It's about time. Shop208. ...or something...

[polishpat]

It's almost been a year, and the idea of having a store up and running has been in our minds since before the site was created.

There needs to finally be a section of the site for people to go and add items to their cart (Via Paypal 'Add to Cart Button' for example) and get this thing rolling.

There are a lot of stickers, a lot of variations in color and designs, and with each different inside joke, and even different forms of marketing, swag is on the rise, especially with the talk of people wanting t-shirts.

I know with this entire 'Hardpark' situation, that situation can and WILL boost sales of merch, as well as using original marketing ideas, and t-shirt ideas that Mirko and I had come up with a long time ago, such as 'Guys with cars like mine, don't talk to girls with faces like yours'. (There are others as well.)

But the simple truth is, it's easy to setup, will of course take a little bit of time, but hell, with my experience of having built the Party208.com forum from the ground up by myself, and having an official Net208, LLC Paypal Business account, I'll help out with the whole thing.

@ Brendan & Mirko - You guys are gonna be here this Thursday night, so Friday before we go see Caspa, and before we go to Seattle Saturday, we can take an hour or two to sit down and further discuss this in person, and have a serious plan of attack as far as how it should be done. (Layout, prices, setup, etc)

I think it needs to finally be done, both to be able to help with adding something new nobody has seen done for a local car forum, and it'll most DEFINITELY boost income brought to the site, which in turn can again be used to push out more merch, and hell, could even help with traffic and bringing in members.

Thought? Rebuttals? :)

[MacDrizzle]

I luv SWAG, go for shit this would bring this MOFO to a whole new level!

[spastik]

Mirko started working on it back in February: http://store.garage208.com/

[polishpat]

I guess that's...neat

It's been 8 months since the zen account was created, and I see no progress made since then. So let's pretend we're still at ground zero here.

Furthermore, what I'm suggesting is an integrated shopping system, that can easily be done via paypal, and would not drive traffic away from the site as Zen has it, yknow?

...And besides, again, the idea here is to be genuine when pursuing a new idea to take the site to a new level. ANYONE can create a Zen account or a CafePress account, or one of million other shopping cart systems, then in the the end, you're idea isn't so genuine anymore when other sites begin to use the same system.

BUT when you use an integrated system that revolves around the user staying at the site, and have authentic designs and layouts involved, THEN you finally have a feature that no-one else can steal.

[spastik]

Zen site is a customizable free interface that is hosted on our site. http://www.garage208.com/store/ (http://www.garage208.com/store/)

ask mirkat about finishing this project. and you can use paypal as a payment type.

We never really needed it in the past, since all of the people are local that buy stickers. Its just one more way the "man" takes our money.

As for shirts, we would need to raise a load of money to make them before we could sell them, thats why that never came about.

[InSepsis]

The only issue with swag is the start-up cost... We have been trying to figure it out and to order anything you need to get a decent amount and make sure you can afford it...

When ordering shirts the minimum amount you have to order is about 50 costing about $500 just for one design... if you order one by one they get way too expensive and don't even pay for themselves really. Stickers and other things will be added but we might have to set-up a order'n make system where we would have limited quantities and once they are out people would have to wait a couple more days since we would have to make the products unless we buy a vinyl cutter, a heat press and some other things...

[InSepsis]

I can setup a mini site with a small store in the next couple of days and we will see how it goes.

[spastik]

Currently I am getting our stickers made at Bibs, which have been great guys dealing with. We might just do stickers through them from now on, since they have great prices.

[polishpat]

Mirko, in both this situation, and in the past when we had the idea to start up our own t-shirt business, that didn't go anywhere due to laziness, just as I said in the past, I will say now.

I have no problem being your guys' investors if you can't find your own.

If I provide the startup, and money is no longer an excuse, then what is stopping you from getting it done?

And by the way, http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=showcase, not too thrilled on the idea of the shop being so layout based, but again, G208's design would be A LOT better than those other sites!

[Justine]

i see what you did there...

now this site is for profit, spastik IS PUGH'S SON!!!!

[DubstepDave]

lolol

Money hungry mother fuckers

[InSepsis]

Mirko, in both this situation, and in the past when we had the idea to start up our own t-shirt business, that didn't go anywhere due to laziness, just as I said in the past, I will say now.

I have no problem being your guys' investors if you can't find your own.

If I provide the startup, and money is no longer an excuse, then what is stopping you from getting it done?

And by the way, http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=showcase, not too thrilled on the idea of the shop being so layout based, but again, G208's design would be A LOT better than those other sites!



I am sure you are talking about a business you were going to start with your mom... not me...


I "talking" about purchasing a plotter/vinyl cutter to make stickers but the cost was too big at the moment for me to just go out and buy one...

[polishpat]

Oh. Ok. Sorry you two. You're right. Having a shop to sell merch that people want anyways, and making it as simple as ordering online instead of meeting people in person and having to schedule everything, is definitely money hungry.

Banning a multitude of people for profit, is being money hungry. As is charging for special access to a site that is sub-par in the first place.

Starting a shop is none of that.

And, Mirko. The t-shirt idea was something we were going to do last year when I was working at Qwest. I would do the funding, you would do the designing, but that stopped for some reason.

[InSepsis]

ooh That idea... lol...

We just never went through, the designs were made a long time ago and brian/brenden and who bunch of the people on the other site saw them but we never followed throught.... that was the time you weren't online for a while (shakey was looking for you ^_^ )

[polishpat]

hahaha Yeah

But that's my point, is we should use some of those older ideas and designs, and just implement them with a G208 Shop...

Remember, based off the demographic we did of who would buy those shirts if they were created, we had EVERYONE say they would be all for it...

But yeah :)

[Snow Man]

I'd buy one or two.

You guys should through up some of the designs just to give us an idea of sorts.

[InSepsis]

I have some of my old designs that people liked and said they wanted to get...

Here is one of them...

http://image.spreadshirt.com/image-server/image/configuration/5606996/producttypecolor/2/type/png/width/280/height/280

[Snow Man]

I like it I wish I could design graphics like some of you guys.

[polishpat]

Mirko uses Paint... Takes some practice, but you'll get it down in no time at all! :D