The first cards I sold were Valentine’s cards in February 2007. The shop wasn’t quite ready to open, but it was far enough along that I was able to open temporarily and offer five or six Valentine card designs. Business was overwhelming. There were so many orders for personalized cards that I only got an hour of sleep on February 12 and 13. I was amazed.
This year, I have a lot more designs. (The ad below only shows a few.) Most are available now, and a few more designs will be placed in the shop during the next couple of days. These are the best cards I’ve made.
Beck’s has now been opened for a week and the response has been just what I had hoped for. There are over 30 new card designs, plus gift boxes with an easy-smeezie menu for controlling hover text, a beautiful wall photo frame with clock on beveled glass (great gift!), and the stepping stones I’ve sold in the past (now organized into three sets of 3).
There are four types of cards: economy, Custom Message (scripted so that you can add a message in chat, made VERY easy by a menu), Ultimate Personalized with your details added in the card and on the envelope, and Ultimate Photo Personalized, which is like the Ultimate Personalized card but with your photo added. I’ll post more details about these four types of cards soon.
All my cards are rezzed by the envelope! Come to the store and touch one of the sample envelopes on the reception desk to see how it works.
A couple more things to place in the store…
A question I’ve been getting a lot: Is Beck’s open?
Not yet. It was open temporarily for Valentines, and there will be a permanent re-opening soon. I have some ideas you’re going to love. You’ll have more options than in any other greeting card store in SL. And, just like at Valentine’s, I promise the highest quality and the best service I can provide. The code monkeys are working overtime. I’ll make an annoucement as soon as I get the first batch of items in the store. That’ll be followed, of course, by a GRAND OPENING.
The question I get the most: Am I accepting orders now?
YES!! I’m making invitations and personalized cards for birthdays, thank you cards, etc. All invitations and cards come in a free envelope. Cards are L$185 and invitations are L$350. IM me if you need to place an order!
The two questions asked most often during the Valentine card shopping season were: “What’s next for your store?” and “How do you put the card back in the envelope?”
One “next” thing is to continue creating cards and related items. I barely had time to get the store opened for Valentine’s, so all of my effort went toward Valentine’s items. Next: items for birthdays, rez days, anniversaries, etc. I’ll also have invitations (a frequent request in those first few days of being open) and frames.
The other “next” thing is to find a better way to indicate how to put cards back into their envelopes. 
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Only a few SL greeting card stores offer customized cards with the names printed on the cards, and most don’t treat it as one of their primary items. (There are many that offer “personalization” with hover text or text in chat.)
I offered several items during the Christmas season, and the most popular was personalized Christmas stockings. With my greeting cards, I want to have a similar business: feature the same kind of personalization, give the highest quality I can, and provide good customer service.
The designs are all original — no copied images from online, and no use of textures sold in stores and seen all over SL. Each card comes in a personalized envelope. The recipient touches the envelope, the envelope opens, and the card rezzes in front of it. (And yes, I had to learn some scripting for that feature, especially so that the card would rez in front even if the recipient rotates the envelope.)
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BECK’S CARDS & GIFTS
The building’s up and open, and I’ve made some Valentine’s Day items available. So far, I have cards (personalized and non-personalized), matching gift boxes, and matching house flags. Each card comes in a free envelope, and the envelopes can also be personalized. The recipient rezzes the envelope, touches it, and the card rezzes in front.
I still need to find time to do some landscaping. But getting more merchandise ready is the first priority.
And I hope the building looks at least a little like the drawing in a previous post.
The building is coming along and will be completed tomorrow. My new location is on FairChang Balboa. I’ll post a landmark as soon as the store opens.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I created a few personalized Christmas items for friends in December and, on a whim, opened a store.
I knew customizing orders would take a lot of time and I’d have less time for creating new items. That didn’t sound like fun and made me reluctant to open up the shop. Once the orders started coming in, however, I realized how much I enjoyed meeting new customers and doing the work. In fact, the most challenging circumstances resulted in the most satisfying moments, such as the last order I received on Christmas Eve…
The first thing I made in SL was a large fireplace. Even before I was halfway finished, I was addicted to creating in SL. It went well, and Plan A was based on that creation: make more home decor items and furniture, then open a store. RL intervened, and an extremely busy autumn forced me to put my plans on hold.
At the beginning of December, I took a few hours to make personalized Christmas stockings for close friends. I was happy with the results and I decided to open a store to offer these and a few other Christmas items.
A Surprising Start
My expectations for sales were low — many other stores had started offering Christmas items several weeks earlier and I had no experience selling. But during the first week, sales increased every day and the store rose to #1 in most in-world searches for “Christmas stockings,” “tree skirts,” and other related terms. Only one week after the opening, Kghia Gherardi reviewed my merchandise in the Prim Perfect blog and had some nice things to say. Sales continued to rise exponentially through the holiday season.
Too Successful to Turn Back
Customers constantly asked what I’d sell after Christmas. When I said I planned to open a furniture store, they usually responded by complimenting me on the quality and telling me I should continue to offer personalized things. That scene finally repeated itself so many times that I had to consider continuing with Plan B. I had had so much fun meeting people — there’s so much more contact with customers of personalized items than with typical merchandise — and I didn’t want it to stop. (I’ll write more about why this was so much fun in a future post.)
So . . . long live Plan B! Version 2.0 will consist of personalized cards, house flags, and other items, as well as some non-personalized greeting cards and gift items. I’m determined that the quality and service will be at least as good as it was for the Christmas items. And I’m determined to have as much fun, too.
