First Cover and manual scanned. Comments?

[Lish]

Hi,

Well, I have scanned my first cover and resized for the Universal case.  Right now I am looking for some comments to make sure that at worst I am not wasting our collective time.

I have fully scanned the manual and created a PDF document.  I thought long and hard about how I would present the manual and decided that it should be 100% scale with double sided printing and staple binding just like the original.  So a pretty accurate facsimile can be created by anyone with a double sided bubblejet (like the canon pixma IP4000 onwards) and a stapler.  The manual sizes used by game companies are irregular (no ANSI, ISO, Jap or other standard matches) so when printed, a good guilotine (yes the spelling is probably wrong) is needed to trim your A4 (or letter) paper to size.

This manual took two hours to prepare..Scan..Crop..Resize...Colour (color for our Webster dictionary friends) balance ...PDF...Merge...DONE! so dont expect one per day, but Ill do my best to fit in work, family, my MBA, and the scanning.

Anyway, the following are thumbnails of my first real cover (not counting the five poor raws I sent in earlier) : Stunt Race FX.

Thanks
Lish

[TheValeman]

Good looking first effort there .... 

Cover 1 is the way to go for the project to maintain consistency with everything else SNES/N64 etc using the universal cases.

As far as the manual goes .... I dont bother ripping the staples out of the just to make a manual people can print and staple together. Mine are designed for viewing on screen .... just at a good resolution compared to the crappy 75/96dpi ones found on manual sites on the internet. What are the chances people have duplex printers to print them etc? Dunno but I dont think too common .... so I cater for the average user.

[4tyGames]

whoops, I see my mistake.

good work on your first cover!

"cover style1" is the one you want to upload.

[TheValeman]

Hehe .... yeah .... but it's marked as Cover Style 1

[Lish]

OK.  I'll upload cover style 1 now....but I really prefer cover style 2 (thats how all my covers are) as it seems more natural to me. I have been cutting apart the other covers on here an re-arranging for my own prints, but I bow to the majority.

I thought initially that I would prepare and upload both options but I guess server space may not be unlimited.

On another note, whilst the cases are cheap, shipping is not.  My quote was US$400 for shipping from the US. Pretty pricey.  I don't blame the stores though as this seems to align with international freight rates (which must be aligned to the price of moonrocks), and I don't expect that they will expend the effort and pop down to the local post office for surface mail when 200 cases only cost US$38 (AU$50 or NZ$1,000,000 [A little joke for The Valeman]).  All in all very disappointing.  Oh, and they are out of black and didn't indicate that they will ever restock.

VALEMAN...How do you get your cases?

LISH

[tiktektak]

HehHo!

I know exactly what you're talking about! They wanted 278 bucks shipping for 200 cases from me.... You talk about shopperinc.com right?

I have had long talks with them discussing shipping options and so on.... I think I almost have them so far that they would ship my order with USPS.... but it's not over yet....

They told me that shipping with UPS is that expensive but it's insured, fast and has a delivery confirmation...
USPS has nothing of these things which means if it's gone it's gone.... but shipment for 200 cases would be only around 45 dollars with USPS ground!!!

So I'm waiting for the final reply now if the'll do or they'll don't....

Regards Sebastian

[Lish]

Actually, USPS does include security.  See the quote from their site as follows for shipments to Australia:

Note: Ordinary economy parcel post includes indemnity at no cost based on weight. For an item not over 1 pound, the indemnity is $61.28, and the indemnity increases at just less than $3.00 for each pound or fraction up to a maximum of 70 pounds, which has an indemnity of $266.59. (See 280.)

Additional insurance can also be purchased but wouldn't be necessary as the indemnity above should cover your lost cases (but postage cost is bye-bye). Post is the only real option.  Even airmail is half the price of FEDEX/UPS/DHL and the like. But as I have said before, any large commercial company is not typically going to go out of their way to pop down to the local post office to mail 200 cases for only $20 bucks profit (assuming about 100% markup) unless they have a high customer focus.  They either have an express driver calling daily, or would call for pick-up.  Also, whilst you and I may be reasonable, I sure some psycho whose shipment is lost would continue to ring the supplier and complain without end.

NONETHELESS, I Share you deep desire to get hold of these and wish it could be easier.

I assume that the cases are made in China (although I have no basis for the assumption), so there may well be other sources but...maybe not.

If so, I just need about 50 other Aussies (Pronounced like an ageing reality TV rocker who bites heads off animals, cant act, and is even uglier than me) ..then we contact the Chinese supplier and have them imported in a shipping container...believe it or not, an entire shipping container from China only costs five times the cost of Fedexing a carton by international express. (of course I am being flippant).

LISH

[TheValeman]

I haven't bought any in ages but last time I had Shoperinc price it up it was $92 to post a 100 to New Zealand. So somethings gone horribly wrong in the postage stakes if you're getting stiffed $400 for postage. Mind you Aussie's are richer due to thier Uranium mines so maybe they took pity on a poor NZ'er 

[wshbrngr]

I haven't bought any in ages but last time I had Shoperinc price it up it was $92 to post a 100 to New Zealand. So somethings gone horribly wrong in the postage stakes if you're getting stiffed $400 for postage. Mind you Aussie's are richer due to thier Uranium mines so maybe they took pity on a poor NZ'er 

I had heard that also....

[Lish]

Hmmm, I wonder how many covers I can get for a tonne of raw uranium.  Theres a thought.

Right now the FBI, Interpol, Mosad, the US office of homeland security, ASIO, and the NZSFFSI (New Zealand Sheep Farmers Federation Secret Intelligence) are all homing in on this Forum at the very mention of the word "URANIUM".

My brother manages a Coal mine...Maybe a shipload of coal might do the trick...or maybe the french would give me the cases if I sink the Rainbow Warrior II (oops, more pinging by the FBI).  I noticed a few weeks ago that it was landed at Melbourne Docklands. 

Maybe I'll just save up and pay the $400 bucks and not get that XBox 360. I don't have a Hi Definition TV anyway.