Terms of Service

Effective date: 2026-07-13 · Version 1.0

Company: Crater Ink Studios LLC (a Pennsylvania limited liability company), which operates the Why Stationery marketplace. Address: 4934 Swamp Rd, Felton, PA 17322, USA. Applies to: everyone who uses Why Stationery — buyers, sellers, and visitors. Governing law: Pennsylvania. Region: United States only; US delivery addresses only.

Please read these Terms of Service carefully. They are a binding agreement, and Section 18 requires most disputes to be resolved by individual binding arbitration and waives class actions and jury trials.

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1. Who we are and what these terms cover

Why Stationery is an online marketplace, operated by Crater Ink Studios LLC ("Why Stationery," "we," "us," or "our"), where independent shops sell stationery and personalized paper goods to buyers in the United States. These Terms of Service (the "Terms") govern your access to and use of the Why Stationery website, tools, and services (together, the "Service").

These Terms work together with our other policies, each of which is part of this agreement by reference:

• Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy
• Shipping & Fulfillment Policy
• Intellectual Property & DMCA Policy
• Prohibited & Restricted Content Policy
• Acceptable Use, Community & Conduct Policy
• Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy
• the Seller Agreement, which applies additionally to anyone who opens a shop

If a specific policy conflicts with these Terms on a point it addresses, the specific policy governs that point.

2. Acceptance of these terms

By creating an account, opening a shop, placing an order, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to the policies listed above. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of a business, you confirm you are authorized to bind that business, and "you" includes that business.

3. Eligibility

To use the Service you must:

• be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract;
• be located in, and provide, a United States address; and
• not be barred from using the Service under any applicable law, and not be a person or entity with whom US persons are prohibited from dealing (see Section 13).

The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly allow them to use it or collect their personal information (see the Privacy Policy).

4. Your account

You may need an account to buy, to sell, or to use certain features. You agree to give accurate information, keep it current, keep your login credentials secure, and be responsible for all activity under your account. Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission. We may refuse, suspend, or close an account as described in Section 19.

5. What Why Stationery is — the marketplace model

Why Stationery is a venue. The shops on Why Stationery are independent businesses, not our employees, agents, partners, or representatives. Each shop is solely responsible for its own listings, product descriptions, pricing, artwork rights, production quality, communications, fulfillment, and shipping.

We are not the seller of the items offered by shops and do not make, inspect, warehouse, or ship them. Our role is to provide the marketplace, the design and order tools, payment facilitation, and dispute-mediation support described in these Terms.

One exception — payment. For payment processing we act as the merchant of record: card payments run through our payment processor (Stripe) under our platform account, and funds are then routed to the applicable shop's connected account, net of fees. Acting as merchant of record for payment does not make us the merchant, manufacturer, or shipper of the goods themselves.

Because shops are independent, a contract for the sale of an item is formed between the buyer and the shop. Where these Terms give you rights against Why Stationery (for example, dispute mediation), those rights are in addition to — and do not replace — your dealings with the shop.

6. Buying on Why Stationery

Made to order. Items on Why Stationery are made to order — shops do not hold finished stock. Every order has a make time before it ships, described in the Shipping & Fulfillment Policy.

Prices and payment. Prices are shown in US Dollars. The price you pay is the amount shown at checkout, plus any shipping and applicable tax shown before you confirm. Payment is charged when you place the order. As a marketplace facilitator, we collect and remit US sales tax where the law requires it.

Order acceptance. Placing an order is an offer to buy. An order may be declined or cancelled if an item is unavailable, if the listing contained an obvious error, if we cannot verify payment, or if the order violates these Terms or our policies; in that case you are not charged, or you are refunded.

Communication. Order-related communication happens through the order thread on the Service. Keep your communications about the order civil and on-topic, as required by the Acceptable Use, Community & Conduct Policy.

7. Custom and personalized orders — your acknowledgments

Many items are personalized or custom — made to your specification (names, dates, text, uploaded artwork, or an approved proof). Because these items are made for you and cannot be resold, special rules apply, and the checkout asks you to confirm that you understand them before you can pay:

1. Design-fee acknowledgment. Once design work or seller communication begins on a personalized order (the shop sends the first proof or first message in your order thread), a non-refundable design fee applies if you cancel before the item ships. The design fee is the greater of 20% of the order total or $6, and it never exceeds the order total. It compensates the shop for design, proofing, and revision work already done. A shop may withhold less, or nothing, at its discretion. Because the fee is the greater of 20% or $6, on a low-priced personalized order the $6 minimum can equal most or all of the item price (for example, a $6 fee on a $7 order); cancel before any design work or communication begins to receive a full refund with no fee. The full mechanics are in the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy.
2. Proof correctness. You confirm that you have reviewed your personalization — spelling, names, dates, and layout — as shown in your preview or approved proof. The item is produced exactly as you approved it, so we cannot refund errors that were present in the version you approved.
3. Final sale after shipping. Personalized items that have shipped cannot be returned or refunded, except as provided in the "you are always protected" section of the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy.
4. Rights in what you upload. When you upload artwork, a logo, a photo, or text, you confirm that you own it or have permission to use it for your order (see Section 12 and the Intellectual Property & DMCA Policy).

