Metal Weave Games
CREATOR
over 1 year ago
Project Update: The Price of calendars | Geting into Backerkit
Hey Backers,
I apologize for the delay in updates and not having gotten everyone into backerkit yet.
Simply put there was some chaos in figuring out a manufacturer for the calendars, that wouldn't end up with us losing a lot of money.
So long-ish story, I had an initial quote from CatPrint, but i knew it was flawed, but i thought it was only because it was a lack of pages, so i multiplied it out and estimated that calendars would cost us somewhere around ~$8, an expensive calendar, but it would be worth it.
Once the campaign concluded I went ahead and finished the calendar (and its beautiful!), and then immediately began working with the printer to reaffirm the quotes i had previously gotten. It took a week to finally get a full quote from them, and they told me it would cost $15 per calendar, a bit more than we are looking to pay, and would actually put the project in the red. And to make matters even more difficult, they told us it would take 5-6 weeks to make the calendars.
So with that new information, I reached out to my printer who does my books. I know they can make the calendar at a cheaper rate (heck they can make 1000 one-hundred page books for $3-5/copy), so the question came, can they do i faster and will it still be cheaper if they air freight the entire order to the US?
With some back and forth (and its helpful that the files are done at this point), calendars came out to $2.5/calendar (lower than i expected), but with air freight would add another +$2-4/calendar, which puts it cheaper and as fast as CatPrint.
So, now everything has been submitted and is moving.
I apologize for the delay in updates and not having gotten everyone into backerkit yet.
Simply put there was some chaos in figuring out a manufacturer for the calendars, that wouldn't end up with us losing a lot of money.
So long-ish story, I had an initial quote from CatPrint, but i knew it was flawed, but i thought it was only because it was a lack of pages, so i multiplied it out and estimated that calendars would cost us somewhere around ~$8, an expensive calendar, but it would be worth it.
Once the campaign concluded I went ahead and finished the calendar (and its beautiful!), and then immediately began working with the printer to reaffirm the quotes i had previously gotten. It took a week to finally get a full quote from them, and they told me it would cost $15 per calendar, a bit more than we are looking to pay, and would actually put the project in the red. And to make matters even more difficult, they told us it would take 5-6 weeks to make the calendars.
So with that new information, I reached out to my printer who does my books. I know they can make the calendar at a cheaper rate (heck they can make 1000 one-hundred page books for $3-5/copy), so the question came, can they do i faster and will it still be cheaper if they air freight the entire order to the US?
With some back and forth (and its helpful that the files are done at this point), calendars came out to $2.5/calendar (lower than i expected), but with air freight would add another +$2-4/calendar, which puts it cheaper and as fast as CatPrint.
So, now everything has been submitted and is moving.
- Bonus Art Print is actually going to be printed by our overseas printer and have them inserted into the calendar. (ordered 2k calendars)
- Magnets, have been ordered. (ordered 1700 of magnets, 3x designs)
- Coffee, a rough number has been given to Found Familiar so they can add it to their production schedule.
- Art Prints, going to have to wait to order those until after everyone is in backerkit, but it shouldnt take too long since we have all of the art files completed, but the sooner i order them the better.
Timeline
So in all honesty, things are gonna be closer to shipping out mid-December, and unfortunately that all based on the timing of the calendar, so right now my goal is to get our warehouse equipped with everything so they can prep as much as possible (getting them coffee and the prototype calendars early) so that they can get packing materials and start getting packages prepped, to reduce turnaround time when the calendars arrive.
Backerkit has been ready to import backers into, but i was worried about shipping numbers (as well as what the cost of an additional calendar should be outside of the campaign), esp given the situation above. Anyways, now that the cost of calendars has been figured out, I'll be able to get everyone inside backerkit and we can get numbers finalized and going.
Again, I'm guessing shipping will commence either mid-late december, so it is very likely shipments will arrive as late as early Jan (unfortunately). This is the first time I've ever printed the calendar abroad, let alone for a cost reason, as well as the first time we're doing gold foil printing.
Thanks for bearing with me and these crazy times.
When i get proofs, I'll be sure to share them when they come in.
Andreas
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