DIRTY BUTTER Plush CATALOG

Our Business AND Our Christian Beliefs

2011-12-20T16:08:00.000-06:00

We have been selling plush animals and soft dolls online for about 7 years. And we've been running our free Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service about that long. If we don't have something in stock in our catalog we offer to help find it. So we get a fair number of people who found a particular out of stock lovie in our catalog and write asking for help locating one.

If I can't find it, then I reply via email asking for a story about why it is important and why they are looking for it, so I can post it on our Search Service.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, here's the "hitch". We have always considered our Search Service to be our Christian Ministry, so there is a prominently placed scripture verse near the top of the online page. And all our emails have signatures that include scripture verses. I decided last year that I no longer wanted to sign my emails with just Merry Christmas during December.

So here are some examples of my email sigs:

May you and your family enjoy the Blessings of Jesus in this holy time of year,

OR

May you have a Christ filled Christmas,

Rosemary

Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Luke 2:10-11 KJV

This week someone who had asked for help finding an out of stock catalog item wrote me back after I'd written her, using a sig similar to one of these. She said she wanted me to delete all her correspondence with us. She explained that she had not realized she was dealing with some religious cult and did not want to use our service.

I replied that I had done as she asked and had deleted all our correspondence, but I wanted her to know that we are Christians who belong to a Southern Baptist Church.

I've heard the term "War on Christmas" lately on talk radio, and I've certainly seen a drastic reduction in the number of clerks who wish us a "Merry Christmas" at the checkout counter. And I imagine we've lost business in the past because of our prominent scripture verses.

But this is the first time someone went out of their way to point out how weird they thought we were.

Brentwood MOSHI Elephant

2011-11-28T08:55:00.001-06:00

Brentwood MOSHI XL Blue Pink Lying Down Elephant

The gold standard of Microbead lovies are those made by Brentwood Originals, and we are very pleased to have a beautiful blue lying down MOSHI elephant for sale right now in our catalog. These squishy lovies are a favorite of young children, who find them to be very cuddly. And they are very hard to find!

Check out the prices of the various XL Brentwood MOSHI animals on eBay, and you'll see they run as high as $100. We try to price all our lovies competitively, so you're not likely to find one in very good condition for less than ours.

We hope you will find the lovie you are looking for in our DIRTY BUTTER Plush Animal Shoppe CATALOG. But we have many more toys in stock than we have listed, so please Contact Us if you don't see what you are looking for. If we don't have it in stock, we will search the Internet for it. If we still can't find it, we will post your request on our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.

Do You Remember PJ Sparkles Dolls & Sparklins Pets?

2011-11-23T07:25:00.001-06:00

Mattel 1989 PJ Sparkles SPARKLINS Pink Stars Rabbit

If you're in your 30's or 40's you may have loved a PJ Sparkles doll, or maybe had one of her pets. Mattel's ad slogan for the dolls was, "Hug me and I light up with love!". The Sparklins pets all had glow in the dark stars covering their satin bodies, and they had a removable glow in the dark plastic necklace that the child could wear as a bracelet.

We now have a Mattel 1989 plush 12 inch PJ Sparkles Pet SPARKLINS pink satin rabbit in our catalog. She has cream satin lining in her ears and a pink sparkly fur hair tuft with a pink shiny Mylar hair bow. She has a sweet white knit face with large plastic eyes, a blush on her cheeks, and a pink plastic nose.

Put her under a strong light for a while, then take her in the dark, and you're in for a surprise. Not only does her body light up with stars, but her sleepy eyes glow, too!

Why not take a look down memory lane and check out her pictures in our catalog.

Eden Vintage White Giraffe Moves Plays AROUND the WORLD in 80 DAYS

2011-11-14T17:41:00.001-06:00

Eden Vintage White Giraffe Moves Plays AROUND the WORLD in 80 DAYS

We finally have the newest version of our catalog software running fairly smoothly. There are still a few glitches we haven't been able to fix yet, but the site is working. So I now have the time to start back to adding some of the many plush lovies we have in stock.

I'm very excited to be able to offer a vintage Eden musical white giraffe for sale. She has a pink, blue, and yellow yarn loop mane and matching yarn tail. Her horns are soft terry cloth. When the metal key on the body is wound, the head slowly moves, and it plays Around the World in 80 Days.

Did you have a windup lovie like this giraffe when you were little? Do you still have your childhood toy, or have you thought about looking for one like it?

New Catalog is ONLINE!

2011-10-15T10:51:00.000-05:00

Commonwealth XL Jumbo Love Pink Lavender Elephant

This Jumbo Love elephant is a favorite collectible of children of the 80's. Many of these grownups are now searching for their childhood toys, and these over sized lovies seem to be at the top of the list. Contact us if you're interested in buying it, as we'll consider any reasonable offer.

