Hey, STAMPfriends! If you aren't following our
Facebook page, now's a good time do so because we've got a flash giveaway happening over there.
And it's a giveaway wherein you and a friend can win! So head on over there now and get your entries in. Giveaway ends Sunday night, August 16, with winners announced Monday night, August 17.
About the giveaway prize:
Bloomtangled #1 is one of our super-popular cover plate dies and I recently re-stocked it (it's 25% off when you use the code
CUT25). My manufacturer included a few extras over what I ordered so I'm happy to give away a couple of these :o)
*****
A Backstory and a Plea for Support
Interestingly, this cover plate die was the victim of theft. Last month, I was made aware that a Chinese company (not going to mention the name nor link to it because they don't deserve any promotion or link juice from me) was selling a knock-off of the Bloomtangled #1 design. It was a shoddy copy of the design -- a little modification here, a little frame added there, and they called it their product and was selling it in their store dirt cheap. But hey, it was pretty obvious that they stole that design from me.
It wasn't the first time my designs have been stolen; in fact, I've been dealing with this kind of theft for the past 14 months and I have been pretty disheartened, exhausted, and so, so ready to give up. Long story short, I shot off a cease-and-desist email to the company with a threat that I will report them to Shopify for copyright infringement and intellectual property theft if they did not take down the product page and stop selling the die. Within 12 hours of them acknowledging receipt of my email, the product was gone from their store. As with all other cases like this one, I continue to monitor and check their store to make sure they didn't put it back up for sale.
If you have ever wondered how some companies are able to sell stamps and dies for literally pennies, it's because 99% of the time, they are selling stolen designs. They never invested in the design development...all they really did was copy the design and have them produced. They never invested many, many hours brainstorming and coming up with original designs. Unlike small business owners like me, these thieves were never torn deciding between time to spend on designing products and time to spend on their families, especially when these thieves don't have small children and their business is not their sole source of income. Those who have purchased from these companies before and thought they got a great deal...well, yeah they did, but what they don't realize is that it was at the expense of legitimate designers and small companies who are barely making a profit from their original products.
Now more than ever, small companies like STAMPlorations need your support. Please, please don't buy counterfeit products. If the price seems too good to be true, trust that little voice in your head -- it's called your conscience -- and don't spend your money on stores/companies that seem to give off a counterfeit vibe. Small businesses are barely surviving these days, and when their designs are stolen and are bought from thieves, then that is one huge thing that contributes to their eventual demise.
If we let these counterfeiters continue to profit off the work of legitimate artists, designers, and small companies, there would hardly be any more small companies like STAMPlorations left because we simply can't fight all the theft and infringement and still be able to invest in original designs and have them produced, only to be stolen soon enough, and then be expected to stay in business.
