get your swap shoes on

[sleepfighter]

Hello readers, to one and all. This is your first warning that swaps-within-a-swap are coming, or to say that Candy, Drink and Book Yuletide Swaps are going to happen again, and we'd like to have the sign-ups for them pretty darn soon, or within the first half of October. Why this early? Because we gotta try and beat the holiday shopping and

Comments

[crantz]

I'm okay with paying the shipping price!

What do you mean away from the hot chocolate/tea/coffee spectrum? Where would it go?

[sleepfighter]

Some people were asking if we could expand into potentially sending soda around last year, which we find to be difficult from a few logistical angles, and have ultimately decided that we'll be dealing with that later.

[crantz]

I think it might also be illegal

[sleepfighter]

Yessss, well, that did happen to be one of our concerns. We'd really like to not be in violation of local and international shipping regulations, at least not knowingly.

[stasia]

I'm just super excited that these swaps are coming back.

Oh, and I'm up for international shipping. Woo!

Stasia

[crescent_gaia]

I have a question. Are we allowed, as the person filling a request, to shop and ship via Amazon? I'm thinking more for the candy swap vs the book or drink swaps, so probably not, but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask. :)

Also, could you possibly put on the form, if you haven't already, a question about if you want to or do not want to ship overseas? I'm pretty sure there will be more than less wanting to ship overseas, but then you have a definite answer.

[sleepfighter]

If you check the FAQ, you'll see that directly shipping package from an online shop if it saves you money/is easier/is just plain what you want to do is ALWAYS okay, for any swap. The guideline of sending local candy is just that--a good guideline.

We have also included for the past four years the option to request to send locally or to send internationally, and don't plan on not including that criteria, ever, really.

[crescent_gaia]

I did but probably missed it, which is why I asked. Thank you for getting back to me in time and that sounds awesome. I'm going to participate this year for the first time ever and was kind of worried about the local stuff, since there's not a lot of local candy stuff in the area, aside from Fanny Mae. :)

[sleepfighter]

That's cool! It's also worth noting that stuff that seems very commonplace can also be worth sending out--I hadn't ever heard of Fannie May and had to google it, but I've lived in California for all my life and the closet Fannie May is apparently 2000 plus miles away from my home zip, according to their website.

[redsnake05]

I think the pinch hitting change would be good, particularly if said pinch hitter is shipping internationally to their recipient.

I also am comfortable with the shipping costs. Last year you asked about how far away you wanted to send things, which I thought was a way of asking how much you can afford to spend on postage. I should note, however, that I'm not from the US, although the cost is comparable.

[sleepfighter]

Last year you asked about how far away you wanted to send things, which I thought was a way of asking how much you can afford to spend on postage.

Yes, that's part of it: it is part of the calculation we want you to think about, but is also about gauging interest about multi-cultural swapping, and things like accessibility, etc. And yeah, it used to be more of an out-of-the-US issue then a US-to-elsewhere issue, but with the changes in US shipping rates, affects a great many swappers than it used to, just by virtue of the fact that at least 50% of our swappers are from the US so far.

[blueteak]

Hurray! Can't wait. The prices won't prevent me from shipping internationally.