It's taken several months of intense learning, lots of trial and error (about the only way I know how to learn anything), and lots of time, but I've finally managed to upgrade our old catalog to the new version 5 of the CubeCart software I use. The cart program developers did a complete rework of code from the ground up, so I had to learn the software all over again. In the process of debugging, I also learned a whole lot about the php programming language, as well as understanding MySQL databases. I even learned a little bit about Apache. Unless you're a nerd I know none of that meant anything to you, but it makes me feel very proud of myself that I can still learn how to do such things.

There are still some bugs to be ironed out, both by the software developers, and by me on our site, so if you take a look around and find something that doesn't seem to work quite right I'd appreciate a quick email.

Henrietta Needs Someone to Love

2011-09-23T22:20:00.000-05:00

We found this beautifully preserved Henrietta dog today, and I couldn't wait to put it in our catalog. She's missing her hair bows and neck bow and has a tiny open seam that could easily be repaired. Other than that she looks brand new. That wouldn't be so surprising, but this dog is 36 years old!

There's no cedar chest smell, so I can't help but wonder where she's been all these years. For a vintage toy that has been so carefully stored for so long, there has to be an interesting story about why it ended up at the Thrift Store.

Someone is going to be very happy to get this favorite childhood lovie! And she's going to be loved again.

1975 Animal Fair XL Gold Brown HENRIETTA Dog

CubeCart Upgrade to Version 5 Problems

2011-07-30T07:18:00.003-05:00

CubeCart version 5 turned out to be harder to upgrade than we had expected. Part of our problem with trying to upgrade to v5 was all the old code lingering all the way back to version 3. So, Our programmer has made a clean install of v4.5 CubeCart, and he's going to use that until v5 is less buggy.

It's been very frustrating, for sure. But I learned a lot about MySQL databases and a good bit about CubeCart 5.

Playing with Cube Cart Version 5

2011-07-10T06:51:00.001-05:00

I have been learning a little bit about how MySQL data bases are set up, how to install CubeCart, and was actually able to install a test version of the newest version of CubeCart to play with. I wasn't able to figure out how to copy our running CubeCart v4 data and upgrade to v5, but I did make a clean install of v5. So I've been able to test it out to some extent, and I'm very pleased with the way it works.

So, I've told our programmer to go ahead with the upgrade to v5 for our store whenever he has the time to do it.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with what I was able to do on my own. Of course, he won't be using anything I did. I'll just delete the data base and files I created, but I learned a lot in the process.

CubeCart Version 4 Upgrade Continues

2011-06-18T10:58:00.004-05:00

We're still working on the upgrade to version 4 of CubeCart for our catalog. It's going to take a while to get everything working just the way I want it to, although our programmer has made great progress already!

We're filling orders and have mailed quite a few lovies since the changes, so we're glad we made this upgrade.

Please contact me at our free Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service if you need a plush animal or doll and can't find it anywhere else.

BIG SITE CHANGE UNDERWAY!

2011-05-16T07:03:00.005-05:00

Our programmer has started the change to the new version of CubeCart. So for now the catalog looks really odd, as it's all set up the default way. It's going to take a while to get everything looking and working just the way I want it to, so please contact me at our free Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service if you need a plush animal or doll and can't find it anywhere else.

ALABAMA TORNADO Plush Lovies DISCOUNT

2011-04-29T19:15:00.006-05:00

The tornadoes that swarmed through Alabama, our home state, have been devastating. We were fortunate to be missed, but many have been left homeless and over 200 are dead.

Alabamians from all over are working to help with bottled water, food, diapers, and other necessities.

So, we want to help the little ones who have lost all their lovies.

Anyone who mails to an Alabama Shipping Address through June 30 should use ALABAMA as the DISCOUNT CODE to get 50% OFF their order from Dirty Butter Plush Animal Shoppe.

Please forward this information to anyone you know who has family in Alabama who may need help replacing a lovie. If the child was fortunate enough to not be in the path of the tornado, we encourage the buyer to donate the other half to Disaster Relief.

If we don't have what they need in stock, they can contact us at our FREE Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service, and they will get TOP PRIORITY help.

http://plushmemories.com/contact-us

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

Our Catalog is Back in Action!

2011-04-24T13:54:00.004-05:00

Our Dirty Butter Plush Animal Shoppe is back up and running, thank goodness. We still seem to be having a lot of people who can't get the Basket to work properly, so our programmer is going to upgrade us to CubeCart v4 soon. We had to be sure all the hosting issues were resolved before we started thinking about such a major change, though.

