SPLIT: Cover Project Fund

[Vt102]

Maybe next time, pool our money?

I've been thinking for a wile that we should start a ""Cover Project Fund".

People would donate via paypal to the fund and it would be used to purchase empty boxes and manuals from e-bay. Once the items were received and scanned they would be placed in auction again to recoup some of the money.

There would be some money leakage from paypal and e-bay fees, but as donations come in, the fund would grow anyways.

Now this would work independent from the site and would not be sponsored at all to avoid any complications.

We would also need to assign someone to be in charge of the fund and place the bids. Course that all bids would have to be approved by the contributors and also all contributors would receive weekly e-mails on the purchases, sales and balances of the fund.

[Ragnarok2103]

Maybe next time, pool our money?

I've been thinking for a wile that we should start a ""Cover Project Fund".

People would donate via paypal to the fund and it would be used to purchase empty boxes and manuals from e-bay. Once the items were received and scanned they would be placed in auction again to recoup some of the money.

There would be some money leakage from paypal and e-bay fees, but as donations come in, the fund would grow anyways.

Now this would work independent from the site and would not be sponsored at all to avoid any complications.

We would also need to assign someone to be in charge of the fund and place the bids. Course that all bids would have to be approved by the contributors and also all contributors would receive weekly e-mails on the purchases, sales and balances of the fund.

i think this would be a great idea as well, but it would be difficult to start up, and make sure that it ran smoothly. plus i dont know if anyone would want to have the responsibility of handling all that money, and then making the purchases, and then the subsequent sale of the game after it was scanned. plus, who knows what'll happen with the people that pay into the fund. they may not want the money spent on certain things, and others may want it for other things, and that could result in some uh-happy members. again, i think it would be a good thing to have, it just needs to be implemented in a way that works well for everyone involved.

[Vt102]

Maybe next time, pool our money?

I've been thinking for a wile that we should start a ""Cover Project Fund".

People would donate via paypal to the fund and it would be used to purchase empty boxes and manuals from e-bay. Once the items were received and scanned they would be placed in auction again to recoup some of the money.

There would be some money leakage from paypal and e-bay fees, but as donations come in, the fund would grow anyways.

Now this would work independent from the site and would not be sponsored at all to avoid any complications.

We would also need to assign someone to be in charge of the fund and place the bids. Course that all bids would have to be approved by the contributors and also all contributors would receive weekly e-mails on the purchases, sales and balances of the fund.

i think this would be a great idea as well, but it would be difficult to start up, and make sure that it ran smoothly. plus i dont know if anyone would want to have the responsibility of handling all that money, and then making the purchases, and then the subsequent sale of the game after it was scanned. plus, who knows what'll happen with the people that pay into the fund. they may not want the money spent on certain things, and others may want it for other things, and that could result in some uh-happy members. again, i think it would be a good thing to have, it just needs to be implemented in a way that works well for everyone involved.

Possible purchases suggestions would be made by contributors and posted on the Funds site. It would then subject to a NAY or AYE vote.

Now.. only contributors would be able to vote and the vote would be open for 48 hours. If of the people who voted there are more AYE than NAY then the item would be purchase.

[satoshi_matrix]

I like this idea, but even if we pooled our funds together there's no way in hell those few of us who would be passonite enough to donate to the cause would be able to gather enough money to have bought this lot. It would be a slow process, and Iwhile I'd gladly donate, I just want to know how many others would be willing to donate on a semi-regular basis. I could spare maybe $20 every now and then, but if I'm going to be one of only a few, then I'm not sure I'm willing to support an unsupported project. Regardless, this debate needs its own thread as this is getting off-topic.

[sheep2001]

i'd definately be up for donating to something like this.

[Vt102]

I like this idea, but even if we pooled our funds together there's no way in hell those few of us who would be passonite enough to donate to the cause would be able to gather enough money to have bought this lot. It would be a slow process, and Iwhile I'd gladly donate, I just want to know how many others would be willing to donate on a semi-regular basis. I could spare maybe $20 every now and then, but if I'm going to be one of only a few, then I'm not sure I'm willing to support an unsupported project. Regardless, this debate needs its own thread as this is getting off-topic.

I share your thoughts. A fund would need a fair amount of support. But also don't forget that the fund would try to recoup as much as possible by reselling the items on e-bay.

Donations don't even have to come in the way of cash. People can donate systems, old games or boxes that would be then sold on ebay and the earning going into the fund.