Your acknowledgment of these points is recorded with your order — including the date and the version of the policy text you saw — so it can be produced if a dispute or chargeback arises. The full mechanics live in the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy, which governs cancellations and refunds.

8. Cancellations, refunds, disputes, and buyer protection

Cancellations and refunds are governed by the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy. In short: a full refund is available before any design work or communication begins; after that, a design fee may be withheld on a personalized order cancelled before shipping; standard (non-personalized) items follow the standard-return rule; and you are always entitled to a remedy if an item arrives damaged, defective, materially different from what was approved or listed, or if the shop made a fulfillment error.

Raising a problem. If something goes wrong with an order, contact the shop first through your order page — most issues resolve fastest that way. A shop is expected to respond to a pre-shipping cancellation request; if it does not respond within the window stated in the Returns Policy (currently 5 business days), you may bring it to Why Stationery and we will cancel the order for a full refund, as described there.

Our mediation role (buyer protection). If you and a shop cannot resolve an order problem directly, you may bring it to Why Stationery. We will review the order record — the order thread, proofs, acknowledgments, and shipping information — and help mediate a fair outcome consistent with our policies. Our mediation is a good-faith facilitation between you and the shop; it does not make us the seller and does not guarantee any particular result. Nothing here waives your right to dispute a charge with your card issuer, though we ask that you contact us first.

Chargebacks — one recovery, not two. You may seek a refund through Why Stationery or dispute the charge with your card issuer, but you may not collect twice for the same order. If you have already been refunded for an order and you also win a card chargeback for the same amount, we may recover the duplicated amount from you. This does not waive or limit any chargeback right you have under the Fair Credit Billing Act or your card agreement; it only prevents double recovery for a single problem. The Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy has the details.

9. Selling on Why Stationery

If you open a shop, you are an independent business using Why Stationery as a venue, and the Seller Agreement applies to you in addition to these Terms. Key points, stated here for transparency and detailed in the Seller Agreement:

• Independence and responsibility. You are solely responsible for your listings, artwork rights, product quality, order communication, fulfillment, and shipping, and for your own business taxes, licenses, and legal compliance.
• Fees. Selling on Why Stationery involves the following fees, which we may change with advance notice: a 6.5% transaction commission on the order total; a $0.20 listing fee (charged when a listing is published, again each time it sells, and again periodically while it stays active and unsold); payment processing of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction; an optional $10 per month designed-storefront subscription; and optional promoted-listing placements (for example, a 7-day boost for $5). Fee amounts are shown in your seller dashboard. The designed-storefront subscription renews automatically each month until you cancel, and promoted-listing placements are non-refundable once a campaign starts; the Seller Agreement states the full terms for both.
• Payouts. Seller payouts are made through Stripe Connect to your connected account, net of the fees above. You must complete Stripe onboarding and accept the Stripe Connected Account Agreement. You are responsible for the accuracy of your payout and tax details, including any 1099-K reporting handled through Stripe.
• Stay on-platform (anti-circumvention). You must transact and communicate through the Service and may not steer buyers off-platform to avoid fees or the protections these policies provide.
• Honest listings and provenance. Your listings must be accurate, and you must mark honestly how each design was made (for example, hand-made versus AI-generated), as required by the Prohibited & Restricted Content Policy.

10. Fees, taxes, and changes to fees

Prices to buyers include the item price plus any shipping and tax shown at checkout. Seller fees are as described in Section 9 and the Seller Agreement. As a marketplace facilitator and merchant of record for payment, we calculate, collect, and remit US state and local sales tax where required. We may add, remove, or change fees; for sellers, we will give advance notice of fee changes, and continued use of the Service after a change takes effect is acceptance of it.

11. Acceptable use and prohibited conduct

Your use of the Service must comply with the Acceptable Use, Community & Conduct Policy and the Prohibited & Restricted Content Policy. Among other things, you may not:

• harass, threaten, or discriminate against others, or post hateful content;
• list, upload, or send infringing, counterfeit, deceptive, illegal, or prohibited content;
• misrepresent yourself, your products, or how a design was made;
• post fake, incentivized, or retaliatory reviews, or use reviews to extort another party;
• interfere with, overload, scrape, reverse-engineer, or gain unauthorized access to the Service or another user's account, or introduce malware; or
• use the Service to commit fraud or to violate any law.

Those policies describe the full rules and the consequences of breaking them.

12. Intellectual property

Your content. You keep ownership of the content you upload or create (your artwork, logos, photos, text, and designs). You grant the shop fulfilling your order a limited license to use your content only to produce and fulfill that order, and you grant Why Stationery a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, display, render, and generate print-ready files from your content for the purpose of operating the Service. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies we must keep to complete an order, meet a legal obligation, or resolve a dispute. We use your content in marketing or promotional material only with your consent. The Intellectual Property & DMCA Policy governs these licenses, ownership of personalized designs, and copyright notice-and-takedown.