Hopefully that will take care of this very frustrating issue, as we feel sure we're losing orders because of it.

We're using CC version 3 right now, which is free, but if paying for the latest version gets us more orders, it will be worth it!

Now our Catalog Site is Down!!

2011-04-02T12:44:00.003-05:00

We thought we had solved all our site problems for the time being, but right now all our dirtybutter.com sites are down. The Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service is still working properly, so you can contact me that way if you need to.

Site Down AGAIN!

2011-03-29T08:51:00.002-05:00

We're having site problems, AGAIN! Finding a good host who will work with us has been a real problem. Please bear with us while we get moved to another host. Hopefully it won't be too long before our Plush Catalog and our free Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service will be back up and running.

Vintage 50's - 60's Vinyl Head Cloth Body Hand Puppets - KING FRIDAY

2011-03-24T16:44:00.006-05:00

King Friday and Queen Sara from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe are just two of a lot of vintage vinyl head cloth body hand puppets we have for sale right now. There's also a clown head I'm reasonably sure is a Bozo clown.

The cloth is in better shape on some than on the others, but all the heads are as close to perfect as you're likely to find for a child's puppet that is 50 years old or more! Since they are collectibles, I've not attempted to clean them in any way. A few do have some soil on the heads that really looks like it would just wash off.

Even if you're not interested in purchasing one of these, why not take a walk down memory lane and take a look at these old friends. If you recognize any of these puppets and know what their names are or anything about them, I'd love to hear from you!

Vintage Vinyl Head Hand Puppets

For Sale! Very Hard to Find DAKIN 70's Bright YELLOW DROOPER Dog Brown Ears

2011-03-21T18:45:00.003-05:00

We recently found the very hard to find bright yellow color of the 70's DAKIN Drooper Dog in excellent condition and it's now for sale in our catalog!! It's like new, which is remarkable, considering its age.

DAKIN 70's Bright Yellow DROOPER Dog Brown Ears

We Found a VERY RARE Snuzzles LION!

2011-02-26T11:44:00.001-06:00

We were very excited yesterday to find the extremely rare Snuzzles lion in very good condition. These wonderful Blankies animals were made by Playskool in the 80's, and they are in high demand. All of them are hard to find now. I'm not sure why the lion is so much harder to find than the others, but it is.

If you remember the Snuzzles and would like to see several photos of this one, or if you would be interested in purchasing it, we hope you will stop by our Dirty Butter Plush Animal Shoppe.

Playskool 1986 No. 5400 Snuzzles Blankies Plaid Lion Satin Mane, Feet

Does Your Child Get Enough Sleep?

2011-02-19T16:17:00.004-06:00

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Campaign GARFIELD STAR SLEEPER

This Garfield might be able to help if you're having trouble getting your child to develop good sleep habits. He's the plush mascot for the Sleep Well, Do Well, Star Sleeper Campaign. There's information for parents on the site and a place for young children to learn about good sleep habits in a fun, entertaining way.

Our Press Release is ONLINE!

2011-02-07T18:04:00.004-06:00

I managed to read a lot of different online directions about how to write a Press Release and ended up with something that I thought was good enough to publish.

I filed one version of it on http://www.prlog.org/ and another version on Free Express Press Release Distribution. PRlog published our story almost instantly, but I'm waiting for approval of the version on the Free Express PR Distribution site.

I also called our local county newspaper this morning to find out how to send a copy to them, and that's been emailed as well.

I feel sure this process would not take someone who was used to doing it very long at all. But I spent the better part of 2 days taking care of this, with no guarantee it did any good to spread the word about our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service, which in the ministry arm of our Dirty Butter Plush Animal Shoppe.

Trying My Hand at a Press Release

2011-02-04T17:58:00.006-06:00

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday evening and this afternoon learning how to write a press release in the proper form and then trying to write one. I'm not sure if anything will come of it, or if it will ever be published anywhere, but I did my best.

Each of our out of stock listings directs people to contact us, and we will try to help them find what they are looking for. This has been our policy for our Plush Catalog ever since we started business in 2005.

As a way to increase the chance of someone being helped, we started the Plush Memories blog, posting these requests for help. The chances of finding these lovies depends in large part on how much publicity our Search Service gets. So, please spread the word about our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service, and wish me good luck with the Press Release!

GUND Cream, Black, Tan MARSHMALLOW COW

2011-01-22T15:57:00.004-06:00

We found what I thought was a very hard to find GUND Plush 12 inch floppy cream or white cow named BELLE. But, after hearing from the person who has been looking for a Belle cow, I now know that ours is a GUND MILKSHAKE cow.

