Magic Library Community Project

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TerraFrost
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Post by TerraFrost » Mon Aug 01, 2005 4:31 pm

A private forum could also be made...

Ralph would have to create a usergroup, create a forum and set its permissions such that only members of the newly created usergroup could access it, and then assign someone (hammr7, perhapes, if he's to be the project manager) to be the group moderator (so that they, in addition to ralph, could add new members as appropriate)...

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Ralph Herold
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Post by Ralph Herold » Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:12 pm

Given the poll, it seems that this project is wanted to be a Magic Library project. The next step I see is to decide what product to do. While Dual Land proxies seem to be much in favor (of all the proposed ideas, I like them most so far as well), I would rather take the safe road and start a poll about that. After that, I think further polls about the artist, the motif, the card stock, the printing quality, the card layout, and similar topics will evolve the project further. Each poll should be preceded by a span of time where ideas are collected. As far as money is concerned, it also makes sense to first learn in which way the decision influences the costs. There is no sense to agree on a cool feature (for example foil cards) nobody is willing to pay in the end.

One word about the circumstances further communication should take place in. This project is considered a community project. Basically, the idea is that the community wishes to create a product for themselves, and they all take advantage of the combined financial power and creativity of the group in order to craft the best possible product for the lowest possible cost for each single member. Therefore, I disapprove to do it in secrecy. As long as you keep communications restricted to email or to a restricted forum area, most members will simply be shut out. And we will need the help of a lot of them to fund the project. In addition, those who are entrusted with the money will need to make transparent how they will have spent it anyway.

I am aware that different rules will apply, if this project is meant to be a commercial project (in contrast to a community project). But from what I have read so far, this is not the intention.

hammr7
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Post by hammr7 » Fri Aug 26, 2005 8:36 pm

I had a long discussion with Ralph last night (actually early this morning). Ralph would prefer to keep this project rolling, since there is much to be decided by the time the new logo is available.

A few critical issues have been brought up already, but need clarification. For the sake of discussion we will assume that the dual land proxies will be the focus of this project. These proxies will either be textless or generic so as not to impact upon any copyrighted materials. The back will be based upon the new logo.

There was some discussion about getting a "known" artist. Based upon the costs described in the logo discussion, I think this possibility is very unlikely. Artwork is the most variable of any cost in this project. Most of the other costs will likely be fairly steady. We'll have to make sure and not scrimp on cardstock (we don't need another 10th series crazy clown) or quality of artwork. And any project we do needs to be able to generate a little profit to contribute to this site. Otherwise undertaking such a large-scale project in the name of the site doesn't make any sense.

I very much doubt we can get 10 landscape pictures from a known artist for less than the cost of a single logo. If artwork costs $4,000, then it is likely that we would need to generate $10,000 or more in sales just to break even (since we need to cover production and distribution costs, plus the contribution to the site). If artwork exceeds $10,000 ($1,000 per card), then we are probably looking at $17,000 to $20,000 to break even.

This break-even point is important, because it determines how big of a production run we need, and what the sale price will be. One thousand sets at $10 per set gets us to breakeven if the art cost is $4,000. We need to double the unit cost or run size (or some combination of the two) is the art cost is at $10,000. Even at the lower distribution, it seems doubtful that forum members alone will purchase all the sets. In past offerings it has been difficult for forum members to spend $5,000. While it might be nice to have small print runs at reasonable prices, the financial realities probably preclude it. This is especially true if individuals need four sets of these cards.

The idea of first offering a premium set (i.e. foils) to forum members and later offering a regular set to everyone has been proposed. We might be able to create both sets, but they would probably need to be distributed simultaneously because of the size of the monetary outlays. The art needs to be paid for before any production occurs. And the foiled cards will cost more to produce (the stock is more expensive, and the defect rates of ink on foil are usually higher), so we would likely need to charge more.

If we were to do this as a community venture, we'll need to raise cash (once the logo project has been funded). If this project is run as a private commercial venture (a few members funding it and netting any profit beyond a set payment to the site) then forum members will likely lose some control over set content, pricing and production levels.

I'll follow up with more specifics, but would like to hear more discussion from other members. None of what I said above is set in stone, except for the need to be financially responsible and the fiscal realities of producing any such set of cards.

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mintcollector
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Post by mintcollector » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:34 pm

Hank: Please check the pm I am sending you.

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