Swag, swag, swag...

[vadsamoht]

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.

I agree with beginning the shirt contest ASAP, to boost morale and just because. But I think we should hold out on doing other merchandising just yet, to see if the shirts are at least a moderate success. We can still use this thread for thinking of new options though, and I've no doubt there will be a lot of posts like OMG SHIRTS!? WHY DIDN'T YOU DO X?


EDIT: The one thing I do suggest waiting for, however, is an OK from ED or Craig to at least run the competition. We don't want to start it just to have it fall over halfway through.

 

[doublebeta]

I just had an excellent idea;


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

DO WANT.


Or a wig like ED's hair!


EDIT: Or a full costume, including the Pandora shirt he wears (erm I hope not constantly) and mask(wrinkles optional - hey, just kidding . But after all the stress...)!


EDIT2: About selling $0.50 stickers for >=$5 - it works for Ubuntu. A bit immoral, but has anyone ever questioned it (plus it is better than paying >$100 for Windows, and it is optional, but now i'm derailing)? Go ahead, great idea.

 

[agent_orange]

EDIT: The one thing I do suggest waiting for, however, is an OK from ED or Craig to at least run the competition. We don't want to start it just to have it fall over halfway through.

Yeh agreed

 

[Sugar_Kane]

What about edible OP underpants?

 

[vadsamoht]

What about edible OP underpants?

Only if they're pre-worn by Craig and/or ED.

 

[vadsamoht]

Just thought I'd add that I've been looking at pricing on CafePress, and men's shirts start from ~$9 (USD), depending on quantity. So (depending on how the sales system works) there *should* actually be a decent profit margin in this, as we could quite easily sell them for $15-20.


EDIT: Also looked at zazzle - much cheaper in the kind of quantities we would be buying (~$5 per shirt), however you would have to buy the whole lot yourselves and the distribute them, so that's a no-go.


Also TopatoCo only deals with people who already have a profitable merchandise scheme going.

 

[moxie]

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.

Yep. That was my thought, too - To use one of these online doodahs to get rid of the hassle of shipping and ordering and stuff, and to leave it to a group of community members to do the setup bit. Thus - To get some sort of merchandise thing going, which could provide some extra cashflow for OPT without having to require their time.

 

[Marsu]

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 used Spreadshirt (.de, but they are international by now) a few times and built my own shop just for fun in there. It is laughably easy. just take the default template, add a few products, done.


In short:


- <upload vector-image>


- <wait 24h>


- <click shirt/mug/teddybear/whatever>


- <select motive>


- <scale/place motive>


- <save>


- ???


- PROFIT


Even if it is just 2-3$/€/Pound per item, if the community sets up the shop it is essentially FREE MONEY(well, except for taxes) for OPT.

 

[vadsamoht]

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 used Spreadshirt (.de, but they are international by now) a few times and built my own shop just for fun in there. It is laughably easy. just take the default template, add a few products, done.


In short:


- <upload vector-image>


- <wait 24h>


- <click shirt/mug/teddybear/whatever>


- <select motive>


- <scale/place motive>


- <save>


- ???


- PROFIT


Even if it is just 2-3$/€/Pound per item, if the community sets up the shop it is essentially FREE MONEY(well, except for taxes) for OPT.

Some things I can't find on the spreadshirt website:


* Roughly how much profit would you make from each shirt, and how much does each one cost? (e.g. $2 profit on a $20 shirt?)


* How is their shipping? Do they shif to *everywhere* in the world, and are the rates reasonable? (e.g. $20 shipping for a $20 shirt would be a no-go)


* Is there a maximum number of colours, etc? other limitations?


Otherwise, I'm actually liking what I see on spreadshirt - for one thing they actually let you put designs on the back and sleeves, enlike all of the others I've looked at.

 

[BaDToaD]

How about this for a tee shirt.


A Pandora logo with Two Months tm underneath.

 

[Marsu]

Some things I can't find on the spreadshirt website:


* Roughly how much profit would you make from each shirt, and how much does each one cost? (e.g. $2 profit on a $20 shirt?)


* How is their shipping? Do they shif to *everywhere* in the world, and are the rates reasonable? (e.g. $20 shipping for a $20 shirt would be a no-go)


* Is there a maximum number of colours, etc? other limitations?


Otherwise, I'm actually liking what I see on spreadshirt - for one thing they actually let you put designs on the back and sleeves, enlike all of the others I've looked at.

As far as I know they have opened subsidiaries in some of the countries you find in the dropdown at the top, but I do not know for sure (shipping inside germany was very reasonable).


The shirts cost somewhere between 13-18€ depending on make and quality IIRC, the profit margin is fully adjustable for each product in your shop.


you can play around with their design-tool and check prices here, even without a shop:


http://www.spreadshirt.com/create-your-own-t-shirt-C59


(there are similar pages for the other languages)

 

[vadsamoht]

How about this for a tee shirt.


