Since when do rising material and energy costs affect also no-attribution surcharges (up by 20%)?

[Fiorenzo]

While working on adapting my royalties to the new increased prices to avoid weird price tags, I noticed that the no-attribution surcharge on greeting cards went up from 0.10 to 0.12, and on postcards from 0.05 to 0.06 after the recent overall price increase. That's a jump of 20%. On something that is hardly affected by rising material and energy costs.

With all my respect. This is ridiculous. And looks ridiculous. And no, it's not about the 2 (or 1) cents.

p.s. after the price increases it's pretty impossible to get nice-looking, well-rounded end prices anymore on cards by adjusting the royalty %. Tried all. greeting, flat, and postcards. No 1.50 postcards, no 2.80 or 2.90 flat cards, no 4.10 or 4.20 on greeting cards... all weird numbers 4.02, 1.62, 2.97...

Edit: Just noticed, that it's these stupid attribution 0.12 that mess up the pricing. Was this truly necessary?

[Windy]

Add to this that customers are paying extra to have less ink printed. So now they are paying 20 percent extra to have the same amount of less ink printed.

[MarilynR]

Love your response.

Seriously, Pet's Dreamlands, please don't get upset with me, but you obviously don't understand how much it costs in labor to remove the attribution!!! (Kidding) 🤣

[Deb]

@MarilynR Responses like this seriously need to have a coffee spewing out the mouth emoji to  post..  

GOOD one! 

[shellifitz]

Seriously all the nickle and diming and side hustling for paid clicks on ads and charging to remove attributions that designers don't even want, combined with the company going public makes you wonder about the financial condition of Z.  

[Fiorenzo]

As I wrote, it's not the 2 cents per se that make the big difference, but as you say, this looks truly like nickle and diming. It simply looks BAD. Come on Zazzle, that was not necessary. Not on the attribution thing. I've seen it also on other options such as on pillow surcharges, but there it is understandable because a larger size means more material costs.

[Shakenbake]

Paid clicks on ads? We are paying for clicks on ads? Can you explain that further. I dont see any options for ads, is that a select feature for some? 

[Fiorenzo]

Shelli means the Google ads you see on Zazzle, Usually you get paid per click by Google, means every time you click on a banner and visit the advertiser's site, other times you get paid by view, means every time an ad is displayed on a device. 

[shellifitz]

I meant that Zazzle gets paid per click for all the adsense ads they have added to the site.  We don't get anything for it except the chance that our buyer might click an ad and we lose a sale.  If you haven't seen these ads turn off your ad blocker for a few minutes and then browse the Zazzle site. You can't miss them that way. 

Also to be clear, if you click an ad, you don't pay for it... Google pays Zazzle for it.  It is no different than the ads you see on blog sites that have been monetized. 

[Donna]

This morning I had a large order canceled because the T-Shirts I designed for a family gathering went up $10 EACH!!!!!  I don't blame them to have told me they won't be ordering. I now realize I am going to lose my job working for Zazzle because I won't be able to afford living anymore. 

[Donna]

EDITED: I only realize now that it's because I designed the back as well. I had no idea it was that much more expensive to design both sides. I don't see how to delete my post.

[Fiorenzo]

I already wondered cuz I checked the shirts and didn't see that huge spike. You must be careful with some products that have two-sided print options, some of them have pretty significant surcharges if you want to print the backside, too. Such as duvet covers or yoga mats. Be also aware, that a simple background color setting on the backside triggers the higher price, or a text template - no matter if the customer edits something or not. Always check before you design backsides, and delete anything, backgrounds included, if you don't want to get the higher price displayed on the final product.

[shellifitz]

also remember that neckties are extra to print both sides as well as printing the tongue on high top sneakers is extra charge... but these are not new. They have been that way since I can remember. 

[CrazyMermaid]

Please leave it and don't be embarrassed. You just gave me a valuable piece of information! Someone recently posted about the price discrepancy on two foamcore postera and it was also the printing on the back that increased the price dramatically. 

[Fiorenzo]

I'll write a dedicated post in tips & tricks, I think this is valuable info for many. I myself spent a lot of time years back to figure out. The problem here is that even a simple white background and an empty template field will cause the higher price to stick. So you can't even offer the customers to decide by themselves if they want the back printed or not through templates with "blank" placeholders and text fields. Basically, you have to carry on 2 products in these cases, one variant with only the front designed to be printed, and a second one with both front and back.

[chefcateringbiz]

I think everybody here should be prepared for even bigger price increases, and a downward spiral of sales. I've been working p/t for years myself, and now I'm going for f/t - #1, so if I get laid off in an economic slaughter I'll be eligible for more unemployment money, and 2) to save up as much money as possible before the you-know hits the fan. I'm not going to worry about nickel and diming at this point - too late for that, we're in big trouble and it's gonna get worse before it gets better.

[shellifitz]

Unfortunately I think you are probably correct.  Preppers don't seem so crazy anymore now 🤔

[ColsCreations]

I finally looked through my store some but since there's no way to go back and see what prices used to be I have no way of knowing just how much any particular product went up. I am not particularly worried about the increases but I agree with what Fio said about the new weird ugly numbers like $1.46 or $4.02 etc being ridiculous. I tried one postcard and he's right, there was no way I could make it a nice normal-looking well-rounded price because of the attribution thing. 😞

@Fiorenzo 

[Fiorenzo]

I've all my products "documented" cuz I'll handle my stores through my website where I have more freedom, so I see the differences. Paperweights and tapestries are still the old prices so far. IMO, the price increase is OK on some products while it hurts on others. Pillows are a bit high now, and there I'll probably offer the zipperless as default to keep it under 40$ (the 16"). Fleece blankets are a pain, too, now they exceed the 100$ mark for the 60x80" one if you want to have a little bit more %. I lowered the % to 12.4 (or so) to keep them below.

I am on 2 PODs, Zazzle and a complementary one for nice stuff Zazzle doesn't offer, such as all-over shirts and curtains, and king size blankets which are great for bedding. When defining my prices I make sure that they "match" as best as possible, depending on the product itself and personalization. Then I also make the difference between "basic" designs e.g. pretty simple photo products, and designs based on my artworks. The basic ones I'll offer at lower % to be competitive (and also for fairness towards the customers), and my unique designs where I practically have no competition here, I'll offer at a higher % but still at acceptable range.

Moral of the story... I'm not upset about the price increases themselves, it's a bit of a difficult situation right now (and others have way more serious - life-threatening - problems than we have here right now), it's more than some stuff "hurts" in terms of professionality. And having an attribution surcharge of $0.12 looks weird, sorry. $0.10 would've been OK - it's an extra service you get, so 10 cents for that. Makes sense.

Last but not least: some are exploiting the exploding market prices more than others, and I as a customer notice very well who is trying to exaggerate and who is being fair. I had merchants here who tried to tell me nonsense. What can I say - these have lost me as a customer.

[igiftcenter]

Have you tried using the Internet Archive to go back in time (the wayback machine) to see the previous prices?

[Fiorenzo]

4.04 base price with 0.12 no-attribution surcharge included for the new holiday foil cards now, after the increase. N.B. for a 5x7" flat card and a minimum order of 10. Oh well. And yes, I think it's too much. Despite the foil.

[MaxT]

I'm new to this, but I agree, it's quite annoying that, for me, a €0.13 is added to double thank you cards when I remove the creator/Zazzle logo. I have single thank you cards that go for .99 round off, which is quite nice. But these go for .97 which is weird, especially when Zazzle discounts are added and the number becomes even more confusing.