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The most fair way – but another headache for Windstone – would be a lottery:
Don’t split the different designs into batches and everyone can pick one piece.
A week or so in advance announce that there will be a grab bag and post photos of some of the designs. There could even be a livestream if Windstone was willing to have all the pieces painted and then hold them for a few days. It would be nice to also tell people the price in advance, but I understand why Windstone usually doesn’t know.
People who might be interested in buying one of the grab bag pieces would then email their names to be put in the pool. Since this is opened a week in advance of the grab bag, and there is no advantage to signing up “first”, maybe it would not be the crash that the bantam Kickstarter was. Maybe …
Of course, someone at Windstone would need to keep track of the names of people who are entering the lottery. Perhaps the choosing would need to be a livestream with pieces being numbered and then set aside as they are picked, similar to the livestreams for choosing Kickstarter Poads.
However, I don’t think it is practical for someone to pick up and show off various pieces as Melody did with the Poads. Maybe class photos with the pieces numbered could be available in advance so people could identify favorites.When the grab bag is ready for sale, and ideally the time would have been announced so people could be on the site, names are drawn randomly and people choose in order (or decide to pass). A time limit for making a choice probably would be necessary. Even so, this would take a while – 100 people at three minutes apiece is 5 hours, but someone who is number 76 could choose to join in part way through rather than sit through the whole thing.
Once the lottery choices had been made any remaining pieces could be offered as a true grab bag.
A lottery would limit the sale to people to who knew about it in advance. It’s not a real good solution from a business standpoint because you won’t get those one off buyers. One off buyer often become collectors after their first piece.
I’ve often thought about the KS ordering mess and grab bags. If it wouldn’t be too much work for Susie, maybe Melody could paint the grab bags for a “class pic”and do a presale. Everyone knows what the cats may look like. If the numbers are greater than than pieces available then Melody could increase the batch number (Like with the KS dragons) plus some extra for the store. Maybe a link in the store so people can buy the item, Susie would have all the information and a total number needed.
Something like that could even be handled remotely if Windstone didn’t want to bring another staff on full time, but just periodically for releases like these.
Looking for Blue Fawn Baby Kirin
Sanguine Oriental Test Paints, kinglet
Sun Dragon Koi #3Just an FYI: Please don’t use auto-freshing scripts and programs on our website. It really does create a problem for any website no matter WHO is the host. I bet that WordPress had other sites glitch during our grab bag – and paypal probably did too – and they are probably wondering why! Just all of you manually refreshing to see when an item has been stocked creates an issue. And I don’t think there is a shopping cart alive that can fully handle the enthusiasm of Windstone Collectors during a grab bag!
I’m enjoying your ideas. Keep throwing them out there – maybe someone will come up with the perfect solution!
A lottery would limit the sale to people to who knew about it in advance. It’s not a real good solution from a business standpoint because you won’t get those one off buyers. One off buyer often become collectors after their first piece.
I’ve often thought about the KS ordering mess and grab bags. If it wouldn’t be too much work for Susie, maybe Melody could paint the grab bags for a “class pic”and do a presale. Everyone knows what the cats may look like. If the numbers are greater than than pieces available then Melody could increase the batch number (Like with the KS dragons) plus some extra for the store. Maybe a link in the store so people can buy the item, Susie would have all the information and a total number needed.
Something like that could even be handled remotely if Windstone didn’t want to bring another staff on full time, but just periodically for releases like these.
Wouldn’t a presale also be limited to people who knew about it in advance? I agree that is a problem, but I don’t see a good solution.
A lottery, a presale, a regular grab bag, or something else could (should) be promoted on the Forum, Facebook, and anyplace else that Windstone has a presence. Then it’s a question of the best way to handle the resulting stampede.
not liking the lottery idea, just too many headaches I would think….
it just doesn’t seem fair that you can pick the one you want, the whole fun of GBs for me is not knowing what I’m going to get, all the excitement of wondering until I get the paper off is the fun of it….I don’t want the KS way to become the GB way, it ruins the fun of the surprise of it all…..please keep GBs the way they are!
