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Seller Agreement

Effective 2026-07-27

Effective date: 2026-07-27 · Version 1.1

Platform operator: Crater Ink Studios LLC, a Pennsylvania limited liability company, operator of the Why Stationery marketplace ("Why Stationery," "the platform," "we," "us," or "our"), 4934 Swamp Rd, Felton, PA 17322, USA. Applies to: every person or business that opens a seller account, publishes a listing, or fulfills an order on Why Stationery ("you," "Seller," or "shop"). Governing law: Pennsylvania and applicable US federal law.

This Seller Agreement is a binding contract between you and Crater Ink Studios LLC. By opening a seller account, publishing a listing, or accepting an order on Why Stationery, you agree to it. It incorporates by reference the platform Terms of Service, the Intellectual Property & DMCA Policy, the Prohibited & Restricted Content Policy, the Community & Conduct Policy, the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy, and the Shipping & Fulfillment Policy. Where this Agreement and one of those policies both apply, read them together; where they genuinely conflict on a seller-specific term, this Agreement controls.

1. Eligibility and onboarding

To sell on Why Stationery you must:

  1. be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract;
  2. be a United States person with a US bank account and a US tax identification number (SSN or EIN), and sell to US delivery addresses only;
  3. provide accurate business, identity, and payout information and keep it current; and
  4. complete payment onboarding through Stripe (Section 3), including identity and bank verification, before you can receive any payout.

We may decline, pause, or close a seller account at our discretion, including where we cannot verify your identity, where onboarding is incomplete, or where required by law or by our payment processor. You are responsible for any licenses, permits, or registrations your own business needs to operate.

2. Platform fees

You keep the price you set for each item, less the fees below. All fees are stated in US Dollars and are deducted per order at the time of sale unless noted. These figures are the current published fee schedule; we may change them on advance notice under Section 18.

Fee Amount When it applies
Transaction commission 6.5% of the order total On every completed sale
Listing fee $0.20 per listing Charged when a listing sells (renewal-on-sale); at publish; and on each renewal of an unsold active listing
Payment processing 2.9% of the order total + $0.30 On every completed sale, to cover card and Stripe processing

Worked example. On a $40 order, the commission is $2.60 (6.5%), the listing fee is $0.20, and payment processing is $1.46 (2.9% of $40 = $1.16, plus $0.30). Your net payout is $40 − $2.60 − $0.20 − $1.46 = $35.74, before any refund, design-fee, sales-tax, or shipping adjustments.

Optional paid features. A designed-storefront subscription (a flat monthly fee, currently $10/month) and promoted listings (a paid boost, currently $5 for 7 days) are optional; if you use them, those charges are separate from the per-order fees above and are billed as described at sign-up.

The commission and listing fee are Why Stationery's compensation for operating the marketplace. The payment-processing fee reflects the cost charged by our payment processor. We do not deduct our commission on an order that is cancelled and fully refunded before shipping.

