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Credit card ordering glitch 11/9/23 (fixed)

Looks like starting last night the setup with our merchant processor got messed up and credit card charges started failing.  We called them today and they said “It is a known issue.  Let me fix it, run some test transactions, and call you back” so I expect it will be fixed shortly.

Update: it is fixed now

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Small website ordering glitch

Due to a software upgrade, our order system wasn’t able to calculate shipping costs for 36 hours until the problem was discovered.

If you tried to place an order this last Sunday or Monday Monday, please try again, it is fixed now.

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Goodbye First Class Package rate, hello USPS Ground Advantage

Unbeknownst to us, the USPS revised their shipping types in the last month.  Out is the First Class Package rate and in is USPS Ground Advantage shipping, which is slightly different, but similar.

According to USPS, USPS Ground Advantage will offer lower prices than the existing First-Class Package Service, which is currently the USPS’s most popular package delivery option.

The First-Class Package Service was previously limited to lightweight packages up to 15.999 ounces. Still, in January 2023, USPS redefined it by removing Retail Ground and Parcel Select Ground and expanding the weight limit to 70 pounds. In July 2023, USPS Ground Advantage will replace Retail Ground, Parcel Select Ground, and First-Class Package Service.

Whit USPS Ground Advantage, the price for shipping items weighing up to 15.999 oz is determined by both their weight (rounded up to 4 oz, 8 oz, 12 oz, and 15.999 oz) and the distance to their destination. For packages weighing more than 15.999 oz, the shipping fee is based on a per-pound rate up to a maximum weight of 70 lbs (rounded up).

However, some optional features currently available with First-Class Package Service will not be included in USPS Ground Advantage. Customers will no longer be able to use Certificate of Mailing and Certified Mail with USPS Ground Advantage, but these services will still be offered with alternative products such as Priority Mail.

USPS Ground Advantage aims to offer faster delivery times and more reliable tracking information, and it will be available for both commercial and residential customers. The new USPS Ground Advantage service will be cheaper, faster, and better at helping you schedule shipments and manage customer returns.

Unfortunately, our shipping cost calculator for our website order system requires us to choose specific shipping tiers to support, and once the USPS system was no longer returning quotes for the First Class Package rate, our system defaulted to the next higher rate, Priority Mail.

This resulted in shipping costs about twice as expensive, but also meant packages got there faster.

We discovered the error after a couple of weeks and updated everything to have the proper support for the new Ground Advantage rate a week ago, so everything is back where it should be.

First Class Package

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Order shipping email issue (ongoing as of 7/9/23)

Last week we did an update of the key software that runs our website and store to bring it up to date with the latest security patches.  Unfortunately this caused an issue that prevented orders from being sent to our fulfillment contractor, which we discovered this week on Independence day.  Our website operators believed they fixed the issue the following day.

As of Friday we thought the orders had not been shipped, but we discovered today that the orders have been shipped, but our system has not been getting the shipping acknowledgements, and thus has not been sending out the emails to inform customers their order has shipped, and the tracking information.

To those with outstanding orders, we apologize for the inconvenience this is causing. We are working to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

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Be sure to give us your correct email address in our contact form

There have been a rash of bounces backs lately for customer service emails people have sent me.  I feel bad because they are probably thinking we didn’t answer their request.  Please take care to enter your proper email address when filling out our contact form.  So I’ll post the answers here and clear my conscience. 🙂

Jane asks:

I am wondering what the weight is of RW muffins pans ? I have seen for sale the 2516 h90A – and other pans with a different h number- I am looking for an 18/10 SS pan – your help in figuring out the weight of the pans I have seen – their numbers and what they mean would be appreciated.

I’ve never owned a Revere Ware muffin pan so unfortunately have no idea of their weight.  I also have no idea about the numbers off the top of my head but I am always willing to take a look if you send me a pciture; perhaps it will spark something.

Marsia asks:

My Revereware copper bottom 10″ skillet has a 1/2″ spline. I have no idea what year it was made.
The handle has been missing for years, so I don’t know if it had one or two screws,
What size should I order to replace the handle.

I would need a picture of the skillet to better assess.  I can’t recall every seeing a 1/2″ spline.

