le$$son learned

I sold a painting to a lady in the Netherlands on etsy. My shipping profile wasn't as accurate as I'd thought, and I'd charged only $2 for "Everywhere else" shipping. I looked up the cost for sending via FedEx ($56) UPS ($55) and USPS ($27). Oh, $hit. I was already in the hole because I no longer had the painting she'd purchased (didn't update etsy after a First Thursday. My bad, but it happens) but she'd favorited another painting that I still had for a higher price. I offered to either paint her a fresh piece in the same colors as the one she'd bought, with the addition of custom graffiti; or I'd send her the more expensive piece for no additional charge. She chose the other piece. No prob- it was my goof. But oh, deah Lahdy when I saw the shipping charges, and knew I'd already taken a 28% discount on the piece, my head started to ache. I thought that I'd have a profit margin of $15 on this stupid thing. I have NO IDEA how it penciled out, but the cost to send this (thankfully small, unframed & light) piece thousands of miles through the post office was less than $5. Hunh? Well, I wasn't going to argue! That made my day! When I got home I emailed the buyer and gave her the ETA, with relief.

At the end of it all, I learned a valuable le$$on in generic shipping profile charges, came out unscathed, and still have the pride of mailing my lil' bit o'art to Holland :-)