Bleed in Blue

Ever since I started advertising on cosplay.com I've been getting pretty much an e-mail/PM/etc. a day about inquiries. Which is kinda awesome. Of course most of them go on their merry way once they hear my quote but actually have gotten a decent amount who have decided to order from me. To the point that I'm actually full for the next few months. Got a little bit of room still left in August/September still mostly as one of them hasn't been quite confirmed yet and I only have a small one in September. But I've even got possible stuff in Nov/Dec/etc.

But anyways! Today I got an e-mail that at first I assumed was another inquiry so I opened it up...and was quite shocked by what I found:

"Hi,Dear:

Do u need dropship?

Do you want to make more money without any labor?

My name is Zara,a cosplay maker(factory)from China.I take commissions on cosplay costume,wig,shoes,armors,weapons,props.etc.I am willing to being your supplier,
I will ship what your buyers wanted,and I will promise you that I never disclose your
buyers anything of our informations.I have a ebay shop,we can do business on it,all the
cosplay items price would be lower than the normal one.However,I even help mooncostume
site commissions costume.if you are interested in it,plz contact me for discussing more
informations on it.

For getting me more informations,plz search my cosplay id:zaracos,you will get it."

And then there were a whole bunch of links to their stuff, which as I expected was the usual ebay poor quality. Lacking details, sizes meant to be general fits so no custom fitting, none of the outfits look tailored, etc. etc.

But I had to re-read it over several times. "So basically you want me to lie to my customers, say I made a costume but actually order it from you and we split the cost or something? FUCK NO!" And I assume this has been sent out to pretty much every commissioner on cos.com that has listed their e-mail address. I really really hope no one actually takes the person up on this offer and I assume there are probably others that do this too. Because it's really upsetting to hear people do such stuff like that.

It's bad enough as it is that because of these Hong Kong sellers, people expect lower prices from us commissioners. I get it all the time. "Why should I pay that price when I get it on ebay for this amount?" and I try to explain to some about the quality and how those don't fit as nicely as it would from an actual commissioner, yada yada but people like cheap shit. And I swear some of that stuff has got to have been made in sweatshops 'cause there's no way they could get that out for some of those prices without making a profit from it if not. Granted some are better than others. Cosplaymagic.com for example I actually go to sometimes to get ideas for pricing as some of their prices actually make sense. SOME is a key word here. Some are like "...wtf?!" as their quality varies. A lot. Some are actually not that bad looking and for a good price. Some look like shit. My only conclusion is that they must have different people with different skills working there and perhaps are getting some from the other companies like this e-mail suggests. Hell I do see a lot of sellers on ebay claiming to be a different person but using the exact same stock image as another "company". Pfft.

But granted I am very grateful for the amount of customers I have gotten who do understand this and are actually "wow your prices are so good!" 'cause I know right now I'm offering them for a lot lower than I should be. But I need the money and the work and I know I won't get them if I do offer higher because I'm basically a no-name out there. So I need to build up my portfolio and well prove to myself that I can actually do this before I start offering higher prices on stuff. But I do have one guy who orders a lot from me who still goes to ebay a lot. He only really gets stuff from me when he can't find it on ebay and does bring up an issue whenever I ask for a price higher than the ones he sees on there. Been trying to get him to understand the quality difference especially as he's real determined to "have the best costumes". He's a really nice guy and I've met him in person several times now so it's just a shame to see him still get ripped off whenever there's one I can't do for him in the price range he wants.

Also...lol...there was one girl who was going to order from me who was a friend on Gaia but ended up pissing me off so badly I blocked her and I recently noticed she still has me on her DA so looked over at her account and on her journal she's talking about having ordered the costumes she was going to get me to do from a Hong Kong seller and how bad the service is and I bet you anything they won't even fit right when she gets them. XD Bet she wishes she didn't piss me off now, huh?

But yeah, just thought I'd post this as kinda an awareness message though I'm sure most of you know about these things already, perhaps even more than I do. It just annoys the hell out of me. I'm going to stop ranting though and actually get back to work on my own current commission.

~Lyn

Had a job interview today over at Shakespeare. Was pretty much prepared for the rejection going into it considering I knew I probably wasn't qualified for the job though had a slight hope that maybe my experience at Signature could mean I can work for other places by now.

