St Joseph, MI
Quoted from Meegis:I'm liking the colours so far
Hey, there's no U in "colors" on this side!
(Topic ID: 242363)
Delhi, ON
Quoted from RCA1:Hey, there's no U in "colors" on this side!
Correct, but upon import to Canada, they get converted.
And before you say this shirt hasn't been done yet, it's showing up on my Canadian screen, so it counts.
Quoted from BMHouze:Yes, the same as the Monty Python skit.
"I can't say the letter B'
"Do you mean C?"
'Yes the letter B'.......
Okay I found that skit...very funny.
Quoted from KingBW:Long sleeve t-shirt option too please? I hope so.
Long sleeve shirts usually have less color options than the short sleeve, but since we're going with Navy shirts this year, long sleeves MAY be possible.
In addition, the base shirt will almost assuredly have a higher material cost.
If we were to do a long sleeve option (would be for pre-orders ONLY), how much extra would that be worth to you?
$5 more be reasonable?
Thanks,
Eric V.
Quoted from EchoVictor:Long sleeve shirts usually have less color options than the short sleeve, but since we're going with Navy shirts this year, long sleeves MAY be possible.
In addition, the base shirt will almost assuredly have a higher material cost.
If we were to do a long sleeve option (would be for pre-orders ONLY), how much extra would that be worth to you?
$5 more be reasonable?
Thanks,
Eric V.
Sure! Thanks for looking into if it will be possible/feasible.
It's becoming pretty clear the April 25/26 date is not going to work.
The May 16/17 date may work, but came up with another idea...
What if we break the show into smaller pieces during the summer? that is, have a friday and/or saturday night of 50 or 75 people. It would run from 8pm to midnight. That's about half the time of a normal show day, but you would have the whole facility essentially to yourself (with only 50 or 75 people.) The cost would be the same price.
we could run these through the summer and chip away at all the ticket reservations that were purchased.
what do y'all think of this idea?
Personally, i would prefer the whole day, the crowds, and excitement. Pinball is only part of the reason i go. I also go to see the people, meet people ive talked to for years on pinside, tailgate, buy stuff from ryan claytor, and play pinball
I really like the idea and due to the circumstances this year it would make me feel much more comfortable. I do not think i will feel comfortable in large crowds for a good period of time after all of the restrictions have been lifted.
I'm not apposed to doing a lighter group just due to thinking this will take longer than expected to clear out. would like a full day if that is possible. I know we all want to come there and play pinball but it is possible may still be too soon. With Detroit being a major hot spot with this, I think it is going to take some time for it to calm down.
4 hours is not enough time imo.i was already thinking $50 for a full day was my maximum pricing and partial reason I cut back to only 1 day this year(the other reasons not wanting to use a vacation day to attend).
If we break it in the groups of 50 or 75 we cannot do a whole day. I don’t have the manpower for that. I can convince guys to come out on Friday and Saturday nights for 50 or 75 people many times in the summer. . That’s pretty easy to do. But I can’t convince people to come out and spend entire days to do this for six or eight weekends during the summer.
There is one other choice. And that’s just cancel it for the entire year and have nothing. We have already come to the conclusion that Black Friday won’t happen in 2020. They say in the late fall there will be a resurgence of this Virus. So the Black Friday event is canceled
We’re just trying to come up with a solution to this problem that is workable. Is this ideal? Certainly not. But for this year we are going to have to make some compromises. And it would be cool if everybody could play along
Unfortunately the cost dynamics of the facility are high and we have to do something to generate income. Otherwise the whole thing just folds
I hope things work out clay. I would understand if it was canceled for this year. these are uncertain times and no one wants to get this. what every you decide I will be good with. if I don't feel comfortable at the time of the show, I am ok with giving up my spot. my health is more important and I can always come another time/year. Hopefully we can find a way to keep the museum a float during these times. I am sure the community can do something and pitch in.
