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Valleyschwag Returns from Hangover
Some of you noticed that we hadn’t posted anything in a while.
This lapse was caused by the unavailability of the regular posters: Thor and Amy were on a road trip through the Pacific Northwest and Jonathan was passed out on the floor in a back corner of the office for an entire week after the Hoedown.
Everything has now returned to normal, and Jonathan will be hosting the blog while Thor and Amy concentrate on some client work.
Today we’re checking out some antique schwag for inspiration. The Museum of Online Museums has a nice collection of links to collections, and our current favorites are the museum of Classic Nevada Casino Matchbook Art and the museum of East German Paper Bags.
We don’t think the postal service likes us shipping matches, and we had enough paper bags last month, but a little extra inspiration is always good. We’re sure there are plenty of other classic schwag collections out there — can you find some and add them to the comments?
July 26th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Welcome back everyone! Aren’t we due for some more schwag here shortly?
July 26th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
AHA! The official page is down so I had to wayback it, but here’s the relevant info:
“5.3Matches
Matches are classified as flammable solids. Strike-anywhere matches are prohibited in international and domestic mail. Safety matches (book, card, or strike-on-box) are prohibited in international mail, and in domestic mail via air transportation, but are permitted in domestic mail via surface transportation if:
a. They do not ignite spontaneously under conditions normally incident to transportation or when subjected for 8 consecutive hours to a temperature of 200°F (93°C).
b. They cannot be readily ignited by friction unless struck on their own or a similar box, card, or book.
c. They are tightly packed in a securely sealed primary receptacle to prevent any shifting or movement that could cause accidental ignition by rubbing against adjoining items. The primary receptacle(s) is placed securely within an outer shipping container made of fiberboard, wood, or other equivalent material. Multiple primary receptacles may be placed in a single outer shipping container. The address side of the mailpiece must be marked “Surface Only” or “Surface Mail Only” and “Book Matches,” ”Strike-on-Card Matches,” or “Card Matches,” as appropriate. A shipping paper is not required.
d. The gross weight of each mailpiece is not more than 25 pounds.”
And the link: http://web.archive.org/web/20050306163949/pe.usps.gov/text/dmm/c023.htm
In other news, I dreamed last week that I got my next Valleyschwag package!! I can’t wait!
July 27th, 2006 at 4:32 am
hey , i’m with solfood - aren’t we due for our next package? I know this has been said before, but I’ve been charged four times now, and have only received 2 packages, and my last package was missing the hoe-down poster.
So- a couple questions:
1) Will those of us who did not receive the poster be getting it in the next shipment, or will you send it out prior? I did receive an email that said it would be recitified a few weeks ago, but how?
2) Can we get credited for the months we’ve been charged for and not received anything yet? Or maybe you can stop charging us until the packages actually ship? I understand the paypal sub system, but if you can’t provide it monthly, maybe this shouldn’t be a monthly service? The cable company doesn’t even charge me this far in advance! I understand that you’ve been inundated with new subs, but perhaps its time to close the door to them until you can get a handle on what you’ve got so far which will hopefully allow you to make the shipments more timely.
I think this is a great service in theory, but all-in-all I’ve been pretty disappointed with my packages thus far (I’m in the group that just got the Zooomr T-shirt, stickers and the measuring tape in the last shipment). I’m going to wait it out one more shipment and hope I’m in the “good schwag” group this month…
July 27th, 2006 at 6:38 am
Yep, the end of July is fast approaching. I cancelled my VS subscription rather than let PayPal bill be for another month. I still have one package due, and I’m sure I’ll be happy with it. My plan is to resubscribe later so I’m not paying 2 months in advance!
They’re supposedly working on another payment system. That will be nice. Heck, if they only charged at delivery, they wouldn’t necessarily have to make it a monthly thing. They could go bi-monthly and give themselves more time to collect quality schwag.
July 27th, 2006 at 6:54 am
i agree with frustrated schwagger, the service has been pretty disappointing. most of what i’ve gotten in my schwag packages i probably good have snagged myself, had i written to the individual companies and asked nicely.
now it is the 27th of the month, the end of the month, which was supposed to the new ship date for schwag (from the middle of the month) but we’ve gotten no word on if anything will be shipping soon. personally, i’ve cancelled my subscription and, having paid for 3 months and only received 2 packages, am eagerly awaiting this last shipment so i get something for my money which you now have.
i understand that 3 or 4 people would have a hard time keeping up with 1500+ subscriptions per month. but as a business you either need to invest in infrastructure to handle those subscriptions or shut-down and retool. re-open once you have a plan of attack in place. it may be a little late for this suggestion but setting up a system like gmail, where a person needs an invite from a current subscriber before being able to sign-up, might have been a better option. then you could have grown slowly, virally and would have been better able to address issues.
maybe you’ll be able to address these issues for those who decide to remain valleyschwag subscribers past this month.
July 27th, 2006 at 7:55 am
I’m looking forward to this months package as well. I’m inthe boat of having paid 4 times and received 2 packages but I’ll be patient. I understand that you guys are going through some growing pains and those take time to sort out.
Now for some silicon valley wild west inspiration.
Don’t mess with the orange cowboy.
July 27th, 2006 at 8:48 am
You all make good (and, as you noted, often repeated) points. Yes, we’re getting the packages ready for this shipment, and yes, we’re building a new payment system to remove the billing problems once and for all. We’re always ready to refund members for undelivered stuff.
@zeebleoop
You could certianly get most of this stuff for free by asking the companies, dropping by their office, or meeting them at a conference. That’s how we gather the schwag ourselves, and if you’re ready to put in some time you can get almost anything. Heck, if you can do a good job of gathering stuff we’ll hire you for our procurement team.
July 27th, 2006 at 9:16 am
Jonathan,
What about the poster issue I brought up?
Thanks!
July 27th, 2006 at 9:41 am
@FS
I’ve emailed you about this one. We’ll send out a poster posthaste.
July 27th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
One quick question… are you still on target to get this month’s package out on the 31st? If not, when do you see them getting shipped out?
Okay so that was 1.5 questions.
I think this is the first month we have not seen some hype about the month’s package.