Give presale access to merch for those that won tickets to that show. e.g. you won tickets to LA and NYC.. you get pre access to those shirts and posters. They can still sell / produce more merch after these presales and have limited quantities.
honestly, i don't know why they haven't adopted this approach 20 years ago.
Lol so you can’t just go up to the booth when you enter at a normal time and buy a shirt?
Nope, not at most shows. Missed out on most show specific shirts over the past 5 years. Fuck lines when there is life to be lived. (It is why they have trading and/or Ebay options.)
Ames Bros, Klausen, or Mumford? Ugh... the anxiety...wait never mind they're all gone. I'll take a sticker :(
This is my thing with the whole march fiasco every year; I skip it. Part of the fun of my night is opening up eBay on my phone to pass the time on my train journey back home and I purchase a poster I like and maybe a bunch of stickers, etc. It's worth paying the 40 extra dollars to me to spend more time pregaming with my friends and family and socializing, rather than standing in line staring at the back of some guy's head constantly hearing people go "oh, I like shirt 3A" "I wish shirt 5A would come in purple, I don't like black"....etc. etc.
This is my thing with the whole march fiasco every year; I skip it. Part of the fun of my night is opening up eBay on my phone to pass the time on my train journey back home and I purchase a poster I like and maybe a bunch of stickers, etc. It's worth paying the 40 extra dollars to me to spend more time pregaming with my friends and family and socializing, rather than standing in line staring at the back of some guy's head constantly hearing people go "oh, I like shirt 3A" "I wish shirt 5A would come in purple, I don't like black"....etc. etc.
The best part of those lines is when you realize they take so long because someone who is clearly a size xxl has to try on the M and L and the XL for every different shirt, because who knows how the shirts might fit....like they are modeling the things. I get trying the size below what you normally wear but c'mon people?!
This is my thing with the whole march fiasco every year; I skip it. Part of the fun of my night is opening up eBay on my phone to pass the time on my train journey back home and I purchase a poster I like and maybe a bunch of stickers, etc. It's worth paying the 40 extra dollars to me to spend more time pregaming with my friends and family and socializing, rather than standing in line staring at the back of some guy's head constantly hearing people go "oh, I like shirt 3A" "I wish shirt 5A would come in purple, I don't like black"....etc. etc.
The best part of those lines is when you realize they take so long because someone who is clearly a size xxl has to try on the M and L and the XL for every different shirt, because who knows how the shirts might fit....like they are modeling the things. I get trying the size below what you normally wear but c'mon people?!
Not bad at all for me. I'm out of the merch game. It was hard, took the help of some support groups. Still have a sponsor that I call regularly, but I'm out.
I remember Buffalo 2013, I was chatting with a dude who was at Pittsburgh the night before and he was still carrying the same poster tube for the Buffalo poster. He showed me that Pitt poster and I thought wow, that's killer... I'm going to get one off ebay when I get back to the hotel. They were selling for around $100, so I figured I'd wait until the hype went down...
skipped the stupid two mile parking lot line in st paul in 2014 and saw the sights. grabbed a poster inside right at showtime. those fugly yellow tshirts were sold out, and i didn't care.
We walked in at PJ20. Outside near the parking lot, there was a MASSIVE line. Inside, there were 2 people ahead of us. We bought our posters, went the UPS store on site and shipped them home. Then we got a beer and enjoyed the opening bands.
very smart. that's the one thing i hate about poster shows....gotta carry that damn thing around all show.
I hear ya. It was a great idea to have UPS there on site at PJ20--even if they almost lost the damn posters. (took about 2 months for them to arrive)
I also liked the idea of pre-ordering posters before the show. You don't know what the hell it'll look like, but you've already paid for it, so you can skip the lines. That was nice in 2013.
I heard the reason they don't do that anymore is that it took just way too much manpower for 10C to roll them out. too bad. I'm a "I don't give a shit what it looks like, if I was at the show, I want the poster.
Like many people replying here, I opt out of the merch line madness. I've learned to live without the t-shirts. If I like the poster I'll watch out for an AP drop or a Psst...
I've had a lot of luck with the AP drops in the past, and as much as I like giving all of my money to Pearl Jam, I like supporting the poster artists even more. HOWEVER I should mention that when the artist dropped the APs for the MMJ Red Rocks posters back in August, his site got crashed immediately (apparently by some kind of bot) and it took several days to sort it out. He was able to put up a small amount of additional posters some weeks later and I got lucky, but it was a real mess. Hoping that doesn't become a trend for these things.
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Nope, not at most shows. Missed out on most show specific shirts over the past 5 years. Fuck lines when there is life to be lived. (It is why they have trading and/or Ebay options.)
The best part of those lines is when you realize they take so long because someone who is clearly a size xxl has to try on the M and L and the XL for every different shirt, because who knows how the shirts might fit....like they are modeling the things. I get trying the size below what you normally wear but c'mon people?!
Absolutely.
if I can swing a pin and sticker it’s a bonus.
I had zero issues for the show in 2016.
www.headstonesband.com
I've had a lot of luck with the AP drops in the past, and as much as I like giving all of my money to Pearl Jam, I like supporting the poster artists even more. HOWEVER I should mention that when the artist dropped the APs for the MMJ Red Rocks posters back in August, his site got crashed immediately (apparently by some kind of bot) and it took several days to sort it out. He was able to put up a small amount of additional posters some weeks later and I got lucky, but it was a real mess. Hoping that doesn't become a trend for these things.