5 Years later....

Thank you! Our family appreciates your business!

The biggest news in 5 years since the last blog....the business moved! For 10 years the we were in a commercial district. However we decided to move it to be a home based business again. Over the last few years we sold our starter house, moved to a rental, had a forever house built and moved into it this summer. Then we moved the business too. Took us till end of October. Have a consistent routine down and feeling settled in enough start adding items again.

In 2014 stopped adding new releases for a few reasons. Have added some newer titles but not consistently because I had a lot of inventory all boxed up in my warehouse that needed to be added. Still have about 30 boxes of inventory left to work on. Am really excited this week because finally added 2 pallets worth of "The Decorative Painter" back issue magazines! They had been sitting in my warehouse for many years.

Some plans for 2018....

Kept the 50% off compensate for the sporadic shipping while had so much going on. It will remain for a little while longer. Am redesigning the website which will also make it mobile friendly. That is still a few months away from completion. The pricing will change with the new site. Join our newsletter for monthly updates.

Lastly Communication.....

We no longer have a phone line listed for the business. You can contact us via our email or our FACEBOOK page that I just set up. If for some reason you are not getting our emails please do message us through Facebook. If you do want to talk in person just leave me your number and convenient time to call you back.

If you read the above...... Thank you for your interest and again we appreciate your business!

Amy

USPS Rate Changes

USPS has changed rates effective 1/27. Some went up minimally while others went up quite a bit. Was able to keep some rates the same but others had to go up. As the increase was too much to absorb. 

USA - As of now no shipping increases. 

Orders over $50 still get free shipping. It will show automatically and is based on subtotal before shipping costs.

International - Some stayed same others increased.

Packages under 1 lb will no longer have cardboard in them. In order to qualify for the class needed to keep the costs the same they have to remain flexible. Otherwise the costs would have increased greatly. Mexico is no longer priced same as Canada. They moved to same pricing as all other countries. 

May Update!

There are some new books coming in May. Also check out Paintworks Magazine back issue section. The rest of them are online now. Still working on the Quick and Easy Painting. Should have those up soon. Plus found about 50 titles that were in stock but not on the site. Got about half on so far. 

Clearance titles have been added less frequent than would like. They were put on the back burner to get some spring warehouse work and get the rest of the magazines up. 

Spring Break - April

Spring break here is April 9-13th: There are no set office hours for that week. Will just be in to ship orders. Still checking email daily. If there is anything urgent email me. Normal hours resume after the 13th. 

Downtown Savannah on Victory Drive last month

Downtown Savannah is so relaxing to me. Like reading a book to forget your worries. There is so much beauty and history that for moments I feel like I stepped back in time. 

New for April 

MAGAZINES: Added back issues for six magazines to the site. A few are still available and will be adding more issues to our selection. Also have a few more magazines that are not online yet.

RESTOCKING: Many sold out items have been restocked. Working on the rest of them as time permits. Any items that sell out again we are going to restock asap. Due to some publisher order minimums it may be a couple weeks before we get it back in stock.

CLEARANCE: Have not listed new clearance for a couple weeks now. So many titles were restocked over the last couple weeks that I was not able to get to them. 

CHECKOUT: If you get any errors upon checkout please let us know. We do take phone orders. Also you can email your order. Then either call us with payment or send the total via paypal. 

New mailing lists added!

Our monthly newsletter we only send once a month. We have added more lists to choose from. Now you can subscribe to a specific category to get more frequent updates. See below for more details. 

• Monthly Newsletter - 1 time a month
• New Releases - Just published new additions.
• New Items - Any new inventory we add that was not on the site before. 
• Clearance - When new clearance items are added.  
• Craft Books - When new craft book titles are added. 

If you are already subscribed to a list you can add by entering the same email in the subscribe box. It will open up a pop up for you to click update on. Then give you instructions from there. 

This will be most helpful for the clearance category. We have thousands of books to put in that category. We are pricing these to move and they sell out quick. We remove the title from the site when it is sold out. If you see it saying WAITLIST add your name. It may reappear if that person does not checkout. Or if I find more I will activate that listing and if anyone is on the list it will email them first. :) 

Thank you so much for your continued interest. I appreciate your business and look forward making the site even better. 

Office pictures!

