Earlier this year, I discussed making mugs with Josh. We both groused that cafepress.com permitted only 1 of each ‘type’ of item for freebie stores. We both groused because he sent 3 panels, and I could only sell 1 mug type at a time. That seemed to be that.
Then, today, between the time I posted the first two panels, and the third one, CafePress sent an email telling me I could post as many mugs as I like! Now I can have three mugs. Oddly, Josh in the UK can only display 1!
I quickly uploaded the high resolution version of the images here:
http://www.cafepress.com/luciablackboard. I made three mugs.
Cafepress gives me three options with these squarish images:
- Image so that drinker sees image when holding handle with their right hand like the two on the left above.
- Image so person across the table sees image when the drinker is holding handle in their right hand like the one on the right.
- Image centered so someone to the side sees the image. (I didn’t pick this.)
I can further refine the placement by superimposing the image on a white rectangular background and uploading the image with white space. But that’s fiddly and I don’t know if people have strong preferences.
Before I fiddle I want to know: Do people prefer to see the image when they hold the mug in their right hand? Or to they prefer others to see the image? Or, should I just duplicate the image so it shows on both sides? Or, should I center it so it shows to the side?
I can also make both right and left handed mugs. But before I do that, I want to know whether people care and to know which people prefer.
BTW: The mugs at the store can be bought now. Josh and I came to an agreement and I’m going to be adding more Josh mugs. If you have any favorites, he can send me the high resolution image; I can upload it and we can make a mug. (Or t-shirt. Or coasters. Or mouse pads….)
Update: I resolved the issue by duplicating the image and putting one on the front and one on the back. If you’d like to buy one, visit my cafepress store. Josh and I split the small profit on each mug.
If Michael Tobis ever comes by for another round of histrionics, maybe that would also inspire Josh.
SteveF–
Now that I can show LOTS of mugs, we can start accumulating them in the store. I don’t think Josh has ever sketched Michael Tobis. Or Eli Rabbett. If mugs just fly off the shelves at cafe press, I suspect Josh will be motivated to sketch all sorts of people!
Right now, I think he’s got some pretty funny ones of Gore. Those could do well. After we resolve whether people like left or right handed, I can get some up.
If you make a left and right handed mug with image (say) facing drinker, it covers all four cases doesn’t it?
Geoff– I can make both types of mugs. However, having two version of each kind might puzzle customers and also makes the page crowded. So, if it turns out “everyone” wants them one way and “no one” wants them the other way, it is sub-optimal to resolve my uncertainty by making both left and right handed mugs.
lucia,
Roy Spencer has posted the September temperature anomaly, +0.289C. The bad news is that the AMSR-E instrument on AQUA has been shut down. Bearing failure apparently.
Oddly… I haven’t posted the surface temperatures. I’ve got the email of change detection from Hadly showing!
It’s dinner time, so the unveiling of the quatloo winner will be tomorrow!
Damn! Sockpuppet would’a won!
A quick survey of office mugs (n=21) found that of those mugs with an image only on one side (n=1) 100% had the image facing the drinker if they held the mug in their right hand. However an even quicker survey of mugs by computer workstations (n=10) showed that mugs where positioned on to the left of the keyboard.
I would suggest that if the cost is not prohibitive that you print images on both sides.
Most of the time, when you are drinking, the mug is at the table with the handle facing you. And when you bring the mug to your mouth, you can’t see the image, wherever placed.
Any case, I don’t see any standard when I google [mugs+with+images] or similar.
Nyq–
There is no additional cost to printing images on both sides. It’s just a question of whether a) they optimally (i.e. without squishing or distorting) and b) whether people like that solution or think it’s stupid.
Plazaeme– Yes. It may be that people care about the image for display purposes. In that case, they just position the mug as they like to display when they are not drinking!
I like the idea of an image on both sides. I don’t have a preference as to which side the image on a single-sided mug should be.
Is this a great country or what? Climate issue entrepreneurship based on blogging a math error by an English guy trying to use an ambiguous model of planetary heat exchange done by a Japanese guy! Where else is that gonna happen? U-S-A, baby! And we haven’t even dealt with the movie rights issue…
If lucia can sell 70,000 or so mugs that (gross) would match Hansen on climate-issue side income. At 700,000 she gets to Al Gore levels. Are we talking IPO here?
My temp graph mug is getting a bit dated so I may have to join the bandwagon on the new offer. The excitement is palpable.
I am still shoot for mug number 4 🙂
George– Josh is in the UK. 🙂
I think I’ll put the image on both sides. I want to make a mug with of Josh’s image of Gore standing in front of a temperature projection too.
