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GroundStrike Collectibles Newsletter
Vol. 4 No. 2
September 2003
Hi
Limoges Lovers!
I know many of you thought we'd
abandoned you... after all, the last newsletter or Flash we sent was
back in FEBRUARY! My apologies for this and I do have an excuse...
AOL Customers: The Shopping
Cart is FIXED!
Our shopping cart system on our
web site has had a problem since early this year with certain AOL
customers. AOL had made a change to their system that caused our
shopping cart to fail in some instances (my AOL customers who have
experienced the "shopping cart is empty" message know what I'm talking
about!). Well, after months of investigation our tech people finally
figured out the problem and fixed it once and for all. Needless to say
we're very excited about this!
So that is my excuse... I didn't want to
send out a newsletter while we were having a problem and cause
frustration for a significant number of my customers. But now it's FIXED
and I promise to resume regular Flash and newsletter emails!
NEW Rochard Catalog
I think this is my most exciting
news of this newsletter... the new Rochard Catalog is online! It is
their 2003 catalog although it just came out recently. Compared to the
2002 catalog, the pictures are brighter, bigger, and I think the pages
are easier to navigate. When you're ready to drool, get comfortable and
start surfing all 120 pages! Almost 25% of the boxes are new to the 2003
catalog (over 240 new boxes). Of the returning boxes that have increased
in price, the average price increase is under $8. Some have even
declined in price... a few by as much as $20! When you're ready for a
treat, click here to get started:
http://www.groundstrike.com/limoges/catalogs/rochard/1cat_index.htm
The Summer "Kick Off" Sale
Over the years that GroundStrike
has been in business, we've carried boxes that have since been retired
by the suppliers and are no longer available to restock. The pictures of
many of these boxes were taken before we began using a professional
photographer for our photos. Since we can't restock the boxes it doesn't
make sense to retake the photos, so we're "kicking them off" at
significantly reduced prices - often less than we paid for them. They're
selling out fast and of course once they're gone, they're gone forever.
Check out our "Summer Sale" at:
http://www.groundstrike.com/sale.htm
Authorized Dealer!
GroundStrike Collectibles is an
authorized dealer for all of the top lines of Limoges boxes, including
Rochard, Artoria, Chamart, Dubarry, Chanille, and Chateau. What that
means is that we carry only the first quality boxes provided directly by
the importer. On the Internet you'll find unauthorized dealers selling
boxes bearing the major importer names. Beware! These are often boxes
that have been rejected by the importer for quality reasons and were
sold "on the sly" by the manufacturer. They were supposed
to be destroyed.
The Memories Collection
A favorite customer of ours
purchases personalized boxes for her two daughters. The personalizations
are along the lines of "Samantha's First Birthday, 9/3/2003" and
"Carolyn's First Halloween, 10/31/2002", and they're always done on
boxes that are appropriate for the occasion. She has built up quite a
collection of memories for her girls and I must say I think that's a
fabulous way to collect. What a great way to remember significant events
in your life and in the lives of your children. Limoges boxes are often
passed from generation to generation so even many years from now the
events will be remembered. Most of our Limoges boxes can be personalized
very quickly with a process that our customers have been very
enthusiastic about (we don't just write on the box with a Magic Marker
like I've seen done by others!). For more information, see our web page
on "Personalization" at:
http://www.groundstrike.com/info/personalization.htm
Yuck... Price Increases...
It was inevitable. The Euro has
soared against the dollar and all of our Limoges suppliers are facing
increased costs both due to the currency conversion and because the
boxes themselves are getting more expensive. That means you'll see price
increases on several lines of Limoges boxes eventually.
But there's some good news. We've decided
not to increase our prices on our boxes until we run out of stock and
have to reorder them. This will apply to ALL lines we carry in stock. If
you're thinking of purchasing gifts later in the year, you might want to
consider buying them sooner instead of later as many inevitably will go
up. And be forewarned: the price increases we're seeing are from $10 to
over $80 on some boxes!
There's some more good news... Chamart,
one of our favorite suppliers, has decided to hold their prices despite
their increased costs! I don't know how they're doing it but I'm not
going to argue!!! We're working to add their complete catalog to our web
site and we'll let you know as soon as that is ready. They have an
incredible line of Limoges boxes, so it's going to be exciting to have
their catalog online.
The "You've Made It to Here"
Reward!
If they can remember back that
far, my regular newsletter readers know this is the place to look for
the "goodie". We're so excited about the new Rochard Catalog that we're
going to make a very special, very limited time offer... all Rochard
Catalog items ordered between now and midnight Central Time on Sunday,
September 14 will receive a 20% (that's TWENTY percent)
discount! To get the discount, just type "Rochard Sale" in the
"Special Instructions" box in the shopping cart (at the bottom where you
enter shipping and billing addresses). This discount applies only to
items in the online
Rochard Catalog with item numbers beginning with
"RS", and is available only to newsletter subscribers. These are special orders which means they may take from 2-4
weeks for delivery; other boxes ordered at the same time will be
shipped with the special order boxes. The discount will NOT be shown in the shopping cart
or your confirmation email, but will be shown on the paper invoice
included with your order.
Thanks for being our loyal customer.
We appreciate it!
Sam Juliano
GroundStrike Collectibles
http://www.groundstrike.com
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