Howdy All
A long time reader here....I want to thank this site's members for all the knowledge I've acquired from spending hours, no....days reading here. Have spent weeks of research in gathering info for my first fair & I'd say at least 50-60% of useful knowledge gained has come from you folks. Although this site is dominated by you Eastern types (I'm close to the other ocean), most of the discussions are applicable anywhere.
To best answer my question, you should know that unlike most of you, I am into this racket strictly for kicks. Retired from the real world, I enjoy digital painting & if I can find some blind customers who are willing to pay for my prints, it'll be a nice ego boost. I'm spending discretionary income on this & any money received will go towards putting a dent in my expenses, & of course....beer.
The 2nd item to understand is that I have no use for or desire to have a Smart or Cell phone.
After aligning most of my ducks (tent, products, permits,etc) in a row, I thought it would be a simple matter of going with Costco's merchant payment processor, Elavon. Alas, the lack of a Smart phone is now biting me in a unmentionable place. Their mobile device costs 8 C-notes plus monthly cell phone charges, etc,etc.
I've done a small amount of research of the services most often mentioned here, Square, Paypal, etc. It appears that all those services rely on having a Smartphone or tablet device.
IF I have to get a tablet or phone I will bite the bullet & do so. If a service's mobile device is available that's cheaper than the cost of a phone or tablet, I wold go with that. But at $800, it would seem to foolish to go that route. Elavon allows you to suspend their service if you have no events in a certain month, but I would still be on the hook for monthly ATT charges. I have 2 fairs booked in June so there's some time to do more research.
Even if stuck with a significant upfront cost, I would like to avoid monthly charges. I simply have no idea at this stage if my art will sell. I'll do a few shows & if it's a bust, I'll go back to my prior life. I would hate to be paying off a cell phone contract after all my art-supplies are sold.
Your thoughts on this dilemma would be very appreciated.
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Thanks to you folks, I now find myself having to spend my limited mental resources learning about cellphones & tablets, something I successfully avoided all these years....as if spending hundreds of hours studying marketing my hobby wasn't enough....Geezz, what did I ever do to you guys!?!>#@<
Lot's of great stuff posted ...forgive me if I don't mention you by name, but be assured that everyone has my thanks. Each suggestion was processed through my Central CPU unit (still in Beta) which is close to overheating......and, it's too early to cool the system with a brewski.
It would be grand if folks would expound on the following;
1) Is any particular (used/older) tablet or phone easier to read then others? As stated, me eyes ain't what they used to be. As long as it can process the sale, I will go with the one that is the most legible.
2)The pay-as-you-go coverage might have merit. Looking at T-mobile, they advertise>>
24-HOUR DATA PASS, All-day LTE data for just $5.Only need high-speed data for a day? Get up to 500MB of 4G LTE whenever you want it.
On it's surface (I always hunt for the tiny asterisk), that sounds perfect for my situation.....anyone have experience with this? When they mention DATA, that's what payment processing is, correct?
3) I see Best Buy has several Verizon Prepaid Phones with monthly plans, but I do question the readability of a phone compared to a larger tablet. I'll check that out in a store.
4) Running the sale in a off-line mode sounds intriguing. Since I do everything myself, my material costs (printing,mat/backing, etc) per print are only $3.00 (smallest size) to $9.00 (largest). I have to sell hundreds of these to even pay myself $1.00 per hour for the actual original painting, so the dollar risk per item is nominal.
Do I understand how this works correctly?
Without a cellphone connection, at the event I run the transaction through a phone or tablet via the Square or other gadget, taking a chance that it's a legit card. At home, I hook the device up to my home computer that has a FIOS cable connection & run the transaction again. Is this how it works?
With all the stuff to understand I'm glad that the first event isn't till the middle of June. The tent has been up for a couple of weeks & I'm placing framed art prints, displays,etc around it to see what looks best. With the info from you folks, the final piece of the puzzle will fall into place....or is it the final nail in the coffin?
Cheers
https://www.consumercellular.com/
no contracts and easaily change plans anytime
been using it for years with the square reader
Wow...lot's of good info to drink up here....moocho grass people...I'll soak it up later this evening & get back to u folks tomorrow.
MOD...I thought I started this post in the Business forum? Was it moved?....it's OK, just had trouble finding it.
Some other folks here have mentioned pay-as-you-go plans which could be a good option for you. Another option - which will reduce your monthly costs but carries some fraud risk - is to buy the cheap/used tablet or phone and use Square in its offline processing mode, *without* purchasing a mobile data plan. Then when you go home/back to hotel/etc. connect the tablet to wifi and let the transactions process.
