Discomagnet Button Badge World Update
Hi there,
This is Discomagnet James or J.Disco on Twitter. I’d like to give you an update on what is happening in the super Discomagnet Button Badge World.
Through out 2009 I worked on the road, travelling all over Australia in my little yellow van, making and selling button badges in hotel rooms and libraries often in places you may never have heard of. It was an absolute blast. After a year of travel, good times, meeting great people, skateboarding and having lots of fun I decided it was time to stay still for a while. I organised a place to live on the Gold Coast and took some time to figure out what I was doing and where I was going.
Discomagnet started several years ago and over time it grew, and grew and grew some more. Naturally when things get bigger there are changes. I love making button badge sets but so often I would have people ask “Hey yo, can I buy just 1 or 2 button badges? or can I mix and match a set?”. Up until the start of 2010 it was difficult to split orders or mix and match sets. The discomagnet site, which runs on a wordpress blog, was never really suitable for carrying an inventory greater than 500 products. Plus the organisation on my end for printing, pressing and shipping lots and lots of mini orders, particularly while I was on the road, hadn’t been finetuned enough. This bummed me out. I really disliked saying no to people and turning them down. It also always bugged me that I sold button badges but yet my website and store had magnet in the name. It confused people and I didnt like that. I needed to fix these things.
In January I got a new domain www.treatsies.com and built a new website and button badge store. The goal was to make the new site much more functional, easier to navigate with a responsive search tool and most importantly give people the ability to purchase any 1 or 2 button badges they like. I went to work. I uploaded four years worth of designs - all of the discomagnet catalogue of around 6000 designs and another 6500 new designs too. If you like the range here at discomagnet then you will be blown away by the collection sitting over at treatsies - currently there are more than 12500 unique button badges and that number keeps on climbing. At treatsies you can buy all of the same sets and more and better yet ALL of the button badges can be purchased individually. Plus they are easier to search for and find, organised in to better categories and there is a super neat one step check out screen that makes finalising an order very simple.
Come February 2010 treatsies went live so I thought that it would be a good idea to close down discomagnet. Rather than shut the site down completely I left all of the discomagnet pages up but put CLOSED notices all over them. I also turned off the main index page but to my surprise people would work around it, leave comments on pages and still buy button badges. It was a trip. I’d check my messages in the morning and find people from all over the world were still placing orders overnight. The orders were filled but it left me scratching my head and wondering what, how and why?
And here we are now. The orders on discomagnet.com haven’t stopped, not that I want them to. Im just surprised that they are still coming. I thought that people would naturally head over to treatsies. treatsies is getting busier but since discomagnet is still very active I have decided to open the figurative internet shop doors once more. Yep, you can certainly buy button badges here if you like though this site hasn’t had any new inventory added since January 2010 and won’t be getting any new sets added either. If you are seeking rad button badges you should really head over to www.treatsies.com - as there are heaps and heaps there and stacks more new button badge designs added every day
Before I sign off, I would love to send a massive, massive thank you to all the thousands of fabulous people that have been in touch with me via discomagnet over the last few years. Ive made so many new buddies, pals, and friends. You’ve shared a million laughs, countless great times and many brilliant stories all thanks to something so small, so simple and so seemingly insignificant - button badges. They really are wonderful and so are YOU - Thank you!
I certainly hope to keep in touch. Please still be sure to send me a message some time or drop a comment below. It would be great to find out how you are doing, learn about what you have been up to, hear your button badge stories and just catch up.
Keep smiling!
Kind regards,
James
You can peep the new store here >> www.treatsies.com
