Free shipping to Aeclectic members - how would I make sure?

Astra

I'm thinking that I owe Aeclectic a bunch, and one of the ways I might repay some of it would be to offer free shipping to members. (The WorldTree Tarot should be printed and ready to go, finally, sometime in May, so now is when I'm thinking of all the little stuff that might be nice to add)

I'll be selling on my site through Paypal, as well as offering the decks to other sites, if I can get all the details straight, and I'm going a little crazy trying to figure how I can figure international shipping costs, or if I'm going to have to have several different buttons depending on the country or region.

But I would like to be able to offer a deal for Aeclectic members that isn't too seriously complicated. I'm thinking that it would have to include a member either emailing me or PMing me through Aeclectic and my sending them a special ordering link they can use.

My question about that is whether that link would remain private after a few people decided that they should tell a few friends, or whether there's another way to go.

Should I limit it to subscribers (another incentive for upgrading)? And if I do, how do I tell who's a subscriber? I don't think it shows up anywhere except seeing who turns up in the subscriber forums, but I might have missed it.

Aaargh! It sounded like a great idea when it first came up, and still does, but if anyone can suggest a reliable method for implementing it, that would be really good.
 

baba-prague

I wish I could help more on this. I think it's a really difficult one.

We decided just to do a really good general pre-order offer (I use another forum too sometimes, so to try to limit it to just members of either would have been even more complicated).
The good thing about pre-ordering is that generally it's only the people really into collecting who tend to pre-order, so in a way the offer naturally gets to the people who feel like a supportive community, if you see what I mean.

I think the problem with limiting it to one group is what happens when you have to say "no" to someone on the grounds that they aren't a member of AT? I'd find that hard to do.

So I suppose what I'm saying is that in the end the most practical thing might simply be to make the offer but only advertise it here (and in any other community you use). Effectively that's what we've done. Okay, maybe it means you extend the offer beyond the bounds you have in mind, but on the other hand it doesn't give you headaches administering it. Don't underestimate the amount of time that it could take to ask for pms and give out special links. Personally, I'd be worried about that getting out of hand time-wise.

But perhaps other people here have better ideas?
 

Moongold

Astra,

It would cost you about $12 - $15 minimally to airmail to Australia, for just the deck.

It's a very kind thought but I have a sense of how much work goes into creating Tarot decks and I think you would be selling yourself short.

To be honest, though, I am completely non-commercial so am probably not much good to you. Rather than have you pay the shipping, I would prefer a signed copy of the deck or something like that.


Best wishes ~

Moongold
 

Astra

Moongold - hadn't realized the rates were quite that high - hmm. And, of course, it would have to be airmail - there's quite a bit of water in between for trucks to sink in.

Signed copies are possible - hey, why not, but I'd still like to offer some sort of discount, and I probably won't get the web pages changed in time to do a pre-order offer <scratches head and thinks where to fit another website update in - somewhere...>

Baba-prague, I have to admit I'm not too worried about the extra time at this point - if it got out of hand, that would mean the deck was selling like hotcakes, and I might end up overworked, but I'd be grinning a lot.

If I knew more about javascript, it might be possible to have the page pick up the Aeclectic cookie and use THAT to identify people on the board. I'm not sure I want to know that much about javascript, though....
 

Astra

I was remembering a post of Hudson Gray's a while ago, so I did some searching in the US Postal Service site - there's a standard mailer that ships for $4.00 to Canada and $5.00 everywhere else in the world, from the US - Global Priority Mail. I'm not quite sure how they do it, but I'm not going to argue.

This makes free shipping doable on a limited basis, if I can figure out how to handle the input properly...
 

contrascarpe

Curses, Astra .....

I just checked out your site and see this deck for the first time. It is stunning. Looks like another coming into my collection, lol.
 

Astra

<grinning like mad...> Thanks, contrascarpe. Now if I can just get the blessings, and the ever-filled purses, I'll have it all.
 

HudsonGray

Yes! Use the Global Priority envelopes, the shipping is only $5 anywhere in the world that way & it'll save you a bundle! I asked at the post office & the guy said that small even sized packets ship easier by plane & they can be more efficient about it than with boxes, which makes sense. The limits on the envelopes is that the weight can only go up to 8 pounds (you'd have to be shipping gold bricks to get higher!) and it has to fit inside the envelope. One envelope will take two standard decks if there aren't any book/deck sets being shipped. But tape them up strong, I never trust those zip rip tops they have.

The envelopes are free, grab a handful from the post office next time you go there.
 

Orion

Slightly off topic, but...

... I love your deck! It is gorgeous!! Please do let us (ME!!) know when this deck will be ready for purchase! It is now on my wish list!!
Great job!!
 

Nycelle

This deck is gorgeous. Any idea of price yet?

Free shipping or none, I think I'll have to invest in this one :)