Real CD's VS. CDR's....SOMEBODY HELP ME OUT HERE

  • Thread starter Thread starter Slackmaster2K
  • Start date Start date
Slackmaster2K

Slackmaster2K

Gone
Here's the best bulk prices I have found:

CDR:
150 (x3) @ 1.19 = $535.50

CD:
300 (x3) @ 1.25 = $1125

So it's roughly the same, but we'd have to buy more CD's to replicate....which may or may not be a good thing.

That $1125 is what I expected to pay for 500 (x2), and I didn't think I'd get such a good deal on the 300 disc quote. Now I'm looking at about the same price, but that 535 is tempting because we'd profit faster and basically there's no way for me to look bad :)

I *think* we will sell these well....but I'm hesitant to make a bad decision with YOUR money.

Comments!?

Slackmaster 2000
 
oh, and the real CD's include silkscreen printing (3 color).... the CDR's are just inkjet'd....basically just text friendly.

Slackmaster 2000
 
These days I have to believe that just about every single player out there can play CDRs as well as CDs. That being said, I know my Oldsmobile car stereo skips a lot more on CDRs than it does on CDs. Damn.... hard choice.

If in fact you wind up doing 3 CDs, I'd say go with CDR. Those new Verbatums that look like records would be a bitch'en choice. And I understand they are supposed to be good for 50 years instead of the usual 10.
 
I don't know if this will make any difference to you but the difference between real CDs and CDR's is this:
CDs have the "pits and lands" that you have always read about....actual pits in the disc.
The CDR's, on the other hand, use a temperature sensetive dye. When the laser hits it; it changes color and thus, the reflectivity.
That's why some older players had trouble reading them and also why they don't have the shelf life of a regular CD.
Also, don't leave them in the car in the sun.

But for the purposes this is intended for, go with the best profit.
 
The profit margin is about the same....$1.25 vs $1.19 per disc.

Real CD's simply require more upfront cost, but we end up with twice as many available units, and a much nicer product.

How many will we sell though? That, unfortunately, is a question I can't answer.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I almost hate to ask...

How many of Comp I did we sell?

Can we reasonably expect to sell 300 CD's?

Granted, they don't all have to sell right away. Nothing wrong with selling them over the course of a year or two or five. I don't think we have to worry too much about turning an eventual profit for the board, but it definately won't happen as fast. It will definately raise more, though, over time.

How long until a decision must be made?

Can we wait a few more weeks for preorders before commiting to a duplication method?

Chris
 
Yeah, there's no big hurry.

With the off-hand comments I've been hearing, I think we'll sell a fair amount.

Right now we've "sold" 42 sets, including submitters and pre-orderers. I need to sell about 20 more to completely cover the costs of the CD (I believe). So every CD over say 65 should be profitable. Thus to hit our "1000 to us, 1000 to dragon" mark, we'd have to sell a total of 162.

We sold 70 Volume 1. But note that: a) there was no advertising for it. b) by the time it was done half of the submitters were long gone. c) half of the submitters DIDN'T PAY and didn't get a CD. d) it took me 3 years to complete the project.

I'm always coming across people who say, "holy crap, you still have volume 1?? I want one!!!!"

In fact I still have 5 left...and I bet somebody reading this will be sending me an email :) ($15 by the way people!)

Slackmaster 2000
 
Note the above figure is to cover the cost of making REAL cd's...not duping CDR's. If we dupe CDR's then we're already profiting.

I hate to be a big chicken though and just go with CDR because it'd be an easy out....but it is tempting.

I put a real CD into the Volume 1 case tonight and man it looked SO much better...even with the stupid inkjet-printed inserts.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Y'know, its REALLY cool to think that afte r20 more CD's are preordered or sold...

buying a CD is as good as donating directly to the board- only you get a CD set for it.

Sounds pretty marketable to me. The more I think about it, the more I think its a good idea to wait a bit and see how the preorders go. If all goes well, it might not be an issue.

Chris
 
Yeah, and I would feel better about trying to push these things if they were real. There's nothing worse than hearing "oh, they're CDR's?"

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slackmaster2K said:

...

With the off-hand comments I've been hearing, I think we'll sell a fair amount.

Right now we've "sold" 42 sets, including submitters and pre-orderers. I need to sell about 20 more to completely cover the costs of the CD (I believe). So every CD over say 65 should be profitable. Thus to hit our "1000 to us, 1000 to dragon" mark, we'd have to sell a total of 162.

...
Click to expand...

If I counted correctly in the Submitters thread there are 34 submitters. If there are 42 sets accounted for that mean you have 8 pre-orders so far. I included a pre-order with my submission, so that means at most you have 7 pre-orders from non-submitters, even fewer if any other submitters also pre-ordered additional copies. I'd love to have a real, professional looking package, but that means we need to sell another 120 sets in order to hit the "$1000 to us, $1000 to Dragon" mark.

Do the offhand comments you've gotten indicate we'll sell those 120 units? What kind of comments are you getting? Are people just waiting to see if it starts to take off before pre-ordering? Are they making a verbal commitment to pre-order but just haven't yet? Are they saying real CDs and/or professional packaging would make them more likely to pre-order? Etc., etc., etc.

