Dear Bunkerites,

After a chance discussion with Mr. Gaunt concerning the recent Globetrotters logo I made and Poolsrme's suggestion that they would buy a shirt with the logo on it, Gaunt has gone ahead and produced a shop under Spreadshirt that could possibly sell designs that we make, etc.

Spreadshirt is an online company that charges a base price for designs, but a profit can be made by sellers by fixing the price to their needs. Now, seems as though all of the Bizz contributors are on here, we could set it up so that the designs could be produced for anything we've made - Snowy's cartoons, Bunker crests, stupid pictures about Pools that we've knocked up.

Long and short of it: why don't we open up a Bunker shop that could make a small profit, advertise it through the web and the Monkey Business, and give all profits back to the Bizz/aspect of HUFC?

I'm willing to buy a shirt or two with designs. I'm sure a few others would too.

What are people's thoughts on this?

Sounds great in principle.

The problem Monkey Business has is that we have nowhere to sell stuff from.

It's easy to cart mags around and sell them, they don't weigh that much and they're small.

But 20-odd t-shirts takes up a full bag, and any more starts to weigh you down. Obviously I live well out of the town, and Ian (Poolpower) got no end off grief off their lass for selling stuff from home (people knocking on the door at all hours).

The ideal scenario is the one like when the original Pools Bar sold stuff from behind the bar. Since the brewery changeover and the end of that we've found nowhere that can flog stuff on our behalf.

We've got no end of t-shirt ideas, its the logistics that proves problematic.

But sir, the thing is that the shirts are bought online in the website shop and shipped to your door! That's the beauty of it!

I could understand the logistics behind the problems you had with the past shirts, but you could move designs like the hanging Bizz monkey and F C U H over to the website! Just buy a domain name, like http://www.pooliebunkershop.co.uk and advertise it.

We're all in the digital age now, so it seems, even Pint-sized Poolpower. What do you reckon?

as you say chip
BEEN THERE DONE THAT GOT THE T SHIRT

I reckon ebay is the way to go.

Watch this space.

I DONT PRETEND TO UNDERSTAND ALL THIS STUFF ABOUT TINTERNETSALES
BUT YOU STILL NEED SOMEONE TO RUN IT ORGANISE

Boss, seriously, listen to the concept of Spreadshirt (a reputable company, trust me):

They sell t-shirts with your design on for, say, £8. This is the set up:

1/ Set up shop (done)
2/ Submit designs via internet to your shop
3/ Price the shirts at £10 so you make £2 off each shirt
4/ People come online and order the shirt with design
5/ Spreadshirt print it in THEIR factory
6/ Spreadshirt mail it to you
7/ You wear t-shirt and smile as the pennies pile up and you have to do NOTHING - no printing, no buying of blank shirts, no carting them around - and everyone's a winner!

EDIT: I'll run the bastard, all you need to do is upload pictures and transfer the profits from the shop to the Bizz/HUFC. I'm sure DanielGaunt will help - he set the shop up, after all.

It takes no effort! All we need is pictures and they do the rest!

ANOTHER EDIT: Poolieinnottingham, if you did it on eBay you'd still have to make the shirts yourself - this place does them for you!

THIRD EDIT: They don't only do shirts either. If my memory serves me correctly they do hoodies, caps, all sorts

No outlay, no stock problems, no risk of being stuck with a load of shirts, reasonable prices.

Sounds like a great idea. Well done guys.

I've one or two suggestions as to how we might market it on the site but that'll wait until tomorrow. I've just got in from a salsa party and my feet are aching.

Good April Fools attempt. You'll be telling us you use moisturiser next.

That's great to hear, Mr. I. Even if we didn't make that much, there's no obligation to buy shirts. The store can be kept open forever.

poolieinnottingham, are you in, as editor of the Bizz?

To be honest I would rather produce our own shirts and sell them on ebay. That way we have complete control and can keep the quality high. £8 is a helluva lot to pay a supplier, we could sell em at less than that. That is a big factor.

Plus loads of people are used to buying off ebay, have paypal accounts etc.

I love your enthusiam, keep it up!

You don't pay them!

How can I explain this...

...they have a factory full of blank shirts. You set up a free shop alongside the other 200,000 shops other individuals have. This registration is free - we already have one running! We submit pictures to our shop, and they display them on our personal shop webpage. The person then chooses their design and shirt style, and then pays for it. After the order, our shirt gets printed onto one of the millions of shirts they have in their warehouse, that all stores are routed through to. I said £8 as an example, I'm still not sure of the prices as of yet but you're saving A LOT of money and time and hassle. That shirt then gets delivered to the person's address who asked for it. We slap on an extra £2, even 50p, even nothing - we don't have to make a profit, although I would prefer it as I want you lot, or the club, to have it. The shirts are only bought IF you get an order:

Shirts cost, for example, £8. We add £2 for our profit. If someone buys a shirt for £10 + P&P, that means that Spreadshirt make their £8 and the money for postage (and their necessary profit within that £8) and we make the £2 - we do not have any obligation to buy a lump amount of shirts. We at no point handle shirts, printing or posting. We simply make the slim profit into our account.

