🎃 A Haunting We Will Go ☠ Halloween elf Exchange (2019)

[ZombieMetroAnt]

                                      *  Sign ups are now closed*

                                       DEADline to sign up was 9/30

                                     👻     👻     👻     👻     👻     👻

 

Something's brewing, and it 'll be ghoulishly fun! A wicked good time for everyone...

If you are interested in joining, please see the Eligibility Requirements, Rules, and Key Dates below to see if this will be a good fit for you!  

We are looking forward to some haunting good fun!  

Bugs & hisses,
PrettyinPA & ZombieMetroAnt 

🎃 important information for all potential Ghoulfriends...

Spoiler

👻 ELIGIBILITY 

Have you participated in a gift exchange on BT/BIC previously?

Yes
Previous participants in exchanges that either MCakes, @prettyinpa  or I have hosted without incident on their part are pre-approved. If you participated in an exchange that MCakes, PrettyinPA or I have not hosted, please kindly provide a link to that exchange thread for us to do our due diligence. If there were no issues from the exchange on your part, we are excited to have you on board!

No
Meet one or more of the following requirements:

1.Must be willing to do a $50 box deposit that will be taken at sign up and returned once your Ghoulfriend has given us confirmation of delivery.
2.Must be vouched for by 2 members of the community who PrettyinPA or I are familiar with.

*Since we are trying to be as inclusive as possible while also protecting other participants in this exchange, PrettyinPA and I will have final discretion on participant eligibility. We realize that this is very subjective, but we must establish a certain degree of trust between users as there is sensitive information being exchanged. Thank you for your understanding.


👻 RULES

By expressing interest in signing up for the exchange, you are agreeing to the following:

-The minimum spend for this exchange is $50. You do not need to go over this amount, but in the spirit of fairness you may not go under it.

-If you have not participated in an exchange previously, you must ship your gift on or before October 21st. If you miss this deadline and do not communicate with PrettyinPA or I about the reason for your delay, you will not get your box deposit back. Instead, we will use your box deposit to create a gift on your behalf. No Ghoulfriend will be left behind!

-Provide tracking number(s) to PrettyinPA or I once you have shipped your gift. This can be done via Elfster or messaging PrettyinPA or I.

-Acknowledge receipt of your gift ASAP, even if you need a little more time to do a full post. This is a courtesy to your giftor to know it was received (it is stressful waiting to know if a package made the journey ok!) and for PrettyinPA and I to keep track of the progress in the exchange. You may do this via Elfster, by posting on this thread that you have received the parcel, or by messaging either PrettyinPA or I.

-You must post pictures of your gift. This is an integral part of the exchange experience and we want to share in the excitement with you! We know how much thought and care goes into curating a gift, and we want to acknowledge your giftor's efforts as well. You may provide pictures for either PrettyinPA or I to post on your behalf if you are having issues posting, but please know that the pictures are a firm requirement.


👻 KEY DATES

Sign Up Deadline: 09/30/19

Draw Day (This is the day you find out who you are shopping for, yay!): 10/1/19

Ship Date for First Time Participants: 10/21/19 (*If you are shipping from Canada to US or vice versa, this deadline will be earlier)

All Gifts Must be Received: On or before 10/31/19 (Halloween Day)

👻To sign up, please comment on this thread! ZMA and I will be messaging approved participants with more details and will be updating the Participant List as we go. 

🎃 Tips, Tricks & Other spooktacular ideas!

Spoiler

💀 Elfster Tips:

-> Ask questions! Anyone can ask anyone an anonymous question, that will help you get a better idea of likes and dislikes, haves and wants, etc. It is important to note of any dietary restrictions 


->When you purchase something, click "Mark As Purchased." They won't see it, but they might be using the same wishlist for other gift exchanges, so this can prevent them potentially getting the same gift from two different people.


->If you got something for yourself, remove it from your wishlist!