     Thought it may be interesting to post pictures of the business. We outgrew being a home based business 5 years ago. We have been here 2 years now. I love my office! There is space for everything and everyone with even a little bit of room to grow. My desk is just a few feet from the play area. I am able to work while still interacting with my youngest who is here with me all day. 

When we went to Texas I took the front room with me and some extra books  from the back. The rest stayed here as the move was temporary.

Kids play area! 

Upfront areas for pulling orders

Glimpse in our warehouse.......

February Updates!

STORE STOCK INVENTORY CLEARANCE

New clearance books have been uploaded! Thousands of books will be loaded as time permits. As of Feb 1st I have made a commitment to list as many as I can. Wide selection and conditions vary. Some titles may show out of stock but then appear in stock again. It is either because I find more or from shopping baskets not being completed. The site automatically restocks the store with any baskets that are abandoned.


NEW PRICING STRUCTURE


After our sale ended we decided to make some changes. In our newsletter last month I announced that many prices have been lowered to 40% off or more. There is no end date. Now some individual items may go up or down. But overall just lowering prices.

PAYPAL PAYMENT CHANGES

If you pay with PAYPAL you may notice a difference at checkout. Paypal will be sending you back to our site for you to finalize your order. Once paypal directs you back to the site you will need to click continue to complete it. Once you do  the payment is processed and you are forwarded to the order complete page. 

SUGGESTIONS

We are making minor tweaks to the site here and there. To make shopping with us more fun and simple. If you have any suggestions please let us know!

January 2012 News!

Updates for January 2012 : 

1. USPS raised 2012 rates

    Website has been updated with new shipping costs. International shipping though has gone up quite a bit in my opinion. USA shipping did not change as much.

2. Faster Shipping!
   Transit times seem to have returned to normal now that we are back to shipping from Georgia. Most international orders are taking 10-14 days. If you have better or worse time frames would like to know to keep everyone updated. 

3. Lower prices
    In response to the now higher shipping costs I have decided to lower prices on many items. This is not a sale with an end date like the moving sale we had. It is just me lowering prices. All packets and many books are 40% off. The rest will stay at 20% off. We will still have the special buys, monthly specials and clearance. Those categories you can find books up to 80% off. 

The 20% off books are in print titles that come from publishers or artists who are actively selling them on their sites. Many of them for full price. For us to sell at more than 20% permanently is just not good for them. And not for us either as there is no point in then restocking those books if we are just going to lose money on them. 

4.  Site Improvements

     Our search function has been greatly improved! Also you can browse pattern packets by artist now. We moved out of stock items to its own category. Items will come up doing searches or in sub categories if you want to add yourself to a waiting list.

5. Out of Stock

     We will be replenishing out of stock items that are still in print soon. Also will be adding some new releases. Will focus first on items that have people on the waiting list. If you add your name to the wait list it will email you when it comes in. 

6. Old Store Inventory

     Working on uploading a bunch of new items Feb 1st. It is old store stock from a few different tole shops that retired over the years. So wide range of artists. There are books and pattern packets. I am going to try and get a box of books a week uploaded minimum. Most will be priced at $5.00 or less. 

7. Order Tracking

     When checking the order tracking it has been saying processing instead of shipped for awhile now with the tracking number right next to it. Have been told that a fix was in the works but still no fix. Orders say pending when placed. For now processing means shipped. 

Also you should be getting an email when items ship. If you are not getting them check your spam filters. Or let me know. 

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Well that is it! If you made it all the way down to here you have made my day! I appreciate your interest in our site and strive to make it better and better.

Sincerely,

Amy

Garmy Books

Happy New Year!

We hope you and your family have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

BEST SALE EVER!!

BEST SALE EVER!

ALL books are on sale 40% or more thru Dec. 31st.

We have had 500 books marked down to $4.97 to prepare for our move back to Georgia. Now I have marked the other 1300 titles down an additional 20%. So literally everything is on sale a minimum of 40% off. While supplies last.

The website only shows the stock that I have here in Texas with me. Other than an occasional error if it shows it we have it. I just did a complete inventory a few months ago.

If something shows not in stock add your name to the waitlist. As we have over 150,000 books in the Georgia warehouse. When we are back (trying for end of October - end of November at latest) we will add the rest of the inventory.