Post by crazycstudios on Sept 23, 2008 21:34:46 GMT -5
Yea, I'm more than willing to work with whoever ends up headlining this if I don't. And for the forum on a whole, I'll gladly answer any question I can that people have.
The sad thing about my being in the process of setting up a store is that I'm at the knowledgeable stage but not at the practical application stage. There's about $300 of set up I'd have to do to get a fully operational store going and I'm not likely to be ready for that until Spring at the earliest (mainly because my site as a whole needs to be updating regularly with a fanbase to warrant merchandise). It's too bad, since the system would streamline the whole thing (weighing the packages, printing labels, and all I'd have to do is stick 'em in the bags and drop them off at the post office). Personally, I'd like to see these shirts happen sooner than later (definitely kicking up the effort on the project after the site redesign is done) so waiting for me to have a set up would kind of suck. Obviously, such a process isn't needed for getting the shirts sent out, it would just make it easier. As it stands now, for better quality, here's how I'm picturing the order of events without a print-on-demand place:
First we get a design decided upon amongst a solid number of people. (You can never please everyone, we'll hold a poll.) For whoever places the order - They will need a 600 dpi photoshop or .tiff file of the image at actual printing size (so under image size, 6 in x 7 in or whatever we figure, despite how huge it looks on screen.)
Second, we have the pre-order period. Shirts would be limited to this time. I'm thinking 2 weeks, 3 if we don't hit minimum, and it would be best during a time the band is on tour as there's increased traffic (according to the rules of logic). Unless something changes, during the pre-order, it's $15 a shirt. There would be a sticky thread in the forum and a banner ad on the main site to encourage people.
Third, artwork and money in hand, we place the order. (Going with the prices of the previous example) we take the initial shipping cost, divide it among the number of orders, and subtract that amount from the $5.50 each person paid in shipping. In the unlikely event the remaining shipping amount per order isn't enough, we'll have to come to a decision on what to do based on the amount.
Fourth, when whoever receives the printed shirts, they need to take some money (again, based off how much is available to them from the shipping costs) to go and purchase an appropriate amount of shipping envelopes. They'll also want to pick up a bunch of free shipping labels from the post office. And have a lot of fun filling them out.
Fifth, packages set, they return to the post office, wait in line, take them to the counter, and become hated by the rest of the costumers while the stamps for packages are set up. Ideally, there shouldn't be anything left over of the shipping costs, without the shipper having to pay more. If possible, the shipper needs to check before hand the shipping costs so we can know if there's anything left over or needed. Another amount that needs to be known to take action on.
Sixth, everyone enjoys their shirts.
I know a lot of the costs stuff is hard to explain because we don't have any exact figures. Doing it with a for-profit store, you don't have to worry about having extra money to give back. When I did this with a club in college, we used club funds for the run so when people had to pay, we knew all the costs (especially as there was no additional shipping or packing needs).
Um... How about we open this up to questions about the process? I'll try to clear up confusing stuff as best I can.
(In terms of getting the printing, either a shipment or print-on-demand store, I'm asking others I can for their ideas, but I'm not getting many names that I haven't heard before or aren't local and not set up for online orders. That said, my personally choice is still Brunetto but I'm still open and looking.)
The sad thing about my being in the process of setting up a store is that I'm at the knowledgeable stage but not at the practical application stage. There's about $300 of set up I'd have to do to get a fully operational store going and I'm not likely to be ready for that until Spring at the earliest (mainly because my site as a whole needs to be updating regularly with a fanbase to warrant merchandise). It's too bad, since the system would streamline the whole thing (weighing the packages, printing labels, and all I'd have to do is stick 'em in the bags and drop them off at the post office). Personally, I'd like to see these shirts happen sooner than later (definitely kicking up the effort on the project after the site redesign is done) so waiting for me to have a set up would kind of suck. Obviously, such a process isn't needed for getting the shirts sent out, it would just make it easier. As it stands now, for better quality, here's how I'm picturing the order of events without a print-on-demand place:
First we get a design decided upon amongst a solid number of people. (You can never please everyone, we'll hold a poll.) For whoever places the order - They will need a 600 dpi photoshop or .tiff file of the image at actual printing size (so under image size, 6 in x 7 in or whatever we figure, despite how huge it looks on screen.)
Second, we have the pre-order period. Shirts would be limited to this time. I'm thinking 2 weeks, 3 if we don't hit minimum, and it would be best during a time the band is on tour as there's increased traffic (according to the rules of logic). Unless something changes, during the pre-order, it's $15 a shirt. There would be a sticky thread in the forum and a banner ad on the main site to encourage people.
Third, artwork and money in hand, we place the order. (Going with the prices of the previous example) we take the initial shipping cost, divide it among the number of orders, and subtract that amount from the $5.50 each person paid in shipping. In the unlikely event the remaining shipping amount per order isn't enough, we'll have to come to a decision on what to do based on the amount.
Fourth, when whoever receives the printed shirts, they need to take some money (again, based off how much is available to them from the shipping costs) to go and purchase an appropriate amount of shipping envelopes. They'll also want to pick up a bunch of free shipping labels from the post office. And have a lot of fun filling them out.
Fifth, packages set, they return to the post office, wait in line, take them to the counter, and become hated by the rest of the costumers while the stamps for packages are set up. Ideally, there shouldn't be anything left over of the shipping costs, without the shipper having to pay more. If possible, the shipper needs to check before hand the shipping costs so we can know if there's anything left over or needed. Another amount that needs to be known to take action on.
Sixth, everyone enjoys their shirts.
I know a lot of the costs stuff is hard to explain because we don't have any exact figures. Doing it with a for-profit store, you don't have to worry about having extra money to give back. When I did this with a club in college, we used club funds for the run so when people had to pay, we knew all the costs (especially as there was no additional shipping or packing needs).
Um... How about we open this up to questions about the process? I'll try to clear up confusing stuff as best I can.
(In terms of getting the printing, either a shipment or print-on-demand store, I'm asking others I can for their ideas, but I'm not getting many names that I haven't heard before or aren't local and not set up for online orders. That said, my personally choice is still Brunetto but I'm still open and looking.)