Renilda asks:

I have an old Revere Ware Dutch oven. The handle on one side fell off. I have the handle, bracket, and screw, but can’t figure out how to get it to stay back on. Also have been unsuccessful in finding any videos of how to do it. Can you help? Thank you!
The handle brackets were likely spot welded on.  The only way to repair them would be to take them
to a welder or machine shop and ask them to weld or braze the brackets back on.
Here is our information on that type of repair:
Sandi asks:
I’m sitting here with a tape measure and my handle off my small pot (1970 wedding gift) and I’m 99% positive I need the screws (hardware) for the smaller handle. But! I want to be positive so, could you please tell me what the heck a ‘spline’ is? Thank you! Sandi
The spline is the metal piece that the two handle halves attach to.
It is the long and thin part that comes off the side of the pot.  The small handles
go onto a spline that is 3/8” “tall” which is the measurement from the bottom side
of that metal piece (toward the stove) to the top side (towards the ceiling).
Any other size (5/8” or 3/4”) will require the M/L/XL hardware set.
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Merry Christmas and Happy Revere Ware

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa, or other holiday celebration.  It has been another banner year for Revere Ware lovers.  If our sales for Revere Ware replacement parts are any indication, interest in Revere Ware continues to be elevated from pre-pandemic levels.  2022 has been about the same as 2020, which is to say, not as good as 2021 but significantly better than 2019.  While Revere Ware as an official brand is dead, Revere Ware as a cherished brand is growing.  It’s like the old adage, “Rock is Dead. Long Live Rock!”

In the spirit of Christmas, I came across this display of lids from an eBay listing.  Doesn’t it remind you of a Christmas tree?

Happy Holidays everyone!

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Inflation inflation everywhere (our prices will be going up Jan 1, 2023)

Everything costs more these days as we all know, and the supply chain pressure keeps building up.  We’ve held off as long as we could, but, as we start another manufacturing run to make additional parts, we have to face the reality of our increased costs; the cost of raw materials, manufacturing, shipping materials, and shipping / fulfillment have all gone up over the last year.

We will be raising our prices on average by 10% in the new year.  We are delaying the price increase to give customers advanced notice, and so that you can order parts at the current prices through the holiday season.

You might also have noticed we have different prices on our website, Amazon.com, and eBay (all three places we currently sell some / all of our parts).  We do this because each platform has different costs of doing business, and the different prices reflect those costs.  When you add up the cost of each part + shipping, it all about equalizes out.  For example, Amazon.com charges us significant fees that reflect the cost of free shipping to customers (in other words, it isn’t free, we are paying for it) but the customer doesn’t pay for shipping if they are a Prime member.   When you compare the cost on out website + shipping to the cost of the part on Amazon.com with free shipping, it is about the same in total.

 

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Customer demographics

I love random facts, and that includes breaking down our customer base to consider who is buying replacement Revere Ware parts these days.  So I broke down a month of orders to see what I could get from it.

62% of our customers are female
42% of our customers are male
4% of our customers I am unable to tell the gender from the name (i.e. initials or a name like Pat that both men and women use).

(I realize that my breakdown doesn’t particularly fit with the pronoun ideology that is becoming more pervasive today; it is hard to gather that kind of information from order names.)

The most common name of customers was John, representing 5% of customers.  Margaret, Mary, Laurie and Thomas/ Tom all had about 2.5% of the share of customers.

Almost all of our customers were in the US, just one from Canada this month.  Not surprising as those are the only two countries we sell to.  Here are the city’s and states of our customers mapped out:

The coasts are well covered.  The interior states other than the Midwest are pretty thin, but I suspect that has more to do with population density than actual interest.  I’d say overall we have pretty even coverage across the US.

Cheers!

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Comparing 2022 with prior years and what that tells us

It’s been a crazy few years, no question.  The pandemic boosted peoples interest in cooking and our business benefited from that.  Now, there has been a consistent growth in interest in vintage cookware products for the last decade we’ve been selling Revere Ware parts; we averaged 10% revenue growth between 2010 and 2019.  Then, in 2020, we saw a 35% revenue growth.  2021 retained the higher revenue level of 2020 and added another 11%.  So far this year, we are down 10.5% from last year.

There has been a lot of discussion about whether the lifestyle changes the pandemic saw (like working from home) would stick around for the long term.  Given the amount of activity this year has seen (people are doing lots of activities and spending plenty of time away from home) I would have thought we’d see a steeper revenue drop over last year, but that isn’t the case.  The winter season sees our strongest sales, so that will tell us more.  For now, it seems like people’s interest in cooking is sticking around.

As another data point, our website traffic is down about 10% from last year.  While there are lots of things that affect website traffic (like Google changing its algorithms which it does several times a year), taken as face value this is in line with the slightly lower interest we have seen.  Our website traffic levels had also been heavily inflated by the pandemic, as you can see here.

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A tale of two typos

There is a lot of information I’ve compiled on this website, and I do occasionally make typos.  Sometimes readers are kind enough to point them out, like reader Terry.

PS:  I believe the third paragraph; first line, of the Cleaning & Care Information page has a spelling error:  buffing oils arc likely
Also, under CARE OF REVERE WARE, the first paragraph ends with:  We recommend
and nothing after.
Very helpful, and easily fixed.  On the other hand, I also sometimes receive comments like this:
Please do correct the incorrect use of it’s. It’s should not be used unless you mean “it is.”
Yes, that’s all the information they gave me.  If you do find a typo, please let me know the specific page it is on. 🙂
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