Re: [gentoo-trustees] URGENT - Cafepress premium store

[Corey Shields]

On Friday 27 May 2005 08:29 pm, Donnie Berkholz wrote:
> Donnie Berkholz wrote:
> > So the cost difference is negligible, and the question becomes: Do you
> > want the new trustees to be a part of this decision now?
>
> And the other question: Do we trust Cafepress to do a good job (and
> commit to >=6 months), or do we want to give them a short trial?

We don't have to commit to anything with them  (part of the beauty of it).

As for the quality, that has been a concern for a few people who have been 
unhappy with CP..  I have a shirt from the old Gentoo store that I bought 
over 2 years ago.  I still wear it.  The logo is a bit faded, but about the 
same as any t-shirt I bought from the mall around that same time period..

CP has a "Value shirt" option that is a lower quality shirt, I don't know for 
sure but this may have been what was used for the shirts that some people 
complain about.  I didn't select this for our store.

The store has historically been mostly CD sales, so I think that should be a 
higher priority as far as picking a "permanent" solution.  AFAIAC, so far CP 
seems to be perfect for our needs.

However, we can drop the CP store anytime we want...  no time commitment.  We 
can purchase a year of the premium store and then shut it down 3 months 
later, but we would be out of the premium fees.

Let me give some details on the way I setup the store wrt profit margins:

Clothing is a straight $5 markup

CD's will be $5 markup as well  (this will match the price that Daniel had on 
his store)

Everything else (schwag) is 20% markup, since some of the stuff, like 
stickers, is a little much to ask a $5 markup on.

So far, there have been orders made for 3 "golf" shirts (polos), 5 T-shirts 
(logos on both sides), 2 mugs, and a sticker.  The markup from this equals 
the $47.70 mentioned earlier.

As I've estimated before, previous Gentoo releases have had cd sales upwards 
of 1500-2000 copies.  CP mentioned they have no problem carrying a heavy load 
of orders, so come time for the next release this should work out well if we 
decide to keep it.

In my opinion, what makes this the best solution overall is that it's pretty 
much hands-off.  We don't have to worry about the orders, the money handling, 
shipping, inventory, etc.  They even have a 30 day money back guarantee, so 
if the shirt does suck it can be returned.  I've looked around for another 
outsourcer that does this kind of thing with CDs and merchandise both and 
have not found anyone.

Cheers!

-C
-- 
Corey Shields
Gentoo Linux Infrastructure Team and Devrel Team
Gentoo Foundation Board of Trustees
http://www.gentoo.org/~cshields
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