Revisited: The Big Swirl Umbrella

[Adrian von Bidder]

Heyho!

Revisiting this age-old idea of an Umbrella with the swirl on the whole
umbrella (and not just on one segment.)

I asked a manufacturer, he could make it, with tolerance in alignment
between the segments in the area of 2-5mm (noticeable if you look for it,
but I doubt it will jump in your eye if you just look at it, the Logo is not
that fine.)

BUT ... it's not cheap.

I'd need to make 240 umbrellas at least.

Manufacturing costs alone would be CHF 18.41, and since I'd want to add some
margin for the Debian project I'd propose a selling price of CHF30.  (And
then there's shipping and customs/taxes :-(

(That would be a collpasible Umbrella.  A streight umbrella would still be
CHF 15.72, not that much cheaper, and I'd prefer the collapsible one to take
with me.  Design: White with the big swirl and "debian" in Kabel Bk on one
of the segments.  What kind of Pink for the swirl?  IIRC Debian doesn't have
a defined official color?)

Still .... I'm thinking about getting this started if I see a realistic
chance that they'd sell.  (12 weeks delivery, so too  late for Christmas
already :-( )  To minimize my logistics, I would only ship them in lots of
at least 5 umbrellas.  (I'd probably make an exception for deliveries within
.ch)

Given those conditions: tentative poll (please cc: me!)
 * who would buy one?
 * who would buy >=5 and organize local distribution?

(if you want 5 all for yourself, go ahead, of course :-)

(CHF 30 == ca. EUR 20 == ca. USD 30)

cheers
-- vbi

(Oh, and: of course, it has to be said: I'm cutting my own throat with this.

Think about it ... you bought that camera for 350.-- last year even though
you didn't really need it, did you?  And then there's that high-powered
green laserpointer even though it doesn't run Linux, and that cost you
100.-- as well.  So what's 30.-- for an Umbrella?  You'll use it, you know!  
It's not a meat pie with non-identified bits in it, either.)

--
Perl: The Swiss Army Chainsaw

[Klistvud]

Dne, 02. 10. 2009 11:33:49 je Adrian von Bidder napisal(a):

> Heyho!
>
> Revisiting this age-old idea of an Umbrella with the swirl on the
> whole
> umbrella (and not just on one segment.)
>
> I asked a manufacturer, he could make it, with tolerance in alignment
> between the segments in the area of 2-5mm (noticeable if you look for
> it,
> but I doubt it will jump in your eye if you just look at it, the Logo
> is not
> that fine.)
>
> BUT ... it's not cheap.
>
> I'd need to make 240 umbrellas at least.
>
> Manufacturing costs alone would be CHF 18.41, and since I'd want to
> add some
> margin for the Debian project I'd propose a selling price of CHF30.
> (And
> then there's shipping and customs/taxes :-(
>
> (That would be a collpasible Umbrella.  A streight umbrella would
> still be
> CHF 15.72, not that much cheaper, and I'd prefer the collapsible one
> to take
> with me.  Design: White with the big swirl and "debian" in Kabel Bk
> on
> one
> of the segments.  What kind of Pink for the swirl?  IIRC Debian
> doesn't have
> a defined official color?)
>
> Still .... I'm thinking about getting this started if I see a
> realistic
> chance that they'd sell.  (12 weeks delivery, so too  late for
> Christmas
> already :-( )  To minimize my logistics, I would only ship them in
> lots of
> at least 5 umbrellas.  (I'd probably make an exception for deliveries
> within
> .ch)
>
> Given those conditions: tentative poll (please cc: me!)
>  * who would buy one?
>  * who would buy >=5 and organize local distribution?
>
> (if you want 5 all for yourself, go ahead, of course :-)
>
> (CHF 30 == ca. EUR 20 == ca. USD 30)
>
> cheers
> -- vbi
>
> (Oh, and: of course, it has to be said: I'm cutting my own throat
> with
> this.
>
> Think about it ... you bought that camera for 350.-- last year even
> though
> you didn't really need it, did you?  And then there's that
> high-powered
> green laserpointer even though it doesn't run Linux, and that cost
> you
>
> 100.-- as well.  So what's 30.-- for an Umbrella?  You'll use it, you
> know!  
> It's not a meat pie with non-identified bits in it, either.)
>
> --
> Perl: The Swiss Army Chainsaw
>

I'd most certainly buy one, but I'm afraid the shipping/handling costs
(to Slovenia) would be too high for just one article. Besides, are you
perfectly positively sure that adding "some margin for the Debian
project" is consistent with the legal position of non-profits such as
Debian?

--
Certifiable Loonix User 481801


--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-curiosa-REQUEST@...
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@...

[Adrian von Bidder]

On Friday 02 October 2009 14.48:41 Klistvud wrote:
> Besides, are you
> perfectly positively sure that adding "some margin for the Debian
> project" is consistent with the legal position of non-profits such as
> Debian?

Adding a margin to the purchase price is what we (debian.ch) always do when
selling shirts.  And as to the legal side: selling stuff to raise money is
no problem.  [1]

Note also that "Debian" does not have a legal status as such.

