Swag, swag, swag...

[moxie]

Ok, the last days developments make a lot of sense to me, especially since I am amongst those who paid rather less for my Pandora. It is quite obvious to me that the object I got in my hands cannot possibly be built for the price I paid. I am thinking about doing some sort of donation thing or something.


Anyways.


In the big fat thread on the 7-day Pandoras, a bunch of people, amongst them Prometheus (my memory...it is bad), said "But why can't we buy big-profit-margin-merchandise to support you guys?". This is a good question. I'd jump on a chance for a Pandora mug and Pandora Tee (not to mention a Tee-mug) (sorry 'bout that), and I believe there are quite a lot of us.


Then again - At this point in time, we don't want Craig or ED to start dealing with yet another company - We want them to streamline the production and buid units like crazy. Right?


But - Couldn't we do that?


I mean, there are places on the net that do deal in custom merchandise, right? Now, if a few from the community got a vectorised logo or two, put their heads together and decided on a lineup, and then set up the shop bit of it. Then it is just a matter of redirecting the profits to OPT. Or something like that. It seems doable to me? Then again, I have no idea what I'm talking about, really, but still...


So, request for comments:


* Is this a good idea?


* Anybody knows any good instamerc places?


* What would be a reasonable lineup of things?


The places that pop into my mind are things like CafePress (but I imagine they more or less take the whole profit themselves) or TopatoCo (seems a bit more serious, but possibly not interested in our segment). Better places needed. Obvious merc candidates (T-shirt, mug) aside, I'd like a simple bag or tote or something with a pandora logo.


Also, a T-shirt with the Obvious Slogan: "I waited two months and all I got was this lousy T-shirt".


It's late, I'm tired and waffling. Anyways, it is an idea. Comments?

 

[Prometheus]

In the big fat thread on the 7-day Pandoras, a bunch of people, amongst them Prometheus (my memory...it is bad), said "But why can't we buy big-profit-margin-merchandise to support you guys?".

It was Coldbird who brought it up first, I think. I just thought it was worth seconding, but I got ninja'd and had to settle for thirding it, instead. But I'm getting off-track, here.

The places that pop into my mind are things like CafePress (but I imagine they more or less take the whole profit themselves) or TopatoCo (seems a bit more serious, but possibly not interested in our segment). Better places needed. Obvious merc candidates (T-shirt, mug) aside, I'd like a simple bag or tote or something with a pandora logo.

I've bought quite a bit from CafePress at this point, and their stuff is very high-quality. Another one is Zazzle, which offers a different selection of non-clothing merchandise (such as vinyl ring-binders, iPhone covers, postage stamps, and Christmas tree ornaments, amongst others), but which for some designs/artwork won't ship outside of the country of origin (this has presented a pain to me in buying from Capcom's official US Mega Man Zazzle store ).


I don't know of any others, but I gather that CafePress and Zazzle work pretty much the same.

It's late, I'm tired and waffling. Anyways, it is an idea. Comments?

"Want.", "Do want.", and "Where do I queue?", spring to mind.

 

[TrashyMG]

Well I bought one of these 7-Day Pandoras along with my late batch 1 pre-order and donated to the Dev fund back then.. So I put in a fair amount of money to the cause, but I would love a geeky T-shirts or a good coffee mug.


Will this be something the community does together or something we should get together with Craig and ED? both?


Addition: Has anyone had experience with CafePess or Zazzle? Do they have a order limits, lead time on ordering merchandise... etc.

 

[Prometheus]

^ No lead-time that I know of, usually, at least with CafePress (most often you order and within a day or two, they ship), although if there is one (and for some types of merchandise it does sometimes happen) it gets noted on the item's page. Zazzle appears to be the same, but I haven't been able to get anything from them yet.

 

[wardred]

...why can't we buy big-profit-margin-merchandise to support you guys?

Don't want it to slow things down, but in the interests of community, how about this -


A contest for:


1 - T-Shirt Design


2 - Mug Design


3 - ??? design.


Maybe just experimentally go with T-Shirts and have a 1st place, 2nd place, etc.


The winning entry, or winning entries, get put on a T-Shirt with something like 90% going to OpenPandora, and 10% as the prize to the shirt's creator - that's 10% of whatever OpenPandora gets.


I don't know much about T-Shirt design, there may be color limitations and what have you, but I know there are "prototyping" websites out there that help with that.


I also don't know if you'd have to get a commitment of a minimum number of orders to make this work.

 

[TrashyMG]

3. bottle opener?


4. Wine corker?


5. Craigix brand Vodka Koozie


-- for the heavy drinkers in the community.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Merchandise idea;


A box of genuine English snow (kept cool with ice), that includes a certificate guaranteeing that your Pandora will not melt it!

 

[XxionxX]

I don't know about everyone else, but I am all for this. If the team needs money I would like to buy stuff.

 

[Anihil8ion2199]

I will buy anything Pandora, but after 19 inches of snow in NY yesterday, and 37 inches this month, the last thing I want is more snow!