3. Payments and payouts (Stripe Connect)

  1. Stripe Connect. Payments on Why Stationery are processed by Stripe through Stripe Connect. To receive payouts you must create and maintain a Stripe connected account and accept the Stripe Connected Account Agreement and the Stripe Services Agreement. Those Stripe terms govern your relationship with Stripe and are in addition to this Agreement.
  2. How money flows. A buyer pays the full order total (plus any sales tax we collect under Section 6) at checkout. We deduct the fees in Section 2 and route the remaining net amount to your connected account. You authorize us and Stripe to make these deductions and transfers.
  3. Payout timing. Funds for a completed order are released to your connected account on Stripe's standard payout schedule (typically a rolling settlement of a few business days after the order clears), subject to any hold, reserve, or verification Stripe or we apply. New accounts, disputed orders, and unusual activity may be held longer.
  4. Refunds and reversals. When an order is cancelled or refunded, the corresponding transfer to you is reversed in whole or in part, consistent with the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy. Where a refund, chargeback, fee, or other amount you owe exceeds your available balance (a negative balance), you authorize us and Stripe to recover the difference by any of the following means, in our reasonable discretion: deducting it from your current or future payouts; debiting the bank account or card linked to your Stripe connected account; setting it off against balances in any other seller account you own or control on Why Stationery, or in a related or linked account; and, if a negative balance remains uncured after we ask you to settle it, referring the amount to a third-party collections agency or pursuing other lawful recovery. You remain responsible for a negative balance even after your shop closes.
  5. Chargebacks. If a buyer disputes a charge with their card issuer, the disputed amount and any card-network dispute fee may be debited from your balance or future payouts. We will share the order's evidence record (order thread, approved proof, checkout acknowledgments) as described in the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy, but the card networks decide the outcome.
  6. Reserves and holds. We or Stripe may place a reserve or hold on part or all of your funds where there is elevated refund, chargeback, or fraud risk, or where required for compliance. In deciding whether to apply a reserve, and its size and duration, we may consider risk factors such as: a new or recently reactivated shop with limited history; a made-to-order backlog or unusually long turnaround times; an elevated cancellation, refund, dispute, or chargeback ratio; a sudden spike in sales volume or average order value; buyer complaints or policy violations; and signals of fraud or account compromise. A reserve is released as the underlying risk passes.
  7. Post-termination set-off reserve. If your account is suspended or closed, we may hold a reasonable reserve from your balance to cover pending or reasonably anticipated refunds, chargebacks, and amounts you owe, for up to 180 days after the last order (longer only where a specific dispute, chargeback, or legal claim remains open). We release any remaining reserved funds to you once that period ends and the covered obligations are resolved.

4. Your independence, your taxes

  1. Independent business. You are an independent contractor and independent business, not an employee, agent, partner, or joint venturer of Crater Ink Studios LLC or Why Stationery. You control your own products, pricing, designs, production, staffing, and fulfillment. Nothing here creates authority for you to bind us, or for us to bind you, beyond this Agreement.
  2. Your own income taxes. You are solely responsible for reporting and paying all income, self-employment, business, and other taxes on your sales and payouts. We do not withhold income tax from your payouts.
  3. 1099-K reporting. Payment-settlement reporting (including IRS Form 1099-K, where the applicable federal or state thresholds are met) is handled through Stripe as the settlement entity. You must provide accurate tax-identification information so this reporting can be completed; failure to do so may result in payout holds or backup withholding as required by law.
  4. Sales tax is handled separately under Section 6.

5. Anti-circumvention — keep transactions on the platform

The marketplace only works, and buyers are only protected, when orders happen on it. Therefore:

  1. You may not solicit or arrange for a buyer to complete a Why Stationery transaction off the platform to avoid our fees — for example, by directing a buyer to pay you directly, by including off-platform checkout links or payment details in a listing, message, invoice, or package insert, or by cancelling an on-platform order to re-run it privately.
  2. You may not use buyer contact information obtained through an order for any purpose other than fulfilling that order (see the Privacy Policy). Off-platform marketing to buyers you met through Why Stationery is prohibited.
  3. Providing your own business card or branding inside a shipment of a legitimately placed order is permitted; using it to divert future orders off-platform is not.
  4. Circumvention is a material breach. It may result in reversal of the avoided fees, suspension, or termination under Section 10.

6. Sales tax — marketplace facilitator

  1. We collect and remit sales tax. Why Stationery operates as a marketplace facilitator. For taxable sales in US states that impose marketplace-facilitator obligations, we calculate, collect, and remit the applicable state and local sales tax on your behalf, as the merchant of record for tax purposes. You do not separately collect or remit sales tax on those orders, and you must not add your own sales-tax line to a listing price for those transactions.
  2. Your own taxes remain yours. Marketplace-facilitator handling covers sales/use tax only. It does not cover your income tax, self-employment tax, or any business-license or gross-receipts obligations, which remain entirely your responsibility (Section 4).
  3. You must provide accurate information about your products so tax can be calculated correctly, and you authorize us to report facilitated sales to tax authorities as required.

