2013 Charity Auction: Not too early to start brainstorming!

[Ziggy]

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The year is half over already. This year's (assuming we're having it) charity auction will be here before we know it! It's definitely not too early to start thinking about this stuff.

For the past two years, I've been trying to come up with good ideas, and I had some half ideas I was mulling around with. As some of you know, for the 2011 auction I came up with the idea of making a repro cart dedicated to the auction (check em out here if you haven't seen them). I was able to make two carts, complete with UGC and inserts. They turned out to be a complete success. So last year I made another one, only I didn't have the time to make the cover art and get it printed up and all that, but it was still a success.

I think a big part of the reason why they were a success is because they were specially made for the auction. The lucky winner is reminded of his donation and what an awesome community this is every time he looks at them. Also, they're one-offs. So it's kinda neat to own in that respect as well, knowing that you can't get them anywhere else or any other time of the year.

An idea that was thrown out there for the ones I made in 2011 was to have some one hack the ROM to make an intro that would have the "201X Racketboy Charity Auction" logo, or perhaps put that logo on the game's title screen, or something of that nature. Does any one know any one with those capabilities? I was thinking I could post this on the RHDN forums and see if some one would be willing to do it. Or, I was thinking about doing a Star Fox 2 cart for this year's auction. If I do, maybe I could email Aeon Genesis (the group that made the translation/bug fix patch for the game) and ask if they could do it.

Anyways... Last year's auction, Luke listed the repro cart in it's own section called "Racketboy 2012 Charity Auction Commemorative Item" which gave me an idea... We should have MORE commemorative items in the auction!

So I'm asking the community to try and come up with some ideas of something we can do. Keep in mind, whatever we do needs to be ready in time for the auction and we barely have 6 months.

The most obvious idea... T-Shirts! Who doesn't love T-Shirts? I did a real quick and dirty cut n paste so we can get a visual...

black1 copy.jpg

blue1 copy.jpg

I pretty much just lifted the text from the SNES labels. I was thinking of maybe a completely different design. But wouldn't it be better if every commemorative item had the same design?

Coffee mug?

coffee mug.jpg

Sorry for the crudity of this one, I didn't feel like figuring out how to wrap it around the mug, but you get the idea.

Or perhaps instead of trying to come up with ideas for other items, we should just focus our efforts on these two? I guess no harm in throwing ideas out there tho.

For the T-Shirts, we'd have to get them printed up some where. I had a friend that worked at a screen printing place close by, but she moved upstate so I guess I don't have that "in" anymore. I suppose I could ask her if for the number and I could call the owner and say, "I'm a friend of so-and-so" and maybe work something out. Otherwise, I don't see why I couldn't just go anywhere to get them printed.

Does any one know any one?

Now, how many to get printed? Fair would be if there was enough shirts for everyone, but then they'd each get less bids. Supply and demand. Of COURSE we'd all want one, or two! But the less shirts there are, the more money I think people would bid on them. But we have to come up with a number that's good. For example, I think just 5 shirts would be bullshit, there'd be lots of sore losers. But I also don't know how many users bid in the auctions.

I like the two different color shirts. Black, naturally, and Racketboy-blue. So how ever many we decide to make... half one color and half the other color?

After how many, what sizes? I think large would be the most popular size, but it depends on the shirt I think. I think a few of my shirts are medium but fit like my large shirts. And should we get a couple XL shirts? Of course those wont be as popular as medium and large, but wouldn't it not be fair for some one not to even have the chance to get one because we didn't print the size they require?

I don't know how to go about all that because I've never done anything quite like this before. I guess a good starting point would be to know how many people bid in the auction each year.

As for the coffee mug, that's probably a lot more simple. I know they make printing papers that can adhere to such things as coffee mugs, but I'd assume they wouldn't last as long as some thing made up professionally. But of course, the later would be more expensive. We could hunt for the best price and ask for a price break since all profits are going to charity.

edit: Of course, all this assuming Racketboy's permission. In 2011 I PM'ed him and asked if it was cool to use the site's logo on the cart labels. I think I should PM again and ask if it would be cool to use them on T-Shirts and/or coffee mugs. I'd need his help anyway, being that I'd need much higher resolution of the logo (or the name of the font used) to be useable.

