From Thanksgivukkah to New Years MeMall is there!

November 25, 2013 6:43 PM

The MeFi Mall is back again! It's that time of year when people who like that sort of thing can buy/sell stuff to/from other people who like that sort of thing. Last year we again had over seventy participants. Interested in being involved in this year's MeFi Mall? Read on...

Every year we make a little page which links to things that creative MeFites are selling or have for sale. We'd like you to be a part of it. Here are the guidelines.

- Your stuff. Stuff you've designed, created, built, made or otherwise had a hand in. Etsy stuff and Cafe Press type things are AOK.
- Available online. No brick and mortar stores please. No linking to a pdf price list or facebook group and saying "Contact me for details"
- Short and simple descriptions. Aim for 30-50 words or less. Long descriptions may be edited.
- MeFites only. If you want a friend or family member to be listed, get them a gift account.
- No auctions or one-off items for sale. This is for stuff you've created or worked on, not a yard sale.

Go to this link to either approve last year's blurb (if you participated) or write up a new one. If you need to make changes or add a new shop, you can use the box and add a new description and choose a category. Here is a link to last year's mall, for reference.

As with last year, we're going to have a sidebar of photos on the shops page. You can add a few photos [1-3 please] to this MeFi group on Flickr. Ask here if you have other questions. Thank you!

Past announcements: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007

posted by jessamyn (retired) to MetaFilter-Related at 6:43 PM (28 comments total)

I found some great Christmas gifts via the MeMall last year, and some notecards I loved so much that I've only sent a handful to My Most Favorite People -- so excited to see what everyone's got to offer this year!
posted by Narrative Priorities at 7:07 PM on November 25, 2013

I need those Apple Cider Caramel Cookies!!!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:10 PM on November 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

Question -- about how many requests does the typical MeFi Mall seller get during the season? I might be interested, but I'd hate to disappoint anyone if I got more requests than I could handle. Is there a policy of any kind about this, or do people just kind of... handle it ad hoc?
posted by Smells of Detroit at 7:41 PM on November 25, 2013

Thank you again this year, Jessamyn-san; this is always a wonderful help!
posted by woodblock100 at 8:13 PM on November 25, 2013

I'm still wondering whether Meatbomb has ever got any takers on the service he offers.
posted by grouse at 4:42 AM on November 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

I rather hope I'll be ready for this next year so I'm asking in advance, but what does no one-off items mean in the context of hand-made stuff?
posted by jeather at 5:10 AM on November 26, 2013

Will there be a black friday event or will we need to wait until cyber-monday? And will there be special offers for procrastination-wednesday?
posted by sammyo at 6:42 AM on November 26, 2013

Yay. I was just gonna ask about this and then decided there was enough similar asking going on. Thanks!
posted by Miko at 10:29 AM on November 26, 2013

I've approved the first 11 mall submissions. Thanks! Please do the mods a favor and don't use wacky formatting and try to HTML-ize your links.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:28 AM on November 26, 2013

Smells of Detroit - We got exactly zero orders via MeFi last year, but that may also be because we didn't have much that was "new". So YMMV incredibly. I think as with any other holiday-time shopping period it's about carefully managing inventory and keeping your site up to date with what you have and what you don't, to cut down on customer frustration.

And yes, thanks to Jessamyn for getting us organized and providing another marketing outlet for cool stuff. Go go community!
posted by turtlegirl at 12:47 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

I rather hope I'll be ready for this next year so I'm asking in advance, but what does no one-off items mean in the context of hand-made stuff?

I'm also curious about this.
posted by theichibun at 1:00 PM on November 26, 2013

It's a lot more about not having a yard sale via MeFi Mall. So it's fine to be all "I will make you a custom-initial towel set" but not okay to be like "I have one antique chair and one toaster oven for sale." It's okay to say "I run a used book store at this web address, check it out" it's less okay to be like "I sell used books, email me if you want to know what I have."

If you have items that you've made where inventory=1 item for a number of different items, that is fine. If you have items that you've made and you have two of them total (unless they are some sort of truly esoteric moon rock or something) MeFi Mall is probably not for you. Feel free to contact us directly if you have specific questions.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:05 PM on November 26, 2013

I have made my first MeFi Mall purchase! (About time I got a copy of Starglass!)
posted by Narrative Priorities at 1:41 PM on November 26, 2013

grouse, no takers yet. We have purchased the compound, though, so will soon be offering full-time, full-commitment internships as well. At that point I imagine we'll be beating potential devotees off with sticks.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:39 PM on November 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

Nineteen entries so far, thanks folks.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:52 PM on November 27, 2013

Jessamyn, I see that I managed to screw up my 'entry' - I thought it was necessary to enter my ID/name, but I see that your script must be doing that automatically, so I ended up with two names ... (I don't mind, but anyway ...)
posted by woodblock100 at 9:23 PM on November 27, 2013

Ah I missed that when I approved it. I sorted it, looks fine now.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:28 PM on November 27, 2013

Thank you mods and Mefites! I just updated my listing.
posted by usonian at 6:19 AM on November 29, 2013

I had trouble submitting my blurb and had to retype it three times. I kept getting a message saying "you don't seem to have a link to your shop". It seemed to be happening because my link used https instead of http.
posted by oulipian at 1:01 PM on December 3, 2013

Thanks for the report, oulipian. I'll fix that.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:47 PM on December 3, 2013

https links are now recognized as links in the shop form. Let me know if you need to edit your listing.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:59 PM on December 3, 2013

My listing is fine as-is. Thanks, pb!
posted by oulipian at 2:34 PM on December 3, 2013

I updated my listing from last year and then my browser crashed. Can you tell me if it went through or if I should re-submit? thanks mods! :)
posted by firei at 6:12 PM on December 3, 2013

Resubmit, i think. I'm not seeing it there for us to approve. Drop a note if you have trouble.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:25 PM on December 3, 2013

ok, re-submitted. thanks!
posted by firei at 6:30 PM on December 3, 2013

Forgot to mention in my submission: 15% off at FlipClips with coupon code mefi15
posted by ancillary at 12:26 AM on December 12, 2013

I've added that to your description, ancillary.
posted by taz (staff) at 1:23 AM on December 12, 2013

Thank you taz!
posted by ancillary at 1:27 AM on December 12, 2013