7. Listings, images, and quality standards

  1. Accurate, complete listings. Each listing must accurately describe the item, its materials, its size, its price, its production and shipping timeline, and whether it is a standard or a personalized/custom item. Do not misstate what a buyer will receive.
  2. Image standards. Listing images must depict the actual item you sell (or a true representative sample or proof). They must be your own images or images you are licensed to use, must not contain other parties' watermarks, logos, or infringing artwork, and must not include misleading mockups, borrowed stock photos passed off as your work, or off-platform contact details or URLs. For a personalized item, the main (first) image must show a finished, real customized example of the product as a buyer would receive it; a bare "Your Text Here" placeholder or blank template mockup may appear only as a secondary image, never as the main image. If any listing image — including a lifestyle photo — shows an identifiable person, you must have that person's permission to use and publish their image (a model release), and a parent or guardian's permission where the person is a minor. You are responsible for the rights in every image you upload.
  3. Pricing and turnaround. Set honest prices and honest proofing and processing turnaround times; the platform surfaces a ready-to-ship estimate to buyers based on the proofing and processing days you configure in your shop settings. Meet the times you publish, or update them.
  4. Personalized-order handling. For custom items you must communicate through the order thread, provide a proof where your listing offers one, and produce the item as the buyer approved. The non-refundable design fee and cancellation outcomes are governed by the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy; the platform-standard design fee is the greater of 20% of the order total or $6, and never exceeds the order total, and you may waive below it at your discretion. Be aware that on a low-priced order the $6 minimum can equal most or all of the item price — for example, a $6 fee on a $7 order — so price and describe personalized items with that in mind.

8. Intellectual-property warranties

  1. You warrant that you own or have licensed all rights in everything in your listings and fulfilled orders — including artwork, illustrations, patterns, photographs, fonts, logos, trademarks, and text — and that selling and producing those items does not infringe any third party's copyright, trademark, trade-dress, publicity, privacy, or other rights.
  2. Listing-time certification. Before you can publish a listing that includes uploaded or designed artwork, you must complete the platform's rights certification, confirming you own or have licensed all artwork in the listing. This certification is a condition of publishing; making it falsely is a breach of this Agreement.
  3. Buyer-supplied content. When a buyer supplies artwork, a logo, a photo, or text for a custom order, the buyer separately certifies their own rights at checkout and grants you a limited license to use that content only to produce and fulfill their order. You may not reuse or resell buyer-supplied content beyond that order.
  4. License to the platform. You grant Why Stationery the non-exclusive, royalty-free license described in the Intellectual Property & DMCA Policy to host, store, display, render, and generate print-ready files from your designs solely to operate the service.
  5. Indemnity. You will indemnify and hold harmless Crater Ink Studios LLC and Why Stationery from third-party claims arising out of your listings, products, artwork, or your breach of these warranties, as further set out in Section 11 and the Terms of Service.

9. Honest provenance — handmade vs. photo/digital vs. AI

  1. Label how each design's artwork was made. Every listing carries a provenance marking shown to buyers, with the values handmade (hand-drawn or hand-painted), photo (photographic or digital design), and ai (AI-generated). You must select the marking that honestly describes how the artwork in that listing was actually created.
  2. No misrepresentation. Passing off AI-generated art as hand-drawn, presenting a digital or stock design as handmade, or otherwise misstating a design's origin or the materials of the finished item is a violation of this Agreement and of the Prohibited & Restricted Content Policy.
  3. If a single listing mixes methods (for example, a hand-drawn base with AI-generated elements), label it in the way that is least likely to mislead a buyer, and describe the mix in the listing text.

10. Content rules, suspension, and termination

  1. Content rules. Everything in your shop — listings, uploaded designs, shop profile, messages, and reviews — must comply with the Prohibited & Restricted Content Policy and the Community & Conduct Policy. You are responsible for all content in your shop.
  2. Enforcement. Depending on severity, we may remove a listing, cancel affected orders, place a payout hold or reserve, limit shop features, suspend, or terminate your account. We may act immediately without prior notice where content is illegal, infringing, deceptive, or presents a safety or fraud risk, or where required by law or our payment processor.
  3. Repeat infringers. Consistent with the Intellectual Property & DMCA Policy, we will, in appropriate circumstances, terminate the accounts of sellers who repeatedly infringe the intellectual property of others.
  4. Your right to close. You may close your shop at any time. You remain responsible for completing or properly refunding any open orders, and for fees, refunds, chargebacks, and tax obligations that accrued before closure. Sections that by their nature survive — fees owed, warranties, indemnity, limitation of liability, tax, and dispute terms — survive termination.
  5. Effect of termination. On suspension or termination we may cancel your open orders and refund affected buyers as required by the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy. We may withhold payout of funds reasonably needed to cover pending refunds, chargebacks, or amounts you owe.

