LibraryThing's Holiday Store and New LibraryThing/TinyCat Coasters!

LibraryThing's annual Holiday Store is officially live! Stock up on CueCats for just $5 apiece, t-shirts for $7*, and much more.

New to the Store: we now have adorable, dual-sided LibraryThing/TinyCat coasters for you to own. The coasters are made of thick, 60-pt pulpboard, and are sold in packs of four:



Read the blog for full details, and visit the Holiday Store today to shop all the great deals.

*Prices don't include cost of shipping—shipping is included on Store pages.

The links to the shop from the home page go only to the English page.

Fixed, thanks!

This might be a big of an odd request, but is there anyway to label the coins for scale in some of the store images? Or take them again with different scale measures? I'm not that good with American currency so I'm not always sure if I'm looking at a nickel or (what I assume) is a quarter, unless they're tails up.

>4 WeeTurtle: I don't know about the item pages, but on the store page itself I only see pennies. And nickels and quarters are only 3mm difference in diameter anyway, even a dime is only 6mm difference from a quarter.

I'm looking at the rubber stamps, and yes, distances are small but they bigger when dealing with smaller things. If I'm stamping a paper back, I care about the difference between a penny and a quarter for size. A penny sized stamp could look overly silly in a large coffee table book as well, if there's no text to balance it.

Or I'm just overly visually picky. I am the sort that "edits" my Christmas tree for angle and depth.

Haha, I feel you on the visually picky thing in general, things need to look "right" for me, whatever "right" may be, lol.

>6 WeeTurtle: So, for the book stamps, we note the impression sizes (as either 1 inch x 1 inch for the 'regular' book stamps or 0.5 inch by 0.5 inch for the mini book stamps). Is that sufficient? We also note the size of our barcode labels, too, which I believe is the only other Store page/s with coins shown in pictures for scale. I hope this helps.

Was there anything else you were looking at, in particular?

>6 WeeTurtle:, no, that's okay. I just found that it wasn't easy to tell from the photo what the scale actually was from the coins. I'm not much of a numbers person so that's usually where I decide things is by image. It's not really a "problem" I guess, as much as a preference.

Any chance that the coasters will ever be made of a more permanent material? I love their color and image (thankful that I won a set in one of the treasure hunts), but one has already received a coffee stain. Wish I could wash them to use forever. :)

>10 MrsLee: Possibly! We'll probably keep these around as easy freebies and cheap items in the Store, but if we ever add a more permanent option we'll be sure to let you know! I'll take a look and see what's out there (probably going to have to wait 'til after the holidays, though—busy season!). Thanks for the feedback.

>11 kristilabrie: I think more options are needed for choice of material. Consulting my library I'd like to suggest Cavorite and for serving hot and cold drinks, an amble supply of Phlogiston and Ice Nine would be nice.

>12 bnielsen: I'm still holding out for solid unobtanium, personally. ;)

>12 bnielsen: snort, I'll see what the interwebs can come up with.... surely we can also add a feature that makes them double as a tardis or something.

>13 lorannen: I thought of that, but as I understand it cavorite is actually a specific form of unobtanium. If Administratium had a solid form, I might also have considered that.

>10 MrsLee: Are you the atsy sort? Could always try some resin pouring.

I like them too but I wasn't sure about quality. Are they made of the same stuff as bar/restaurant coasters tend to be?

>16 WeeTurtle: Not so much. Yes, I think they are, a sort of pressed paper, but thicker? Anyway, I love mine and look forward to seeing if they come out with a sturdier material. If not, perhaps I will have to pull up my big girl panties and get some resin to try. :)

>17 MrsLee: Glooping them over with a few coats of Mod Podge (good for decoupage, available in any craft store) will at least cut down on the staining. Apply with a sponge brush.

And yes, "glooping" is a technical term. ;)

I wonder if you could laminate them?

>16 WeeTurtle: Yes, they're pulpboard - what I often see in bars/restaurants. Standard, 60-pt thickness, to be exact. :)

The whole point of a coaster is that it absorb any moisture coming off the beverage, so making it waterproof seems wrong.

>19 norabelle414: I'm curious if laminating would work, though I worry the designs would end up looking cloudy/faded. Would certainly lengthen their lifespan from stains, though! The moisture would also just bead up/roll off, something to keep in mind.

