ACH Merchandising

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Szymon Kurzacz

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Today 5:26 PM
I was thinking about getting some pens, cups, t-shirts, posters, stickers, hats, etc. with ACH logo or something like that...

What do You think about such stuff?

There is also little problem with such stuff, because of our charity program it would be quite hard to setup "store" with such stuff. Or perhaps that store should give some cash from sold stuff to unicef as well (and still need enough cash for owner to make profit to run that kind of activity)...

Additional question is about simmilar stuff but for other virtual airlines - some of You fly not only for ACH and may want something like that but themed with their other airline (and that may also collide with copyrights of real airlines, especially when virtual one is 100% based on real airline)...
 
Norbert could well be interested in this post.

He did ask if I could set up some kind of store quite a while ago (maybe 2 years ago), but it isn't something I have dipped into before so didn't even know where to start.
 
Rough (and fast) calculation for prices for making mugs/cups in my neighborhood would be around 10 euro + send cost (for 0,33 liter cup with 10x8,5 cm print) up to 15 euro + send costs (for big mug 0,65 liter with 20,5x8 cm print) or even 45-50 euro for set of 6 tea cups with trays (120ml with 20x4,5 cm print).

Also there still is copyright issue about using logotypes, especially if producing stuff for virtual airlines based on real ones, in witch case real airlines may sue producer about using copyrighted logotypes.

I saw also some shops available as "put code on wyour website" with t-shirts and cups, but dont know prices of stuff there...
 
What Norbert was talking about was some website where you put all of the designs into the website for t-shirts, mugs etc, and when somebody orders, that company takes care of the printing and the postage.

I think he gave me a link to a couple of websites that did this, but I don't remember them.
 
Another side of business that kind is to sell pilots uniforms (suit, shirt, hat, bag etc.) and plastic ID cards with photo and other badges (metal wings pin, metal engraved plate with name, etc) for virtual pilots...

I wonder if there is room for that kind of business, to sell such virtual airline and virtual pilots merchandising globally for any virtual airline, or in other words if there would be enough transactions to pay for food for myself :p
 
Another side of business that kind is to sell pilots uniforms (suit, shirt, hat, bag etc.) and plastic ID cards with photo and other badges (metal wings pin, metal engraved plate with name, etc) for virtual pilots...
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I wonder if there is room for that kind of business, to sell such virtual airline and virtual pilots merchandising globally for any virtual airline, or in other words if there would be enough transactions to pay for food for myself
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I think you can never generate a real income from selling these items alone. Businesses that sell such items sell them next to other aviation or flightsim items.
Also there still is copyright issue about using logotypes, especially if producing stuff for virtual airlines based on real ones, in witch case real airlines may sue producer about using copyrighted logotypes.
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Yes and for most people flying with virtual airlines based on real ones it would probably be good enough to have a mug or T-shirt from the real airline. Just the way they have it easy with their repaints :) (a lot of payware craft come ready made with their livery).

It might be possible to earn some additional money in your spare time with it but sort out all the legal questions first. And also....don't forget taxation in your calculations(might be a lot).

I did some research in selling items online for myself and I concluded that there are a lot of costs. Paypal and online payment systems from banks costs a lot of money for businesses. And you have to offer several payment methods or customers turn away. You also have to be prepared to be active on social media all the time to promote your stuff. You have to pay for banners on well known flightsim sites or sell your items through them which would probably cost half of the revenue. You have to register with the chamber of commerce, pay tax for imports if you have these items made in foreign countries etc. And of course, because you'll be an international shop, you'll be exporting. So that means tax and complying with foreign product safety rules etc.
There is also little problem with such stuff, because of our charity program it would be quite hard to setup "store" with such stuff.
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Yes the charity in question might hesitate to allow you to use their name in any way because anything you do might endanger their public image.

I don't tell these things to spoil your plan, this is just what I ran into while doing my research. I would advise you to start small; design flightsim related items that don't infringe any copyrights, produce them yourself, hire a market stand at a flightsim event.

I think for ACH the whole revenue for gadgets should go to UNICEF.
 
Hello all,

as Andrew wrote, we have had this idea some times ago. The problem was not the copyright question, because we are holding the copyright for any Air-Child Logo, flag or what ever, by ourself. It's also not to dificiult to open a ACH Merchandising-Shop. Here, for example, you will find the shop of the Virtual Airline "Leipzig Air": http://74238.spreadshirt.de/
Spreadshirt, the company where you can open the shop, will do everything: printing, postage and so on. You only have to select the products you want to offer in your shop, and you have to send the logos or lettering you want to see on your products to that company. That's all.

Two reasons why we don't have founded such a shop in the past:
1) Someone has to be the owner of this shop. That means, you will receive the income from the shop. And that means, you have to make a declaration for your tax office, which can be a lot of work
2) The shipping price. E.g. the spreadshirt company are locatet in germany. So if you want to buy something and you are living in germany, the shipping price will be in a normal manner. Shipping price for countries around germany will be a little bit moore, but shipping price to the USA, Australia, Asia and so on will be moore that you have to pay for the product itself. But that's not acceptable.

So we have began to look for similar companies arround the world. But no luck. We only have found one in the USA, but the products they offer are differed from the company in germany, and the shipping price was nearly the same. Shipping inside the USA was OK, but outside it was much to high. The company is named "CafePress": http://www.cafepress.com/

Edit: I just have seen that "CafePress" now have more International Sites. That's new. Maybe the shipping price then will be more cheeper for differend countries...let's see
 
Another idea for (not only) ACH:
What You think about making (selling/buying) some kind of ID cards for pilots, witch will include airline logotype, pilot name and rank, more or less credit card size made in plastic (or at least good paper in plastic wrapper or box on leash). I do not know how much such ID would cost, probably under 5 euro with shipping.
 
What You think about making (selling/buying) some kind of ID cards for pilots, witch will include airline logotype, pilot name and rank
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A nice idea, but you should find a way to make it absolutely clear it's not the real thing. Especially for VA's derived from real airlines. I mean you wouldn't like some idiot using it to fool airport authorities. :wall: At the same time it should still look nice; having SPECIMEN written all over it would spoil it of course.
or at least good paper in plastic wrapper or box on leash
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You can get very good results with a laminating machine. They're also very good for making nice check-list. I've seen real pilots using laminated check-list too. You can also buy special clippers for the rounded corners.
 
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