The One with July Reader Boxes

These next two weeks are going to be filled with lots of "lasts." For instance, today was the last day that Chris and I helped Alisha send readers back their projects (meaning, people who send in their projects to be published in Scrapbook Trends/CARDS/Simply Handmade/Idea Book, this is when we send their projects back along with scrapbooking supplies as compensation plus two copies of the issue they were published in).

We've got this thing down to a science. First I combine all three magazine excels into a single document so we can send back everything at once. I calculate how much product to give each person and tally up the totals. Then Tina prints the shipping labels. We haul all of the bins and available product to the warehouse in the back of our car and set a date to all meet and get 'er done. Finally the blessed morning comes and we arrive at the warehouse at all hours of the morning. We start by making boxes for every single person. Then we set the boxes in rows or clumps according to their value, Alisha starts pulling product, I start pulling projects and Chris starts putting the projects in the boxes, labeling them, and taping them closed.
Oh yeah, and we pull out stacks of the magazines we're shipping back. Today it was Scrapbook Trends July, CARDS July, and the Mini Albums Idea Book. We're a li'l behind...September issues just arrived!
I pull out all of the $20 projects first, then $30's, then $40's, so on and so forth. I think one time we had a reader who got a little over $400 in product compensation. It was a BIG box.
Rows and rows of product boxes! They never end!
Once all the boxes are filled, closed, and taped shut, we arrange the shipping labels alphabetically, slap them on their box and stack them on a palette.Now UPS just has to come by and pick these babies up. So if you've been published in any of the July issues, expect your box sometime this week or next (unless you live internationally, then it'll take longer).
All done!

I took pictures of the warehouse door closing. Going...Going...
Gone!
I'll never have to ship back reader projects again! That thought alone is enough to conjure a Patronus! (I've been re-reading the Harry Potter series as of late...). Not that I don't enjoy time with Chris and Alisha, they're like my BFF's, but it takes over three hours and I just, I just...I dunno. It's not the funnest thing in the world to do. So good luck new girl, whoever you may be!