>21 jjwilson61: Right.

Perhaps something like cork or a woven sort of material, if at all possible to have designs printed on them... I'll look around and see what I can find! (next month :))

Just a brief interjection on the materiel used for coasters; I have three, from the dawn of time (or at least a long time ago), made out of leather. They were made to advertise a company that's since been acquired by Seagate, and I've had them at least 20 years, maybe more.

NStor was the company name, but their website just fails over to Seagate (and poorly).

Still great coasters.

I have a set of coasters made from some sort of stone material that absorbs the condensation beautifully, and they look really nice. I think I got them from a PBS pledge drive a long time ago. I don't know what kind of stone they are, unfortunately.

>25 rosalita: Those would be sandstone, most likely. I have several, but I believe that the cost for those would be much higher than the leather ones.

I'm sure they would be more expensive than leather coasters. I'm also sure leather coasters would be more expensive than pulpboard coasters and yet you mentioned them, which led me to believe we weren't trying to compare prices but merely mentioning possible materials. My mistake.

>27 rosalita: I'm sorry if I sounded unkind. It was not my intent. :-{

Sandstone coasters are beautiful (although they can *break* if dropped, which I found to my terrible dismay). I have ceramic coasters, and a few that are glass (with an insert that's basically a thick piece of cardboard), but I love the leather and sandstone ones the very best.

>28 Lyndatrue: No worries — it can be hard for me to read tone in written messages. The sandstone ones I have are beautiful — they have a Kokopelli dancer printed on them, so they have a real Southwestern vibe. I'm amazed I haven't dropped one by now, given what a klutz I am.

>21 jjwilson61: I've always had conflicting feelings about that. Because I thought the point of coasters was to protect the furniture from the moisture in the beverage. So if something is completely absorbent, it gathers the moisture, but then sends it down to the wood furniture underneath.

I have glass coasters with a slight rim, dishwasher safe, which protect my furniture, but get very wet when cold beverages are on them.

I have sandstone coasters, which do absorb the moisture, but I have had them transfer it to my furniture, so I don't like to use them for cold drinks.

I have some pretty coasters which must have come from a museum; made out of perhaps a plastic, not sure what the surface is, but they are art prints and waterproof, the size and shape of my LT coasters. They do not absorb the moisture, and have no rim to keep it from running onto the furniture, so again, no cold drinks.

Then I have some cheap plastic ones which can be washed in the dishwasher, but have the same issues as the glass ones, only they aren't pretty.

I also have some mosaic coasters made for me by some child or another, set in plaster. Sentimental, but if they get too wet, they dissolve, so more for looks than use.

I use a saucer by my reading chair during the summer when I have icy drinks. Not so much winter. Cups of tea are great on sandstone.

>23 kristilabrie: Looking forward to your discoveries in the cold, dark, winter months. ;)

>30 MrsLee: great feedback, thanks! I've got some great ideas to look at next month.

Agreed that they're for protecting furniture. The set of coasters I've found I enjoy using most is a cheapie set, that have a thin sheet of metal with a print on it, with the edges wrapping down to hold onto a thin layer of of what seems to be cork, or a cork-like substance. They do have a slight ridge around the edge, so water doesn't roll off, and my drinks don't normally wind up sticking on them like they would with others that had what seems like a kind of plastic top layer.

I thought they were for building towers with as in the photo.

Or for putting on top of drinks to keep insects out.

Or for putting on top of drinks to keep insects out. Hahaha, when outdoors, yes!! XD

>33 MarthaJeanne:
>34 .Monkey.:
Or to let others know that you're not yet finished with this drink, please leave it where it is

The Donate button just failed for me twice in a row -- is there any chance that it's a configuration glitch? If it'll work if I come back later that's fine, but if it's some sort of misconfiguration I wanted to make sure you guys know of it....

>36 pammab: Hmm, hard to say without further testing... the "Donate" button is working for me, for what it's worth.

ETA: you'll want to report any new bugs such as this one to our Bug Collectors Group, rather than a thread designated for new coasters in our Store. This will help us see your bug report more clearly and keep track of the details. I've gone ahead and done that for you now, here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/302057. Please post your reply to my question there!

>37 kristilabrie: Thanks, kristilabrie!