11. Disputes, buyer claims, and your role in DMCA counter-notices

  1. Buyer disputes. Custom-order cancellation and refund requests route to you first; you resolve them under the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy (full refund, refund minus the design fee, partial refund, or — for in-production or shipped custom items — a reasoned decline). Wholesale orders follow that policy's production-based model (Section 3A): fully refundable until you mark the run into production, non-refundable after. Mark production started only when the run has genuinely begun — the marketplace records the timestamp, and marking it early to defeat a buyer's refund right is a violation of this Agreement. If you do not respond within the window stated in that policy (currently 5 business days), the buyer may bring the request to Why Stationery, and we will cancel the order for a full refund.
  2. Not-received / not-as-described claims. For claims that an item never arrived or was materially different from the proof or listing, you must cooperate with the platform's review and provide fulfillment evidence (proof, tracking, photos). You have 5 business days from notice of a post-delivery claim to respond with a resolution (replacement, repair, or refund) or a reasoned explanation with evidence. If you do not respond within that window, or if the claim is unresolved 10 business days after the buyer first reported it, the buyer may escalate to Why Stationery, and we will review the order record and decide a fair outcome under the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy. Where a buyer remedy is due, we may offset it against your balance or payouts.
  3. DMCA counter-notice. If material in your shop is removed after a copyright complaint and you believe the removal was a mistake or misidentification, you may file a counter-notice with our designated agent under the Intellectual Property & DMCA Policy. A counter-notice is a legal statement made under penalty of perjury and consents to US federal-court jurisdiction; the process and timelines in that policy govern.
  4. Evidence retention. You must retain, and provide to us on request, records reasonably needed to resolve a dispute or a legal claim relating to your orders.

12. Promoted listings and advertising

  1. What promoted listings are. Promoted listings are an optional paid boost that raises a listing's placement in search or category results for a set period (currently a $5 boost for 7 days). You choose whether to run one; it is never required to sell on Why Stationery.
  2. No guaranteed result. A promoted placement buys visibility, not outcomes. We do not guarantee any particular placement position, number of impressions or clicks, sales, or return on your spend. Results depend on your listing, price, buyer demand, and competing promotions.
  3. Platform control of placement. We may reject, reposition, re-price, pause, or end any promoted placement, or decline to run advertising for a listing, where the listing violates our policies, where there is a technical or billing problem, or to protect the marketplace. Promoted content is also subject to the content rules in Section 10.
  4. Non-refundable once started. Promoted-listing charges are non-refundable once a campaign has begun, except where we end it for our own convenience or in error, in which case we refund the unused portion. Charges are billed as described at sign-up.
  5. Your ad content is your responsibility. Any text or image you supply for a promotion is treated as a listing image or description and must meet Section 7 and our content policies.

13. Designed-storefront subscription and auto-renewal

  1. What it is. The designed-storefront subscription (currently $10 per month) is an optional paid upgrade that gives your shop a customized storefront. It is not required to sell on Why Stationery.
  2. Automatic monthly renewal. The subscription renews automatically each month, and your payment method is charged each cycle until you cancel. By subscribing, you authorize these recurring monthly charges.
  3. Cancel anytime. You may cancel at any time from your seller dashboard. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period: your storefront upgrade stays active until then, and you are not charged for the following month. We do not provide partial-month or pro-rated refunds for a cancelled subscription.
  4. Advance notice of price changes. We will give you advance notice before any change to the subscription price, and a new price applies only to billing periods after the notice takes effect. If you do not accept a price change, cancel before it takes effect.
  5. Failed payments. If a recurring charge fails, we may retry it and may suspend the storefront upgrade until payment succeeds.

14. Truthful pricing and reference prices

  1. Honest prices. Set prices honestly. Do not use fabricated "sale," "was," "original," or "list" prices, strike-through reference prices the item was never genuinely offered at, or false "limited time" or "only a few left" urgency to mislead buyers.
  2. Genuine comparisons only. If you show a comparison or former price, it must be a price at which the item was actually and recently offered for a reasonable period. Discounts and sales must be real.
  3. This reflects FTC and state deceptive-pricing law. Misleading pricing is a violation of this Agreement and of the Prohibited & Restricted Content and Community & Conduct policies.

