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Saturday, May 02, 2009
Friday, April 03, 2009
311 | and Merch and ising
I just shipped my first 5 auctions since taking a long break, and it was a breeze. It has been over a year since I have sold any of my "roadie" collection on eBay. Yesterday, It sure is different than it was when I first sold 311 Memorabilia on eBay! , and /or on the INTERNET for that matter.
In 1995-6 the band Three Eleven had TONS of stuff that they had accumulated after years on the road. It seemed as though they'd barely ever wasted a shirt. They had some good designs like the 7-11 Logo, and the “new” oval logo that they had just put on the Blue Album.
The problem with a lot of it was that the art was printed on a multiple of different shirt colors. So any given design may ( or may not ) come in particular sizes or colors......... which is “real blast” at the t-shirt stand of a concert when someone is looking to buy a shirt that fits , in the color or style they want ( imagine!?) At this point most of the venues Three-Eleven were playing were still auditoriums or basketball courts, so the music was often deafening at the t-shirt table. Anyone familiar with Monte Python will imagine the Cheese Shop Sketch where they never have what is asked for ( “cheddar ? , Not much call for cheddar, round these parts...”)
It was my job, to clean this mess of swag up and sell it, and get some new items for sale since the band had had most of this stuff on the road with them for years, and the old-school fans ( circa. 1995) were definitely ready for more diversity of product. The first order of business, was to isolate the single most popular shirt, and get it in stock in all sizes ( but not colors!)
That shirt ended up being the blue oval logo cloud shirt ( from the album artwork), and we decided to print it on Navy blue. During those years, that shirt sold more than any of the other shirts ( 15 or more styles at a time) COMBINED. So, that helped to settle down the mayhem that was the merchandise stock truck at the time. But as we toured that winter, the single “down” was blowing up, and the merchandise was selling better than ever before. So by the end of that run, we still had a lot of old 311 merchandise that I never wanted to bring on the road again.........
As the tour ended, 311 fired most of their road staff of lights, sound, techs, box pushers, and the like are fired till the next album tour comes up....
I had been on the road, more than off for the past 4 years or so, and I didn't want to go look for another band to tour with. For this reason , and the fact that AOL ( yes, America Online ) had just connected to the INTERNET. ( 1995, again ) That I proposed that I post pictures on my AOL account space and offer to send fans t-shirts if they'd mail in a check, after printing some bunk looking order form from my AOL page on the Internet !
It worked phenomenally well. 311 fans were some of the first music fans to be on the INTERNET back then. By the time the band went back on tour, a year later, we had sold all of the mix-match batch of merchandise, and we ordered, tons of new stuff for the upcoming release of SoundSystem.
But thats is a different story. eBay! has changed a lot since a year ago, and I like the changes that I've just noticed today. The changes during the past 13 years of selling 311 merchandise has been incredible. Please check out my latest Auctions
Respect ~ UNITY~ and ♪ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪
In 1995-6 the band Three Eleven had TONS of stuff that they had accumulated after years on the road. It seemed as though they'd barely ever wasted a shirt. They had some good designs like the 7-11 Logo, and the “new” oval logo that they had just put on the Blue Album.
The problem with a lot of it was that the art was printed on a multiple of different shirt colors. So any given design may ( or may not ) come in particular sizes or colors......... which is “real blast” at the t-shirt stand of a concert when someone is looking to buy a shirt that fits , in the color or style they want ( imagine!?) At this point most of the venues Three-Eleven were playing were still auditoriums or basketball courts, so the music was often deafening at the t-shirt table. Anyone familiar with Monte Python will imagine the Cheese Shop Sketch where they never have what is asked for ( “cheddar ? , Not much call for cheddar, round these parts...”)
It was my job, to clean this mess of swag up and sell it, and get some new items for sale since the band had had most of this stuff on the road with them for years, and the old-school fans ( circa. 1995) were definitely ready for more diversity of product. The first order of business, was to isolate the single most popular shirt, and get it in stock in all sizes ( but not colors!)
That shirt ended up being the blue oval logo cloud shirt ( from the album artwork), and we decided to print it on Navy blue. During those years, that shirt sold more than any of the other shirts ( 15 or more styles at a time) COMBINED. So, that helped to settle down the mayhem that was the merchandise stock truck at the time. But as we toured that winter, the single “down” was blowing up, and the merchandise was selling better than ever before. So by the end of that run, we still had a lot of old 311 merchandise that I never wanted to bring on the road again.........
As the tour ended, 311 fired most of their road staff of lights, sound, techs, box pushers, and the like are fired till the next album tour comes up....
I had been on the road, more than off for the past 4 years or so, and I didn't want to go look for another band to tour with. For this reason , and the fact that AOL ( yes, America Online ) had just connected to the INTERNET. ( 1995, again ) That I proposed that I post pictures on my AOL account space and offer to send fans t-shirts if they'd mail in a check, after printing some bunk looking order form from my AOL page on the Internet !
It worked phenomenally well. 311 fans were some of the first music fans to be on the INTERNET back then. By the time the band went back on tour, a year later, we had sold all of the mix-match batch of merchandise, and we ordered, tons of new stuff for the upcoming release of SoundSystem.
But thats is a different story. eBay! has changed a lot since a year ago, and I like the changes that I've just noticed today. The changes during the past 13 years of selling 311 merchandise has been incredible. Please check out my latest Auctions
Respect ~ UNITY~ and ♪ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪
ERlK H00K
Sunday, March 29, 2009
311 Omaha Sessions
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