[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Excellent points as Chris mentioned and I would totally up for something like a raffle. My intentions really are the best to keep finances within a limited number of individual but then again what is a team for anyways. Secrecy or discussions behind closed doors is never a good idea. I just don’t like to see disagreements happen especially over financial matters. However just know that there is aPayPal account already set up for TCL. Unfortunately is not something that can be managed by everyone because it has all my personal information like bank accounts and credit cards so its not something that I would like everyone to have access to it. As of now there is only one more person that can access it and that’s Manny. Again its not to be secretive but I just don’t want peple to be looking at my bank account information and credit card. I think everyone will understand. In any case the paypal address is [/SIZE][/FONT][U][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]thundercatslair@hotmail.com[/SIZE][/FONT][/U][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] I think its best to leave things anonymous, the only people that will know who gave what will be Manny and I. We can come up with some goodies and we can do a raffle. I also think a PayPal button on the main page and on the forums will help. I can help organize a raffle and put some extra Thundercats items I have. If anybody wants to contribute via paypal that is awesome but rest assured that for hosting purpose I promised I would take care of that this time, any funds in the paypal can go towards giveaways etc. Any more ideas are welcomed[/SIZE][/FONT]
Alrighty, Chris - I’ll try to remember to call you by your name. I do have a habit of calling people by their screen names though, even when I meet them in person :lol:
MannyC, I do see your point on not wanting bad blood or arguments to break out amongst the team. But then, when you get a group of people together there’s rarely going to be complete concensus on any given issue, so as long as the discussions stay civil and productive I see no harm in letting us air our differing opinions. That way, at least we can try to compromise and come up with the best solutions.
My proposal in a nutshell is that it seems unfair to have one or two people financially back the site - unfair in that one or two have to take on the burden, so the team should at least be given the chance to pitch in if they can, and pitch in what they can. Indeed, take full advantage of your team set-up 
Since donations can vary due to individual circumstances, anon donations are best and ‘perks’ in any form for donating probably should not be tied to financial backing of the page. This way, those of us struggling at the moment aren’t feeling left out or ‘punished’ for lack of backing. Everyone wins!
On the issue of leadership, I just think that should be a seperate issue/discussion. True, any one of us could do a decent job probably, and since there’s obviously some interest at least among some of us to take on more or different roles no reason that can’t be looked into for the future. However, Manny has done great so far and at this juncture mho is that we shouldn’t jump horses just yet 
But discussing fair ways for Mark, Neil and anyone else who wants to expand their role here to do that shouldn’t be problematic. As a whole, the team is pretty reasonable and so far, our egos have been kept in check. I say discuss away!
Great that you have a paypal link for the site. Since hosting this round has been sorted, indeed you could still use that to let the team donate if they wish to other site-related causes. Jaga knows there’s so many areas extra money can be used to enhance a page - from things to draw in visitors such as giveaways to buying software to add other elements to the site. It’s pretty endless. And since you do have a team set-up, the opportunities are more open to you than they are for other fan sites. Take advantage.
Totally understand about not wanting to give all of us actual access to the paypal account - definitely don’t want your personal financial info hanging in the breeze like that! Obviously, someone has to administer the account and you’ve got that covered. Just the fact that we can send money to the account if need be is more than enough and all I ask. Thanks!
I must say that the response has been IMO overwhelming and very much positive. I think we could really make this happen without putting much strain on everyone. As i mentioned before i could cover the hosting expenses and I do have one idea that I am will to do and hopefully get it moving along. For example I just received 2 original pieces of DVD Art and I am willing to part from one of the, perhaps Cheetara and I also so happen to have a MOC Snarf that unfortunately got slightly ripped by my little Munchkin so I can let that go as well. I would like however to receive more items from other Team members to make the raffle even bigger. If anybody feels that funds via paypal is easier then thats fine as well, ultimately there is no pressure and everyone will do so anonymously and wont be said as who gave what. I’d like to get this started within 2 weeks. If anybody wants to put in towards the raffle shoot me an email and I’ll provide you with my address if sending any items. I will collect all of the items and send out all items from here. Suggestions as to how much per entry?
Chris here…
My only reservation about that would be, I’m desperate to host those pieces in our Original Comic Art Gallery, and so if you sold one I might not be able to! 
