Logo Contest: Vote!

When I first created my Logo Contest (full details here if you missed it), I was nervous and excited. I knew this could end up badly, either with artists raging that I had created a difficult assignment with no guarantee of payment, or (at the other end of the spectrum) so many submissions that I had a tough choice cutting it down to a Top 8. Thankfully, it seems to have hit a middle ground. I'm sure there were many professional graphic artists who chose not to enter, as their time would be better spent on projects that actually got them paid - and I cannot blame then in the slightest bit!

In the end, five artists submitted work (one of them submitting two versions), leaving me with 6 possibilities. Now the decision is in your hands. One of these six choices will become the new logo for Don's Magic and Sundry, and its creator will be awarded $50 in store credit at my site.

As promised, these choices will be kept anonymous so as to not influence the voting. The logos should stand on their own merit, not on the backs of any name their creator may have made for him- or herself. Voting will be open from today (Tuesday, June 25) at noon until Sunday (June 30) at noon [all times EDT].

To cast your vote, please take the survey. The images are repeated in the survey, but needed to be shrunk to half their size due to file size limitations at Survey Monkey. So I present them here, comment free, for you to look at first.

Submission 1

Submission 2

Submission 3

Submission 4

Submission 5

Submission 6

Once you've gotten a good look, please:

CAST YOUR VOTE!

The Don's Magic and Sundry Logo Contest!

In case you are unaware, two major changes happened recently for Don's Magic and Sundry:

1. I changed service providers from ProStores to Crystal Commerce. The latter is specifically tailored towards online gaming stores, and includes a whole slew of advantages, like built-in databases of all cards from the game, market price checks, a Point of Sale system that lets me very easily buy & sell cards at events....all for less than I was paying at the old provider. Definitely a no-brainer. The only question is why it took me so long to move!
2. I have, at long last, finally become an actual legal entity. It is now Don's Magic and Sundry LLC! Woo-hoo!

Anywho, with all these changes comes the desire for a fresh new logo. My old store logo:

Created by Josh of VirtualInflux

won't quite cut it, as the rather blatant use of WotC's intellectual property (IP) - the subtle Magic card back at the left, the use of the Magic logo, as well as the five-color pentagon - would most likely get me in hot water with their legal department. In fact Crystal Commerce flat-out told me they wouldn't let me use it!

So my current store logo:

Crafted by the amazingly talented Justin Treadway (@GriffnValentine)

while awesome, was not intended to be used as such. It was crafted by @GriffnValentine to be used on stickers to be given out with orders (and some of you may even be sporting such a thing on your deck box or trade binder!). If you'd like more info on these wonderful things, you can see this post.

So - that brings us to the point of this post (finally!). I am in need of a new store logo! But I am a poor small business owner who can't afford to pay a real honest-to-goodness graphic designer what s/he would need/want to be paid to call it a real gig. So, instead, I am running a contest to all and sundry (slight pun intended), amateur and pro alike, to see who can design the new logo to be used on my store!

Want to win $50 store credit to my site? Think you have the creative talent to design my new logo?

Here are the details. Please read all if you are interested in submitting a logo to this contest.

1. Contest submissions will be accepted from today (Wednesday, June 12, 2013) until midnight (EDT) Sunday, June 23.
2. Submissions should be sent to Don at DonsMagicAndSundry.com with the subject line "Logo Contest".
3. If more than 8 submissions are received within the specified time frame, I will cut to a "Top 8" based on my own personal tastes.
4. I will then post the Top 8 (or less if fewer submissions are received) on this blog (anonymously, so there is no favoritism based on creator vs. creation), and put them to a vote via all my various social media outlets (Twitter, tumblr, Google+, and email newsletter). Voting will be open for five days (12:00 noon [EDT] on Tuesday June 25  through 12:00 noon [EDT] Sunday June 30).
5. The winner of the open vote will be used as the logo on my site. The creator of that logo will win $50 store credit at www.DonsMagicAndSundry.com.
6. The logo will run as a banner at the top of pages on my store site (see my Home Page to see where the "sticker-logo" currently resides).
7. Designs should be submitted in the .png format.
8. Designs should be 200 pixels high by 800 pixels wide. 
9. Designs must incorporate the name of the store (Don's Magic and Sundry).
10. Best designs will impart that the bulk of the store's nature is selling cards from Magic: The Gathering, without using the Intellectual Property of WotC. That's a fine line to straddle, but I know you're up to the challenge!
11. All submissions become the property of Don's Magic and Sundry LLC, and can be used in any promotional way on the site. While only the winner of the popular vote will get the coveted spot atop the site pages, the other logos may be used for other purposes.