I also agree that there is no way we would have had sufficient funds to win a MEGA LOT auction, but smaller lots in the 20, 30 or 40 range would be attainable.

[antony30bc]

An alternative to winning the actual auction might be paying a smaller fee to the winner to scan all or a subset of the covers they won.

I have tried to rally other collectors to come to this site and join the project but have received lukewarm response. I am not sure if it just because they are intimidated by creating a scan, or feel they need photoshop skills to be of use. I have done very few covers myself, but enjoy uploading raw scans so the artists can work their magic and we all end up with finished UGC style covers.

Has anyone heard from snowcone lately on if there are still plans to include a database which shows % complete as far as covers etc..

Antony30bc

[Vt102]

An alternative to winning the actual auction might be paying a smaller fee to the winner to scan all or a subset of the covers they won.

I have tried to rally other collectors to come to this site and join the project but have received lukewarm response. I am not sure if it just because they are intimidated by creating a scan, or feel they need photoshop skills to be of use. I have done very few covers myself, but enjoy uploading raw scans so the artists can work their magic and we all end up with finished UGC style covers.

Has anyone heard from snowcone lately on if there are still plans to include a database which shows % complete as far as covers etc..

Antony30bc

Snow is right now working on a new admin interface. This will make it easier for the admins to upload new covers and edit existing ones.

Once that is done he is planing on a complete overhaul of the site. But there is no fixed schedule as of now.

[Snowcone]

An alternative to winning the actual auction might be paying a smaller fee to the winner to scan all or a subset of the covers they won.

I have tried to rally other collectors to come to this site and join the project but have received lukewarm response. I am not sure if it just because they are intimidated by creating a scan, or feel they need photoshop skills to be of use. I have done very few covers myself, but enjoy uploading raw scans so the artists can work their magic and we all end up with finished UGC style covers.

Has anyone heard from snowcone lately on if there are still plans to include a database which shows % complete as far as covers etc..

Antony30bc

Snow is right now working on a new admin interface. This will make it easier for the admins to upload new covers and edit existing ones.

Once that is done he is planing on a complete overhaul of the site. But there is no fixed schedule as of now.

Oh I'm still around. I'm just getting life handed to me right now. Between the day job and all the freelance work, I'm struggling to find extra time for life itself. I manage though and I can't thank the contributors to this site enough for the work they do around here. This site lives on because of their hard work.

Speaking of, did anyone else notice that we are just shy of 8000 total covers? 8000! Good lord guys. I remember when we hit 100.

[Ragnarok2103]

I like this idea, but even if we pooled our funds together there's no way in hell those few of us who would be passonite enough to donate to the cause would be able to gather enough money to have bought this lot. It would be a slow process, and Iwhile I'd gladly donate, I just want to know how many others would be willing to donate on a semi-regular basis. I could spare maybe $20 every now and then, but if I'm going to be one of only a few, then I'm not sure I'm willing to support an unsupported project. Regardless, this debate needs its own thread as this is getting off-topic.

i could deffinately donate money, and would do so gladly to see this site grow even larger.

[Doom]

I, too think requesting scans from winners would be cheaper and easier. I might have to make a scanning game boxes guide. Should be easy enough.

[jprogram]

I'll favor for the fund as well.
Recently, I was purchasing games from eBay that came with its original packaging. Since the games with the box are the ones that I already have with me, I will be selling those back online.
There are covers that I wanted to get, but it is kind of rare and expensive. Hopefully, with the funding, it should be easier to afford the uncommon covers just until we finish with it.

[satoshi_matrix]

I'll gladly donate to this cause, but I'm mainly interested in boxart for the Famicom - something not too many others probably are.

I'm not sure how we'd all be able to agree on what covers get bought and which don't.

[Doom]

Maybe the users who asked at Digital Press for scans didn't have high enough payouts for the scans. The users there really care about games and if we just got them to scan them in we could bypass eBay.

[UncleBob]

Maybe the users who asked at Digital Press for scans didn't have high enough payouts for the scans. The users there really care about games and if we just got them to scan them in we could bypass eBay.

This is probably the way to go.

Anywhoo, I'd like to issue a big ol'

WARNING

Isn't taking "donations" how sites like this tend to get shut down?  I do *not* want to lose TheCoverProject, and I'm sure no one else does either...  But honestly, it's kinda skirting the law as it is...  I don't know what the best way to do this would be, but it'd probably be best if it wasn't anything "official"... just my two cents.