She has black outside and pink inside her ears. There's a large black spot on her back and on the tip of her tail. She has tan horns and muzzle, black eyes and eyelashes, and she's wearing a black Patent Leather look plastic collar. She's LIKE NEW.

If anyone finds a similar looking cow without the black collar and terry finish rather than a plush fur, please contact us, so we can put you in touch with Dubie, who is looking for one.

GUND Black White Tan Pink Cow MILKSHAKE Black Shiny Collar

Fisher Price 1986 No. 8005 Pink White Puffalump Lamb with Dress

2011-01-20T15:40:00.003-06:00

We now have for sale a Fisher Price 1986 No. 8005 plush 15 inch pink Puffalump lamb with white ears, face, hands, and feet. She has a pink nose. Her removable dress has a white lace trimmed collar with a flower at the bodice. It has the old balloon logo on the foot. The TUSH TAG IS WRINKLED, BUT IT'S IN EXCELLENT CONDITION - LIKE NEW.

It's unusual to find one of the original series of Puffalumps in this good a condition. Somebody is going to be very pleased to have this childhood friend back at home with them!

Fisher Price 1986 No. 8005 Pink White Puffalump Lamb with Dress

Mary Meyer Baby Pink White Minky Bumpy Velour DIMPLES Giraffe

2011-01-15T16:38:00.003-06:00

We have for sale right now a very hard to find Mary Meyer Baby Plush 12 inch Pink DIMPLES Bumpy Minky Dot Velour Giraffe with a White Velour Muzzle and Ears, with Darker Pink Hooves. It's LIKE NEW. There's only one more available anywhere on the Internet that I could find, and theirs is more expensive than ours.

Mary Meyer Baby Pink White Minky Bumpy Velour DIMPLES Giraffe

MLB Babe Ruff Barons Baseball Mascot MINT

2011-01-10T14:15:00.004-06:00

We've just started adding our large collection of mint condition Sports stuffed mascots to our catalog, and this is the first of many different characters to follow. The Birmingham Barons mascot is a takeoff on the Red Baron aviator of WWII fame, wearing his aviator cap, goggles, and trademark white scarf.

MINT Minor League Baseball BARONS Mascot BABE RUFF

Looking Back at 2010 and Forward to 2011

2011-01-04T10:23:00.004-06:00

I added over 800 items to our catalog in 2010, with a net increase in in-stock items of about 500 lovies, since we sold some lovies last year. We didn't sell as many as we usually do, but with the economy the way it is, that's not surprising.

We're still having some problems with coding issues, such as the Tell-a-Friend page doesn't work properly on the Catalog pages. And somewhere along the way we've lost our gumball border, although the code is still there, but that is a minor cosmetic problem.

I'm hoping to get a modification installed on the catalog sometime this year that will let people use our catalog properly from a smart phone. I think the time has come to consider such a move to be advantageous.

I don't make New Year's Resolutions, but I do hope to get more than 800 new items listed in 2011. I'm not happy with that number for last year at all.

Thank you for telling your family and friends about us and spreading the word about our free Search Service.

Commonwealth JUMBO LOVE Orange, Cream Puffalump Style Monkey

2010-11-20T18:03:00.004-06:00

This is an exciting find, and we know that someone will be thrilled to get this 1986 Jumbo Love orange monkey for Christmas! He's in great shape for a 24 year old stuffed animal.

Commonwealth JUMBO LOVE Orange, Cream Puffalump Style Monkey

Server Problems Fixed, I HOPE!!!

2010-10-23T08:19:00.003-05:00

I have been posting new items on our catalog pretty regularly, such as this Baby GANZ white bear blankie with JESUS LOVES ME and HEARTS embroidered on the blankie, until very recently. But I've been very busy for the last 2 weeks now trying to untangle the mess our host made when they had major server problems. It took them over a week to fix it all, and their idea of "fixing" was to lose some major folders, such as images, and use a server backup that was several days prior to their problems. I've been feverishly working to get back to square one, but I think I'm finally ready to start listing items again.

All this hasn't stopped us from going out on our Date Day on Fridays, though. I've certainly needed to get away from the computer some. So, we've added even more items to our uncatalogued stock. I'll be glad to get them online, so someone who needs one can find it.

Folkmanis FOLKTAILS XL Dark Green Full Body Frog Puppet

2010-09-01T15:55:00.002-05:00

Do you like BIG stuffed animals? I've seen some in the stores and at Fairs that looked like you'd have to have a master bedroom just to have a place to put it. I've never really understood why people like these stuffed animals that are as tall as they are. Maybe you can help me understand, if you have or had one as a child.

Well, we found a very large full body frog puppet not long ago that we just couldn't resist getting. It's not a giant size by any means, but it is big enough to use in front of a classroom or maybe for use in a church puppet ministry. This Folkmanis FOLKTAILS XL Dark Green Full Body Frog Puppet is a really cute fellow, and I know there's someone out there who would just love to have him.

