people have emailed about how i sell my prints, as sometimes happens after a sale like this. so i figured i'd take a minute and ramble briefly about it. bear in mind that i am still high on painkillers. and high on life.
Q: How do you pick people in the lottery / sale process?
A: I don't. Sarah does. I'm too personally involved in posters to participate, so i turned it over to her to keep it fair and completely random. Plus its a huge amount of work, going through and picking names, emailing people, keeping track of things like that.
Q: do you read people's emails during the sale?
A: truth be told, no. i leave it to sarah mostly. sales are stressful for me, so once i set up all the sales, update my site, send out the mass email, write a blog...once that's all done, i take a break for a day or two from my computer and just let sarah work her magic. i like emailing people, but during sales its just way too crazy. and i get emotional reading sad emails, so i leave it all to sarah.
Q: I heard you pick people based on their geographical location?
A: no, we don't. i might have done it that way at one point years ago, for one lotto, to spread sales out over the globe, but its really too much work.
basically, it breaks down like this. say i have 100 posters to sell, and 10 pages of emails, each page containing 50 email entries (500 emails total). sarah would then pick 10 email entries randomly per page. 10 per page, 10 pages, 100 people picked.
she doesn't read the emails before hand, she simply marks them 'win' or whatever. THEN, she goes in and searches to see if each person picked entered twice, searching their name and address. then, if they just entered once, she emails them. once they order, she searches all the orders, making sure each person buying was picked in the lotto. there's always a few that weren't picked, and they are refunded.
plus, if the address is changed, as in, they entered one address and want it shipped to another address, they are refunded. we do this in case people are submitting multiple entries with different addresses, then whatever address is picked, changing that to the actual address. it is brutal to watch, so i just let sarah handle it.
its all done to hopefully create a semi-fair system of selling prints.
Q: please sell your posters via a random drop like mondo?
A: i look at it this way. people get a chance via mondo for the random drop. this is a second chance, and i do it differently. i don't have a website that could handle the random drop, and when its crashed in the past during sales, i've had to spend all day emailing people and sorting out sales. this way, sarah still spends all day on the sale, but at least we're not apologizing for the site crashing.
Q: are you aware people sell your prints on ebay, and you should do something about it? like personalizing the prints?
A: i am aware. i don't sell prints on ebay, nor do i willingly sell prints to anyone that sells on ebay. i don't get a cut of that money, and i don't encourage people to buy posters on ebay. what i try to do is give everyone the same chance to purchase from me. i do my very best.
Q: can i email you about my personal situation, why i should get a print?
A: absolutely. info@tstout.com - email away. i welcome all emails. however, sarah handles all emails regarding sales. if it talks about money, its a sarah email. and she goes by the book pretty much all the time, she doesn't want to make it personal, she keeps it business.
Q: i've never won a lotto. and Bob Schmalling has won 20 times.
A: i hate hearing that. i wish it was up to me. but it is a random system of picking people. if i said 'this next lotto is only for those who have never won.' i would still get a lot of people entering for their friends who had already won, and i would also get many complaints about punishing those who had won. and i'd have to keep track of who i had previously sold to. it would be a massive undertaking.
i value your business (as the cliche goes). and i hope these lottos aren't a huge time waster for you, and hopefully everyone gets picked in the next one.
gracias amigotrons,
best
t
