Fools Errant is out of business. Most non-custom items listed as in stock are still around, though, but email before ordering. Response time may vary, sorry.

Shipping:

• Default shipping is: USPS first class, which turns into priority mail for heavy items.
• We're shipping from Somerville, MA 02144-2612.
• If we're shipping your order within Massachusetts, please add 5% sales tax on all non-clothing items.

Some of our items have BUY links by them. If you are interested in something that does not, do send email. If the item is in stock or one can be found or built, you can still buy it using any of: PayPal, credit card (through Billpoint), or money order.

Email us at ebiz@fools-errant.com

with any questions! Or:

• to send custom-order specifications and queries
• (if you're ordering multiple items) to avoid multiple credit card charges, to avoid filling out the form more than once, and to be charged a reduced combined-shipping total instead of the sum of the individual shipping charges
• if your item is to be shipped out of the US (for calculating the aprpopriate postage)
• to request the item be sent by other than the default shipping service (USPS first class for small items, priority for large is coded into the link-- so email if e.g. you'd like your lightweight item sent priority mail)
• to reserve an item or that has no "Purchase Now" or "Invoice request" link in its listing-- or that you'd prefer to pay for by money order (email for address)

Purchase Now through PayPal

Catalog descriptions for many of our items that are immediately available (i.e. can ship the next day) have a "purchase now" link. This will take you to a form to pay by credit card through PayPal. If you're a member, you know the drill.

If you're not, they try to make it transparent, as if they were just a credit card service, and you're entering your CC# and shipping address. The one small hassle this involves for you beyond that is that they require you to send an email address and choose a password so you can track your transactions. You're in some sense creating an account. There is no charge for any of their "Personal Account" services (so it's safe to e.g. have an instant account created, make one purchase, and then totally ignore it forever)-- but I wanted to make this clear. On the other hand, let me also emphasize that I've found their service insanely useful for online transactions, e.g. auctions, and recommend it highly. (One caveat: though the service has gone more or less multinational, I am told the procedure is a few steps more annoying for customers outside the US.)

Any PayPal transaction you have with Fools Errant is protected by X.com's Buyer Protection Guarantee (doubly so for eBay auctions). For some smaller items (buttons, cards), we may ask for payment to our "personal" account, which is also a verified account.

Invoice request with Billpoint

(Despite their site's hype, the service is not only for eBay auction payments!)

When you email FE to request a Billpoint invoice, our staff (well, that's me) fills out a form on Billpoint's website. Billpoint sends you an email with a URL, you follow that link and fill out a form on their site (address and credit card number), and they send me email telling me this has been done and where to ship what.

Sigh. There's no reason they couldn't make it easier and let me put links on my page that take you right to the appropriate Billpoint site page. Perhaps they intend to allow this in the future and charge for it..?

When I've written the web bot to do it myself, I'll let you know.

Money order

If e-commerce doesn't strike you, send email to complain! I'll send along an address where you can send a money order and reserve your items for you.

I'm looking into GPL'ed shopping cart programs. RedHat Interchange would probably be extreme overkill, but getting it set up might be an educational exercise.