Hallmark 1989 YUM YUMS Pink Poodle CHEERY CHERRY

2010-09-01T14:38:00.003-05:00

Cotton Candy, State Fairs, and Cuddly Puppy Dog lovie - what a great combination! The Yum Yums were a favorite plush animal series in the 80's put out by Hallmark. And we have a Hallmark 1989 YUM YUMS Pink Poodle CHEERY CHERRY in mint condition in our new catalog. The only thing that's missing is the cotton candy scent! Otherwise, she's in perfect condition.

Pottery Barn Kids PBK XL Pink Lying Down Rabbit Brown Stitched Ears

2010-09-01T13:25:00.002-05:00

Did you get an Easter Bunny as a gift when you were little? Judging by how many plush rabbits you see in the stores today all year round, they are popular stuffed animals not only at Easter time.

Pottery Barn has made a lot of precious plush animals over the years, but this Pottery Barn Kids PBK XL Pink Lying Down Rabbit Brown Stitched Ears is one that is very hard to find, and we located one not too long ago.

Did You Have a Teddy Beddy Bear?

2010-09-01T13:18:00.002-05:00

Nothing can beat a good teddy bear to cuddle at night when you're a child! These Teddy Beddy bears were perfect for loving. Did you have one as a child? Do you still have it? Did you have some other favorite bear or stuffed animal that you took to bed with you?

We have a Fisher Price 1986 No. 1405 TEDDY BEDDY BEAR in our catalog that is in excellent condition. He's waiting to go home to someone who will love him the way he was loved many years ago. Are you that person?

GUND 1990 Full Body Puppet Pink ZWIBBLE DIBBLE Star Print Diaper

2010-09-01T13:04:00.003-05:00

Do you remember Zwibble Dibbles from the 90's? We've seen a few of these unusual characters, but we now have a like new GUND 1990 full body puppet pink ZWIBBLE DIBBLE wearing a star print diaper in our catalog.

Steiff No. 5355 - 36 1981-1990 Brown Beige Cosy Bear BUTTON IN EAR

2010-09-01T11:01:00.002-05:00

Do you still have the Steiff bear you had as a child? Is he carefully tucked away in the cedar chest, or do you still sleep with him? Does he have the place of honor on a shelf in your bedroom? How do you keep the memories of your childhood lovie alive???

We have a vintage Steiff No. 5355 - 36 1981-1990 brown and beige Cosy Bear with the BUTTON IN EAR for sale in our catalog right now.

1986 Commonwealth Jumbo Love Yellow Bear

2010-09-01T10:45:00.005-05:00

Did you have a Jumbo Love when you were little? I so, I think you would enjoy seeing the photos of the one we found recently. We have this very rare 1986 Commonwealth Jumbo Love Yellow Bear in excellent condition for sale. But even if you're not interested in buying it, you might enjoy looking at the photos of it. They just might bring back some good childhood memories for you.

We have a NEW Catalog!!

2010-09-01T01:00:00.000-05:00

DIRTY BUTTER Plush Animal Shoppe CATALOG

I had big plans to chronicle all the steps I took to create our Plush Catalog site, but I ended up being so busy with the doing that I forgot to write about what I was doing! LOL

So, I instead would like to introduce you to our new CubeCart catalog. We had so many problems getting a proper search and inventory control system worked out with the site I had created by hand that we ended up getting a programmer to help us change over to a Cube Cart system.

There are still some bugs in it that we are working hard to get rid of, but our sales are picking up, as I have added almost 600 items to this new catalog already. Adding new items is a whole lot easier now than the old way was, and for that I'm grateful. We still have maybe 50 boxes of uncatalogued lovies to put online! I figure at the rate I'm going I never will catch up, because we are still going out on our Date Day each Friday and buying more lovies!! I can't help it! I'm addicted!!

Snuzzles MY BEDTIME BOOK in MINT CONDITION Added to Catalog

2008-07-10T18:19:00.005-05:00

Playskool Snuzzles Baby Bear MY BEDTIME BOOK

I added the last of our Playskool Snuzzles Blankies Collection to our Catalog today. I have seen this bedtime cloth book before without all the parts, but this is the only time I have ever seen one with not only all the parts, but the pieces still attached. The book has never been used, as far as I can tell, and is in MINT Condition.

We have well over 600 baby plush toys and soft dolls listed online now in our Catalog, and I still haven't scratched the surface of all the storage boxes of plush animals and dolls we have stored. I am nearing the end of the Baby Toys, however, so hopefully I can start soon on some of the other collections we have accumulated.