I think considering the ticket price increase this year, if you are asking everyone attending to now compromise and have only half of the playing time then it would seem fair to lower the entrance fee at the door a bit.
guys-we have to think with our heads here. clay is still trying to find a happy medium with still having the show. I am sure he doesn't want to cancel it or do shorter hours, but this is not like normal times. we need to look out for each other and think about health first. I know this has to be what clay is thinking
If logistics don't require extended lead times for a "full" event, then I would hold off on making any drastic measures for awhile. The two issue that are being overlooked while we try to predict the future is the availability of treatment and how this virus responds to warmer temperatures.
That being said, I think we all understand you are doing the best you can under the extremely trying circumstances.
Clay, how about 7-midnight, instead of 8-midnight? That would give people an extra hour of play and hopefully make the people wanting a full day happy. Just my thoughts. Whatever you decide, I’m in. Thanks for all you do.
Quoted from Gryszzz:I would be happy to send in full payment for my ticket regardless if there's a show or not. I know many others would too.
I would do the same. And Gryszzz-if this happens, better stop at the tailgate again!!
I like the summer party idea mostly because 50 people spread over three buildings is a really nice thing where everyone is spread apart. We also would set up a phone number so if there’s a problem instead of going and getting somebody you just text to the phone number the problem and then we fix it from the texts.
The problem I have with doing the actual show and it’s normal format is that there’s just so many people here all at once. It’s just really hard to predict if in September everything will be normal again. Or what happens if during the summer everything subsides and gets somewhat normal, and then we get a second virus wave in the fall? Then we totally missed our opportunity and end up having to cancel the fall show too
The facility has a lot of fixed costs and I need to figure out someway to meet them. I don’t want to do the donation thing it’s just not my style. Rather come up with some sort of show idea that works
I will put my two cents in, event though I have no real skin in the game this this year.
Clay's proposal of about 6to8 weekends through out the summer idea is not a bad one,
especially for locals (i.e. pinheads within 2-3 hr drive), but someone coming from further out,
a 4hr night of pinball (even at the best pinball venue) might not be worth the trip.
I realize what Clay is trying to do is to give something back to the pinball community by putting on the show,
but its primary purpose is to raise money so he can keep the VFW hall open (cover high costs of maintaining such a collection).
What does everyone (except the organizers & helpers) have in this so far,
maybe $10-20 reservation holding money.
Clay is wanting to honor those reservations, and get them off the books, instead of holding them thru to next year.
But more importantly get the rest of the price of admission (at the door entry payment), if at all possible.
If everyone just donated (gave up) their $10 ticket reservation, the VFW would still be 80-90% below the expected funds raised.
So if some consensus can not be made on the postponement or canceling or spreading out of the spring show to summer,
(especially since Clay is worried that a second wave of virus in the fall may be likely);
one possible alternative (if show is indeed canceled for 2020) to raise funds for keeping VFW afloat is
maybe buy commemorative T-Shirts at $50-60 a pop, to help meet the VFW yearly budget.
Yes it would be a donation in effect.
Maybe if you attend the 2021 show next year and wear the 2020 commemorative t-shirt
you get $10 off the admission entry fee that year.
I am in for a Large, just let me know where to send the funds to order such.
Good Luck
Hope the show can still go on this summer (in installments) or early fall in full.
Stay safe and healthy.
cheers Tom
I didn't buy tickets because of conflicting dates. Ann Arbor is a 5 hour drive for me. I don't know that I would drive 5 hours each way to play pinball for 4 hours, especially if it means either booking a hotel or driving through the night to get back home.
Maybe you can break it up to 100 people, but add some tickets but do a 6-8 hour day?
If we can't be there all day as in years past, maybe allow for our ticket to be used for both a Friday and Saturday weekend 4 or 5 hour per day event.
I live less than 15 min from there, so if you need some extra temp help on some of these weekends, let me know. Several guys in the club know me from leagues and local tournaments.
If there will be any show mini or otherwise I would still like a spot on the fall date for my hotel.
