So, we're heading into the special time once every few years where we need to hold a donation drive, and I need your help deciding what to give away as merch gifts! This time around, lower level donors ($20 or less) will be getting two small gifts, but I'm looking at larger gifts to give away past the $50 mark or so in addition to the smaller gifts. YOUR OPTIONS Cards Against Humanity expansion deck: CAH is pretty much the best. We'd create a 100-card expansion pack for your deck, full of video game and community references clever enough for your non-gaming friends to enjoy yet you can roll your eyes at. Hat: These would be custom-embroidered hats on high-quality snapbacks with your choice of the Sonic Retro circle and star, Service Games logo or the SEGAbits Opa-Opa. Fancy USB drive: Looking at a few different options, but a 16GB custom USB drive that's either a dual-combination bottle opener + USB, something that fits cleanly on a keychain or stashable in a wallet. Pint glass(es?): Probably one (but maybe two!) glasses with some cleverness thrown in. T-Shirt: Retro circle and star, Service Games logo or the SEGAbits Opa-Opa on high-quality Alternative Apparel shirts. BUT I WANT THEM ALL! Cool story. I'll probably offer multiple things if we have larger donations!
I love the T-Shirt idea and if you like, I have a few cool design ideas if you're open to suggestions in that regard. But I'm also a hopeless alcoholic so those pint glasses will go nicely with my collection of exotic drink vessels. :v:
I still haven't received my badges. As neat as it would be to purchase community ROM hacks on actual cartridges, I know why that will never happen. USB drives would seem most useful.
Custom USB drives and Sonic Retro themed T shirts sound like the most attractive options. I'd personally donate if I received those as rewards. Great ideas!
I hope I'm not the only one who would be down for the CAH pack, although no offense to SS, I'd rather not pay $50 for something CAH puts out for $10.
I'd probably go for all. Wouldn't mind seeing a donation drive stream on Twitch like what The Shad 3 or so years back. Damn good times.
I know it will be a different set of CAH cards from what we've seen, but I'd love that. I'd also dig the pint glass. Shirt... Eh. I'm happy enough sporting the Sega Retro S on my blazer.
Pint glass(es) would be a lovely thing to have (and to bring along to a barcade :U), but most definitely all of them sound good.
OK, for pete's sake. SCARRED SUN'S GUIDE TO ECONOMIES OF SCALE Right now, Cards Against Humanity can sell 100-card expansion packs at $10 because a lot of people will buy them. For things video game-related, the market is inherently smaller. So, how much does it cost to produce an expansion pack? Setting aside the time and labor of creating card ideas, templating out 72 cards, and getting them to the manufacturer, the cost of printing 25 copies of a 72-card run is $9.33/pack, totalling $233.25 I'm taking out of pocket. Then, I have to actually get the cards, which is an additional $63 in shipping for 25 sets. That brings us to $296.25 out of pocket. From there, I need to eat the costs of shipping them to you, because ~donations~. So, the costs for me, including envelope and postage, are going to be about $3-4 domestically and $8-10 internationally. Let's be kind and say 80% are domestic, 20% are international. That brings us to $115. Add that to the $296.25 production cost and you have $411.25. 411.25 / 25 = $16.45, the total cost to get the cards to you, which I have to take out of donations. So, if 25 people donated $50, the net donation money we would have is $838.75. "But SS!" you say. "Simply open a store and you can sell more and make the money back!" OK, cool story bro. How many packs do we need to be able to sell before there's $838.75 in profit? Let's assume a. I am made out of money and can throw unlimited production costs around and b. the sky's the limit on the amount of sales that will happen (I.e., everyone on earth will want these cards) If I order 500 packs of a 72-card run the cost is $4.32/pack ($2160), and shipping to me is free! That's great, but I actually have a job and will need someone else to do the shipping. Therefore, I need them shipped to our warehouse which handles this sort of stuff on my behalf. Now, I'm passing the shipping cost on to you (shops aren't charity, bro) but charging you the $3.30 that the handling and distribution costs would be considered exhorbitant, so I'll need to eat about half that. That brings our cost per pack so far to $5.97. But warehouse storage ain't free. I have to pay $57/mo to even hold the stock there before it ships out. Let's assume somehow that there's a huge rush that tapers off, so the first month we have 200 sell, then 100 the next month, then 50, etc. Month 1: (200 x $5.97) + $57 = $1251 in costs Month 2: (100 x $5.97) + $40.30 (less storage space needed each month) = $637.30 Month 3: (50 x $5.97) + $31.02 = $329.52 Month 4: (50 x $5.97) + $25 = $323.50 Month 5: (50 x $5.97) + $25 = $323.50 Month 6: (50 x $5.97) + $25 = $323.50 So, in what was a miracle sale of 500 decks in six months, our net costs for the endeavor total: $3188.32! Now, let's assume we sold those packs for $10 as you suggest, because hey, it's less than the expansion packs at only 72 cards but it's the same price. $10 x 500, $5000. $5000 - $3188 = $1812 in profit That sounds great, until you realize this is the real world where I don't want to gamble $2160 on selling 500 packs, cards may not sell out in six months, and people are whiny bitches. And that's why I do donation merch instead of a store.