We are in business, but the Lost Toys Search Service has lit a fire in us to rescue these lovies and reunite them with the grieving children and desperate grownups who are searching for them. Since we are retired, and I am somewhat limited in my physical abilities, this is something I can do at home to help people. And I am thoroughly addicted to it!!!

Added My SNUZZLES to Our Catalog - Thoughts on Setting Prices for Collectibles

2008-06-26T09:37:00.006-05:00

SNUZZLES Large Lion Blankie

I added our collection of Playskool Snuzzles to our Catalog today. Some of the harder to find ones are listed for sale on eBay for close to $100! I have tried to price them at what I consider to be a reasonable price, but Snuzzles are some of my all time favorite lovies, and I can't bare to part with them for "bargain" prices.

This brings up something that came up in an email I received the other day referring to a seller's price on eBay for a HTF (Hard to Find) toy being price gouging. Buying and Selling Collectibles is totally a Supply and Demand driven business situation. It really doesn't matter how much a toy cost originally. What matters is how much people are willing to pay for them today, right now. If the price is too high for a potential buyer - they don't buy. If the price is too high for a seller - it doesn't sell. Eventually, everything seeks its own level. That's how auction sites like eBay work to help set the current value of any item.

So, I tried to find that spot where I feel good selling my Snuzzles, and hopefully someone else will feel good buying them.

So Easy to Get Confused

2008-06-19T19:22:00.005-05:00

I found a huge mistake in the catalog today, and it took quite a bit of time to fix it. I somehow managed to put up two pages that had some of the same pictures on them. I am feeling so much better now that I did not get all stressed and upset the way I would have back when I made the mistake. I was feeling so bad back then that I can't be surprised for making the mess. I had to change the numbering on a bunch of items, move some photos around, and fix the Google Base feed to correspond to the current numbering, but I did it.

I have now put over 500 plush toys online in our catalog, and we have had quite a few sales from it, too. I am working on putting up the Security Blankies now, but it will take me awhile to get the pages to a point that I can put them online. I have been experimenting with how to categorize them, and I hope I have come up with logical page categories.

I have also taken all the many puppets we have bought over the last few years and re-boxed them into what I hope will be reasonable categories, too, but I am a long way from taking all the photos and putting the descriptions up. But, I see progress in my storage system, and continue to work on making all our toys easier to find when someone asks for help finding a lost lovie on our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.

SingleFeed is a BIG Help!

2008-06-07T17:52:00.004-05:00

The folks from SingleFeed asked me to write a testimonial the other day, and I figured I would post it here, whether they end up using any of it or not on their own site.

We have been selling on eBay since 2002, gradually becoming more involved and business like as we went. We have also been working toward selling from our own website for some time now, and we finally have a small part of our inventory in our online catalog. I tried uploading our items to Google Base all by myself, but was having difficulties. It makes more sense to spend my time taking pictures, writing descriptions, and filling orders than to get bogged down with the details of sending a perfect feed to Google every time we add to our catalog. Sometimes that can be several times a week, as our inventory is sold and I add more items to the catalog.

Since I started using SingleFeed, I don’t have to spend any appreciable time on this part of our business at all. It took awhile to get the data feed set up the way SingleFeed requires it, but their directions made sense, the download gave me a template to work from, and they helped – something Google does not do. Now that I have a data file set up correctly, all I need to do is add our new items to the file and click Upload on SingleFeed’s site. On those rare occasions when I do make an error in the Excel form, I get an immediate response, showing which items are faulty and what the problem is. I can fix it immediately, upload again, and it’s all taken care of.

We are a small business, so for now, at least, we only use SingleFeed for Google Base. But it is very reassuring to know that if we ever decide to become involved with the comparison shopping sites, we are all ready for it. Some people might think it is foolish to pay for something I could eventually figure out for myself, but my time is definitely worth something and is much better spent on other aspects of our business. Using SingleFeed was a good business decision for us.

Can't Find a Website Search I Like!

2008-05-11T08:42:00.005-05:00

Eden Plush Baby Peter Rabbit Animals

I've tried a bunch of free to try software packages that provide a website search, but so far nothing does what I want. I've about decided to pay a programmer to do it for me. We're also considering pulling all our toys off eBay and just using that for our vintage collectibles. There are lots of pros and cons on that one, so we're in no hurry to decide.

I did pay the $100 to try the Business Version of Google's Custom Search. But the directions were basically no less confusing than the regular Custom Search. Looks like all you are really paying for is not having their ads on the page. I canceled it the same day I bought it, and did not have any problem getting my money back.

So I continue to take photos and add to our catalog, making do with the Catalog Search I have for now that is the Google Base search page.