15. Production partners and print-on-demand disclosure

  1. Disclose third-party production. If you fulfill orders using a third-party printer, print-on-demand service, or other outside production partner rather than making the item yourself, you must disclose that in your listing or shop so buyers are not misled about who makes the item.
  2. Ship-from location. You must accurately state the location an item ships from wherever the platform asks for it, and keep it current. Your turnaround and shipping estimates must reflect your production partner's real timelines.
  3. You remain responsible. Using a production partner does not shift any of your obligations under this Agreement — product quality, intellectual-property rights, provenance labeling, timelines, and buyer remedies remain entirely yours.

16. Seller identity disclosure (INFORM Consumers Act)

  1. High-volume sellers. US law (the INFORM Consumers Act) requires online marketplaces to collect, verify, and — for certain high-volume third-party sellers — disclose seller identity information to buyers. If you meet the law's high-volume thresholds (broadly, a threshold number of transactions together with gross revenue over a continuous period), you agree that we may collect and verify your bank, tax, contact, and identity information and, where required, disclose your business name, physical address, and contact information to buyers.
  2. Keep information current and respond. You must keep this information accurate and current and respond to our verification requests. We may suspend your shop if you do not provide or certify required information within the time the law allows.
  3. Thresholds may change. The specific thresholds and disclosure requirements are set by law and may change; we apply them as required. You should confirm your own obligations with your counsel.

17. Seller handling of buyer personal data

  1. You are an independent controller. When you receive a buyer's personal information to fulfill an order — name, shipping address, personalization details, and any content the buyer uploads — you act as an independent data controller of that information, separate from Why Stationery, and you are responsible for handling it lawfully.
  2. Use it only to fulfill. You may use buyer personal information only to produce, fulfill, and provide support for that order, and for legally required record-keeping. You may not use it for your own marketing, sell or share it, or keep it longer than needed for those purposes (see also Section 5 and the Privacy Policy).
  3. Honor buyer rights. You must honor a buyer's request to access or delete the personal information you hold about them, to the extent required by applicable law, and cooperate with us when a buyer exercises a privacy right through the platform.
  4. Security and breach. Keep buyer personal information secure using reasonable safeguards, and notify us promptly if you experience a data breach affecting Why Stationery buyers.
  5. Indemnity. You indemnify Crater Ink Studios LLC and Why Stationery for claims, losses, and penalties arising from your own misuse of, or failure to protect, buyer personal information.

18. Changes to fees and to this Agreement

We may update the fee schedule (Section 2) and this Agreement. We will post the updated version with a new effective date and, for material changes to fees or seller obligations, provide advance notice before they take effect. Your continued selling after an update takes effect is your acceptance of it. If you do not accept a change, your remedy is to stop selling and close your shop before the change takes effect.

19. Warranty disclaimer and limitation of liability

  1. Platform provided "as is." The Why Stationery platform and its design and fulfillment tools are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind except those that cannot be disclaimed under law. We do not guarantee uninterrupted service, specific sales volume, or any particular result.
  2. We are not a party to your sales contract. Why Stationery provides the marketplace and payment rails; you are the seller of your products and are responsible for their quality, legality, and fulfillment.
  3. Limitation of liability. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Crater Ink Studios LLC and Why Stationery are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or revenue, arising out of or relating to this Agreement or your use of the platform. Our total aggregate liability to you for any claim arising out of this Agreement will not exceed the greater of (a) the total platform fees you paid to us in the three (3) months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred US dollars ($100). This seller-specific cap supersedes the general limitation-of-liability cap in the Terms of Service for claims by sellers arising out of use of the platform. Nothing in this section limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

20. Governing law and disputes

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The exclusive forum for disputes between you and Crater Ink Studios LLC arising out of this Agreement is the state and federal courts located in Pennsylvania, and you consent to their jurisdiction, unless the Terms of Service specify a different dispute-resolution mechanism, in which case that mechanism governs.

21. Contact

Seller support and legal notices: hello@craterinkstudios.com, or by mail to Crater Ink Studios LLC — Why Stationery, 4934 Swamp Rd, Felton, PA 17322, USA.