Wow! lucia.inc already has a UK subsidiary…
George,
Unfortunately for Josh, cafepress only permits those in the UK to have 1 mug at a time in their no-monthly fee store. Neither Josh nor I think the mugs are going to be bought in sufficient quantities to justify paying monthly fees. At cafepress, “not-premium” stores can only ‘stock’ 1 version of each product type at a time. That is: 1 mug, 1 t-shirt, 1-dog dish and so on. That’s good for clubs where everyone might just want the club logo on stuff.
Premium stores let you ‘stock’ as many mugs as you like. So we can start accumulating ‘mugs’ and people can chose what they like now, at Christmas etc.
On the US side, cafepress offers two options for “premium” stores:
1) Cafepress takes 10% of the mark up on a mug. So, if I mark up $1, then get $0.1. Then based on Josh and my agreement, we split the rest 50%-50% each making $0.45
2) Cafepress charges a flat monthly fee, but after that, no fee per mug.
The latter makes sense if you sell enough to net $50 in fees month in month out. We don’t expect to do that. We expect to net… oh….$3 a month? Hard to say. On the UK side, cafepress only offers option (2). So, we can offer all the Josh (and other) mugs we want provided I have the store. That means layout, upload, announce new mugs at my blog etc.
If you have a favorite Josh image, ask. I’ll get Josh to provide me the high-resolution version and we’ll “stock” it!
Umm, I know this is a really weird question, but are the mugs thick or thin?
Kendra–
I’m not sure how thick thick is. I got one with temperature projections on it, and it seemed “normal”. That is: It’s about the weight and thickness of vitrious (not plastic) mugs. I could weigh one for you, would that help? Maybe I could try to measure? (I don’t have calipers around.)
Thanks, Lucia, if it looks normal, that probably means it’s thick as thin is very hard to find in a mug and so you’d notice!!!
I still want one, I’ll have to check out how to order (not a thing I’m good at getting around to) and if shipping over here is prohibitively expensive.
Are you outside the US? Shipping could be expensive. If someone knows of an outfit outside the US that does something similar to Cafepress, I could look into that. I’m already going to be looking at Zazzle. I figure it’s best to find the outfit that provides the best prices. (Cafepress lets me set a mark-up or royalty, but the dictate the baseprice and shipping. )
I prefer to see the image while holding the mug in my right hand.
Don B–
I agree with you! 🙂
I resolved the issue by laying the images side by side, and uploading that. Now the mugs will display the image twice. I don’t know if anyone objects to duplication.
Ideally, for ‘mug’ layouts, Josh needs to start cartooning in 3.5 x 8.6 panels. (Or something like that.) But rectangles are better for displaying on blogs!
A couple of my favorites of Josh’s cartoons are hours 10 and 12 of the Gore-a-thon series. They really stand on their own. Though, if I were rich I’d take the whole set.
Tamara–
I’m waiting for my mug. When it arrives, I will report on quality. It depends both on CafePress’s standards and the quality of the image I upload. After that, I’ll ask Josh for the high resolution images of 10 and 12. I think we could get the 24 hour series on to 12 mugs, since one image can go on front and the other on back. That would get the price down for people who want the whole thing– and I also think few people need 12 mugs, but quite a few could use 6.
I sent a contact form to Cafepress to ask about the shipping charges – it could be as low as $7 but they don’t specify by kind of item – and can go as high as $50!!!! (of course, that’s the express). Oh, I’m in Switzerland. Then there’s whether I get charged here for VAT or something which would be low, BUT they always charge you Fr. 10 to charge you!
The preferred method of course is to send to my sister or a friend who would then include it in a shipment of misc. to me (marked “Gift” total value under 100). It’s rather onerous, though, to have stuff sent to someone that they’re not supposed to misplace (this has happened), must remove original packaging etc, pack up, fill out customs forms, stand in line at P.O., etc.
In fact, here’s one way to never hear from someone again: Ask them to kindly pack a box of used paperbacks of theirs and their friends that were going to be taken to a used book place or whatever. Assure you will pay any lost resale proceeds, cost of postage, and something for their time. Talk about elephants in rooms. I did manage with a friend last year who ran out of cash before she left – I could put the pressure on to pay me back that way!
This is why I hoard books if there’s anything on TV or internet: a book is like….wow…. (Engl lang books expensive here, of course! Libraries – forget it!).
Back to the mugs: my vote is for the double-sided version! When I’m alone, I can look at it, but when someone’s with me, I can show it off!
Thanks to single malt scotch killing most of my brain cells, I have no clue whether your arguments are superior to Christopher Monckton’s.
However, I am much encouraged to find that you still have a sense of humor. Thanks for bringing those Josh mugs to my attention.
I wanted to buy all three but $45 is a bit steep!
If I order two mugs, can you tell me where the money goes? Does Monckton get the same share as Lucia? Or does every penny go to some bloated capitalist?