Another Lesson Learned - Don't Assume the Cart Was Abandoned

2008-05-04T19:27:00.005-05:00

We had an abandoned shopping Cart today. But it turns out it was not abandoned after all. I don't know what caused me to check PayPal today, but there it was all paid, just as it should have been. But PayPal did not send me the email the way they normally do.

I wouldn't have even known about the sale if it had not been that Mal's e-commerce sends an email for each sale.

Conrolling the Quantity Available in the Shopping Cart

2008-04-24T05:46:00.005-05:00

I am still using Mal's eCommerce FREE Shopping Cart, so it's not surprising that I am having trouble getting it to do everything I want it to do. But, thanks to the support forum, I did find the code I needed to add to each BUY NOW link to stop people from ordering more than one of an item. Well, it almost stops everyone. All someone has to do is click on an item more than once, and it will show up multiple times in the cart. But at least they can't change the number available in the cart any more. That will have to do for now, since every page in the Catalog has a prominent notice that they need to contact me before buying, if they want more than one of an item.

We ran into an unexpected glitch on selling two of an item to a customer recently. Our toys are not new, although we do strive to offer ones that look new or close to it. The buyer was pleased with one of the items, but in comparing the two was not happy that one looked like it had been washed and had shrunk in size a little. I didn't even notice it, but the buyer sure did. We offered a small discount and all was well. But that has caused us to rethink allowing anyone to buy more than one of an item, since the comparison might cause this to happen again. Particularly when we have already received a request to buy that same item again at full price, but we don't have any more in stock.

We have had our first experiences with abandoned shopping carts, too. I abandon carts myself occasionally, so I can't really complain. It's just at this stage of the process I would like to know why they left. I tried emailing one person who abandoned the cart, to ask for some help understanding if it was something in my setup that caused them to leave, but did not receive an answer.

As I get more and more items listed online, the sheer physical task of being able to find the items that have been sold is getting more difficult. That's not going to be an easy problem to solve, since storage space is my problem. Looking for an item means stacking and unstacking quite a few plastic tubs, looking for the specific item. There has to be a better way, but I haven't figured it out yet.

Problems with Quantity Orders

2008-04-17T06:06:00.005-05:00

We have had several orders from out Catalog lately where buyers are paying for more than one of an item. It is rather unusual for us to have more than one of a particular lovie in stock at any given time, although there are a few, such as Rumples, that we do have lots of, as we buy them every time we can find them. There just does not seem to be any way to stop this multiple ordering from happening. I started by putting a disclaimer on each catalog page cautioning readers that most of our toys were only a quantity of one and to contact us if they were interested in buying more than one. When that didn't turn out to be enough, I went through all 300 items and added a Quantity Available number to each listing, right by the link to buy it. We are still getting orders for more than we can fill.

Mal's cart just doesn't have any way of preventing someone from ordering more than we have on hand. At least I haven't found any way of preventing it. I am going to ask a question about this on the Mal's Cart forum to see if anyone can help. Until then, I will just have to refund payments and email buyers, explaining we can only sell them 1.

Other than that problem, everything else is going quite well. Our Auction Sage program we have used for years with eBay auctions has come out with a new version that makes adding in website sales a whole lot easier, so that will be a big help. I think they were seeing the handwriting on the wall. eBay is in trouble. They have finally pushed the sellers to the point that those little guys like us are leaving in droves. I know we are not listing much for auctions any more, although we do have a respectable size inventory in our Store. It's just too expensive to do business there any more.

Even though we are selling from our own site, eBay still gets a piece of the action because they own PayPal. That means they get a fee from us every time we make a sale. We do have one pending sale waiting on a Money Order, but all the others have been immediate pay through PayPal.

Of course, if we opened a merchant account with a credit card company, they would take a percentage of the sale, too. But it would not be helping eBay. That's almost enough reason to open a merchant account. Well, almost. We are just too small potatoes to do that right now.

Haven't Found a Website Search Form I Like Yet

2008-03-29T12:27:00.007-05:00

I seem to be stuck on finding exactly what I want for the Search on our Catalog. What I am using now is a refined Google Base Search, but that is on a separate Google page, and not part of our own website. It also, since it is a Google page, has links to other sellers. That's not a good idea, but will have to do until I can find better.

Something else I have realized I need to do is to put a bookmark link to each of the photos on a given catalog page, so when someone does click on the search item it will take them straight to that item, not just the page it is on. Again, a website designer would have already done that to begin with, but I am learning all this the hard way, by trial and error. More error - it seems like! LOL!!

But, we are making sales from the Catalog, so for that I am grateful.