🎃 Shipping suggestions: 

Spoiler

How to ship abroad/add a customs label while still using online shipping:

1. Creating an account: First, you must create a free account on the USPS website. The paypal.com/shipnow site will not let you create customs forms.

2. Shipping Label: To create the shipping label, you want to use the "Click n Ship" function from the dropdown menu under Mail & Ship. Many of the directions from above are basically the same but the key difference is under, "Where are you sending to?" you will need to use the dropdown menu to select the country of choice.

3. Finishing the Shipping Label:Fill in all the corresponding information until the end of the form including the value of the package. The Canadians on the board may have more to speak to with this but I always kept this amount on the lower side so the recipient doesn't get hit with high customs fee. (average amount I would put would be $10-$20) A great feature is at the end of the page it will give you all your options for shipping. I can tell you on a personal note that when I ship to England I always choose first class international mail and I have never had a problem. Once again, delivery confirmation is thrown in for FREE.

3. Beginning the Customs Form: You will then get to a page that will you through step by step filling in the customs form. The first question will ask you to "Enter Package Information." This is where you can just write this is a gift box for a friend. You do not need to write anything more!

4. Customs Inventory: Next up is, "Enter Item Information." Okay, this one is a little tricky. If you want to itemize, and fill in every single thing in the box, you can. If you only want to do a couple, you can. I've done both over the years and both have been okay. I'm not going to tell you though that it will work every time so ultimately, the decision is up to you. Make sure though that you mark each item a GIFT so that the recipient does not get charged increased fees. Also, and this is IMPORTANT, the total that adds up for the all the items has to be the same total you gave on the previous page for the value of the box. So if you make something worth $1, that's fine! (Again, Canadians speak up hear if I'm wrong but my abroad friends always told me it was better to do this to reduce customs fees for the recipient.) Lastly, each weight of each individual item will need to add up to the to the total weight item, so I've honestly literally made up ratio numbers in the past. (I have never had a problem in years of sending packages)

5. Tarrif Number: Lastly, you do not have a tariff number so leave that blank. Okay, one last thing, choose your AES exemption. I would choose the second one having to do with gifts.

6. Obtaining the Label/Customs Form: The steps following this are similar to the ones from above except that I believe the payment options for USPS may also include credit card options as well as PayPal. Go ahead and print your label which will also contain your completed customs form. (Please note: you may need to sign your customs form before affixing it to your package) On a positive note, YOU STILL SAVE MONEY BY USING THE ONLINE POSTAGE SYSTEM!

7. How to actually ship it:For international packages, my personal advice is yes, bring it to the post office, and yes, actually check it in and get a receipt saying it was checked in by a postal worker. Since many international packages take quite longer than domestic and tend to get delayed at different intervals, you want to make sure that everything is okay when it first enters the system.

Duty info (thanks Veronika23 ):

The US can receive a gift up to 100$ USD. If you are sending a gift from Canada and mark it as 100$ you are actually saying it cost you 100$ CAD. Today Google converts that to 73.30$ USD so your recipient should be ok and not pay additional fees.

Canada can receive a gift up to 60$ CAD. If you are sending a gift from the US and it was 60$, you are actually saying it cost you 60$ USD. Today Google converts that to 81.86$ CAD. So your Canadian recipient in this case might pay duties/taxes/fees. But if your gift only cost you is lets say 35$ USD today Google converts that to 47.75$CAD. So the recipient shouldn't pay fees.

I believe customs will check the rate on the day the item is processed.

For the US ladies. The cheapest way to ship to Canada is via USPS First Class International mail.