Eh, not really. lol She kept repeating the fact that I'm just really young (really? It looked like most of the stitchers weren't that much older than me and I keep feeling like I'm actually doing this too late or something...) and haven't had the right experience yet. But that if anything comes up and she needs some smaller overhire work, that she would call me up. Made sure I was available and checked up on my number so there's hope there but really...I don't know if I can keep doing this thing of only a few hours here and there at a theater or two. Especially with how long it takes to get to them.

So my options are to actually go to school for this which the lady at Shakespeare highly encouraged I look into grad school and whatnot as they train you exactly what to do for the professional setting. Or ya know, do a different field. Granted I actually was just about to look at other options before I got that e-mail for the interview. So its not like its that much of a change in plans. Just, I dunno, gave me hope for a second as it would've been a really great opportunity. ^^;

Blah, I hate not knowing what I want to do. lol 'Cause I keep wondering if I have enough of a drive for it before I consider really going to school for the costuming thing. Because I don't want to waste all that money if I don't and I'm not sure if I do or not. I sorta do? I dunno...but at the same time I also have that for things related to what I did study in school. Just ya know, harder to find things for an English major who doesn't want to do Journalism or Teaching (at least not right now, I could consider teaching later on in life but bleeeh not my first option). Maybe I really should find out what exactly one needs to do to become an Editor as that is something I've considered several times but I hear they're cutting down on editors these days. T_T

Argh I wish I was still in school. T_T And ya know, was smart enough to ask my advisors on what I should do 'cause ya know, that's what they were there for? And yet I never did that. *bangs head against wall*

...I am so sorry I keep rambling about this as I'm totally realizing that this is like what, probably the 5th or so entry like this I've written in the last few months? lol Its like my journal consists of either fandom rambles or me being all "I don't know what to do real life sucks waaaiii" /fails

~Lyn

http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/campaigns/wildlife/save-endangered-gray-wolves.html

This pisses me off. A lot.

~Lyn

...I just realized I missed Cloud's birthday. This is like the first time ever. x_x Though in part its probably because I still can't get used to it being the 11th instead of the 19th (stupid American version screwing me up there x_x;). Bah. Not that it really matters, but I still like to show my Cloud-pride then. XP As despite the lack of FF7 mentions from me lately, I'm still obsessed as ever. Which reminds me, REALLY need to pre-order Crisis Core in the next few days. x_x;;

Also finally got Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition. Took me long enough, eh? But I had a gift card and like, its taken this long for me to get over the fact that I spent $50 on the regular version...and not be able to finish it. The SE is definitly easier. Already I'm at like mission 13 with only 2 days playing when it took me over a year just to get to mission 9 on the regular one. XP Yeah, I suck. But so happy to finally be able to play the rest of the game! *_*

And now for some rantage that is probably tmi for some of you...nothing gross, I assure you. Just about a body part that I know not everyone is comfortable talking about. XP

( I hate my boobs! )

~Lyn

So tonight was a rather hard night at work. I knew I'd probably have to clean the whole store and the mats again since Kim was closing but I also had a heavy load of stuff to put back and that took up most of my time in between ringing people out at the register. So I didn't get to have my usual early start on the cleaning. But I was ok 'cause I figured I could do it really quick and get it done in time and I did...only to find out that Rachel hadn't even gotten like half done with the stuff she was supposed to do so I had to go over and do her cleaning and trash for her too. x_x So thus to say, I'm very tired.

And not looking forward to tomorrow. My permit expires tomorrow so I have to go in and get a new one. Fun stuff. And because I'm stupid and pathetic, I have to of course read over the entire driver's booklet thing 'cause I'm sure I've forgotten anything and really want to get the stupid test done with and not have to come back again this summer. Bah. I really hate having to go to the MVA. I really do.

Doesn't help that Mom has been complaining about me not waking up early enough. I sleep in til like 10 to 11 am on days I'm not working. Is that really that big of a crime? She, on the other hand, considers "sleeping in" to be waking up at 8 or 9 am. So thus she always complains about my sleeping habits, saying I need to go to bed earlier. Well, I would be able to if her and Dad didn't keep me up at night so often due to their "activities" that I really don't want to hear considering my room is right next to their's. Grah!

Bleh. I feel terrible right now too. And tired. Not exactly willing to read through the manual. I was hoping to get the next part of the trim on Daishi done tonight (since I can only do a little bit at a time and then wait for the glue to dry) but I don't think that's going to happen.

~Lyn