Continuing to Add to Catalog

2008-03-26T07:21:00.007-05:00

The SingleFeed spreadsheet continues to work well, so I can update Google Base each day. I decided on Mal's Shopping Cart, and I am pleased with the ease of use for a free program. There were a few mistakes I made in the Cart setup, but it only took the first few customers to find what needed to be fixed. They do provide an easy way to see and test the cart while you are working on it.

I don't have to send any information to Mal's, because the code goes in each item listing in the Catalog, and even lets me tell the Shopping Cart where to send the buyer when they finish.

The only real flaw I have found with it is I cannot LIMIT the quantity available. I ended up putting a large warning sign on each page of the catalog, telling people that we only had one of each item in most cases. This flaw showed up when someone ordered 4 of an item. It's free, and even paid software usually has a few parts that don't fit someone's particular situation, so I am satisfied with its performance.

Working on Adding our Catalog Blog to Directories

2008-03-24T09:22:00.009-05:00

I started our other blogs so long ago that I had forgotten just how many little steps there are to get a blog properly setup on the internet.

I started last night adding this blog to the Directories that will help get traffic, and thus the catalog. I added this blog to our Dirty Butter MyBlogLog Community today.

There's much more to do, but that's all I have time for right now. We usually go to some of our favorite close to home toy hunt places on Monday afternoons, so maybe we will find one of the lovies our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service readers have asked us to find.

Waiting on Google to Index our Catalog

2008-03-23T16:45:00.013-05:00

OK, I have the beginnings of our products Searchable on Google Base now, thanks to the free trial of SingleFeed I'm using. It costs $4.99 a month, but they fix the mistakes in the data feed so it does not get denied by Google.

You may ask why I'm paying someone to send the feed to Google Base.

The answer is simple.

I never could figure out what I was doing wrong, and Google is no help at all.

You can pay more at SingleFeed and use one form to submit to lots of different shopping search engines like Shopping.com, but Google will be enough for our needs. I have already sent three feeds to them, and it was not hard at all, as I already had most of what they wanted in an Excel file already, thanks to my attempts to send the data feed to Google on my own.

Now my problem is that our subdomain has not been Indexed by Google yet, so I can't create a working Custom Search Engine to put on our catalog pages yet. I have sent a Site Map of the subdomain to Google, so all I can do now is wait. As I add items to the catalog I will send a new SingleFeed upload, update the Site Map, and keep on waiting.

It's that wait that prompted me to start this blog about the process of starting our own website sales. Google is good about indexing blogs pretty quickly, but puts new websites in what is called the sandbox. Basically it means they hold onto new sites for awhile before they acknowledge their existence, in an attempt to discourage spammers from flooding their searches with fake sites. I understand why they do it, but it is very frustrating for those legitimate sellers like us who are trying to get a place in the search engine.

Are All the Catalog Links Accurate?

2008-03-22T16:36:00.015-05:00

I've changed my mind several times about what the URL of our catalog should be, because I was having problems getting the Google Base Product Search to ignore all the posts on our Lost Toy Search Service blog. So, in the process of creating the links one way, then changing them to something else, and then making a final decision for try number three, I'm having to correct lots of wrong links. I found one today that was caused by using Find/Replace All, when I did not think through what I needed to type in the blanks. So, now I am searching through all our site URL's to change plushplush to just plush!

At least I learned a long time ago how to make custom 404 Not Found pages that would allow the reader to find what they wanted. Hopefully, the links on those error pages are correct. Guess I'd better go be sure of that!

This is a perfect example of learning from my mistakes, but it's still aggravating. Of course, people who make websites for a living would have long ago figured out the best navigation configuration for a product catalog. And I think I have a good arrangement now, but who knows?????

Starting Our Online CATALOG of Plush Toys

2008-03-22T08:59:00.007-05:00

We have been selling online now for almost six years, mostly on our Dirty Butter Store on eBay, although we did try the original Wagglepop until it disappeared. Every once in awhile we would make a direct sale to someone who wrote us wanting help.

But we really didn't start selling much from our own site until we started our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.

We quickly reached the point, partly thanks to the MSNBC article we were featured in, that people were emailing us wanting to know where they could look at our toys online. So, back in February, I started taking photos of our Baby Animals and Baby Dolls and putting them in our own Catalog.

I have always envisioned a fun place to look at lots of adorable toys, almost like window shopping, with an easy way to buy them. Hopefully, I have succeeded in making buying from us an easy and enjoyable experience for you. If you see any problems on our site, please let me know. I am still learning, and I'm sure I have made mistakes and some poor design choices.

I have learned a lot while starting the catalog, but there is still a lot more to be learned. This blog will give me a place to share not only what we sell, but also what is involved in the process of selling directly from our own website.