If you can get envelopes pre-printed with address, postage and quantity that should save a lot of effort even if you do the final stuffing
Yes, that's the current plan, at least have the envelopes pre-printed with address and postage.
Maybe even look into the possibility of having a filled out CN22 printed on the envelope at the same time? It could prevent any customs problems in the recipients' countries.
Anyway, great work, I'm looking forward to receiving my rulers.
I just tore apart an envelope printer, which had a bad clutch inside from a couple of years of use. Pain to use and keep feeding correctly, but it sure did print a lot of envelopes. Labels are a better bet, and I can even arrange stuffing of envelopes for about $50 per 1000 items, postage works out to be about $2 per item international.
I ship a lot of my Tindie orders internationally, and at least here in the states the post office has finally got their act together- you can simply whack the name/address into online form, click a few boxes for product description and it spits out a label with prepaid shipping and customs info all in one. Slap it on, then schlep to the post office to hand it in in person. (The last part still sucks, but not having separate postage and customs helps a lot). That's of course me being too cheap to use third party service like endicia or stamps.com. I wonder if Australia has their equivalents..
I was on holyday and I totally missed the campaign. What a pity.
Dave, do you plan to order some extra for the late aweekening ones or repeat the campain in the future?
Hah, just got an email: "...There is still no reason why I can't manually ship some myself at the start of April just to get the ball rolling. ..."
April? : p
Ya, thats what I thought, april?
Then I checked on Pozible and it said Sept. and the april must have been a joke or a typo.
Chris
Ya, thats what I thought, april? Then I checked on Pozible and it said Sept. and the april must have been a joke or a typo.
Chris
April, August, same thing.
April, August, same thing.
April, August, September...
Yes, I understood that the 'April' in the mail was a typo, but it still made me chuckle a bit ( :
Dave plans to ship the first batch on April, 1st.
Dave plans to ship the first batch on April, 1st.
Gotta get those April fools jokes in early for next year. Never know what red tape the higher ups are going to throw in the way.
-kizzap
Maybe Octopart Electronic PCB (cheatsheet) can be an inspiration for Dave if he wants to improve his current one before making, or for his next version uRuler 2.0 . The footprint idea for various type of packaging would be good for the reverse side of Dave uRuler. Dave logo maybe become smaller as a result.
It occurs to me that here we have a project which doesn't just have a prototype but is actually production proven, and in the words of someone I can't recall, all that's needed is to click the button on the manufacturers website and hey presto!
Yet here we are with
another delay, on top of the previous speed bumps. Completely unforeseen, etc. Were it not Dave doing this I suspect there would be elements of 'yeah, yeah, heard that one before' and perhaps a posting in this very topic.
Don't forget that this is as simple as it could be: a trivial PCB without any components whatsoever. 95% of the posters here could have run one off themselves, or panelled the gerber onto their next PCB.
Please note that I am not trying to diss Dave or his ruler or this round of crowdfunding. What I am trying to do is point out that an apparently simple-as-can-be project can suffer this kind of stuff, and we should bear that in mind when a much more complex project seems to be a straight-up scam.
I agree with that, and try to give people a lot of leeway when it comes to that.
However, there is one aspect that sets this apart from 90% or more of those crowdfunded projects. Dave is being exceptionally transparent. He is informing us immediately when something happens. No delays. No reluctance to share.
Poorly-run campaigns almost never do that. They go silent for long periods of time, or don't admit to having problems until they can't hide them any longer.
And I think the results of both approaches is plainly obvious here - nobody is giving Dave any shit about it, while like you said if it was another project there might be a lot of complaining already.
Were it not Dave doing this I suspect there would be elements of 'yeah, yeah, heard that one before' and perhaps a posting in this very topic.
I was going to post a faux, tongue-in-cheek rant about this under this very topic, but didn't want to get banned for being facetious.
They go silent for long periods
As you say, Dave is
exceptionally transparent, so he is not the norm for any project really. Plus he's been there, done it, and even flogs the T-shirts now. By definition, a crowd sourced project developer probably isn't a particularly astute businessman or project manager, so I wouldn't necessarily panic at long(ish) silence. Indeed, I backed Leap Motion and they went so quiet I forgot I'd money tied up in them
And look at the watch chap: he is quite mouthy and seems to be reasonably transparent. It is all rubbish, of course, but "my PCB order is too big a panel for the globally shipping PCB fab to manage" would have us in stitches here making up his next excuse for him.
Well my 5 rulers turned up in the letterbox just a few minutes ago. Thanks Dave. Love your work
Well my 5 rulers turned up in the letterbox just a few minutes ago. Thanks Dave. Love your work
Cool.
Any tear in the envelope? There is some concern that automated machine could rip the envelopes or damage the rulers.
Someone just said they received an empty sealed envelope!
Mine did have a tear in the envelope but the rulers were fine.
I just figured it was auspost or trying to get them into my letterbox but thinking about it now it was a pretty square tear so it could have been from a machine?
I just figured it was auspost or trying to get them into my letterbox but thinking about it now it was a pretty square tear so it could have been from a machine?
That's the fear, the mail sorting machines may tear the envelopes or destroy the rulers...
The rulers are unblemished. It was the back of the ruler that was exposed by the tear. Fingers crossed I suppose.
Fingers crossed I suppose.
Well that's the thing. I can either chose a better/more expensive envelope or packet or whatever, or I can just take my chances and reship those that don't show up.
Well my 5 rulers turned up in the letterbox just a few minutes ago. Thanks Dave. Love your work
Cool.
Any tear in the envelope? There is some concern that automated machine could rip the envelopes or damage the rulers.
Someone just said they received an empty sealed envelope!
My envelope and contents fared just fine.
And the rulers are confirmed to indeed be quite flexible...
Well that's the thing. I can either chose a better/more expensive envelope or packet or whatever, or I can just take my chances and reship those that don't show up.
Could you wrap them in a folded sheet to give a little more protection against a corner poking through?
I suppose at this point all of his domestic shipments have gone out so it's up to the mailing company to do the rest.
Will the international orders be packed differently?
Will the international orders be packed differently?
Likely they will include some tape inside the envelope at a minimum I think.