Post #797889 by swizzle on Sun, Oct 6, 2019 8:45 PM

Ok, this is going to be my last post on the subject until it comes down to the final decision making on what is going to be made and how it will be paid for.

But first, PineappleWhip! You keep talking about donating the profits to TC. Besides it being mentioned by Hamo in his initial post, which is "How Should We Celebrate Tiki Central's 20th Anniversary", not "How Should We Raise Money To Donate To Tiki Central", you and mikehooker are the only two that have brought that up. As i've already stated several times i have no problem donating a small amount somehow back to TC, as i'm sure most members would do, but the item/s that are decided on need to be purchased in a way that they are all sold before they are even made. Not made and then have 30-3000 left over no-one knows what to do with but then when/if they sell the money goes back to TC.

Now no offense to PinTiki but we do not need him to have the pin made. He has already stated that the cost of having 100 made would be about $200, so about $2 per pin. This isn't something for him to be making a profit on. This is something being organized BY the sites members FOR the sites members. Now i have zero problem paying him a couple of dollars for a handling and packing fee (shipping is a separate thing altogether) but that's about it.

So on that note these are my (final) thoughts. Without sounding like a broken record, no matter how much i would like swizzle sticks to be made and that they are the most popular item people are interested in, having and paying for 10,000 just doesn't seem feasible. I've already said a few times that i think a 'pack' of several items is the way to go and here's why.

1.) You end up with several different items instead of just one at a very affordable price.

2.) All the ephemera talked about (besides swizzle sticks) can be ordered in small numbers with 100 being most likely the minimum. If it is more than that it is only going to be numbers like 250 or 500.

So for arguments sake and just using random figures at the moment without knowing exact costs it can be broken down like this;

MINIMUM ORDER
100 pins @ $2.50 each
100 sm. stickers @ .50c each
100 lg. stickers @ .65c each
250 coasters @ .30c each (We have 500 made so it divides into 100 evenly and everyone gets 5)
500 umbrellas @ 1.25 each

So people buy a 'pack' and get;

1 pin
1 sm. sticker
1 lg. sticker
5 coasters
5 umbrellas

For a total cost of $11.40 (plus postage) if my calculations are correct.

So we get EXACT quotes for each item, break down the price per ITEM, put together a pack and THEN discuss how much, if any, money goes towards TC. Then a GoFundMe (or whatever account works best for something like this) can be started with the payments being used to pay for each individual item to be manufactured. Now obviously people can buy more than one 'pack' (i most likely would) which means more more could be made of each item and then that would bring the costs down further.

Now, if PinTiki is happy to organize the pins and also have all the other items sent to him and put together the packs and mail them out, that's when we discuss paying him a handling fee (and a TC donation) which can be added to the total so hypothetically the pack becomes $15 with the items costing $11.40 and $2.60 going to PinTiki and $1 back to TC from each pack sold.

I'm sure that makes sense to most of you what i'm getting at. I personally think that is the easiest way to go about this, although a poll needs to be conducted here but i'm not sure how that can be done. I can follow up on my post on Facebook after i get some feedback here to say what decision/s are being made and gauge interest over there especially considering people use FB more than TC these days. They might not come here but that doesn't mean they aren't interested in buying some 20th Anniversary merchandise.

P.S. After proofreading this post it came to me that instead of using a GoFundMe thing, as PinTiki has his website and the infrastructure set up, maybe once a 'pack' price is decided upon (after final quotes are received and that is what's decided upon-maybe including swizzles as well) an order can just be placed directly with PinTiki on his website with a code being entered by TC members to get the 'pack' at the cost price discussed. Of course that all depends if he is willing to do that. If not, then who would do all of the shipping and handling?

Edited to add: I don't recall napkins being mentioned so there's something else that can be manufactured in bulk and would be cheap that could be added and someone over on FB mentioned matches, which i think would be great, but as i said to him, technically they are not allowed to travel by air so that makes shipping them a problem.

[ Edited by: swizzle 2019-10-06 21:03 ]