Lots of time if anything does happen.
I say we do shirt and poster orders now (if there's any profit in it).
Would gladly throw in up to 100 more/ticket if there was a pin draw or something else way cool.
Win a project overhaul? Etc.
Not like you don't have pin street cred.
Quoted from pinwiztom:I will put my two cents in;
one possible alternative (.....) to raise funds for keeping VFW afloat is
maybe buy commemorative T-Shirts at $50-60 a pop, to help meet the VFW yearly budget.
Yes it would be a donation in effect.
Maybe if you attend the 2021 show next year and wear the 2020 commemorative t-shirt
you get $10 off the admission entry fee that year.
I am in for a Large, just let me know where to send the funds to order such.
Good Luck
Hope the show can still go on this summer (in installments) or early fall in full.
Stay safe and healthy.
cheers Tom
Kind of rolling off Tom's idea.....given that we have a bit longer lead time, I could customize the shirts so that everyone who pre-orders and buys the "Special Edition" gets their name in the shirt design.
Here's a quick mock-up using the last 20 Pinsiders screen names that have responded to this thread, inside the number "2" of the "2020" script that's going on the back;
VFW Shirt name idea (resized).JPG
What does everyone think? Would this be worth more to incentivize extra sales?
Tom mentioned a $50~$60 per shirt price. I think that might be a bit high, but what do you guys think?
While the usual $20 does make a little for the club, anything over that would go directly to club expenses...
Thanks,
Eric V.
Not to mention paypal fees to get the $
Unless the trickling in will do.
I'de love to win a restore on my Alien Poker....
Just still throwing that out there.
By fall Heavy Metal????
(I subscribed for years and am far too poor)
Well I just sent $50 to Clay via paypal, no strings attached as a donation,
to his [email protected] address, to help fund the cause, hopefully email address is still active.
Whenever the 2020 VFW showcase T-Shirts for sale happens
be it a normal show shirt or commemorative shirt;
just announce the details and I will sign up and pay for one.
I like the shirt sponsor idea and also like the pin raffle idea,I'm sure a cheap em or solid state could be found cheap and fixed up. At $10 a ticket I'm sure most would by 1 and wouldn't surprise me if many bought 10.I'm assuming part of the shorter late summer hours also have to do with the heat building up inside.what ever is decided I'll support,just voicing my opinion.
Bottom line this year is not gonna work to anybody’s liking. But I have to consider some things I would normally never ever think about. Having hundreds and hundreds of people in the building all at once, even in the fall, just doesn’t seem like a good idea this year
I like the 50 or 75 people spread over three building idea. Everybody spread far apart. They’ll be no orange shirts wandering around. If there’s a problem you just text the problem to the phone number given to you on a card when you walked in the door. We have cameras so we can watch everything remotely from a safe distance. You’ll basically have run of the place. There’s no snack shack. But will have hotdogs available at the bar. No vendors. Well unless Ryan Claytor wants to come. He’s pretty local so he could probably pull that off.
As for people coming long distance, you’re right. It’s not gonna work for those people. I don’t know how to solve that problem. As for pricing, you’re right there too. It’s not a cheap thing. But again, it’s hard for me to solve that problem too
Someone suggested making it longer. Four hours from 8 PM to midnight does seem short. But the problem is manpower. I can’t ask staff to burn their summer weekends coming here doing this multiple times. But I can probably convince them we’re having a pinball party on any given Friday or Saturday night for four hours. That’s an easy sell.
Quoted from cfh:As for people coming long distance, you’re right. It’s not gonna work for those people. I don’t know how to solve that problem. As for pricing, you’re right there too. It’s not a cheap thing. But again, it’s hard for me to solve that problem too
You gotta do what you gotta do.. there's always next year
Quoted from toyotaboy:You gotta do what you gotta do.. there's always next year
This!!! it's your collection and your problems so you have to do what works for you and your teams schedule and safety. I could probably help on some saturdays with stuck balls,carting machines into the work area or other small things if you run thin on rookies if you go the multiple mini show route.