Do the prices you found include the barcodes you mentioned in another thread? If so then it would be easier to sell CDs on a wider scale. Of course, that assumes people outside this BBS would actually pay to hear a bunch of hacks and wannabes trying to live out their rock-n-roll fantasy. :rolleyes: :D :eek: ;)

So who here has a marketing background to help sort this out. I'm a techie, so I"m about 180 degrees apart from marketing.
 
We actually have 37 submissions now...I just haven't updated the submission thread yet. There are at least two more that I know of coming.

The comments I'm hearing are: "I'll be ordering 2 copies soon!" "I'm going to order copies for my band members" "I might order a copy for my mom/sister/wife/etc"

Also, if our primary goal is to get $1000 to dragon, then we only have to sell 50 copies (70 more total). Any *additional* money would be cake for the next project.

However, if we can afford to do CD's this time without starting out with any money (just about $180 left from V1), then we don't technically *need* the $1000 I mentioned. Also, the time frame is longer for us. I'd like to get $1000 to Dragon by christmas.

Now I kind of picked the $1000 out of the air because Dragon has never told me what it costs to maintain the site. If it only costs him $800 per year, for instance, then sending him more than $1000 doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. If it costs > $1000 then we'll have to adjust upward accordingly.

Priorities as I see them:

1) Get Dragon $1000 (sell 70 MORE copies of a CD that doesn't exist yet, hehe)

2) Make money for improving the Comp CD. We're not only supporting the site, but ourselves as well! (any money is good money)

3) Make the comp cd cheaper to purchase (if we become efficient at producing and selling the things).


Benefits of CD manufacturing:

1) Same cost (roughly) as CDR, but we start with twice the inventory (a good or bad thing depending on your perspective).

2) A more saleable product. I won't have to mention that the comp CD consists of CDR's. Many people don't mind CDR, but they at least want to know about it.

3) A more reliable product: less prone to scratching, etc.

4) A much nicer looking product. A CDR looks like a CDR no matter what. Also, silk screened printing looks super pro, whereas inkjet text printing looks very mp3.comish.


Benefits of CDR duplicating:

1) Same cost as CD (roughly), but halve the initial inventory. Thus we hit our profit mark sooner.

2) Might be able to spend more money on jacket printing.

3) I've done it before so I know what it entails.


So what we're discussing here could also be seen not as CD vs CDR, but simply "how many do we want to make offhand?"

I am obviously on the CD side, as I think it's more beneficial to us. But please keep the comments up because ultimately I'll make a decsion that I think most people will be happy with.

P.S. the barcode is $20 regardless, I'm not even worried about it.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I'm a techie who works in marketing...






does that count?




:p






BTW... I say go with the real CD's.



WATYF
 
Slackmaster2K said:


Real CD's simply require more upfront cost, but we end up with twice as many available units, and a much nicer product.


Slackmaster 2000
Click to expand...

Do it! Go for it! Yes!
 
Slackmaster2K said:
How many will we sell though? That, unfortunately, is a question I can't answer.
Click to expand...


Well, my questions are:
How many did Vol 1 sell?

42 * 20 means that there is $840 in da bin already. That is unfortunately not enogh to cover the costs of doing real CD's. I'd hate for anybody having to dough out uncertain money over this. And I definitely would think it would be awesome if we could have real CD's.

So, how to find the missing money? And how much money is missing? The quote above is only for the CD's, right, there are also covers to cover, or?
 
I said in one of these threads that we sold 70 Volume 1 so far, but I also explained why we only sold 70 (of 75). That volume was a failure...hell, half the contributors never paid (and I sold their copies to others).

Right now we have $1140 total. There was money from Volume 1 ($180), plus several new Volume 1 orders.

My semi-plan right now is to purchase jewel cases, the bar code, shrink-wrap baggies (8 bucks for 500, might as well), and then see about printing jackets. If I get some of those costs out of the way right now, we won't have to feel as nervous when it comes to getting the CD's made.

It's ok if I can't make 300 sets up right away... I can make them up as demand requires. For instance I'll start with 100 jewel cases and buy more as needed.

Another thing I was thinking if pre-orders don't pick up is to ask for "product donations"....where I can say, "hey, I need 100 of this particular item" and somebody can purchase and send it to me. I'd put an additional thank you on the CD for them. That wouldn't be as impersonal as begging for money.

Right now though I don't think I'm going to be begging. I know of 2 other submissions coming, and at least 4 pre orders. I've also heard some interest from submitters about pre-ordering extra copies. I have a feeling things will be ok by June. Turnaround time for replication is 4-6 week so that still meets our August 1 target.

I'm going to put the announcement up in a while after enough time has passed that people will be aware of it when it shows up again. It's amazing how people block it out! I'm also doing some banner ads and *HOPEFULLY* dragon will put them up. (he has said yes of course, but actually doing it is another thing...)

Slackmaster 2000
 
Well, that means we should get at least a 100 out this time, which actually covers the cost for making real CD's. Now of course, we then run the risk of having printed way more CD's then we sell and hence killed all our profit. ;)
But I'm all for getting real CD's made. Hmm. Maybe I'll preorder a couple to give to my friends too...

Btw, when it comes to 3-CD cases, are there alternatives to jewel-cases?
 
I got a line on some 3 CD cases that are the same size as a single CD case!

Slackmaster 2000
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top