A Pandora logo with Two Months tm underneath.

This idea has come up numerous times. I like it, btw, just sayin'.


EDIT: Actually I think the logo on the front with Two Months on the back would look much better. If merchandising never goes ahead, I might just make one myself and pay OP a few pounds as a royalty.


EDIT2: Thanks Marsu, looks like the best option so far.

 

[Poem58]

I think and yes this may be stupid but it's a 0% time and money cost for OPT, but what if...


We do some sort of poll. Decide on one or two items (shirt,mug etc) hand have ED maybe draw his dragon, use an official Pandora logo/font with maybe a couple variations for different tastes. Then find a low cost quality online way to have the shirt/mug etc made ( there are places you just upload a photo etc) then we can have an official item made which we can do individually and everyone could just send a couple bucks to OPT. ED could maybe set up a convenient paypal for this. It may sound dumb, but the goal is to have something of an official design, and make OPT some money.


This way an official product is made, OPT gets some profit and aside from a few minutes for graphics, no lost time contracting a large minimum order and shipping. Also it allows others who wish to contribute, but don't need another mug to also join in.


Thanks for reading my stupid but time saving proposal, now back to our regularly scheduled insanity.

 

[vadsamoht]

I'm gonna tear apart what you just said, not because I disagree, but rather to save having one massive paragraph nobody will read.

We do some sort of poll. Decide on one or two items (shirt,mug etc)

I personally don't think there's enough organization on these forums at the moment for this to work. As I mentioned earlier, I think we should start with one or two shirts (relatively safe bet) to gauge enthusiasm.

and have ED maybe draw his dragon,

ED hactually has a dragon he uses? I thought it was just a name.

use an official Pandora logo/font with maybe a couple variations for different tastes. Then find a low cost quality online way to have the shirt/mug etc made (there are places you just upload a photo etc) then we can have an official item made

This is precisely what we were already planning.

which we can do individually and everyone could just send a couple bucks to OPT. ED could maybe set up a convenient paypal for this.

Several of the options we are currently looking at would have the profits for each shirt sent directly to OP, making this unnecessary.

It may sound dumb, but the goal is to have something of an official design, and make OPT some money.


This way an official product is made, OPT gets some profit and aside from a few minutes for graphics, no lost time contracting a large minimum order and shipping. Also it allows others who wish to contribute, but don't need another mug to also join in.


Thanks for reading my stupid but time saving proposal, now back to our regularly scheduled insanity.

Thankyou for posting. People's donated time, efforts, and input are always welcome (in this project and others).

 

[Nation.A.List]

and have ED maybe draw his dragon,

ED hactually has a dragon he uses? I thought it was just a name.

You'd need to watch the '1 A Day While Waiting for Pandora Videos' in which ED uses Paint (IIRC)

 

[DaMummy]

im interested in buying a pandora man-thong

 

[Prometheus]

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.

CafePress offers most of those (except the air-fresheners), although the record bags are a gruesome yellow colour that personally I find to look a bit odd. :lol:

 

[kojack]

I've just been reading through the cafepress faqs and stuff, here's what I've found on pricing/profits.


- It's free to set up a basic store (premium store is more customisable but has a small monthly fee). Pretty much no effort required, they do everything (handle sales, make and ship products, etc).


- Making designs is pretty simple (choose base item and colour, upload image, position, done), and free.


- Products have a base cost. For a dark tshirt it's $18.99. Mugs are $10.99. Base prices are here: http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/pricing_policy.aspx


- You can set whatever price you want above the base on your store. Cafepress will take the base price from each sale, you get everything over the base.


- Cafepress also have a marketplace where all products are sold without using your shop. They set the price here (looks like $20-25 for a typical tshirt), and give you 10% of each sale. I think the marketplace can be opt-out, so only people visiting your store (and therefore paying your marked up price) find the stuff.


- If you are american, they send info to the irs so you can be taxed. If you say you are foreign, they ignore the tax stuff (you'd have to deal with that how ever your country wants you to).


Depending on what people would be willing to pay, you could make a lot more than just a few dollars per sale.


I haven't looked at the other sites (zazzle, etc), and I've never bought anything from a cafepress store, so I don't know what the quality is like.

 

[Prometheus]

^ Their quality is very good, and their customer service on the rare, in my experience, occasion there's a problem with an order is superb.

 

[Poem58]

vadsamoht, thanks and sorry. I was just trying to say it'd be nice to not have OPT deal with more stuff. Yes, others have commented on ED's dragon drawing and I personally could see his Dragon drawing on the front of a shirt doing quite well (with the "two months tm" and Pandora on back. Sorry if I missed the idea of doing it the way you suggest. My idea was more to have ED help with the official design and let others get their own stuff made instead of having some account made or worrying about minimum orders of shirts etc. But whatever you all chose to do is fine if you are happy with it. I personally would want to just Paypal a couple bucks myself.