I was reading on the gamemaker forums about folks kicking around the idea of selling their games via cafepress. I hadn't looked at the site for a few years, and only thought of it as selling t-shirts and coffee mugs - but now it seems to have expanded into even things like book publishing and CD's (music, software, etc.)

This was such and intriguing idea that I wanted to mention it here. Right now folks have 2 options - create a game and just allow folks to download it directly, or go through a full fledged publisher who burns CD's etc. This might be another option - almost of a self-publishing frame of mind -- letting cafepress take care of the orders and the CD burning for you.

I was wondering if anyone else had seen this aspect of cafepress:

http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/dir_browse.aspx?dir=276

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/cds.aspx

I was wondering about that myself...

Another option is to have CDs pressed yourself and mail them out personally. You can do a run of 1000 for quite cheap (if you're confident you'll sell 1000 of course) - basically the same way as indie bands do it.

I guess the cafe press CDs are burned CDs? Of course you could do this yourself too (if you're keen enough!)

I think it may be cheaper to do a CD option with your processing provider (I use Digital Candle which offers the option but I am unsure of the rates...I am pretty sure it is lower than the $8.99 Cafe Press charges but I could be mistaken)

Alex

The problem with cafepress is that you don't get the customer information ( you don't get his/her email address )
You don't receive a sales confirmation either unless you subscribe to their newsletter. ( how smart is that !? )

I've tried it and their service is bad, you can't refund a customer for example and their sales ordering is not in real time, so you get angry customers "i haven't got my confirmation" ( you of course don't see it either on your customer panel ) that ends up in a lot of confusion.

forget about them. I think swiftcd offers the same service ( haven't checked though )


you might also want to read that:
http://www.giveneyestosee.com/say-no-to-cafepress/

pat.