4 things I'm looking for:
1. Mother Meerkat
2. production color Sitting Young Oriental dragons to be made in more colors besides VF
3. Female Griffin – Siamese with White
4. September Raffle Prize 2022 AHD Male GriffinA lottery could maybe be something as far as an “event” goes, (a special promotional time Windstone wants to make special for whatever reason. New sculpt premier or a particularly expensive grab bag where selection may be what helps sway a buyer to actually buy rather than play the gamble of getting a piece they may not like, etc) but to do it for every grab bag? Seems like a lot of wasted effort on Windstone’s part when they are going to sell out regardless… and if they don’t sell out the remnants can be auctioned on ebay like the Poads and Tanukis have been.
There are lots of conveniences we would all like but we also need to take into consideration man hours wasted that could be spent restocking colors in the store, casting, sanding, sculpting, listing and photoing items for auction, packing, shipping. All these things take time and time is money when it comes to running a profitable business. I also think the pre-buying is also problematic. Waitlist is right for the way Windstone runs their business. They’re unable to forsee issues with casting, molds ripping, horn plating issues, paints being discontinued, etc. To sell before something before it is physically made seems to just be a headache waiting to happen.
Got a busted Windstone?
drag0nfeathersdesign@gmail.com
*OPEN for repairs**SEEKING GRAILS*
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Dreamscape, Orion, Poison Dart, Fireberry, Spangler + Tigerberry DragonsI don’t disagree with fatal about the “what will I get” appeal of grab bags, but just throwing this into the discussion … There are people who refuse to participate in the grab bags because they don’t want to spend that much money for a piece they might not like.
Trading gets expensive and can be frustrating so they simply stay out. Is there any way to bring them (and their money) in?
A lottery would limit the sale to people to who knew about it in advance. It’s not a real good solution from a business standpoint because you won’t get those one off buyers. One off buyer often become collectors after their first piece.
I’ve often thought about the KS ordering mess and grab bags. If it wouldn’t be too much work for Susie, maybe Melody could paint the grab bags for a “class pic”and do a presale. Everyone knows what the cats may look like. If the numbers are greater than than pieces available then Melody could increase the batch number (Like with the KS dragons) plus some extra for the store. Maybe a link in the store so people can buy the item, Susie would have all the information and a total number needed.
Something like that could even be handled remotely if Windstone didn’t want to bring another staff on full time, but just periodically for releases like these.
Wouldn’t a presale also be limited to people who knew about it in advance? I agree that is a problem, but I don’t see a good solution.
A lottery, a presale, a regular grab bag, or something else could (should) be promoted on the Forum, Facebook, and anyplace else that Windstone has a presence. Then it’s a question of the best way to handle the resulting stampede.
I was more thinking of using the “presale” as a way to avoid a rush at the store. If Windstone knew ahead of time how many guaranteed sales they had, they could paint that number then some more for the store. It would take some of the pressure off the store. It might also help with shipping logistics because they could have the “presale” items ready to go out, and Susie wouldn’t have to dig through emails to try and match up orders.
I’m just thinking out loud here. Maybe something I say will trigger a thought in someone else and together we come up with a great idea. Then if someone decides maybe they wanted another one after the 1st batch had shipped, They could pick one up from the store batch. Sometimes I like grab bags better than I thought I would and decide I’d like another or I only had money for one at the time.Looking for Blue Fawn Baby Kirin
Sanguine Oriental Test Paints, kinglet
Sun Dragon Koi #3a presale wouldn’t be able to determine how many people want one though, some don’t even know about them until the email goes out because not everyone is on Facebook or may be online often enough to see the early stuff….also people may not have the money yet when a “presale” come out so….there’s too many factors to make that work and or as Drag0n said, Windstone’s time would be better suited do what they need to do rather than what wastes time where they can’t do what they need to do…and or there’s always problems with them doing it this way, things come up like once they had a bad batch of gypsum that didn’t work right, things like that could happen again…the staff is also very small right now and Susie would have to do most of this, Susie has a lot to do as it is….
etrusan: that’s just the gamble of a grab bag, you can’t always get what you want right away or maybe even after trying trades but that’s not Windstone’s responsibility…I get picking would be awesome to people but there’s not any way to do that in a way that everyone would be happy…..
