Craft Days

Diamond Press have really gone up in price and are no longer the affordable products they used to be. That new flying bat one is over $41 at the moment, and with the tax and shipping will be more like $51 where I am. It’s the only company of them, CC and AG that you can’t buy anywhere else unless they add things to their website (or some third party stuff on ebay). I’ve bought most of my CC stuff from England, not usually from CC but from a website with free shipping over $70 and no tax, that usually has lower prices. AG eventually puts her stuff on her website with free shipping over $50. I’ve got loads of AG stuff dating back to the early 2000s but am mostly bored stiff by variations on the same old thing, and it’s so much more expensive now. SOL have a website as well, as do virtually every company. I personally prefer Heartfelt Creations who make AG stuff look so lame in comparison but I have enough of that now. Hsn already charge higher prices, and then when you add tax and shipping and tax ON shipoing as hsn do, it makes the prices $7 to $10 higher. Hsn have been pricing themselves out of business for a long time. I don’t even watch craft days any more, and I didn’t and don’t watch hsn other than that. I’ve got enough stuff to open a shop as it is. I bought some DP items on the last free shipping day, and they had raised some of the previously released products by about $5 and $6, which made them higher with the free shipping than they had been before with the shipping. I still haven’t got what I bought on the free shipping day. They’ve been in packaging all of this time up until maybe a day ago. Terrible prices, terrible sevice, and refunds that take a month or more. Now they’re flogging yet another cricket maker this craft day. Yuck.

The prices have gone up due to the pandemic. It has affected everything. Most of this stuff is made in China and the cost of shipping from China has gone up tremendously in the past year+. There are shipping delays for everything coming from China as well.

People here love to complain when HSN doesn’t offer $5 shipping on craft days (it is available for today’s craft day). Well, all of those companies are paying 4 times as much as before to get their products shipped to them from China. They have to make their margins so prices go up.

I did order some stuff today and didn’t think I would. Had the $5 shipping not been offered I might have ordered one thing.

I agree with EAB1 – prices have gone up on everything. Inflation is here. Look in the grocery store. Shipping will keep going up as long as fuel prices do & everyone wants more money to do a job. It’s great if they pay more but companies are not gonna absorb it…they pass it on. I have been interested in a Cricut EasyPress. I shopped around today online & the bundle that HSN offered was the best. I also had some other things I was interested in & compared them to the craft stores & Amazon. Some things were better there. But I’m not gonna hate on HSN over it. I enjoy the presentations even if I don’t buy there.

Monday was a great Craft Day! The TSV Cricut Maker 3 Bundle was hands down a can’t match anywhere value. Free shipping and ready to ship. Cricut even added its new 13” paper trimmer. That deal on the brand new portable Light Pad Go was so sweet. HSN really had the Cricut deals.

Crafters Companion offered a beautiful Sara Signature Mega bundle of watercolor images of snowy winter for its regular price. I went for it when I saw the actual snow globes. Very soft palette of watercolors. The Spectrum Noir TriBlend Aqua Markers were all bundled at a significant reduction. I just wish HSN had the TriBlend Aquas for the Mega bundle that are available on Sara’s website.

Anna Griffin has raised the prices on die sets, but the 3D technology is really stunning and much more costly to produce. That being said, the beautiful 3D Concentric Rose die set was for sale for $18+ and the $5 all day cart was offered. And the Sleigh and Carriage Slimline dies, smash hits for Christmas, we’re reduced to $27+. Some very good deals.

Diamond Press is going into larger format dies. Given their lack of embossing, they seem overpriced. The bats were available in a much lower price in a stand alone kit that sold out. Good value. They are really a hoot. Diamond Press keeps Halloween light hearted and kid appropriate, but also humorous enough for cuteness loving adults like myself. I’m grandkids ready with their collection this year. Their first ever boxed card kit is awesome for Halloween. It is good to see Diamond Press stretch itself in COVID times and be ready to ship right now.

For the regular naysayers who show up routinely here every Craft Day, I am not buying the trolling. You missed out of $5 all day ship, some great vendors, good values, and fantastic products. I do my homework when shopping crafts, and HSN is more than competitive.