Second Sphere Apparel and Merch Store

[Narric]

Sent a PM to a member I think can help with thise, but I think that some forum imput would be useful as well.

At present there is a Second Sphere Apparel and Merch store currently operated by in-active Admin FT.
My personal opinion on the content is that it is a little bland and filled with unneccessary items. _{(Baby and dog clothes are totally something the majority of us want )}

My thoughts was to make a new store with basic content, and run contests to generate some varied content for it. In addition, the money generated for the sales can be used for the running csts of the forum, and for pre-purchasing of prizes for other contests. This would mean much more varied prizes, and hopefully more companies interested in supporting the contest.

What is the opinion of the forum as a whole on this? Would anyone feel responsible enough to maintain the store itself and be trusted with the profits?

[silverfuge]

The problem is most of the profit would be eaten by pay pal charges. My club has a a couple of wholesale accounts but we keep them inhouse so as to not be classed as a business which this would be. 

[Narric]

Those the paypal account have to be business though? we're not setting out for profit, just to help fund Forum only projects and the like.

[silverfuge]

I understand but as the shop would open to anyone its classed as a business. (we get around it as only our members can access it and we are a members only club) it would be a business and therefore possibily attract tax/ni so if said person on jsa/pip (only in uk as thats all i know) they would have spare allowance to cover. wWe went through all this for club.

[Narric]

Checking paypal, there is an option fo £0 pcm fees, only the sale fees, which would only be 3.4% + 20p per transaction. The % goes down the more we sell according to this, by my understanding.

Double checking 3.4% +20p is the rate for Personal Paypal users anyway.

This is ofcourse only looking at Paypals info. I personally haven't yet looked at Zazzle, or similar online stores.

[silverfuge]

Wonder if it maybe better to speak to a store. We get a 20% discount through GCN with The outpost-sheffield on top of their 10% discount. I wonder if yu contact them if they could work something out for you? 

[Narric]

That would work for models, and other game systems, but not for Second Sphere stuff. Nor would it really be useful for making contests for Member generated content.

[Sorck]

The biggest problem is probably handling any stock that we may have. Unless of course the orders are handled differently. Or the products are digital.

[Narric]

To my understanding of stores like Zazzle, you merely upload the designs, and the Website does the production, shipping and postage. The base price reflects that somewhat.

[Thantos]

You can get a paypal which takes 3.4% plus 20p per transaction. This is what i use for Zealot. We have a 2S paypal set up using this scheme already.

Tax wise - this is not going to be an earner, just covering hosting costs and keeping Sorck fueled up with Relentless so he keeps coding new jazz for the site There will be no tax on this unless it earns over £8,465 (i forget exact figure) profit, not revenue, per annum.
It should be registered to someone young, unemployed and not earning already (else it would be cumulative to current day-job earnings and be taxed)

[spoiler] Or not registered at all, its not for profit, its under the tax threshold, its not going into a bank account. If any cash is made, we can do some extra nice contest prizes or annual awards or have a few extra free kegs of beer at a 2S meetup! ) [/spoiler]

[Narric]

I believe I have an old Contact number for FT. I'll send him a text and see if he responds

I had asumed this is what we'd have to do. The odd thing is, i think Sorck is one of the few who meet the critiria of being young and not employed though of course we can except others stepping up to take responsibility.

[silverfuge]

Good luck with ft. I have some log in details for one he set up for me to use for 2s/my club. I agree with Thantos but means you cant claim prizes fir tax purposes If we had a member in Bradford we could run through the store as I havnt the time to post things in affraid.

[Narric]

Seems the number I have for FT is no longer listed. Texts won't go out.

I doubt we should really claim Prize purchases for tax, if we're not getting taxed for the sales of our Merch

[silverfuge]

Did say he fallen of the planet since finding out he going to be a daddy.

[Thantos]

Did say he fallen of the planet since finding out he going to be a daddy.

Well congratulations to him on the new broodling!