I've bought and sold on eBay for 4 years now and I know that you will have to buy the shirts yourself, print on them and sell them individually through PayPal and separate addresses. Oh, and post them, so you'd have to buy envelopes and queue at Post Offices.

As much as I respect your position I completely disagree with your preference of eBay over Spreadshirt or similar. You're complaining about hassle and yet you're creating it for yourself through the arduous processes of having to list items, produce the designs yourself and post them. This website prints them for you

More people have credit card details than they do PayPal accounts. Plus I am willing to control it with the help of loyal and trustworthy Bunkerites; we are offering it as a way to give you - the Bizz - or HUFC extra cash for future things.


Although I still have the feeling you still don't quit understand the nature of businesses like Spreadshirt. I hope that post makes things clearer for you!

If what GP says is true, then it's effort free and could be quite profitable. There's already 260-odd potential customers and if we could tie it into the sponsorship things with the kids as well there's a million proud parents as well.

I'd say as there's no outlay give it a go, if it falls flat on its face and we sell ten, all well and good, we tried.

Ginger, I'm sober now, and I think it's a great idea.

Will you be at any of the following games:

Barnet
Accy
Notts
Rochdale
Bristol

If so we'll sort something out.

Cheers
[/quote]

I figured from the bus trip story that you may have had a few problems in the processing department

I'll be at Accrington, Rochdale and Bristol, but send me a PM whenever you have time, I'll send you an email. Me and Gaunt have the keys to the shop. First thing we need is designs, and then it runs itself!

I can help you guys out with designs etc, If needs be
I'm fairly sharp on the ol' Graphics front, Drop me a PM if needed

I'd buy a couple of t-shirts, wear em at the match to advertise.
Personally I think its a great idea as well.
Get the Monkey Business designs on there, bunker designs, other pools ones.
Not sure where things stand with pictures of poolie legends and using old badges but a t-shirt of Paul Baker, Brian Honour, Roy Hogan etc would be great, plus all the old designs on club badges.
Count me in for a few quid. I still wear my monkey business dut in cold weather and was well chuffed with it.
Used to have a monkey business t-shirt and wore it on my travels. I remember when I was working in the middle of the negev desert in Israel, burning heat, picking peppers or something similar; amazing scenery.
This tractor goes past, dust rising into the air from its wheels and suddenly I hear this shout:
"Fuck off home you fucking monkey hanger"
Someone from Darlington working out in Israel who'd spotted my t-shirt

Will do!

i saw someone in the causeway after the game wi one of the joe allon ones on off a ebay and ebay did it no justice at all - still looks a touch naff but a lot better than the image online

It wasn't old Pete Piper was it??

Mr. I: could you make this a sticky please?

Poolieinnottingham - drop me a PM if you get chance.

I'm thinking the next step is to get a target of ten designs to start with. The Bunker logo - ostrich and bunker included - would be a good starting point. A potential list could be:

1/ Bunker logo
2/ Hartlepool Globetrotters (I have minor alterations to make to the logo yet! - OHSHITWAIT it's been done perfectly :D)
3/ Snowy's (?) Bunker crest
4/ Monkey Business logo
5/ A photo of the Darlington scoreboard at 0-3 with Pools fans in front
6/ A list of Pools greats? Could be chance for a Bunker election...
7/ Toothy memorial picture - tooth on stairway to heaven
8/ "I hate Darlo." shirt
9/ Darlington Fudgepackers


I just checked the shop - good start! Dan, has the password been changed? If you could update me via PM...

10/ Mickey Barron holding the Cha..................WAIT WAIT WAIT......

All in good time.....

It's the same one. Will pm it to you. Let me know if you have problems.

I've PMed you with a couple of extra ideas/questions, as well as a solid joint account we can use for the shop.

here I go again, the misery from old Saltburn town, but I don't think I'd wear any of those design idea's, sorry.....


I'd wear one with the old triangle badge with the Hart on tho....

Send me the picture and I'll see what I can do, you miserable bassad.

you know, the triangle badge [did snowy design it?]

a skyblue T-shirt with a white badge on it, not too big - the badge not shirt, that wants to be XL,maybe XXL!

I'm not actually all that familiar with it, although I'm sure I will be if someone posts it up again. Maybe do a plea for it in the main forum? I'd be happy to add it to the designs.

You mean this one Salty

Think it's a great idea!!

I'd have a couple

aye

it should say Hartlepool Utd FC , centenary 1908 - 2008, + Never Say Die underneath on one tit, have that badge on the other tit

sky blue top/white writing
i'd buy that

If I remember right, Copyright lasts for the lifetime of the owner plus 75 years!

hopefully HUFC will live forever, even if we can't!!!!!!!!!!!

I think Mr.Snowy will let you use it!!!!

If someone can submit as many old badges as possible with the right dates, that would be brilliant...

Do you type with your feet?

Not sure of the Dates maybe someone can do that!