Talbert Pipes- New Talbert Briar Scallop and two matched Goblins

[Trever Talbert]

Hello all!  Lots of news today.  First off, I'm finishing out July today with three new pipes - A Beautiful Signature-grade Talbert Briar 'Scallop' in a spiral grain design:

http://www.talbertpipes.pair.com/talbert.shtml


... and two matched Goblin Claws for those who want their pipes huge, green, and gnarly:

http://www.talbertpipes.pair.com/goblins.shtml


Also, I've done some fairly extensive revamping of our shipping fees on Paypal. Previously, when we first set up the Paypal button payment system, we just fudged our shipping fees for simplicity - Depending on where a box was going to in the US, for example, the actual fee might be anything from $10 to $14 but we just used a generic $12 charge for everything. Sometimes we lost money, sometimes we had a couple bucks to help pay for boxes, packing materials, etc. Anyway, I wanted to get this a bit more accurate so I spent yesterday afternoon calculating more precise shipping fees, being sure to add a bit to each for packing and materials time, and accurately setting up the shipping fees for the more expensive insured pipes, especially for international buyers. This is still a bit "lump sum" - It isn't possible to accurately put in figures for every country on earth at every value amount, but I've got the amounts more accurate for the countries we most commonly ship to. 

I've also added the option for USPS Express Mail International, which is quite fast even though it's also expensive (Usually averaging at least $40-$45). In the process, I discovered the ironic reality that very often, the cheaper shipping process with insurance would be nearly as expensive as the Express option... There are numerous cases where a $500 pipe could be shipped Priority Mail Insured for $41 and arrive in 1-2 weeks, or shipped Express Mail Insured for $43 and arrive in 2-5 days. I look at choices like these and think, "Gee, is the post office trying to nudge people in a certain direction?" In any case, if you start occasionally seeing some bizarre shipping fees side-by-side, it's not from me, it's straight from the post office. All shipping fees for higher grade pipes are now calculated to include full insurance on a sliding scale based on the value of the pipe. 

Also, I've added Express Mail options for domestic shipment. I'm not personally sure why anyone would opt to pay $40 to receive a non-essential item like a pipe in 2 days versus $12 to get it in 3, but the option is there is anyone wants it.  And, finally, I've added a new Pipe Blog article about my quest for a better, auto-updating catalog shopping cart system. Web guru types are urged to give it a quick read in case anyone out there knows the perfect way to make my catalog items update their 'Sold' status without having to spend thousands of dollars or weeks of work rebuilding my whole website setup:

http://talbertpipes.blogspot.com/2012/07/in-need-of-web-boffin.html

That's all for now.  As always, thanks very much for your time and for your interest in our work!
Happy Smoking,
Trever Talbert
www.talbertpipes.com