This is something I’d to do to coincide with Part 2’s release! I’ve been wanting to dip my toe into crowdfunding waters, and I think this is a fairly safe and fun way to do it.
So I asked the winner of spring’s CCH Art Contest if she’d like to make her winning design into a t-shirt design. I’m pretty thrilled with the results! This is a mock-up of what it would likely look like.
So which of the following best captures your reaction to this? I built the poll so I cannot see who voted how, so feel free to vote honestly! I won’t know!
I would definitely support this KickStarter if they were under $30.00 USD each!
I would possibly support this KickStarter if they were under $30.00 USD each!
I like CCH, but I would probably not support this KickStarter.
I like CCH, and even though I probably would not support this KickStarter, I think others would!
@MAppolo and @Centralrouge, you asked what’s probably one of the biggest questions for me: limit shipping to US or make it global?
US-only shipping would be much easier. Hell, they are t-shirts. I roll them up, put them in a large padded envelope, and mail 'em out. Cheap and easy. Shipping would probably be under $7. However, I’d probably lose a far number of backers.
I’d prefer to offer global shipping, BUT that would require me to research and estimate shipping costs for various countries because I can’t afford to guess wrong and lose money on shipping. Also, shipping costs could easily reach $20 USD for certain countries, and I’m not sure many readers are willing or able to pay $50.00 for a t-shirt, even a very cool one!
Quick example: I recently mailed a CCH Facebook contest winner (who lives in the Philippines) a package of prints - so they were super light AND fit in a padded envelope, and it was STILL $16.00 for me to ship it. And it took 20 days for the package to arrive! Yikes!
I can’t tell if it’s just the positioning - placing a lighter colour between several darker ones - but the orange one kept yanking my eyes back to it. I think that one is my favourite, although they’re all fantastic
@moonwalkerdragon, I’m not sure how to narrow it down though. I could keep it simple and just add Mexico and Canada, but I’m still excluding most of the world. I just know that I can’t include dozens and dozens of countries. That would quickly turn into a part-time job.
@thatdodgymoggie, I dig the orange too, but I also dig the red and the purple and pretty much all the colors. But this is not final, so I’m not sure what colors would actually be offered if/when this gets off the ground. There is a t-shirt/copy place down the road from my office and I would talk to them first. There would likely be minimum orders to run each color t-shirt, so offering too many colors might screw up the pricing if not enough people order enough of one color.
As someone who sells on eBay, I can assure you US shipping on a T-shirt should not just be under $7, but also under $5. How far beyond that would depend on what you want to charge for shipping materials and the effort of schlepping over to the post office, but the true mailing cost would hover around $3.25-$4 depending on how much the shirt weighed. But it would definitely be light enough for first class unless you lined it with the kind of material they make Z-Shields from.
Everything shipped overseas is ridiculous. I’m so glad eBay offers the Global Shipping Program now so you just have to mail the stuff to their center in Kentucky and they take it from there.
I’m super ready to throw money at this, but can I ask what the Kickstarter money would go towards? I know in the past you’ve printed products and sold them on your own, and you’ve said yourself this is to test out crowdfunding, but have you considered looking at online stores like Redbubble or Society6 where products are made to order for future merch?
@hustlertwo, thanks so much for the info! Yeah I was factoring in buying packing materials, time to sit in line at the Post Office, etc. Do you use stamps.com or something like that where you can do the postage stuff at home, thus cutting out some of the hassle factor? That might be the way to go there for me. I am all for cutting costs and keeping charges down for backers as low as possible.
And yeah international is scaring me. And again I just don’t think people can afford to pay $50+ for this.
@HomingPidgeon, I would anticipate most all of the money raised going straight to t-shirts and shipping. I haven’t cranked out all the math yet, but this is obviously not a money-making venture. I would keep cost as low as possible. I do want to pay the artist obviously, so I guess a small profit would be preferable, and if I made anything extra, I’d put it towards art costs for the games, which I obviously pay for out-of-pocket. But that’s it. And no I haven’t checked out those stores but I just might. Thanks!
We don’t, but that’s because we treat eBay like an infinite yard sale and sell a bunch of random stuff we find instead of having a specific type of item we stock like a more traditional store. It’s hard to figure out at home the exact amount of postage needed to mail a Cybermaxx VR helmet, or a vintage board game called The Creature that Ate Sheboygan, and then if we did that knowledge would be useless afterward because once we sell the one of that thing we have we will likely never sell it again.
In your case doing it at home should be easier. Your package weight will never fluctuate. And mailing First Class is the same rate regardless of what state they are in, I think. Stamps.com would probably work, and then envelopes, tape and such can be bought cheaply in bulk from places like BJ’s, Sam’s Club or Costco. I know there are pickup options for mailing packages from home, and I think they are free to boot.
International should scare you. Early on I paid like $70 to ship four books to Australia. Someone from England just bought a copy of Platoon for the Amiga and has sent me messages begging me to fill out a customs form and claim this as a gift so it can spare him a myriad of taxes. Still not sure if that will work or not. Harsh as it may be, you really might be better off either not doing international at all, or adding a smaller tier of support that involves digital-only items to be given to the backer and then putting a big bold US ONLY for the levels beyond it. Assuming that is an option.
Hmm…after 10 minutes of research, I have concluded that I could mail domestically via priority boxes for $6.45 each (which includes the 10% stamps.com discount). Folks would get their t-shirts in just 1-3 days from mailing. That might be the way to go. It would take all the guesswork out. Nothing would have to be weighed or taken to the post office. And I could easily stuff two shirts in one box, so I could offer KickStarter add-ons for a second t-shirt sent to the same address at cost only, no additional shipping. I could also slip in free bonuses like CCH Steam Cover postcards because I think I have about 200 of those left.
And shipping materials would be free, since priority boxes/envelopes are free to get. And a one-month stamps.com membership is just $15, so that’s cheap. This would save me a ridiculous amount of time and hassle.
It would be higher than is really needed for a single shirt, but it does allow you unequaled simplification of the process and all related expenditures. And as you said, the ability to add a second shirt for free (these are the small priority boxes, though, so while you should be able to get 2 shirts in there or in the envelope, I doubt you could get three without a chance of it popping like a zit mid-transit). Probably a good way to go.
You could potentially put the design on something like cafepress after the kickstarter for international sales if you don’t want to bother with that. Wouldn’t expect a lot of sales though, international postage from the US for things as big as T-shirts can get quite expensive but you might get a few. (Just had a quick look and it seemed to be $18-something australian for standard T-shirt, so probably still cheaper than you could send it yourself but would still make it about a $45 US T-shirt if you’re making them for $30).
@Eric_Moser have you tried a site like cafepress? You upload your image and they put it on T-shirts and other merchandise, and they also handle sales and distribution. My understanding is that you set the price and get paid anything above their base price for any particular item.
Example base price: $10
Example “your price”: $15
Example profit: $5
I don’t work for that company, nor am I affiliated with them in any way.
Just wanted to throw an idea out there in case it helps.
