[FWDLK] Calendars - Soon to be collector's items!

["Stragand, Dave" <Dave.Stragand@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

Still plenty of calendars left.  Too many, actually.

Therefore, 2002 is very likely the last calendar.  I can not afford to keep losing this much money every year when I have 5 cars to feed, so this is bound to soon be a collector's item!

The calendars were originally designed to be a fund-raiser to help keep the web site and mailing list going.  The server requires approximately $500 per year in hardware and software costs, and will need to be replaced soon (It's three years old already).  While I don't really mind paying all (or a portion of) that cost, losing $1000 a year to publish a calendar that's supposedly (and ironically) a fund-raiser gets to be a bit ridiculous.

Please don't try to convince me that we need to do a calendar next year, unless you personally are willing to front the money and/or guarantee a preset number of sales.  We just need to be realistic: very simply put, we unfortunately just can't sell enough of them to make it cost effective, unless we sell them for around $20 each.  And of course, if we do that, we will sell even less.  (Also, I'm very surprised and disappointed at the number of people who have a car featured in this year's calendar who didn't bother to buy even -one-...)

Also, to those handful of you who have complained that you thought the $3.50 shipping automatically meant Priority Mail... I will let you know that according to my records, I have also lost about $120 on shipping, not even counting the $40 I spent on envelopes.  Exact shipping costs?  Paypal just doesn't let you select exact shipping charges that way.  And now that I mention Paypal, they also hit me for about $275 in charges from the calendars and models...

So when you add it all up, and include the $500 or so that I lost selling the models, I've spent around $2500 in the last year.  Pardon me if I'm a bit disgruntled about it all, but that's more than I've spent buying and fixing up my DeSoto.  I'm not bitter, but I do have a life of my own too, you know, so I just am going to cut my expenses of running all this stuff down to a more bearable level.  =)

I want to thank everyone who has submitted their vehicles, and everyone who has purchased a calendar in the past!  It certainly has been a uniquely beautiful one!

http://www.forwardlook.net/calendar2002/index.html

-Dave

PS - Yes, I know the Discussion board on the web site is still broken.  I just spent all last night fixing it and it crapped out again.  I will see what I can do to get it going soon.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Calendars are still available.  Don't miss the chance to get yours now!
Details for ordering may be found at:
http://www.forwardlook.net/calendar2002/index.html