There's debian.ch, (where I happen to be on the board) and which is covered
under Swiss law.  There's of course Debian SPI.  A few others, too.  So
what's the "legal position of Debian"?

But legally, I'd probably sell the Umbrellas -- if I go ahead -- as a
private person and just donate my profit to debian.ch (converting to USD and
donating to SPI just loses us money.  It can still be moved around if we
need it somewhere else later on.)  So the question of non-profit doesn't
even enter: I, as a person, don't have any non-profit status to maintain.

Obviously we (would probably need DPL approval) might decide to run this
project and have debian.ch take the risk, but I don't think that'd be a good
idea, but more for practical reasons than legally.

cheers
-- vbi


[1] not so short digression...
Relevant law in Switzerland starts at
http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/210/a60.html; basically all formal Associations
have to be non-profit, but as long as you're not distributing profits to
members you can do almost anything.  Example: many of the big football teams
are still "non-profit" associations.  They obviously pay wages and have huge
budgets, but they're still non-profit in the sense that their aim is not
profits but running a football team.  Likewise, some (quite big) insurance
"companies" legally were (non-profit) associations, and had members instead
of customers.  (I don't know if any are left, I think they all reformed into
regular corporations.)



--
Compile with -wIngo.
        -- tilladam in kmail's changelog

[Holger Levsen-2]

Hi Adrian,

On Freitag, 2. Oktober 2009, Adrian von Bidder wrote:
> Revisiting this age-old idea of an Umbrella with the swirl on the whole
> umbrella (and not just on one segment.)

hehe, cool! Even though I dont like umbrellas, but/because sometimes they are
useful indeed ;-)

> I'd need to make 240 umbrellas at least.
> Still .... I'm thinking about getting this started if I see a realistic
> chance that they'd sell.

Make them just in time for DebConf10?


regards,
        Holger

[Stig Sandbeck Mathisen-3]

On 2. okt. 2009, at 11.33, Adrian von Bidder wrote:

> Given those conditions: tentative poll (please cc: me!)
> * who would buy one?
> * who would buy >=5 and organize local distribution?
>
> (if you want 5 all for yourself, go ahead, of course :-)

I'd gladly buy 5, if that is what it takes.

Holger's idea to bring them to DebConf is also great. :)


--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-curiosa-REQUEST@...
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@...

[Michelle Konzack-2]

Am 2009-10-02 14:48:41, schrieb Klistvud:
> I'd most certainly buy one, but I'm afraid the shipping/handling costs
> (to Slovenia) would be too high for just one article.

You are right and because Adrian has saied, he must order at  least  240
of them, you could buy the 240 at once and Adrian could order 500  which
decrease the production price.

Thanks, Greetings and nice Day/Evening
    Michelle Konzack
    Systemadministrator
    Tamay Dogan Network
    Debian GNU/Linux Consultant

--
Linux-User #280138 with the Linux Counter, http://counter.li.org/
##################### Debian GNU/Linux Consultant #####################
<http://www.tamay-dogan.net/>                 Michelle Konzack
<http://www.can4linux.org/>                   Apt. 917
<http://www.flexray4linux.org/>               50, rue de Soultz
Jabber linux4michelle@...           67100 Strabourg/France
IRC    #Debian (irc.icq.com)                  Tel. DE: [phone]
ICQ    #328449886                             Tel. FR: [phone]

[Felipe Augusto van de Wiel (faw)-3]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On 02-10-2009 15:19, Stig Sandbeck Mathisen wrote:

>
> On 2. okt. 2009, at 11.33, Adrian von Bidder wrote:
>
>> Given those conditions: tentative poll (please cc: me!)
>> * who would buy one?
>> * who would buy >=5 and organize local distribution?
>>
>> (if you want 5 all for yourself, go ahead, of course :-)
>
> I'd gladly buy 5, if that is what it takes.
>
> Holger's idea to bring them to DebConf is also great. :)

        I would say the same, DebConf tends to have more
than 300 people around, so debian.ch could make 250 or
300 umbrellas, ship some of them to NY and the other could
be delivered in Europe.

        Similar to what was done with the Debian wine. :)

Kind regards,
- --
Felipe Augusto van de Wiel (faw)
"Debian. Freedom to code. Code to freedom!"
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iEYEAREIAAYFAkrKbnoACgkQCjAO0JDlykZo1QCfdou+RDi2WBZSgfRIY0tN/Oew
tykAoIdRVTGPJxxaBcjm3BtecrTRoY85
=Yeed
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-curiosa-REQUEST@...
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@...

[Lionel Elie Mamane-2]

> Revisiting this age-old idea of an Umbrella with the swirl on the
> whole umbrella (and not just on one segment.)

> I asked a manufacturer, he could make it, (...)

> I'd need to make 240 umbrellas at least.

> Manufacturing costs alone would be CHF 18.41, (...) I'd propose a
> selling price of CHF30.  (And then there's shipping and
> customs/taxes :-(

> (That would be a collpasible Umbrella.

If it is a nice, sturdy "collapses into a small volume" (that is, fits
in my handbag) umbrella, I'd be happy to get one.

--
Lionel


--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-curiosa-REQUEST@...
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@...