Since All We Are Getting Is A Fedex Box

[Phawx]

As stupid as some people believe "unboxening" videos are, they serve a couple of purposes.

1.) People will be a bit more interested in the Panda if the box is at least attractive. (TraylorPark's design does have a nice flair to it.)

2.) Unboxening videos attracts web hits, which (I) can than possibly make money on through advertising.

3.) I keep all of my console boxes. (I am going to take a couple of pics for you guys)



I was moving my old gear into the attic because the misses wants it out of the garage. I am missing my 3DO I don't know where it is.


Bunch of Consoles

 

[PoisonedV]

As stupid as some people believe "unboxening" videos are, they serve a couple of purposes.

1.) People will be a bit more interested in the Panda if the box is at least attractive. (TraylorPark's design does have a nice flair to it.)

2.) Unboxening videos attracts web hits, which (I) can than possibly make money on through advertising.

3.) I keep all of my console boxes. (I am going to take a couple of pics for you guys)

I watched several unboxing videos before receiving my gp2x and even some after. It's very exciting if you have been greatly entranced by whatever gadget it is.

 

[God Ginrai]

I may have a solution to your wanting something better than a shipping box though - have you ordered one of the carry cases?

I have already ordered the carrying case as well. But if you have to ask that question, then you don't understand why I want a box. The box is something I plan to keep. It's a memory, just as much as the system itself. It's a collector's mentality. I've done it with just about every item of importance I have purchased, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.

-God Ginrai

 

[Alpha2]

maybe you can just put pandora stickers over all the "fed ex" logos before you shoot your unboxing videos.

 

[Monk]

I may have a solution to your wanting something better than a shipping box though - have you ordered one of the carry cases?

I have already ordered the carrying case as well. But if you have to ask that question, then you don't understand why I want a box. The box is something I plan to keep. It's a memory, just as much as the system itself. It's a collector's mentality. I've done it with just about every item of importance I have purchased, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.

-God Ginrai


Well, we now have a definiive "It may, or it may not" from Chip. Which may not help you very much but...

I've often been at odds with "the collector's mindset" sinc eI tend to hold that things like comics should be USED (read in that case) and not just sealed up in a plastic baggie and never touched by human hands... but you're seriously telling me that "collector's mindset" has gotten so extreme now that you'll obsess over the POSSIBILITY of a labelled stirage container to hoard?

Don't get me wrong - I am a terrible hoarder myself. Including boxes for long-ago equipment, stored in the loft and shed. but that's at least of things that existed - I've never wished for a "nicer box" for XY or Z in order to collect it. I usually am fairly fixeted on wanting the XY or Z to be the best it can.

Do you plan on USING your Pandora? (curious)

 

[Alpha2]

dude I've still got the colecovision box sitting in the garage (no styrofoam though) A bunch of old vectrex game boxes, all the boxes for all my other games and systems as well. I even have the box for my old sony clie (it lasted longer than the PDA did) all my Amazon.com boxes AND some USPS express mail boxes.

Some people just like to hang on to stuff. But seriously I think people will be happy as long as they get there pandoras in good condition.

 

[jaycee900]

I agree that we should and probably will get a brown 'pandora' box inside a fedex box, plus isn't there some kind of law stating such, that it must have packaging , barcodes that sort of thing, since the item is sold as new and not some kind of eBay product!

 

[RajTakhar]

Given the delays in the actual production of the Pandora, that the first batchers have been subjected to.

It would be fair to assume that some form of packaging could be arranged now - given we are awaiting the CNC cases, final assembly and FCC testing of the Pandora, the quite period could be best utilised to get a basic box art sorted and pre-ordered

If its a case of doing it - get the community to pick a design - then get someone to produce,

I do understand that it may be delayed till second batch, as packaging adds additional costs and that the devs may want to reduce additional costs as far as possible in the first bathc

 

[airbeckley]

If its a case of doing it - get the community to pick a design - then get someone to produce,

Hey Guys,

RajTakhar has given me an idea. So it seems that there is a will in the community for a "fancy box" We all know the team does not have the time or resources to make this profitable for them to do it directly for the first batch. So why don't we do it? As I stated before I've worked on packaging for lots of products including games. I am no designer but have worked on full production of the process.

One point to make - I love TraylorPark's designs, questions of aesthetic opinions aside, there is one problem as I can see (and correct me if I'm wrong) but producing something like that would involve at least a 4 or 6 colour print which would push up costs and lead times substantially. My view would be to go for a 1 or 2 colour design on a white background (so really 3 colour in the hands of a clever designer) and not have any cardboard engineering on the inside - we use an off-the-shelf design and the inside is plain with our Pandoras protected by bubble wrap.

So logistically how would we do this? Well I can see a couple of issues;

- Firstly, The design - I think the best thing to do would be to invite entries on the forum and vote in a poll (I can provide the mechanical spec for the cutter guide and any budding designers fit their design around it -using one or two colours).