 🎃 Participants: 

Spoiler

😨 faeriegirl
😰 Anastasiya13
😱 PrettyinPA
😈 ohheyitscindyk
💀 Brutalitops
☠ cc3616
👻 SpaceLlama
👾 gonerogue
🎭 mermadelove
☠ itsfi
🎃 Lipstick4soul
🔮 Lazybeautybeast
🎭 Kim888
💀 quspork
👻 SportyGirly125
😈 Buootiful
🔮 Snoflakefaerie
🎃 MichelleShops
👻 Nickelliebear1
😰 Samtian
💀 SunKissedBlush
☠ bem564
😨 Sarah2TheHi
🧟 ZombieMetroAnt

Mix one part Scream with two parts Scare,

a pinch of Fear, a dash of Dare...

and give your elf a Halloween Box Extraordinare!

[mermadelove]

@Kim888 This exchange and Galentine’s are legitimately a highlight of my year!!!! 

So much good cheer! 

[gonerogue]

@mermadelove  You’re always so quick on shipping! If only you could send that cute UPS puppy to deliver the gift to your elfie 😉

[mermadelove]

@gonerogue  Oh, how cute would THAT be????? Yes, ?I’m trying to reclaim my first t ship crown! LOLOL 

I do want to remind everyone that mercury goes retrograde on October 31st so the sooner you ship the better! Mercury is not kind to travel and we don’t want our packages traveling to Timbuktu before getting to our Elfies! And on that note, I’ll leave you with this:

[Nickelliebear1]

Me on my way to Elfster to start scrolling through wishlists like:  

[mermadelove]

@Nickelliebear1  cutest gif ever! 😍

[Samtian]

I'm currenlty wasting time and going through everyone's wishlists. I see a few people have a Nuff Said Schrute Farms sweater or shirt on their list. What is it? Where is it? I want details...please. 

[lipstick4soul]

Surfing wishlists is an awesome time suck. Almost as much fun as deciding what to buy  for one’s ghoulfriend. 

[mermadelove]

@Samtian I am totally with you! I basically lurk BIC these days reading everyone’s messages in my email daily digest like a wall flower but your comment had me in here like huh? I never heard of it either! Oh, and the BEST shopping is done lurking wish lists of other BIC BEAUTIES!!! 😎😎😎

[snoflakefaerie]

The theater I work at has a bunch of themed burlesque shows, and we have one coming up called "Bras, Beets, and Battlestar Galactica" and I had no idea what the heck it was referencing. I guess now I do.

[mermadelove]

@snoflakefaerie  OMG Battlestar Galactica is SERIOUSLY old school!!!! I used to watch that when I wa like 7! ( THAT WAS A REALLY long time ago........) 💀👻😂

[ZombieMetroAnt]

OMG @Samtian  you are funny! This is always on a telly at home...it's where the joke "that's what she said" really went main stream  

Ok, we're planning a binge viewing party at your house tonight!  

 

"Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica!"

[Kim888]

@Samtian I didn't know what it was either haha thanks for asking!

[prettyinpa]

I've never even seen the Office (satellite TV just got too pricey) and cable doesn't exist out here in the boonies. Glad you asked, @Samtian !

[Samtian]

@Kim888 Haha I'm glad I wasn't the only one. I've only seen a few episodes of the Office.

[ohheyitscindyk]

@Samtian @gonerogue Ok so all you need to do is walk 156 paces from the light red mailbox, make a left, & then walk until you hear the beehive.

[gonerogue]

@ohheyitscindyk  Wow those are very specific directions. It’s almost as if... they came from Dwight Schrute himself 🤔🤭

[ohheyitscindyk]

@gonerogue Oh is that so?

[gonerogue]

@ohheyitscindyk  Glad to know you're a fan! I went to The Office trivia night at a bar last weekend and found others who loved the show as much as I did 🙂

[ohheyitscindyk]

@gonerogue Ahh that must have been so much fun! I'm rooting for Kate Flannery on Dancing with the Stars 🙂

[gonerogue]

@Samtian  You don’t know Schrute Farms?! What rock have you been hiding under????? 😝

[Samtian]

@gonerogue  I tried to find something about living under a potato but I guess the airbnb rental on the other side of the state will have to do.