Quoted from EchoVictor:Here's a quick mock-up using the last 20 Pinsiders screen names that have responded to this thread, inside the number "2" of the "2020" script that's going on the back;
WOW just noticed, my pinsider moniker is on the top line rubbing shoulders with CFH and EchoVictor.
Maybe as fund raiser, auction off that prime real estate to highest bidder,
though may have to kick off Echo or cfh from top spot if the winning moniker is extra long.
It's definitely a tough situation and there's probably no optimal solution to the whole thing. I agree with robotron911 that it seems like waiting to make a decision would be best for now, since it's still early days and we don't know how things will evolve over the next couple of months.
In any case, I'll show up for whatever event gets put on, as long as it seems safe to do so. I would also buy a $50-60 shirt to show my support.
Clay,
Just a though here - how about offering everyone the choice between a full refund or your 4 hour (mini show). That will give each person with a ticket a choice what they want to do. Then just resell the tickets that were refunded to someone else that is interested in attending that couldn't get a ticket once they sold out?
Kind of the best of all worlds! I would expect 75 to 90% of the people will still want to come even with reduced hours and you will likely get a good many others wanting to come if you have spare tickets from money you returned. That makes the choice easy for most people. Either it is worth the money to play your fantastic collection for a few hours or they can get a refund and try again next year.
Like you said earlier - this year there is no perfect answer!
Keep up the great work! One of these days I'll have a chance to meet you in person and visit the VFW but until then best of luck!
-Skip-
All of this sucks. But the worst would be for Clay to have an event and a ton of people get sick and perhaps worse. I can't imagine what living with that would be like.
I hope there is a solution because I had to miss last year because of my son's graduation at the University of Michigan. But if that is what comes to pass, so be it. I would rather miss a couple of years over people getting ill.
That being said, I am extremely fortunate to live about 30 min away from VFW and I appreciate what it is. I would happily send my ticket payment in full as donation so that VFW is still up and viable while we figure this whole pandemic thing out.
How about we put Clay in the dunking booth to raise funds? I bet we could make a few grand off club members alone.Here's me doing my part at some potfest.
Quoted from Puffdanny:How about we put Clay in the dunking booth to raise funds? I bet we could make a few grand off club members alone.Here's me doing my part at some potfest.
A drunk booth?? Yup I'm in. What flavor of Beer?
Quoted from Bax1:what about having a camp out party at puffs house for the out of towners? that could be fun
Sign me up!!! Plus I have all the cool games Clay doesnt have like Caribbean Cruise.
I definitely like the t-shirt idea with pinsiders names and think the mini-shows idea is probably the best work around, especially if you could add at least another hour or two.
The real tragedy is the thought of no cole slaw this year. 
It is that good.
I love the t-shirt with our pinside names on them. I love my shirts - yes the event is fun- but I get to wear my shirts all year long.
so here's the plan. it's a huge compromise, but i think i'm going with this...
Summer: depending on the virus situation, will *offer* a Friday or Saturday night 4 hour option to ticket reservation holders during July and August. Max would be 50 people per night. You can choose to take this option, or not. Of course this is dependent on the virus and how it stems out in July/August. Assuming things are cool, will make this offer available.
Fall: set the show for September 19/20.
of course you come for the full day. But some people may not want to do this. That is, people may be paranoid about the hundreds of people present. If that's the case, then the summer 4 hour/limited people option is your best choice. If you're not worried about the risk, go for the fall (8 hour) event.
The advantage to doing this is the summer option will decrease the number of people that will show up in September (that is, ticket sales are locked and there will be NO at the door ticket sales of any kind). That should help. It also gives people a choice on how to proceed.
Now of course this all assumes that July/August are virus low/free months. It also assumes that September is virus low/free.
There is a chance the whole thing could be canceled too. It just depends on how the virus proceeds.
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