-Secondly, Payment - I think getting this produced would cost us each around £3-£5. So I'm thinking the best way would be to use my paypal account, set it up as usual and everyone pays into that and I get the thing produced. I get round the problems encountered by the OP team as once I have the cash, the boxes would take 1-2 weeks to get produced. However production would have to be carefully timed with the release of Pandora as we don't want to incur storage costs with loads of flatpack boxes sat around on pallets for weeks or months. So we'd get the official nod that we're 30-40 days away from delivery, set up Paypal ordering with a window of say 1 week to order, then go into production.

- Thirdly - Trust - Who the hell am I and why should you pay me anything? This is one I have been struggling with myself :blink: and I think the best way would be to keep everything open. So as in my normal work I'd get three quotes from different manufacturers, post the quotes on here and we vote on the one to go for. I'd then give details of the manufacturer to say Chip or Craig and they can verify personally there is a real order and I am a real person paying real cash. I can also post all elements of the communications with the manfacturer and any pictures of samples etc. Not sure if that would be enough for folks but just what sprang to mind. Don't forget ialso if this were all a scam, Chip or Craig would have my personal details so would just be able to report me to the UK police and I'd be charged with fraud - you would also have Paypal protection.

- Fourth - Logistics - This is the biggest issue. Now if we only have small numbers who want a fancy box, the costs just won't work out. We really need 1 or 2-3,000 people to order to make it worthwhile in terms of money. The real issue in this case is marrying up "fancy boxes" with the right owners. The best way to do this is for me to drop ship the entire lot to the OP team and they ship out. I don't think it should be a problem in terms of work as they have to put it into a box anyway to ship but we would need some way of accurately matching your order to which box you should get. So a) Are the OP team willing to do this and B) How would we work out how to match orders easily so its an easy process for the team? Essentially we need to split into two piles - those with a fancy box and those without and they just pack as usual. One thing I can't do is produce several thousand boxes and mail them individually to you myself, I just don't have the time and this would push up costs.

There are some other issues - the UK is not the cheapest place to get boxes produced - APAC probably is. If someone on here is based there and has the inclination (if we can decide the overall dimensions of the box) we should get quotes from somewhere like Indonesia or the Phillipines. This will add to the drop shipping costs but if we managed it carefully, it should work out better value overall. For those ecowarriers amongst us, we can also use recycled card which is slightly more costly but probably worth it.

So thoughts? Is there enough of a desire for this? I'm happy to work on it but like I say only if enough people want one or it just doesn't work out? What do you guys think and what holes can you see in what I've proposed? :unsure:

 

[airbeckley]

One other thing :lol:

If this is all too much - its also possible to get things like bespoke tape made:

Custom Vinyl Tape printing

For very little and it would be nice to have our Fedex boxes sealed with that - at least we'd know what was in in and would provide some form of "fancyness" h34r:

 

[jaycee900]

Fedex boxes are horrible anyway plus the fact it's really hard opening one of their boxes without destroying one side of it! As long as the panny comes inside an inner box I'm happy, I to understand peoples concernscas this project has always been unclear even on things like the box!

 

[Mithrildor]

Fedex boxes are horrible anyway plus the fact it's really hard opening one of their boxes without destroying one side of it! As long as the panny comes inside an inner box I'm happy, I to understand peoples concernscas this project has always been unclear even on things like the box!

Unclear? Its stated many times by devs: Just a plain white/brown box.

The problem is they tell us to much.

 

[j.pickens]

3.) I keep all of my console boxes. (I am going to take a couple of pics for you guys)
Bunch of Consoles



You scare me...

 

[Zor Prime]

I don't care how it comes as long as it shows up.

Wrap it up in bubble wrap, string some wrapping tape around it a few times and slap a label on it and get it out the door.

 

[Monk]

Can I switch "sides" (for want of a better term) for a moment?

As I believe "God Ginrai" has been trying to point out, and as Chip has confirmed...:

If you read ... you'll see that I was just pointing out that if it comes down to delaying shipment to wait for fancy boxes or using whatever was handy, we'd obviously take the second option.

There is a long list of things that have to happen before the Pandora can ship. There is an even longer list of things we would really like to make happen, and will as soon as we can, but we won't necessarily hold up shipping to wait for them. Fancy boxes are on the second list.

I have applied the bold and editing for clarity. I also agree that the project is full of lacks in clarity. Perhaps the devs HAVE said "too much", but that hasn't provided clarity (especially where there are obvious contradictions between what has been said).

If I may reiterate before this "community box project" gets too far, might I offer this reinterpretation of what has been officially said:

OpenPandora want to produce their own fancy box. This will not happen if to do so would delay shipping the product.

This is NOT the same as:

OpenPandora do not want to produce a fancy box, so if we need one we have to design and make it ourselves.


