You could meet Pescado in a dark alley with a suitcase full of cash, or...
Mirelly:
Quote from: Lorelei on 2008 August 10, 05:44:46
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
I appreciate the response. But I do think CP is a rip off. This is an example of a bit of CP merchandise. Even at the most realistic of exchange rates (which recognises what the currency is actually worth in its local market place), a $16 mug ( £8 in my money) is outrageous. Hell's teeth. The standard (non-international) shipping is more than I would pay for a bog-standard, fired-clay mug. CP describes the mug as "ceramic" so we have no idea if it is high-quality, chip-resistant "stoneware" or the even higher quality "bone-chine" ... let alone porcelain! (and for £8 quid I could 4 plain white porcelain mugs in either my local Woolworth or my local Asda).
Pescado has described the CP "markup" as unattractive (I forget the exact adjective). I don't need to create a CP account to know that CP is reaping the lion's share of the profit on the merch. That's my definition of a rip-off (and a rip-off doesn't have to be criminal or malevolent to be labelled as such ... an inefficient business' high prices are as much worthy of the term as outright fraud). I am grateful that you acknowledged my comments were intended to be taken lightly, but I do not distance myself from their broad sentiment. Running an online retailing business is a serious operation. Companies like Cafe Press cannot afford to give their inestimable hidden benefits away.
As for teeshirts. I've never visited the US, but it is apocryphal in many parts of Europe that the US is fabulous wonderland of cheap clothing. With current exchange rates this applies more so as a friend recently returned from Ca confirmed. In the UK this high quality teeshirt is sold in every major city for a mere £5 (<$10). Do you seriously want to suggest that CPs $20+ teeshirts are economically priced to the advantage of the emptor? As always the fool is soonest parted from his money. I thought MATY had no room for fools.
I ask again. What the fuck is wrong is opening an international bank account?
Nadine Blackstone:
It couldn't hurt to set up a PO box; less risky than meeting Pescado in the dark alley, anyway. Almost every penny goes to the cause.
Setting up a Cafe Press account couldn't hurt. Who doesn't love receiving a check without having to exert anything more than initial effort? Who isn't imagining their mom in a MOAR FIGHT t-shirt? But as a primary source of funds? Too much cash diverted into the wrong pocket.
Zazazu:
Quote from: Mirelly on 2008 August 10, 22:20:57
As for teeshirts. I've never visited the US, but it is apocryphal in many parts of Europe that the US is fabulous wonderland of cheap clothing. With current exchange rates this applies more so as a friend recently returned from Ca confirmed. In the UK this high quality teeshirt is sold in every major city for a mere £5 (<$10). Do you seriously want to suggest that CPs $20+ teeshirts are economically priced to the advantage of the emptor? As always the fool is soonest parted from his money. I thought MATY had no room for fools.
That is in no way indicative of standard t-shirt prices in the US, especially not of novelty tees. For an example, Old Navy is on the mid-to-low end of price for graphic tees, and theirs cost $15. This seems to jive with CafePress, where prices for tees I noticed ranged from $15-$22. Standard.
As for them taking a lot of the "profit" margin - Doi! They are doing the lion's share of the work.
Anyways, I would not send cash or checks physically anywhere. You're just asking for it to get intercepted. So no PO Box por moi.
J. M. Pescado:
You realize standard t-shirt prices are ALREADY outrageously gouging, considering that a t-shirt costs less than a buck to make?
Solowren:
Quote from: J. M. Pescado on 2008 August 11, 00:45:03
You realize standard t-shirt prices are ALREADY outrageously gouging, considering that a t-shirt costs less than a buck to make?
This reminds me of something my manager said the other day:
"We sell a large sausage and olive pizza for, what, 19 bucks? Those things cost $3 to make. Tops."
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