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oh yeah In my estimation theres no safe way to ship these guys. USPS, UPS, Fedex, all of them have killed many a fine windstone
But mostly its poor packing–but those banana heads don”t help.
I don’t THINK I really got that much out of retail stores in the past few months— again Most of my stuff came from huge collection buys-exwindstone dealers whom had the mother loads, so theres got tobe plenty more out there. Anyway isn’t half the fun finding it. Makes ya run around and do a little squirrel dance.
On a side note= talk about shipping horror stories, I can tell you stuff that would make your skin crawl. Gothic unicorns with no feet and a corkscrew for a horn, Beheaded emerald rising spectrals, Several of the mintest Emerald emperors reduced to rubble, boxis with just a set of glass eyes and dust, thousands down the toilet. Stuff that not even you guys could repair
Heres why it gets weird—— We were going along doing our thing, selling tons of windstones to “blank faces” and we were happy. Making money and the customers “blank faces” seemed ecstatic that they had found a trusted person to buy their babies from. Then probably in November or so we noticed this forum. It soon became clear that the “blank Faces” were you guys– and i said uh oh. The forum made you become really nice interesting people whom were extraordinarily passionate about windstones. I also noticed that a true windstoner loved a bargain, and was obviously savy enough not want to pay 200 for a piece they could find or win for 60. I thought still the forum members based on their thoughts, made up only about 5 to 10 % of our customers- now that I’ve put ebay names together with forum names the percent is much higher. Now through reading the forum I sort of feel like I know many of you and there you get the weird part-I feel like I’m overcharging my friends, which is why I wanted to stay away. You can see my quandry- having a busines strategy that doesn’t exactly fit the idea pattern of the avg Windstoner-except the cool looking store
I would assume that theres still a ton of goodies out there, for anyone who works their tail off or just gets lucky. I’ve been hacking away at it for 10 yrs. Anything that I have found, I found on my own. I do not and will not buy anything that someone on the forum found or wants and snag it from them. As for “tscultures,” I was not aware that anything was on hold for anybody or that anyone else was interested in the pieces that I purchased. I do not think it is right or fare to buy something that someone on the forum already found for themselves.
Ok I’m on a roll now and can’t shut up
Whats the sense of collecting other than the natural heart warming feeling, if its not worth some thing. It appears to me that we keep getting the prices up, and the folks on this forum are the ones who will over the long run, control the whole pricing strategy- and will reap the benefits. You are the visionaries that see the worth.
If you knew us personally, you’d see we’re just regular folks just like you, and did not come on the forum to cause aggravation, or drum up business. I would much prefer to just tell wacky Windstone stories and try to give some insight from time to time, after all we’ve dealt with over 600 pcs, and have seen some weird stuff.I apologize to anyone that I may have offended in any way, and as always mean no disrespect.
I post this horrid novelle, knowing that no matter what I say, some will still feel its awful and unscrupulous, and I gues unfortunaltely I’ll have to live with that. The truth is we wnated to sell this product in a different light than was ever done before- and I still feel we have done that. These are all the cold hard facts, now the debateable stuff.
Do people want someone they can trust to sell them windstones?
What really is the price of a rare retired piece?
I have sold a white hatching dragon on auction for almost 200 dollars?
if I didn’t do what I’ve done, would the craze be the way it is?
How many people would still have huge gaps in their precious collections?
As we all do,buying windstones from any dealer is a good thing. Its good fro the economy, great for starving retailers, and super great for Melody-We have always known that our prices seem high. If you think about what goes into it, let me clarify.
The best I can buy the product for is full retail plus shipping and that is only a small percentage. Most of our pieces have come from large lots which I had to pay a fortune for. Add in the Ebay fees which many times has been over $600 a month and sometimes more, then paypal takes there fees as well. Factor in the shipping supplies which if you have ordered from us, you know we use a ton of bubble wrap and peanuts. Not to mention the tons of broken windstones that did not make it here in one piece, make you sick, nothing more heartbreaking then broken windstones.
Needless to say, this is not a walk in the park business to run. Many nights we are up until 2 in the morning just packing, listing, etc. Not to mention that it is not easy storing all of these windstones in hard to reach places (out of reach from the kiddies). If we were to significantly lower the prices, the profit level would be too low to keep the store open.
If I could lower the prices, I would. I think you guys are an awesome bunch of people, I dont like feeling like I am ripping anyone off. I debated for a long time before joining the forum but the truth is, I love windstones, I am a long time collector myself and I hope that I can provide some of you guys with some rare piece that you have been searching for.
I really enjoy selling windstones, I tried to become a dealer but was rejected by windstone because we do not have a brick and mortar store.I just wanted my money back and low and behold, they sold for 2 or 3 times what I paid for them. 2-3 hundred pieces later, the light bulb was going off in my head. My wife loves to work and wanted to have her own business but was limited with the kids. She tried an online wedding business which sunk like the Titanic, hence, BTWedding. Both of us have a retail management backround of which I am still employed (miserable working stiff) and over the years had made many friends along the way, ex Windstone dealers and such. I was able to get huge lots of retired windstones to start “The Lost World.” It appeared to me that this product was really in demand but buyers had trouble finding product. We wanted to create a one stop shop for all of the best Windstones ever made.
You have to admit, even if you hate our guts, the store is a really cool place, I still get the “kid in a candy store feeling” when I browse it.Unfortunity, War & Pieces will have to continue on the next post, I keep getting timed out.
Ouchhhhh, I sence the temperature rising. Let me try to address these things and try and shed some light on the situation.
Quite a few years back, I was a professional lizard breeder. During that time Windstones caught my eye for obvious reasons. At that time, I got the windstone bug and the collecting game was on! I used the money from my lizards and collected quite an arsenal.
A few years ago, my life changed dramatically, divorce, a new wife and now two beautiful children. My wife could no longer work with the kids and times got tough. Trust me, this is not a feel sorry for me story, life is much better for these changes. There came a day when we couldn’t pay the bills (it is tough living on Long Island) and my beloved windstones had to go.continued on next post
Hey Jade, some of those guys look reaaaaaaal faniliar, was the big guy the final piece. Thats cool , you rarely see a totally complete mint set,with all the oddballs and trimmings- awesome
just an fyi- you might want to get an enclosed curio for that group- over the long term, micro dust can oxidize and degrade the paint jobs-but it looks like you clean them relentlessly
Also did the group ever vote on who was the best sniper-our vote would go to you…..LOL
Emerald, we’ve sent a load of stuff over there, through the usps airmail parcel post, and on a multiple order its not too too expensive, it is tough on the folk in the UK
