Merchandise Feedback Requested

Dear all,

I've just created an axolotl store at cafepress. This means that I can now add the black axolotl shirt I posted about many months ago. I intended to put the axolotl.org text on the back but cafepress still allows printing on the front only of black shirts. Check out http://www.cafepress.com/axolotl_org

The main purpose of this thread is to ask for feedback from people who've received their items from the caudata.org merchandise store. I'm looking for any and all comments. For example, I would love to hear answers from each purchaser to each of the following questions:

1) Did the items arrive in good time? If so, how long?
2) Do the sizes feel right? Not smaller or larger than expected?
3) Does the material seem good? Note that this is relative to each shirt type, as they vary in material and thickness.
4) Do the prints last well? They should fade a little after the first wash or two but thereafter if looked after well they should maintain their appearance for a long time.
5) Would you order more? If not, why not?
6) What would you like to see added to the store?

This weekend I'll be working on a lot of site-related issues that have built up lately (including donations) and I would like to add more products that people find appealing.

For those interested, the store/stores has/have sold enough now to clear $100 profit as soon as cafepress removes the pending status from the most recent purchase. Not quite the turnover of the Gap, but definitely much cooler .

I've bought a t-shirt, a mug and a cap. All items arrived in good time considering they were shipped from the US. The T-shirt fits well and is a good quality Haynes branded shirt. It's been in the washing machine and tumble dryer a few times an the print is holding out. The mug is great and the print is surviving despite daily scrubbings. The truckers cap is a disaster but only because it's far too big. US truckers must have heads the size of basket balls. So if anyone with a big head wants a free cap drop me a line.

Glad to hear that the shop is making some profit. How about a caudata.org calendar - maybe with members photos? A different newt/sal each month.

Cheers,

I purchased a mug and a lime-green T-shirt. Both arrived in a timely manner, less than a week post ordering. The T-shirt size was as anticipated and the material of good quality. The mug is also very nice, used and washed frequently with no adverse effects/discoloration/chipping to design or lettering. I will order more T-shirts. I might also suggest as a new item, a non-hooded sweatshirt..just not fond of hoods. Maybe in a khaki or lime-green color?

The idea of a calander has also occurred to me, Mark. We certainly have enough good photos to make one. The limiting factor is that the photos would need to be fairly high resolution in order to enlarge well.

Does cafepress do calendars? If not, this service must be available somewhere, but I haven't looked into it.

Mark and Jan, thank you both for your feedback.

Mark: Which type of shirt did you order? Sorry the hat's too big ;(. I think your calendar suggestion is very good. It is an idea that I've heard a few times but not recently. I think it's time to act on it.

Jan: I've just had a look at the products available and the only sweatshirt that seems to fit the bill can be had in white or ash grey :/. What do you think?

Jen: Yes they do calendars. You read my mind about the photos. We would probably need the images to be exactly as they were when downloaded from the camera (or scanned). I would then treat them similarly so they don't look terribly different in contrast, etc. They should also be of sufficient resolution for the calendar if they were straight out of camera when I received them.

So should we start a "post your photos for the calendar thread" ?

As for judging, I think perhaps we should select a panel of people to do it. That's just my opinion, what does everyone else think?

I just finished my tree frog calendar, and i have been looking for a new one, I would most definatly buy a caudate calendar!!

Hi John, I bought the "ash grey t-shirt".

The biggest problem I foresee with holding a competition is that you'll only get submissions from members that are currently around to see the post. Some of the best photos are likely to be sitting in the archives. Maybe run a competition post and in addition the site admin could pick out as many great shots from the archives (you’d have to be fairly confident you could get hold of a decent resolution version of the picture to include it). A panel could pick the final 12 and permission could be obtained from the owners of the shots.
Cheers,

Hi John
Re sweatshirt, white or ash-grey would work - I'm just partial to khaki. More important than the color, however, is the neat design that is part of the caudata.org logo - I really like it. That is why I purchased the T-shirt and mug! I also like the idea of a calendar.

If you think the calendar idea is do-able, John, I think we should go ahead and start a "submit your photos" thread. We don't have a lot of time before the end of the year. I nominate Mark AT to set the ground rules and organize it

The problem with considering archived photos is that there's no telling whether we'd be able to get hold of the photographer to get a hi-res copy or not. A lot of people registered here have expired (or spam-filtered) e-mail addresses, and cannot be contacted. If there are some archived photos you'd like to consider, it might work better to contact those photographers at the time you start the thread, and ask them to submit their favorite photo(s).

(Message edited by jennewt on September 10, 2006)

I'd be happy to help organise the photos if John agrees. Would cafe press print them to order as they do the clothing? Do they have a choice of calendar styles? You'd need to know the dimensions of the calendar before requesting photos as that will determine the resolution required.
Cheers,

OK Mark, this is your baby . We have 3 calendar options. These are:

1) Yearly Flip Calendar (rectangular, long side of each page is horizontal, but 2 pages are open at one time). Dimensions of each page are 11 inches (horizontal) x 8.5 inches (vertical). Max image physical size is 11 inches x 8.5 inches. Cost price for this is $3.99

2) Oversize flip wall rectangular calendar with horizontal axis being the longest dimension (pages are 17 x 11 in). Largest on cover is also that size. Each image on each calendar page is also 17x11 inches. Cost price for this is $18.99. 2 pages show at one time, one being the current month and the other being the image corresponding to that month on top (i.e. image on top page, month on bottom page).

3) Single page vertical giant calendar, 17 x 11 inches - longest dimension vertical. Cover image is 17x11 inches and each page image is 11x11 inches. Cost price is $16.99.

These images should all be a minimum of 150 dpi, particularly for 2 and 3. I think you should get hold of good photos and we can work out the files with each photo author at a time.

Hi John,

I ordered the ash grey T-shirt a while back and watched in amazement every time I put in my tracking number as it traveled aimlessly across the U.S. for 3 weeks before finally arriving on my doorstep. They managed to actually get it inside Texas once (Dallas) but then it went back to Oklahoma, then Kentucky, and just kept getting further away. They finally refunded my shipping but even that took an act of Congress.

6) Big black axie T-shirt would be cool

Well I'm looking over the merchandise again. I'm going to try to implement some of the ideas here. Obviously we've pretty much got a calendar but I like the idea of the sweatshirt.

I have another question though: has anyone ordered the axolotl T-shirt and if so, what do you think? Do Cafepress do black well?

By the way, to Jim: sorry Cafepress gave you the shipping run around. You did get the shirt in the end right?

By the way, I added the hoodless sweatshirt (only ash grey and white are available).

Happy Holidays John,

I'd like a ringer T with a base color other than white. Something like blue, charcoal, burnt orange... I understand cafepress only gives you so much to work with, but if they ever come available, count me in for a couple...I tried the junior versions, but they make my butt look fat!

Oh, and a darker baseball cap color...brown, navy, even faded red...something to hide the mud.

The site http://www.cafepress.com/axolotl_org
is down on my browser.

Updates on calender purcheses would be much apprecieated.

Just received my two new Caudata.org calendars, and they are great!
The size is extra large, the quality of the photos are fantastic!