Take care…
Oh but here is the thing that I will put a disclaimer that TCL reserves the right to host it here without consent of any new owner. By the way those pieces should be in the comic art folder were the oother ones are in
Chris here…
MannyC = legend! I should be able to get those pages built very quickly, I believe I mentioned before that the way I set them up (with Kyle’s assistance guiding me through my HTML incompetence, LOL!) makes it an absolute breeze to create new ones!
Take care…
I have some extra books I can donate to the cause. They vary in size and condition, and certainly aren’t super valuable moneywise, but to a collector who doesn’t have them yet and wins them, it’s got good old nostalgia value
After we move and get settled, I’ll contact MannyC about sending them if you think they’re worth offering.
i’ll see what i got. Maybe an 8 back slythe that has a ehh bubble
Thanks guys for the outstanding support so far. Those that have posted here already about contributing items I’ll shoot an email with my address. I have come up with another idea that may further promote TCL. I think it is a good idea but at the same time who knows it may be a bad one too. My idea was to set up an Ebay account for TCL. Of course the username on the account would be ThunderCatsLair and I can write up a description and an about me page. I believe He-Man.org has one set up and i think we could benefit by auctioning some extra items every now and then. Of course proceeds would go to the donating person but at the same time some of the proceeds would go to the website. Everybody wins and TCL gets promoted even further. On top of that if the Collectica thing takes off thats one more advertisement of TCL we can do. Thoughts???
In case anyone is wondering why I haven’t responded in this thread, its because after spending about an hour writing up a pretty long and targetted message back, explorer messed me over by losing the text that I’d written into the forums before i could hit the send button. It took the wind out of my sails and I’ve been meaning to rewrite my response but it will have to be sometime over th eweekend that I do that. I hope nobody thought I wasn’t still engaged in the discussion, I’ve read every word in the thread and feel seriously about this topic.
Will post my thoughts soon.
Mark please don’t take any comments here to heart. I’m not sure what your post contained, but it isn’t worth getting upset about. I made similar suggestions to you and they didn’t go down too well either! lol
But I’m fine with what folks have said. With you saying your post took you an hour to write, it sounds like you had a lot to get off your chest 
Ok I hope i dont get hanged for this one but I think it is for the best of the site plus it gives us more exposure and traffic as well. I have opened an Ebay account for TCL which is connected to the PayPal account that we currently have. The username is of course wwwthundercatslairorg and the about me page can be seen here: http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=wwwthundercatslairorg I tried to do the best but i think it can perhaps be made better. We can still do raffles and post auctions for the website
Sorry for the back to back posts. Just thought I would give a heads up that today I did a little bit of cleaning up in the toys closet and so I will put some of the stuff I have for auction under TCL’s Ebay account. My intent is to give back to TCL 25% of sales after all fees have been paid. Some items probably wont sell too high but TCL will benefit in the form of advertising via Ebay and from the sales of items. If anybody would like to do the same just let me know. It surely doesnt have to be 25% back to TCL but if anybody has any items the want to get rid of let me know and what the % you would like to go back to TCL. Everybody wins since TCL will benefit as well as the seller. Anybody interested let me know via e-mail and we can work things out.
Well we certainly did really well on the mummras crypt playset. Holy hell I cant beleive it is at close to 70 with 2 plus hours left. Thats a shocker:shocked:
Shocked the hell out of me too. The other stuff wont sell too well but we’ll get a little bit out of them. I posted some more stuff so we will see. Also I would like to get a raffle going ASAP. I would like to start it next Saturday and I will put the Cheetara DVD art as one of the items. It would greatly increase people’s interest if more is added to it. I think $2 dollars per entry would be fair, if we see a good turnout we can do more in the future and if not we can stick to auctions
Not bad for the minis Mumm’ras Crypt :)… $102.50 so TCL will now have about 40 dollars in the account after fees
wow I got both of mine for less than that shipped from Argentina holy crap in a hand basket. My extra stuff has to go to ebay I’m thinking then maybe that scumbag toycollector2007 or whatever his name is will bid on and drive the prices up (heres hoping)
Tomorrow I have a meeting with William from Collectica to go over details. In the mean time i have posted one auction over there. Turns out you have the option to ship internationally. No listing fees and the only fee you pay is a 3% fee once your item sells which in term goes back to the collecting community. Thats where the partnership comes in I suppose. Here is the auction that everyone can check out. Great alternative to Ebay but for collectibles only and without paying crazy fees. http://www.collectica.com/public/listItemsForSale.do?itemId=13212&imageId=0&showOrganized=true&offset=0&collector=ThunderCatsLair&collectionId=1252&postingId=1742
Back to Back post Well here is the chat with William. Here is a basic outline:
*They will provide a referral banner which will get us 10% of the fees that each of our members pays when they post and sell an auction item
*They will also place a banner as well as announce on their auction area the partnership with us, plus a mass email announcing the website and forums
*We will in turn place a banner of Collectica on the front page as well as our forums and inform members of the partnership and to use the auctions rather than do trabsactions offline.