[Ziggy]

For the coffee mugs, let's say we get only 10 made up, we could put on the bottom of each one 1 of 10, 2 of 10, and so on. And maybe the mug I posted a pic of, perhaps that could be one side and we could put something else on the other side? Or maybe just keep it simple like that.

[fastbilly1]

Tshirts have been tossed around a couple times and sadly my friend who owned a tshirt printer sold it earlier this year. I believe I might be able to get something laser etched in glass though.

[Ziggy]

I believe I might be able to get something laser etched in glass though.

That'd be awesome! What kind of glass are we talking though? Like a drinking glass? Or perhaps an award glass thing?

Either would be awesome though.

edit: As for coffee mugs, I'm seeing some heat transfer machines that work with inkjet printable transfer paper ranging from $80-200. Maybe buying one would be more ideal, we could print them up each year at cost. More investigation is required tho.

edit: After reading reviews on those machines, this looks more promising: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Personalized-Cu ... 27d34da17e

After settling on a design, I could get one made up to see how it is. If it's legit, I could email the seller and ask for a price break if we get a dozen made up. Even without a price break, it's not terribly expensive if we pull funds.

[fastbilly1]

I have one friend who does sandblasting to drinking glassware, and another who owns a CO2 laser which can etch into up to 1/4th inch in a bevy of materials and can do objects up to 9 inches by 14 inches. I know she can do most plastics, some metals, and marble. I am unsure if she can do glass.

[Ziggy]

That's awesome. I like the drinking glass.

For your friend that can do metals and marbles, what would you think about a commemorative plaque or something? Like, a wall plaque or one of those things I linked a picture of in my last post?


I forgot, my pops knows a lot of people from church. I should ask him if he knows any one that can do anything like T-Shirts, coffee mugs, or something similar. Maybe even a poster or something lol.

[fastbilly1]

I will ask when I see her later this month. She is a mixed media artist who did one of my favorite parts of my gameroom:


You can order that print through her if you want, but my poster sized version was a limited release back in 05.

[Hobie-wan]

Engraved system or controllers?

[Luke]

The most obvious idea... T-Shirts! Who doesn't love T-Shirts?

It's not that people don't like t-shirts, it's that you're lucky to break even when trying to sell them. Not completely shooting down your idea, but Racketboy doesn't have the volume to make a charity t-shirt press profitable.

[Ziggy]

Damn, Luke, I just missed your post count being 12345

But why, am I grossly underestimating how much it will cost per shirt? I haven't looked deep into this yet. From the crap on eBay that I'm seeing, it doesn't look too expensive per shirt. Mind you, I'm not talking about getting dozens of shirts made up. Perhaps just a dozen.

Here's the place that some one I know use to work: http://www.liscreenprinting.com/index.html

It's like 10 minutes from my house, too. I could ask my friend if she wouldn't mind calling and seeing if the owner could give us a break on a charity type deal. Or I could just go down there.

I'm thinking this: We have how many absolute die hard members? A dozen? I'd figure 10 of them would most definitely want one. And how many regular users that bid in the auction last year? Hopefully, being for charity and all, the shirts would go for a decent amount each. I'm hoping they would sell for at least $25, hopefully $30+ each. I mean, it's not just some rinky dink item, it's a commemorative item that will stand tall to all the other items in the charity. And the repro carts sold for roughly double what they normally cost, I think that's reason to believe the same for T-shirts and coffee mugs.

And I'm not suggestion to make the money back from the cost of the shirts. I'm suggesting that I, or we, buy the shirts and let 100% of the sale price go to the donation. Yes, selling for less than what they cost would certainly suck, but that's the point of this thread. To figure out everything.

I know we have started every item at $1. Right? Would it be impossible to start something like T-Shirts higher? Like, let's say they end up costing $15 each to get. Could we start them at $20 each?

I'm just throwing ideas out, don't feel bad about shooting anything down.