The risks of course include that if the customer canceled the card, or reported it stolen, or the card expired between the time you accepted it and the time you connected to process transactions, or if they used a canceled or invalid card in the first place, then you are out both product and profit. Of course the same would be true with one of the old style knucklebusters. You also need to make sure you connect & process within 3 days or the transactions will expire, and you can't delete and reinstall the app while transactions are still pending or you'll lose them. More info here: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5095-process-payments-with-....
I have successfully avoided smart phones. I have a Track phone which allows me to make calls, text and take pictures and has an option for having WiFi. (Which I don't use). I use a swiper from Propay. It lets me swipe cards at a show and plug it into the computer when I get back home. There is some risk not having the immediate access to see if the card is good. I used to have a knuckle buster. I couldn't check on that immediately either. In at least 10 years we have had only 1 or 2 credit card problems. I hope that you find a good alternative for you. Let us know what you decide.
Steve Mill, I share your opinion about cell phones and I just got my first one this year. I took my wife's old one when she upgraded. I only got it because at my age, 74, I felt I should have it for emergencies when traveling alone. Only family has the number. I have used an Ipad at art shows for several years. I'm not in it for kicks as I like to make money and invest it to make more - going down the road of having lost two fortunes (tech bubble in 80's(?) and wife's post cancer health insurance) and building the third LOL. I find that shows can go either way where sales are predominantly credit card or predominantly cash in Colorado resort areas. Foreign visitors tend to pay cash, tourists both, locals use cards or a few checks. My prices range from $3-$10K. There are the monthly bank fees to pay when there are no shows in the winter and few studio card sales. It is simple a cost of doing business. I upgraded my Ipad this year. It was listed online for $360 but I called Verizon and got it for $218.
I want to endorse the iPad + Verizon combo. I also use the iPad to run slide shows of my wider range and esp. stuff too big to take to shows; then I just grab it to do a sale. I thought I would be stopping and starting the Verizon data service, but it's so handy that I keep it on all the time (and I take it as a business expense for sure).
But I do want to dissent about Square. Everybody loves Square, but me! Square gobbles up your customers' info and doesnt share it with you. And good luck finding anyone to reply if you need help with anything. I still have a Square accoount but never use it except when I have to run a chip card for a large amount (less often than I'd like) because I've been too cheap so far to buy a chip reader for PAY ANYWHERE, which is what I use all the time. Same cost, you see customers' names and emails if they enter it, and you can PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL A HUMAN BEING. They're very professional. I know, they're owned by some big bank we all hate, but it works very well.
Well, it seems I have to go the Cellular route one way or another if I want to take CCs.
Luc, thanks for the suggestion, but since it doesn't work w/ chips or the none-embossed cards, I better pass.
Because me eyes ain't as sharp as when I was a Legend In My Own Mind, I should go the ipad/tablet route as I'll have difficulty reading a phone. Checking Amazon, I see ipads 2 are selling in the low $100s.
Can anyone recommend a cell phone provider that charges month to month? I won't be using the phone (I assume the ipad has one built-in ???) for anything except payment processing.
Per Robin, >>Rethink not getting a smart phone my friend. And welcome to this century! :-)<<
No way....the world must acclimate itself to me, not the other way around!
My Ex-wife used to call me The Uni-bomber because of my er...obstinate ideas...you can see why she had to go. :-)))
Weldon, when I told the Elavon salesman I might be interested in them only if there was a decrease in the $800, he indicated he would check & get back to me. That was a few days ago.... they ain't on my list any longer.
I'm with you Steve~I tossed my smart phone-don't want it-don't need it! Steve & I just have cheap pay as you go phones-NO CONTRACT! As far as taking credit cards, we use Square, an Apple iPad, chip-reader (one-time purchase), a Hot-Spot (portable Wi-Fi-one time purchase for about $50.00 on sale)) We also use Verizon pre-paid because of their great coverage, & we don't have a contract. Also just to give you an idea, pre-paid data at Verizon is about $30.00 a month for 2 gigs. Just make sure that your tablet is compatible with Square-not all are, but many Apple products are. Also, if you only do shows 8 or 9 months out of the year, this is great because you only pay as you go! Good Luck to you! Kathleen & Steven
Whatever you do, stay away from Elavon. I used them years ago and they were nothing but a nightmare.
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