*Possible mass email to all members announcing the partnership and to utilize the banners for auction purposes.
We will need to provide them with a banner as well so the wuicker we get that done the quicker they can post it
Here’s the chat for those interested:
[10:58:45 AM] dante2121 says: so i guess we should go back over the high points of our las discussion
[10:58:54 AM] dante2121 says: and then see where we need to move from there
[10:59:24 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: yeah most definititely. Looking at what you guys have done it looks very promoising. Vrey awesome what you guys did
[10:59:37 AM] dante2121 says: thanks
[11:00:49 AM] dante2121 says: ok so basically what we would be looking for from thundercats is a banner linking back to our site and an announcement (probably in your forums or via email) to all of your members to use our platform to show off their collections and to buy & sell
[11:01:42 AM] dante2121 says: in return we will give thundercats a lifetime percentage of the fees we earn when one of your members sells an item on our site
[11:02:57 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: Sounds very good I think we can make that happen. What would the percentage be
[11:03:01 AM] dante2121 says: 10
[11:03:22 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: and how will you know who is our member and who is not
[11:03:33 AM] dante2121 says: several ways
[11:04:12 AM] dante2121 says: we will give you a unique link for the banner and forum announcement that lets us attribute everyone who reads that and comes to our site and signs up as a referral from you
[11:05:19 AM] dante2121 says: secondly you provide us a list of every member currently in your forums and we will automatically attribute them to you
[11:05:44 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: ahhh ok via a referral link. Granted they sign up with the same as the forums right?
[11:06:16 AM] dante2121 says: they don’t have to use the same username as your forums…
[11:06:31 AM] dante2121 says: do you have a first name last name member list?
[11:06:36 AM] dante2121 says: that’s what we would go by
[11:06:51 AM] dante2121 says: so either that or the referral link
[11:07:07 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: I’d have to check, hold on one sec I will check now on the forum
[11:07:38 AM] dante2121 says: and then we are also almost done with a system that will prompt users that we don’t know where they came from to tell us where they first heard about collectica
[11:08:13 AM] dante2121 says: and that system would ask anyone with a toy collection if they heard about us from you
[11:08:14 AM] dante2121 says: k
[11:09:47 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: Ok i just checked and we only have username and email addresses
[11:09:59 AM] dante2121 says: we can go by email address for that portion of it
[11:10:16 AM] dante2121 says: but our other two methods should catch almost everyone
[11:11:24 AM] dante2121 says: i know back in march several of your group was considered about fraud and safety
[11:11:28 AM] dante2121 says: concerned*
[11:11:33 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: yeah my thoughts were one banner in our Market Place area and another on the fron page. We can send out a mass email informing everyone too. Would it be possible for you guys to place a banner of Thundercatslair on Collectica?
[11:12:04 AM] dante2121 says: we are working on a directory and once that’s done yes of course we will put your banner there
[11:12:38 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: or something to link back to us, not necessarily a banner but something visible
[11:13:55 AM] dante2121 says: i’m thinking for now… because you guys also mentioned that you wanted to make sure our users came to your site to check out the price guide… that in the toys forum i will make an admin announcement with your logo and linking to your site and to the price guide and telling everyone about your forum
[11:16:18 AM] dante2121 says: would that work?
[11:17:50 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: I think we can definitely move forward. We That should work until you guys work on the directory, we can tell members that rather than do transactions offline they can do them via Collectica, we can even inform them of the prtnership so it would place evryone more at ease. Plus the fees are minimum and portions will go back to Thundercatslair
[11:18:18 AM] dante2121 says: ok cool
[11:19:10 AM] dante2121 says: can i get your email address to send you a banner then?