4 things I'm looking for:
1. Mother Meerkat
2. production color Sitting Young Oriental dragons to be made in more colors besides VF
3. Female Griffin – Siamese with White
4. September Raffle Prize 2022 AHD Male GriffinThe other thing that wasn’t mentioned was the cougars you could pick. That was only a handful and limited to one per person. That might be an idea for larger and or more expensive pieces that people want to know for sure what they are getting. Paying extra for a piece they love. But it also depended on how fast someone’s internet was. But just another idea to throw in the pot to brew.
I like the grab bags. If I don’t like most of the batch I don’t buy. If I like most of the batch I buy and take a gamble. So little in my life is a surprise anymore, I like the not knowing what I’m getting.
I think people at getting hung up on the term “presale” I just couldn’t think of a better word. The important part of my idea is that Windstone would have a better idea of how many items they have a guaranteed sale for. Thus enabling Windstone to maybe to meet that demand, create extra for the store, and help mitigate the store crashing issue.
Looking for Blue Fawn Baby Kirin
Sanguine Oriental Test Paints, kinglet
Sun Dragon Koi #3Setsuna: it wouldn’t stop the store crashing though, it would just be another time not when they’re being released to crash the site when everyone tries do the “presale” part….and it also might lead to more than one person want A so Melody goes “I’ll make a clone to make that person happy” like she did with the bantams but then more and more and more people kept going “Now I want a clone of that one!” and then Melody had to make sooooo many more clones trying to keep everyone happy….it’s just a bigger and bigger headache for Susie or Melody or John, etc….
4 things I'm looking for:
1. Mother Meerkat
2. production color Sitting Young Oriental dragons to be made in more colors besides VF
3. Female Griffin – Siamese with White
4. September Raffle Prize 2022 AHD Male GriffinLol. I’d put it up and leave it up for a week or so letting people know they have time. No need to crash the store if you have a week or so to get your order placed. I would set it up as a grab bag. Here is the class pic. If we have more order than are In This pic we will paint more in this style. Ie more leaf kitties, more safaris, more fantasy, more PS kitties. Nobody chooses a specific piece just grab bag style.
I don’t want to create a hassle for you Melody. Just seems to me of you know you have 200 guaranteed grab bag sales, you could paint those plus some for the store. Those 200 wouldn’t be crashing the store because they already have their order in, you wouldn’t have people unhappy because they were at work and missed the drop into the store because they could place their order during the window. I’m a preplanner, and I like expediting systems. The first time or two you might/probably will have a crash became it takes people a bit to adjust a new system. That’s all this would be is a system. It would put Windstone ahead of the rush instead of playing catch up. Although a total sell out is not a bad thing, and what is in place does work. 🙂 I would just like to see Windstone make more money if possible.
Looking for Blue Fawn Baby Kirin
Sanguine Oriental Test Paints, kinglet
Sun Dragon Koi #3I don’t disagree with fatal about the “what will I get” appeal of grab bags, but just throwing this into the discussion … There are people who refuse to participate in the grab bags because they don’t want to spend that much money for a piece they might not like.
Trading gets expensive and can be frustrating so they simply stay out. Is there any way to bring them (and their money) in?
Yes: more limited edition colors, on a regular basis, with the same frequency of grab bags!
Instead of 100-200 one of a kind pieces in a grab bag, make 10-20 schemes in a theme only (for example, 15 “winter” foxes, or a dozen “floral” fledglings), and say X amount will be made of each of them.
Set it up like the below page, and say people can only buy one, or one of each, or whatever other restriction, if any.
https://windstoneeditions.com/product-category/individual-cougars/This doesn’t have to replace grab bags, as some people like to be doom and gloom and say things should only be sold one way or another. It is a way to allow people to get new items and know what it will be. If people don’t like not having an OOAK, don’t buy it.
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Sitting young oriental dragon koi gold and white
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