Our content. The Why Stationery name, look and feel, software, and tools are owned by Crater Ink Studios LLC or its licensors and are protected by intellectual-property laws. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-transferable license to use the Service for its intended purpose. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or create derivative works from the Service except as these Terms allow.

13. US-persons, sanctions, and export compliance

You represent and agree that:

• you are located in the United States and are using the Service only for US delivery;
• you are not on, and are not owned or controlled by anyone on, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list or any other US restricted-party list, and you are not located in or ordinarily resident in a country or region subject to comprehensive US sanctions;
• you will not use the Service to transact with any such person, entity, or destination; and
• you will comply with all applicable US export-control and economic-sanctions laws.

We may refuse, suspend, cancel, or reverse any order or account, and withhold or return funds, to comply with these laws.

14. Third-party services

The Service relies on third parties, including Stripe for payment processing and payouts. Your use of those services is also subject to their terms and privacy notices. We are not responsible for third-party services we do not control. The Service may link to third-party sites; we are not responsible for their content or practices.

15. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure.

Because shops are independent, we do not make, inspect, or guarantee the items sold, the accuracy of listings, or any shop's workmanship, timeliness, or conduct. Your purchase is from the shop; your remedies for a bad order are those in the Returns, Refunds & Cancellation Policy and the mediation described in Section 8. Nothing in this section limits any warranty or right that cannot be disclaimed under applicable US federal or Pennsylvania law.

16. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• Why Stationery and its members, managers, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, goodwill, or business, arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms, even if advised of the possibility.
• Our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the total fees or amounts you paid to Why Stationery in the six (6) months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred US dollars ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

17. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Crater Ink Studios LLC and its members, managers, employees, and agents from any claim, demand, loss, liability, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: your use of the Service; your content or listings; your products, orders, or fulfillment; your violation of these Terms or any policy; or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party. We may assume the exclusive defense of any matter subject to indemnification, and you agree to cooperate.

18. Dispute resolution — arbitration and class-action waiver

Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights.

Informal resolution first. Before starting an arbitration, you agree to contact us at the address in Section 22 and give us 60 days to resolve the dispute informally. Most disputes can be resolved this way.

Binding arbitration. If we cannot resolve a dispute informally, you and Why Stationery agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration, administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under the rules then in effect. Which AAA rules apply depends on who is bringing the dispute: for a dispute brought by a buyer or other consumer user of the Service, the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules apply; for a dispute between a seller and Why Stationery arising out of the seller's commercial use of the Service or the Seller Agreement, the AAA Commercial Arbitration Rules apply instead. The arbitration will be seated in Pennsylvania, and may proceed by written submissions, telephone, or video where the rules allow. The arbitrator has authority to decide the dispute and to award the same individual relief a court could.

Class-action and jury-trial waiver. You and Why Stationery agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any class or representative proceeding. You and Why Stationery waive any right to a jury trial.

Exceptions. Either party may (a) bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies, and (b) seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to protect intellectual-property rights or stop unauthorized access to the Service.

Opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to the address in Section 22 within 30 days of first accepting these Terms; your notice must state your name, the email on your account, and that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect the rest of these Terms.

Governing law and venue. These Terms and any dispute are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. For any matter not subject to arbitration (or if the arbitration agreement is found not to apply), you and Why Stationery submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Pennsylvania, and waive any objection to venue there.

If the class-action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) will proceed in court rather than arbitration; the rest of this section still applies.

19. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time. We may warn, limit, suspend, or terminate your access or a shop, remove content, cancel affected orders, and withhold or reverse funds, if you violate these Terms or any policy, if required by law, or to protect the Service, buyers, sellers, or the public. Where reasonable and lawful, we will give notice. On termination, the licenses you granted for the operation of the Service end except for copies we must keep to complete an order, meet a legal obligation, or resolve a dispute. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including Sections 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 20 — survive.

20. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will change the Effective date above and, for material changes, provide reasonable notice (for example, by posting on the Service or emailing you). Changes take effect when posted unless we say otherwise. For a placed order, the version of these Terms and the policies in effect when you placed the order governs that order. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect is acceptance of the updated Terms.

21. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms and the policies referenced in them are the entire agreement between you and Why Stationery about the Service and replace any prior understanding on that subject.
• Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect, and the unenforceable provision is limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
• Relationship. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relationship between you and Why Stationery, or between a buyer and Why Stationery, or (except as a marketplace venue) between a shop and Why Stationery.
• Notices. We may give you notice by email or by posting on the Service. You may give us notice at the contact address below.

22. Contact

Crater Ink Studios LLC — Why Stationery 4934 Swamp Rd, Felton, PA 17322, USA Email: hello@craterinkstudios.com