[11:19:15 AM] dante2121 says: hah
[11:19:16 AM] dante2121 says: i have it
[11:19:17 AM] dante2121 says: sorry
[11:19:28 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: ok
[11:19:43 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: That banner can be posted on forums as well right? In a thread
[11:19:47 AM] dante2121 says: yeah
[11:20:00 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: Cool
[11:21:03 AM] dante2121 says: and then i’ll need one from you guys
[11:22:54 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: I dont think we have a banner ready but we should be able to get that to you in no time. I’ll be keeping in touch with you and once we have that banner hopefully in the next couple of days I will send one out to you
[11:23:43 AM] dante2121 says: ok no problem
[11:24:59 AM] dante2121 says: i just talked over with one of our tech guys and we are working on being able to have it where on the marketplace page once someone navigates down to toys–> thundercats it would list you as our community partner
[11:25:11 AM] dante2121 says: so everyone buying and selling thundercats would see you guys
[11:25:19 AM] dante2121 says: but thats a couple weeks away
[11:25:40 AM] dante2121 says: so that will be in addition to the directory banner and the forum post
[11:26:25 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: Very cool, awesome. We will announce the partnership once we set up the banners. I’ll set up the banner in the forum and then the front page will follow
[11:26:32 AM] dante2121 says: ok cool
[11:26:37 AM] dante2121 says: one quick last question
[11:26:41 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: Sure
[11:26:48 AM] dante2121 says: do you consider thundercats as toys or memorabilia?
[11:26:57 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: toys
[11:26:58 AM] dante2121 says: ok
[11:26:59 AM] dante2121 says: cool
[11:27:05 AM] dante2121 says: just wanted to make sure for when we classify it
[11:28:12 AM] dante2121 says: and don’t forget to hype that they can use our site to host collection photos too
[11:28:34 AM] dante2121 says: we’ve made it seamless to later on take items from your collections and post them for sale as well if someone so desires
[11:29:02 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: I will see about sending a mass email as well. Just curious did you ever check out a plca called Smartcollector.com
[11:29:10 AM] dante2121 says: hm
[11:29:17 AM] dante2121 says: sounds familiar
[11:29:20 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: www.smartcollector.com
[11:29:38 AM] dante2121 says: its a link page?
[11:29:50 AM] dante2121 says: oh you guys last time said it used to be something like us?
[11:30:14 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: well they are no longer online but they used to have a very useful platform where you could archive everything by name, what you paid for the item basically a way to track down what you have
[11:30:21 AM] dante2121 says: cool
[11:30:37 AM] dante2121 says: we have plans for stuff like that
[11:30:44 AM] dante2121 says: its just a matter of how fast we can program
[11:30:56 AM] dante2121 says: and the auctions platform has been 6 months just to get the basics out
[11:31:10 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: you could upload a picture of your item, denote the series,what you paid for it. Basically all important information that you would need for each collectible
[11:31:17 AM] dante2121 says: nice
[11:31:20 AM] dante2121 says: i’ll keep that in mind
[11:31:34 AM] dante2121 says: i got to run
[11:31:48 AM] dante2121 says: but it was nice talking to you again manny
[11:31:56 AM] dante2121 says: and i’ll be in touch with you by email to swap banners
[11:32:00 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: Ok, just shoot me an email with the banner and info and we will implement it
[11:32:01 AM] dante2121 says: and finalize everything
[11:32:02 AM] dante2121 says: ok
[11:32:04 AM] dante2121 says: cool
[11:32:07 AM] dante2121 says: take care
[11:32:15 AM] Emmanuel Rodriguez says: sure. Thanks William nice talking to you
[11:32:26 AM] dante2121 says: thanks you too
As mentioned, I spent a lot of time writing up a response in this thread and then lost my text (damned explorer!) I finally got around to retyping it, so here it is:
I wanted to wait and let the team talk and respond fully here before I replied to the discussion. I think I’ve read enough now to jump back in.
First off I want to say that I feel like nobody actually read what I posted in this thread. I believe I’m very direct and clear when I talk about my intentions so it’s frustrating when people misinterpret what I’ve said, or read something into it that isn’t there. Seriously if you wonder what I mean, read this whole thread backwards starting with the post before this one, all the way to my post, the third one in this thread. It’s like broken telephone I tell you!
