty ad (Google, Bing, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram) you are adding more fees to that Esty shop owner.

The Esty ads are paid for by the shop owner 12 to 18 %. We have no choice of what is advertised. Etsy decides this...we have no say.

So in a nutshell: a buyer clicks on an ad and comes to a seller's etsy shop. Whatever that buyer purchases in that shop in the next 30 days is now charged that fee to the shop owner.  This kills our earnings.

In order to been seen in a search a shop has to offer free shipping in the USA for sales to one address of $ 35 or more.  This is another earnings killer.

Additionally, Etsy raised its fees on the sales percentage of the product from 5% to 6.5%.  It charges fees of 3% on shipping AND on the entire cost INCLUDING sales tax.  Note that most of the 50 states have mandated that large selling platforms are required to collect sales taxes on items sold.  This includes Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Mercari and other similar sites.

Here is an example.

After you have reviewed this I sure hope that you will consider shopping directly from me on my website.  I pay a flat fee monthly to Shopify, and simple lower transaction fee to Shopify.  There are no fees on shipping, sales tax or anything else!

Additionally, I do not have to charge sales tax except to orders in the state of North Carolina.  Once my sales per state are 200 transactions or $ 200,000 per year to each state (most states use this) then I have to charge sales tax.  I am not there yet!

Thank you for reading and the next blog will feature more about what is new and upcoming.

You can always check the "what's new" page as I usually update this weekly.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend.!

Kate

Welcome to TuffBags News!

TuffBags is now going full force into the social media arena.
We are looking forward to interacting with our cyberspace customers via this blog and
TuffBags Facebook page

As always our products are 100 % made in the USA and are actually made in Rensselaer County of New York State. I am the designer of all of TuffBags products and I also make a lot of our products. I am exclusively making our jewelry.

I feature many of my one of a kinds and limited editions in my etsy store,
Racheltreasures/TuffBags on etsy

Our web site has our basic jewelry and we will be adding more jewelry very soon. You will be able to actually design your own!

We will be adding our new products and features during the next week:
---tallis bags in two sizes with several customizations to make your prayer shawl bag unique
---the color royal blue is now back in stock for many of our smaller bags
---tan twill cotton for our bucharian kippahs
---new tapestry jacquard trims for our bucharian yarmulkes

Create your own sale with TuffBags Coupons!

Coupons! Yes we have coupons so please check them out at
TuffBags Boutique Store

I'll be back in a few days to update you on our new products and other news. In the mean time please feel free to leave your comments, requests and questions!

Shalom,
Kate R Lozier
Owner/Designer
TuffBags
www.tuffbags.com