Zazzle Giveaway (not mine) and Review (totally mine)

At Zazzle you can make your own apparel, gifts, and stationary or browse designs by hundreds of artists on nearly any topic you can think of.  I'm one of those artists, and you can see some of what I sell there below:





Since I have a shop through Zazzle, I've bought lots of stuff there.  I've bought greeting cards, business cards, shirts (ok, technically my mom bought me the shirts), stickers, keychains, and magnets through them. 

Let me tell you, as a customer, why I like Zazzle so much:

1.  Great quality!  Let me elaborate about a few of the products I've bought:

• Though I just used the basic cheapest paper available, the colors on the business cards were vivid and the cards had a nice semi-gloss to them. 
• The printing quality on the shirts I got were wonderful, and the shirts were super soft and comfortable!
• The stickers are glossy and beautiful.  
• The greeting card quality is better than any other place I've printed through.  I've bought cards on several occasions without one misprint.  Zazzle cards are high gloss, and you can print on ALL sides including the back (although you can't print on ALL of the back).   Lets compare that to some of the other places I've used:  Winkflash SOMETIMES has as good quality as Zazzle, but they're inconsistant: occasionally there's been flaws in the cards, and for art, it is very hard to center artwork using their designer.  On Shutterfly the cards were only semi-glossy and the printing quality wasn't as good (colors were a little muted), and it was also hard to center artwork using the designer.  At Arts Now (also the place that runs Arts Cow) the cards had a waxy film on them that showed scratches easily, and on one order they sent the wrong sized envelopes.  

2.  You can customize nearly everything, unless the artist has disabled that feature for a particular product.  That means you can add your own text or photos, you can move objects or change their size (like if you like a design, but would like it better on the pocket),  you can remove objects (like, if you like the picture on the front of a shirt, but not what they've put on the back), and you can change styles (change the style or color of shirt or mug, change the shape or size of magnet, ect.).

3.  They have bulk pricing, so on most items you pay less if you buy more...and it's considered bulk even if you buy several of the same product with different designs (like you could buy 20 different cards from different artists and still get the bulk price).

4.  You can comment on products or rate them...that's just fun.  I like being able to have that communication with the artist.

5.  You can save shops or products as favorites...nice for if you see something you like but don't have the money to buy now.

6.  You can get 15% off of anything by buying them through your own affiliate links (yeah...shouldn't have told you that, because now you won't buy through MY links.  But, if you want to support an artist by having that extra 15% go to them,  you can add an asteric (you know, this little symbol: * ) to the end of their URL and then buy something from them, and the 15% will go to them  (for example:  http://www.zazzle.com/scribbleprints*).

7.  They have really good customer service.

DOWNSIDE
1.  Shipping, though swift and reliable, is a pain to figure out.  They no longer list their shipping prices, so you have to put items in your cart and start your order to know what your shipping costs are (you can start the order without completing it...you click "check out" but DON'T click the "Place Order Now" button.)  In addition to that, ordering things together doesn't necessarily give you a better shipping price than ordering them separately, since they print some items in different locations.  I have more details on that here.
2.  On square magnets (not round ones), the paper underneath the paper under the plastic lining is sometimes warped.  It's the only quality issues I've had with them.
3.  If you ever ship something to a friend, be careful because the next time that address might be set as your default (that's the reason I know about their good customer service.)


AS A SHOPKEEPER
There's lots of reasons I like to work through Zazzle...but to save space I'll just point you to my Shopkeeper review here.

THE GIVEAWAY
Through September 1st you can enter to win  a $25 gift card from Zazzle over Two Classy Chicks. 




NOTE:  Zazzle did not pay me for this review.  I did not get any free products in exchange for this review.  I did get extra entries for mentioning Two Classy Chicks'  giveaway, and I can earn money off of orders you make through my affiliate links, and of course earn money if you buy products with my designs.  I hope that doesn't make you doubt my honesty.   Think about it this way, I wouldn't be trying so hard to win a gift card from Two Classy Chicks if I didn't actually like Zazzle's products.  :-)