My response:
-
Manny is a great site leader / site admin and I’m frankly surprised that a change here was even discussed. Seriously, read my post again, I made it very clear that Manny should keep going as he always has. Like all of you, I wouldn’t be here helping if it wasn’t for Manny getting this all started, and I love the way he’s led us all through making the improvements to the site, and that we’ll keep making. Manny has weathered some moments of serious self doubt, he’s calmly (for the most part
) taken us through the inevitable infighting that a group like ours will. Through all of it Manny’s been a natural leader, though he’d the be the last to admit it. -
Site leader and ownership are two different things as far as I’m concerned. On the one hand the leader gets our internal team organized, keeps people happy and moving along… this person gels the team and makes the site what it is.
I see the owner (at least how I’d see myself operating) as being the one who looks after external issues… ie managing relationships with organizations that matter to us… like WB, like the folks who put the DVDs together, like any media relations. Ownership also means making decisions about partners that we work together with, corporate things like banner ads (heaven forbid!) and Collectica type of arrangements.
I’d see this role working on high level things like buying new URLs (This was an idea of mine that I don’t think will fly… but things like buying “thundercatslair.com” the domain). Also, getting our search result on google up to a MUCH higher position than we have it now. These tasks move the site’s profile forward, but doesn’t require ‘leading’ the team at all… just managing the external issues.
Make no mistake, this site is never going to be a cash cow for anybody. Owning the site and looking after the costs of the site will be a breakeven venture at best, and likely will always mean some out of pocket for the owner. What I was proposing is that I could take on that cost largely because it would be offset for me as doing this work would lead to me improving my collection, a place I am already investing money and time. That’s a life long passion for me
-
Why now?
I think we’re on the cusp of seeing ThunderCats come back into the fore. Comics did pretty well, the movie news is promising and 80’s cartoons on the whole are reviving. I think we’re about to see ThunderCats “come back” and I think we’d miss an opportunity to position ourselves as the “go to” fan site given the resurgence. We’re a top notch site, but nobody can find us unless they go through one of the other sites that get hit in the google rankings. For me, we should be striking while the iron is hot. -
What I’d do
a) I mentioned buying the thundercats.com URL… I’d look into this further and see if WB would be open to letting us manage that URL. It would cost at least $1,000 to $2,000 and WB would have to say it’d be okay to setup our unofficial site presence there. This is a long shot idea at best, but something I’d explore.
b) Look at hosting “The Ultimate ThunderCats Website” as an archived site that is easily found off of our main site. I’d contact the owners of that dead site and offer to lift that ongoing expense from, archive their pages and keep fans visiting while taking over the traffic that goes to them by virtue of their #1 google and yahoo rankings. Also fairly long shot, but achievable I think.
c) Would actively promote the site with WB and the new movie creators as a venue for them to get: research and polls; advertise the movie etc. We all know WB is crap for working with the fan base, but I’d give it a crack for sure.
d) Will invest in getting some professional help to improve our google ranking… I’ve found a company locally here that can do it, just need to figure out if its worth the cost.
-
Real issue of money
I will be quite candid to say that the ideas I’ve read so far about auction proceeds, anonymous team donations and raffles etc. will only help in the short term. If we’re interested in lifting our profile, our bandwidth usage will increase, and so will our costs for running the site. If what I’ve said about a resurgence is true, our hits and bandwidth will easily double as TCats becomes mainstream again (hopefully). We need to be thinking further ahead, and I’m sorry but I don’t believe the ideas (as good as they are) we’ve seen so far will be able to cover increased costs long term. -
Why post this at all given what the team has already agreed?
Because I feel strongly that we need to think long term and that we need to promote the site more than we have so far. I’m passionate about doing this, and really… I know that I’m probably not going to convince everybody at this point. I know MannyC especially is very opposed to talking about the “corporate side” of this site. I’m the same as you guys, I am a fan first and a collector second and a realist third. I also believe that the spirit in which we came together to build this site is central to why we get along as a team, and why we built such a great homage to our favourite show (or second favourite for some of us …lol). I don’t feel that MannyF can be replaced as our leader, nor should he.
But I think MannyF will agree that he’s less interested in the kind of role that I’m talking about which is more focused on the external site issues, and I am willing to remove the financial burden of running the site… all without wanting to make site changes or altering the internal site management at all.
I probably won’t convince you with this post today, and you may not change your mind if I try again in a month. I just want you all to know that the option is still on the table if the costs start to become too much to bear, or if you agree with me that with a rise in interest in ThunderCats, that a more externally focused role like I’m proposing is important. Have a think about it, and let’s keep our minds open to the possibilities.
I’m not asking for an answer from anybody, I just wanted you all to understand what I meant when I first threw out the idea.
Cheers,
Grizz