I THINK that Craig and perhaps others have looked on at some of the community artwork and approved to the point where they may approach/have approached traylorpark or others with a view to using some of the community artwork at some stage (either as-is or as a springboard), but I am leery of another community project like "what should the keyboard layout be like" or "what kind of stylus would be best" because these seem to have had little, if any, effect on what is actually being produced. Not meaning to rain on anyone's parade, just hoping to douse the flames a little to avoid any potential upset if/when the community box project suddenly finds that it is redundant, and always has been. Get official word from OP that they are interested first, I would say.

 

[airbeckley]

I THINK that Craig and perhaps others have looked on at some of the community artwork and approved to the point where they may approach/have approached traylorpark or others with a view to using some of the community artwork at some stage (either as-is or as a springboard), but I am leery of another community project like "what should the keyboard layout be like" or "what kind of stylus would be best" because these seem to have had little, if any, effect on what is actually being produced. Not meaning to rain on anyone's parade, just hoping to douse the flames a little to avoid any potential upset if/when the community box project suddenly finds that it is redundant, and always has been. Get official word from OP that they are interested first, I would say.



Yes completely true - there is absolutely no point duplicating effort and you're right too, there is definite ambiguity in Chip's posts. I guess all I wanted to say was if there is a will and interest we can do this ourselves, I certainly wouldn't want to run contrary to anything the team might be doing but I'm a box whore (I can hear guys in the US tittering at my use of "box whore" but you know what I mean h34r: ) and personally it would be great if my Pan arrives in a nice box.

No great shakes if it doesn't, getting the Pandora is what is key is but it would be nice....

 

[Alpha2]

What is so ambiguous about Chip saying very clearly 'We'd like to but we're not going to', I mean seriously how hard is that to understand when he says it in clear english?

It'd be nice, but it would cost more and delay shipping the first batch so they arnt going to. Simple, end of discussion. Have a nice day!

 

[Monk]

Yes completely true - there is absolutely no point duplicating effort and you're right too, there is definite ambiguity in Chip's posts. I guess all I wanted to say was if there is a will and interest we can do this ourselves, I certainly wouldn't want to run contrary to anything the team might be doing but I'm a box whore (I can hear guys in the US tittering at my use of "box whore" but you know what I mean h34r: ) and personally it would be great if my Pan arrives in a nice box.



"box whore" lol, love it. I am extremely pleased that my post has been taken in the spirit intended and not, well, poorly

And if everyone has fun, even duplicating effort isn't without point - fun is an end in itself!

What is so ambiguous about Chip saying very clearly 'We'd like to but we're not going to', I mean seriously how hard is that to understand when he says it in clear english?

It'd be nice, but it would cost more and delay shipping the first batch so they arnt going to. Simple, end of discussion. Have a nice day!

The bit where he does NOT say "we're not going to", I should think. Because he doesn't say that.

I'll quote Chip from this thread for you:

I was just pointing out that if it comes down to delaying shipment to wait for fancy boxes or using whatever was handy, we'd obviously take the second option.

and

There is an even longer list of things we would really like to make happen, and will as soon as we can, but we won't necessarily hold up shipping to wait for them. Fancy boxes are on the second list.

Where does he say, exactly, "we're not going to" about a pretty box? I agree it could be said in plain English - but it hasn't been, in this thread at least (I have previously quoted him from last year seeming clearer that they were a no-no at that time, but I think that was after we'd passed the original hoped-for earliest shipping date already).

To my mind, at least, there is a problem with using any quotes from last year that rely on "timing". Because last year we were looking at Pandora shipping in November or December '08, and that hasn't happened. It's now February '09 and it doesn't look much like they will ship this month either. I don't know which member/s of the OP team would work on pretty boxes given the extra time, but there is room to ponder whether the extra months of delay have provided OP with the time they needed to achieve the box designs they'd like, or if the weeks (or months?) to come will do so.

Hmmm... so I looked. Two quotes within minutes of themselves in the same thread:

It's looking very good to have every first batch Pandora shipped before the end of January.

I can absolutely guarantee that nothing will be held up due to packaging. There probably isn't going to be any fancy packaging for the first batch. As long as Fedex still gives out free boxes, we're set.

Now, to me (and God Ginrai for sure) he doesn't say "we're not going to" but "There probably isn't" - and he is working on the basis of Pandoras shipping within the month - not the month after the month after the month...

 

[Asmo]

We will show you the pandora box very soon. Not a cheap looking one.

http://forum.openpandora.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=208

So they did have something in mind at one time.

For what it's worth, community effort or not, if a box did get made can I make a plea not to add any text like 'open' or similar puns. If the name doesn't give them a clue.....

 

[jaycee900]

Yeah exactly Asmo, you have people like Mithrildor saying its very clear what we are getting, the devs tell us 'too much' apparantly..... all i can see is devs contradicting each other while the others joke about using a Fedex box....i would just like confirmation from Craig or whoever is dealing with side of things to state the official line on this please.