In the quest to assuage my obsession for most designs by Just Nan (hmmm… wasn’t I just talking about an obsession in my last post?), I’ve stumbled across a few things that I “just have to have.” You know what I mean. I’m not going to die without them, but I really have a bee buzzing around in a certain orifice that I would love to get rid of. One of the kinds of charts I tend to collect (and not just from Just Nan) are four season designs. I have Just Nan‘s 4 Wishes and, thanks to a recent splurge (the fact that I acquired it for 50% off didn’t hurt, either), I now have her Harmony sampler. Another series of designs by her that I’ve been hoping to slowly acquire is the In The Square series. Someone (and I’m so sorry, but I forget exactly whom) was kind enough to gift me with Spring In The Square a while ago. Then, while trolling eBay for rare Just Nan finds, I happened to snag Winter In The Square just the other day for a total steal. Two down, two to go in that series.
Wow, do I get off topic easily lately. At any rate, one of the other Just Nan series that I’ve recently decided I want to collect is the Over the Top! (and matching In the Tin!) series. Of course, me being me, I didn’t sign up either year of the series when they were announced. I’m just not good about mystery designs. If I’m going to invest in a design, I want to know exactly what it’s going to look like – every part of it. Which is smart of me because inevitably I don’t like one of more of the releases in any given automatic series. The problem with Just Nan automatics is that they sell out, and quickly. So, now that I’m going back and realizing that I would like a couple of items from both 2008 and 2009, I’ve created a bit of a challenge for myself. There are 4 out of the 8 produced over the 2 years that she ran this series that I want. The first was Jingle! When I saw that lacy design and the teeny biscornu that goes in the tin, I was sold. Finding it several months after it released was a problem, though. I think I bought it off of eBay. The next one I decided I wouldn’t mind getting my hot little hands on was Grow! Slightly less challenging to find, since it was only released in April 2009 and I decided I wanted it last month. eBay to the rescue again. Now I’ve decided on the last two tins in the series that I want – Hop! and Sizzle!. Just those two and I’ll be happy (until the thing comes along). The bad thing is that these were the first two in the series, meaning Hop! was released in the first quarter of 2008 (and I loved it when it came out; it almost, ALMOST made me sign up for the automatic) and Sizzle! in the second quarter of 2008. That makes it a bit more difficult. I thought that maybe eBay would bail me out again. Actually, even before that, Drema at Needlecraft Corner (love her shop, BTW) had Hop! listed at 50% off on her clearance page. Unfortunately, by the time I emailed her my order, she was out. Darn! The bay of evil? For once, not helpful. Can’t find it. And Google was worse than useless, so what is a girl to do?
I took a deep breath yesterday and did something that I would never in a million years have thought that I would do. I became a spammer. I went to Just Nan’s website, found the page that listed all of the shops that had signed up to carry the 2008 year of the series, copied out every single email address and sent an email to every stinking one of them, pleading to see if anyone had the kits for both Hop! and Sizzle! Now, to be smart and hopefully not trigger people’s spam filters, I broke the list up into small chunks, by first letter of the shop name and where it appeared in the alphabet. And, of course, I put them all in the BCC field because I’m not stupid enough to let any of them see how desperate I truly was.
I didn’t expect to harvest much from the fruits of my labor. First, the delivery error messages rolled in for those shops who either went out of business, changed their email address, had full inboxes, etc. But then, within several minutes of those, I started to get actual responses. And, much to my surprise, they were not all negative! I’ve had several people actually respond that they have both of the kits that I’m looking for. Now the hard part is deciding to which shop to throw my business. So far, none of the positive respondees are shops that I have ever patronized before. What criteria do I use to choose, at this point? Seriously, do I go by the quality of their website? Not all of the responding shops have a website. Do I go off of the wording of their response? That’s awfully subjective. I really don’t know where to go from here. I guess I’ll start asking for pricing and see who comes out on top? I’ll be curious to see if any of them will cut me a deal on inventory that’s over a year old (meaning they are paying taxes on it), or if they will detect blood in the water and go for full price? I’m hoping that if everyone comes back at full price, I might be able to get a little bit of a bidding war going on. Because, yeah, I’m cheap. I’ll admit it.
So, it all comes back to the title of this post. I might not have liked casting out such a wide net, but it has certainly yielded unexpectedly positive results! And if you have an opinion on how I should select which shop to purchase from, please let me know!
I would say stick with the shops that actually have websites. They tend to have secured checkout.
Good luck in your bidding wars!
I try to buy from brick and mortar shops. Not shops that are web-only. You may also get a good “feel” for the shop with a phone call. You can deduce a lot with just a few questions and answers.
Sometimes I’ll base things on price. Other times, I’ll order from someone I’ve heard good reviews about on other blogs. Most of the time, though, I’ll email my LNS and see if she can get a hold of something from the distributor first, and then I’ll buy it from her, but in the case of these older patterns, you have to take what you can find.
You could always post a list of shops that have it and see if anyone has dealt with them before.
Adrienne Martini of Martini Made is stitching those in a square series. Just sayin’.
No suggestions from me, just high hopes that you score the designs you want!