hello welcome back to my living room
today I'm going to talk to you about why
I stopped selling my products on
society6 and society6 if you don't know
what it is it's like an online
marketplace printing service where
you upload and high-quality images of
your own artwork and they print them
onto products for you whether that's
like notebooks are bedding high-quality
fine art prints an array of different
items and people buy the products
through their site and they pack them
and ship them out volume this sounded
very appealing to me when I was
searching for a printing solution so
that I could make prints my own artwork
and because it would save me the hassle
of trying to find a printer around the
area that I live in because the area
that I live in is it's not very much
here and I sort of live in the
countryside so it's not like I live in a
big city center where there's laws of
printers and stuff so it would save me
trying to find a printer that was local
to me which I couldn't I already tried
that
and it would save me packing time which
if you've ever had your own shop before
you will know that packing and shipping
takes up a lot of your time and it saves
you going to the post office
I'd also heard really good things about
the quality of the products and I'd
obviously researched it as well and
there was a lot of artists that I follow
online that sell their products through
there as well I took the plunge uploaded
all of my artwork and started selling
prints through them now no matter what
price you set your products at society6
tick a 50% cut of the sales which I
thought was quite large but 50% is
massive in it that wasn't ideal in the
first place
I then decided that I should order some
test prints so I ordered two these
prints took four weeks to arrive based
on the amount that appeared for the
prints I had a huge bill from Royal Mail
which came to about 25 percent of the
amount that had already paid for the
prints because I hadn't paid tax on them
in this country which I didn't realize
before I started so that was really
annoying I opened up the print I took
one of them out it was amazing it was a
beautiful paper the print it came out
really nicely I was really happy with
the colors with the depth with the
vibrancy and I'd ordered two of the same
took the next print out and on the
second print it was just as nice as the
first one except it had a gigantic
scratch all the way across it so
contacted society6 they were like all
that's fine we'll send you another one
so they sent me another one that took
like another three weeks hurt to arrive
which I just thought was insane not that
one came and that one was fine why the
packaging was really nice it was all
wrapped in like nice paper and you know
it was secure but left me with a bad
feeling because I felt my even though
the quality of the products were good
the quality control was obviously not
there for that first print to come out
to me with a big scratch and I don't
mean like I had a little scratch on it
it was massive it went across the hall
the whole art work right down the middle
of it so I thought I better order a few
more products and see see what the
quality is like on a few other things so
I ordered a friend print this time this
arrived weeks learn again I had a
massive bill from Royal Mail so I opened
the print and initially I thought all
that looks really nice and then I
started inspecting it closer and it was
in a white frame I wish I still had it
out so that I could show you but you'll
just have to take my word for it it was
in a white frame and pin have been
chipped off basically on every every
part of the
frame that stuck out a little bit
because it was like beveled every part
of the frame that stuck out I had a chip
on it I turned it over I tried to tick
the print out and it had like him you
know those metal catches that frames had
on the back light to hold the back of
the frame and it had it had eight of
those on the back and two of them just
completely came off in my hands as I
opened the frame
I opened the frame because when I looked
at the artwork it looked like it had us
trapped under the glass so I opened it
all the metal couches fell off I took
the outwork owl and around where the
artwork had been caught obviously from
the paper that they used there was like
a black line obviously showing where it
should be caught but they hadn't caught
that off so that looked really crap and
then what I thought was dust was
actually ink slab but the whole piece of
artwork and it was on it was a white
background it was the portrait of Debbie
Reynolds added last year last January
across the whole thing because she's in
black and white just on a white
background and across the whole thing
that was black inks blood all over it so
given that placed two orders I'd ordered
three products and two out of three of
those products were not sellable I
didn't feel comfortable selling my
products to customers to you knowing
that the quality control was so poor and
especially because I live in England and
society6 is based in America the
delivery times were just not fast you
know I don't know if there's anywhere in
England that do a similar service with a
similar quality because again I do think
that the quality of the pair but the
quality of beings were fantastic
but the quality control was really
really bad so I decided to shut that
shop and I have never regretted it up
since bought my own printer and I do my
own prints from home I'm a massive
perfectionist and I want everything that
has my name on it to be the best that I
could possibly make it I see a lot of
artists recommending to people to use
society6 but I would really not
recommend it I would if you can if you
live in a city try and find a local
printer where you can go down and you
can physically see the prints before
they go out to your customers I'm
wondering if maybe these artists have
not actually ordered something themself
because it would be a little bit of a
coincidence if I have two bad products
out of three and everybody else's we're
really good not at all maybe maybe I
just had that look but I personally
think it's better when you put in your
name on something to be able to do for
quality control yourself and make sure
that everything's going out looking as
professional and as beautiful as they
can you want your artwork when you spend
that long making a piece of artwork you
want it to go out looking it's close to
the original piece as possible and I
would not send anybody an original with
ink splatters are in a chipped and bad
frame or a print that hadn't been cooked
properly I just thought that was really
terrible they did reimburse me when I
asked them about it they did reimburse
me for it but when you've been waiting
for weeks you know from a customer's
perspective to be wearing for up to four
weeks for a print to arrive then it to
be wrong to have to contact them get a
refund get a replacement that's another
four weeks that's two months who wants
to wait two months for a print not me
anyway that's the end of the video I
hope you found it useful if you're
looking to sell prints of your own
artwork I would recommend that you don't
go with society6 hopefully you can find
a printing company in your area that
will be able to
do a better job thank you so much for
watching see you next time bye
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