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2019 calendar - *** in the mail ***


pshome

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A little bit about purchasing these things (for those that may be interested).

At the deadline I had 68 orders (plus one for myself) so 69.

First of all there is always a discount code. Nobody buys them at the "ECP retail" price of £18.44 for one. The discount codes vary though, but so far every year I've found the best one available at the time is a 50% one, so it starts at £9.21 ea. The unit price falls after 5, then 10, then stops at after 25.

If you look at the VP pricing structure whilst it appears the more you buy, the more you save, but this doesn't work on the basis of x+, it works out such that if you need say 50 one, you have to order 1 bundle at the 50 price and 1 at the more expensive individual price. So if I have exactly 50 orders the unit cost is one amount, but if I have to buy 51 the unit cost for everyone goes up a little...

So if I price up 68 calendars, the order could be made up by putting in the basket 1 x 50 @ £307.49, 1 x 10 @ £79.43 and 1 x 8 @ £63.54. (£450.46). It's not the best way to do it though as it turns out I'd could do it 1 x 50 and 3 x 6 for a total of £450.44 and save 2p. I need 69 (one of myself) or maybe a couple spare (I've never had them missing in the post, but I ALWAYS get someone asking after the event), so I check for quantities of 69, 70 and 71 (£458.71, £466.35, £474.29), but doing that bumps the per unit cost up. So sod it, I'll get 75 for £461.22.

But wait, if your head hasn't melted at that, there's more! They always like to tempt you with upsells, but I ignore all that. However from past experience, there's another pit waiting for the unwary. Once you have ordered you calendars, banged in your card details, reviewed the order and hit the purchase button, the sleekit fuckers throw you a further deal. Aye, I've ordered exactly what I've needed and you want to sell me some more calendars within the next ten minutes at 60% off with no extra shipping costs.

This year though, I was ready for it. I didn't order 50+25, because there was a chance the fuckers would be dangling a buy another 50 carrot which is hee-haw use to me, so I took the step of ordering 25 + 25 and kept my fingers crossed, because had it failed, I would of had another shipping charge for the deficit. Bingo! I seen them coming and as predicted they plonked a "buy another 25 at 60% off" into my lap. 75 for £430.48.

But the joy was short lived. Here's the price list (after 50% discount) from the order day:

1 £9.21
2 £18.44
3 £27.66
4 £36.88
5 £46.10
6 £47.65
7 £55.60
8 £63.54
9 £71.49
10 £79.43
25 £153.74
50 £307.49

And tonight's (again after 50% discount)

1 £8.99
2 £17.99
3 £26.99
4 £35.98
5 £44.98
6 £46.49
7 £54.24
8 £61.99
9 £69.74
10 £77.50
25 £149.99
50 £299.99

Er, aye. The list prices are up and down like a bloody yo-yo too. I could've saved* another £10.73

I say "saved" because as well as shooting a VP price that's a moving target, I'm shooting an GBP - EUR exchange rate target too. Plus while I don't mind sitting on a pile of GBP payments from you lot to finance my chod/Bezos/fleabay purchasing habit, I do get caught on the VISA exchange rate plus the bank's 2% conversion charge (I could probably squeeze this down a bit by UK bank card and feeding that via Transferwise).

On top of that there is the old chestnut of postage. If I send via Royal Mail the bulk saving is around £190-200 compared to trotting down to the local PO. Catch is I have to print them all off online and drive a 175 mile round trip to Newry to dump them at the sorting office. 3 hours and half a tank of pez is my donation to the cause.


tl;dr: This isn't a grumble. At the minute (70 sold) it's costs £6.39, about 30p for envelope/labels and £1.26/£1.64/£2.85/£3.85/£4.06 postage (depending on destination) leaving a surplus of approx 55p per calendar to go into the forum fund. (subject to change if anyone to buy a remaining calendar)

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