You could meet Pescado in a dark alley with a suitcase full of cash, or...
Database:
Anyone tried Goggle Checkout? I'm not sure if it's even suitable in this case, but it's worth a look, I suppose.
ETA: Uhhh... maybe not :P
Solowren:
I'm all for MOAR FIGHT mugs! Also, the Cafe Press as-a-side-fundraiser sounds like a good idea- just keep it up year-round to boost funds. Lorelei's personal experience seems to suggest that this would be a good thing to do. Never log in again- receive monies!
Lorelei:
Quote from: BastDawn on 2008 August 09, 06:41:06
Awesome. It's good to hear that you have personal experience with it from the merchant side. If we get it going, I'll be happy to help with graphics.
I have stuff at Zazzle and Spreadshirt, too. I have gotten ONE check from Zazzle, ever. Two from SS, ever. CP sends me about one a month. The same (or similar) merch is on all three sites. What I'm getting at, here, is that you will get more "drive-by" / non-MATY donations if you choose CP, because I certainly get more random shoppers buying my crap at CP than elsewhere.
I will note that their mousepads are WAY overpriced.
The biggest downside with CP is that they are RIDICULOUS about copyright infringement, refusing to print original art if it might possibly resemble anyone famous. Artwork featuring famous people has to be EXTREMELY cartoony and not mention them by name, or it gets zapped and can't be sold. THIS, of course, is not a MATY problem.
If you do a general call for designs, recommend that people download the templates for the items you want to sell (if "everything," then make sure people download and design for the right products). I also recommend designing for both light and dark imprintables. For one, white areas are transparent and shirt color shows through all colors you use. For the other, you need to have transparent areas where the shirt color is to be, and white areas stay white.
CP is also easiest to set up. You don't have to pay to have shops. You can have cafepress.com/MATY1, /MATY2, /MATY3, etc. and either use the same design for all items per store address, or mix designs per page. Drawback of free shops: if you design for the pink t-shirt using one pattern and your store is free, you can't design with the pink T and another design IN THAT SHOP. You have to open a new free shop to make the alternate design for a pink T.
Tealdeer: CP will likely earn you more money (CP is where I and other people I know who sell stuff with imprintables make the most bucks, even those of us who don't advertise or set up a store for a class project at school) and returns have been painless (for me) and stuff will hold up (except for the very cheapest Value T) AND CP offers light-on-dark printing. Downside is that some of their stuff has high base costs (like mousepad) and their anal-retentiveness about copyright infringement even when no such infringement or deviation from Fair Use is happening.
As a hint, I sell ringer Ts, black Ts, and stickers most.
This fall, I will be swamped with thesis stuff, but if you catch me before stuff heats up, I will gladly use my Skills Of An Artist to contribute designs. I have offered the same to local Anons, so it won't be stressful to take care of similar projects simultaneously.
I suggest a thread for most desired phrases and items once it is decided (if it is) to go with this as one of the money-raising ideas. As a bonus, it will continue to earn as long as the shop is open, and if the phrases are amusing enough and general enough, non-MATYians will buy stuff as well. Who wouldn't want a MORE AWESOME THAN YOU shirt, a 1337 mug, or a MOAR FIGHT! shirt (with or without a LOLcat or two)? Individual coasters with images of barware and STEAMING HOT CUP OF STFU or EAU DE BRYNNE or BUTTHURTINI or MOLOTOV COCKTAIL or FROZEN TARD TEARS on them might also get you a few drive-by purchasers.
Mirelly:
Well I was serious about the offshore bank account. If money is being raised I only give when I am sure that most of what I give by-passes the middle men. Capitalism has its uses, but not in supporting community projects.
A better way of year-round fund raising would be to set up accounts at places like Amazon whereby people desirous of supporting MATY can buy what they need and channel valuable pennies to the fund of cheesiness.
Also the thanks this is great button could lead to a page offering an opportunity to make an SMS payment of, say $2.50. Companies who offer such facilities keep 10-12%, which I do not consider excessive. Indeed I would happily SMS a quid or two every time I downloaded the DC ... or availed myself of the goodness in the Peasantry.
But if you wanna raise $2500 by selling mugs, then please allow me to set up Mirelly's Marvellous Mug 'n' Mamm-O-Grams Corp. Inc. Ltd. Pty :P If there's any profiteering to be done, I'd like a slice of it meself.
Lorelei:
I think you're confused about just who profits from a CP store, Mirelly, if you want to sell your own mugs to "profit" from them.
CP buys the imprintable products and mails and deals with customer service for you. The cost of the plain tees is still on a par with plain tees bought in most department stores. Some other items, like mousepads, are admittedly higher. So they absorb the product cost, printing materials and labor costs, and S&H costs for you, and every penny over the base price you mark the item up, you keep. CP, as a business, makes a fair profit from providing a service, and the storeholder makes a fair profit for basically designing an image, sticking it on a webpage, and then doing nothing else but collecting a check if it gets bought.
Your plan sounds like "Mirelly buys a mug, tries to compete with a huge company that can buy in bulk and do its own printing, ships stuff out, handles customer gripes, and earns a few pennies for the unnecessary effort." A joke, perhaps, but it implies that you think CP is ripping you off somehow.
I did "sell imprinted stuff" as a business pre-Internet, and it is a pain in the butt to do solo, and a hassle to deal with mailing and returns. I am thrilled to sell stuff where all I need to do is make a design people presumably want to buy, cash the checks, and then wander off to do more interesting creative projects while the accounting and business-related shit is handled by a team of hundreds and not just me. :P
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page