 

[Blue Protoman]

I will buy anything Pandora, but after 19 inches of snow in NY yesterday, and 37 inches this month, the last thing I want is more snow!

THREAD DERAIL


We sure got a lot of snow in the past month. I got off from school today!

 

[Anihil8ion2199]

To put it back on track.... I would look totally awesome shoveling all that snow while wearing my brand new Pandora hoodie!

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, getting the stuff is not the issue.


I've got some good companies where it's not too expensive.


The issue is: It won't help that much I guess.


How many bucks can you make with a shirt? 3 USD? 4 USD? Otherwise it will become too expensive.


If 2000 buy it, that's 6000 USD and A LOT of shipping work... more stuff to do, and we already have so much of work to do.

 

[Blue Protoman]

I just had an excellent idea;


Let's offer locks of ED's hair as merchandise.

 

[wardred]

If 2000 buy it, that's 6000 USD and A LOT of shipping work... more stuff to do, and we already have so much of work to do.

There is that. I don't want any more delays.


Just thought it would be a fun community design thing to do. Maybe this could be done after batch 1 & 2 - the original batch 1 & 2 - are out the door?


If it doesn't produce enough, then the 1 t-shirt run would be it. If it's a runaway success, then more runs of different designs and/or products could be considered. Would the T-Shirt companies force you guys to ship, or will some of them warehouse and ship the shirts themselves to those who order? If they'll do the later, it takes a large burden off Open Pandora's shoulders, even if it adds a buck or two to the purchase price.


Now that units are starting to ship, I'd like to see more contests, for prizes or not. I liked the off-line gaming league idea, even if I'm not participating. I'm pretty horrible at single player games.

 

[vadsamoht]

If 2000 buy it, that's 6000 USD and A LOT of shipping work... more stuff to do, and we already have so much of work to do.

There is that. I don't want any more delays.

I don't know about Zazzle, but I *believe* that CafePress and TopatoCo handle all of the shipping themselves. i.e. the designers don't actually recieve any of the content other than one or two samples to check for quality.

 

[XxionxX]

Well, getting the stuff is not the issue.


I've got some good companies where it's not too expensive.


The issue is: It won't help that much I guess.


How many bucks can you make with a shirt? 3 USD? 4 USD? Otherwise it will become too expensive.


If 2000 buy it, that's 6000 USD and A LOT of shipping work... more stuff to do, and we already have so much of work to do.

That is a really shitty revenue margin . There really isn't anything with a better margin that you could get? I don't know maybe... a $5 white t-shirt signed by both you and Craig sold for $25? I don't know, I just feel like something could be done... $0.50 Stickers for $5.00? Maybe you could get a trusted forum member to handle the shipping and paperwork?


I got it! Just enter some cheat codes for money! Then everyone can have free Pandoras!

 

[bzar]

^ *types dncashman*

 

[metallurge]

If 2000 buy it, that's 6000 USD and A LOT of shipping work... more stuff to do, and we already have so much of work to do.

There is that. I don't want any more delays.

I don't know about Zazzle, but I *believe* that CafePress and TopatoCo handle all of the shipping themselves. i.e. the designers don't actually recieve any of the content other than one or two samples to check for quality.

Yes. And you can price the merchandise how you want (i.e. make it worth your while). The only real downside is that it will take some time to set up (upload graphics, choose inventory to offer), and your time is probably at a premium at the moment. but it really does not take time to fulfill orders, manage inventory, ship, etc. These companies handle all that out of their cut.

 

[vadsamoht]

If 2000 buy it, that's 6000 USD and A LOT of shipping work... more stuff to do, and we already have so much of work to do.

There is that. I don't want any more delays.

I don't know about Zazzle, but I *believe* that CafePress and TopatoCo handle all of the shipping themselves. i.e. the designers don't actually recieve any of the content other than one or two samples to check for quality.

Yes. And you can price the merchandise how you want (i.e. make it worth your while). The only real downside is that it will take some time to set up (upload graphics, choose inventory to offer), and your time is probably at a premium at the moment. but it really does not take time to fulfill orders, manage inventory, ship, etc. These companies handle all that out of their cut.

Craig and ED's time is at a premium at the moment, but if we were to hold a design competition as mentioed above, then choose the best and any other options (e.g. shirt colours to offer, etc.) then the only thing really necessary for OP to do would be the actually set up the account and place the order(s), which unless I am severley mistaken, could not take too long.


After all, it's not as though we're in a particular rush.

 

[agent_orange]

I understood from the original post, that the whole idea was for the community to take care of this project 100% Meaning from Craig's & ED's point of view they will keep bashing out units and at some point get a nice wad of cash thanks to our efforts.


I think its worth pointing out that although the profit margin of TShirts might be a bit crap, I think we should also consider that each of these items can be used as free advertising which hopefully equals more units sold.


So to get the ball rolling I think we should set up the T Shirt competition post haste while also thinking about how we go about getting these things made as well as thinking of other merch to sell.


Off the top of my head what about bags (like record bags), mouse mats, notepads (the writing kind), car refreashners or those things that hang off your mirror.