"Cool Metal Life-counter?"

Just a quickie, here. In case you're wondering what I mean by "cool metal life-counter" as one of the options you can vote for in the current Blog Poll to pick the next email newsletter giveaway prize, here's what they look like:

Bask in the awesomeness!

They're a bit heavy and will cost more to ship than my normal giveaways, but that's okay. Please note: I get to pick which one gets given away if this prize is chosen in the poll!

The Official Don's Magic and Sundry Sticker Contest

This contest is one I've been promising on Twitter to work the detail out on and finally announce for a while now, so it's about time I got on it.

So, here it is: The Official Don's Magic and Sundry Sticker Contest!

• Four times a year, right before the prerelease of a new set, I will draw one winner from the eligible pool of contestants who will win $20 in store credit to my store. [NOTE: accepting store credit requires that you establish an account at my store, but doing so is free.]
• To become eligible, you must submit to me (via Twitter to @TheSundry or email to TheSundry at gmail dot com) a photo of you in some way sporting one of my stickers at an official MTG event (could be a regular sanctioned event, an FNM, a launch party, a prerelease, a SCG Open event, etc).
• The sticker can be on your person (e.g. stuck to your shirt) or on something you are carrying prominently with you (your deck box, trade binder, box of tokens & dice, etc).
• The photo should include your face for ease of identification. There should also be some way of verifying the date & event (e.g. if you're at the prerelease for something, you could hold up your prerelease promo).
• The contest resets at every prerelease, so you must re-enter each time a new set rolls out if you want to stay in the drawing. [For reference, the next prerelease would be for Avacyn Restored and will be held Sat/Sun April 28/29 2012, so the drawing for the current cycle will be made on Friday, April 27]
• Photos become my property, and may be used in advertising campaigns or just for the fun of it on my blog (I probably won't do much with them, but I'm stating that now just in case).
• I reserve the right to reject photos for any reason (most likely because I  felt they were in some way inappropriate). If yours is rejected, however, I will let you know and give you a chance to submit another.

I reserve the right to modify/add/remove rules to this contest at any time should I see the need arise. [Example: I could easily see a secondary prize for most creative photo coming out of this if people decide to go that route with their pictures!]

If you are not sure what stickers I am talking about, you need to read this blog entry next.

As always, if there are any questions, Tweet to me, email me, or leave a comment here on the blog!

ADDENDUM: Now that I am running my own WPN events, I need to add the following rule:

• The official MTG event cannot be one of the ones I host myself. Kinda defeats the purpose of advertising my site for me when I'm doing that myself :-)

A new giveaway option!

Another quick entry to explain the new choice in the giveaway Selection Election.

I have several of these Citadel Gaming MTG tokens, which look like little plastic tiles. This Magic Librarities entry shows what they look like.

I currently have Caribou (Version 1 and Version 2), Minor Demon, Skeleton (all 3 Versions), Snake (all 3 Versions) and Wolf. I've got 47 of them total at the moment.

I'm thinking of randomly picking 3 different tokens to make up a prize pack. And they could be yours IF:

1. They are selected in this go-rounds blog poll; and
2. You are randomly selected from among my email newsletter subscribers.

What? You aren't subscribed to my email newsletter? Well, you'd better pop over to www.DonsMagicAndSundry.com and sign up!

New giveaway option!

Quick entry this go-round: Just wanted to showcase the newest possible giveaway option: the Ravnica: City of Guilds life counter!As you can see, this plastic credit-card-sized life counter features art from the Sisters of Stone Death card from Ravnica: City of Guilds. It has a spin dial for keeping track of your life total, with values from 1 to 30. And it can be yours - if it is chosen for the next giveaway, and you are the lucky one whose email address gets drawn from the pool of subscribers to my email newsletter!

The next giveaway - What are the choices again?

Welcome back to the latest installment of "I'm giving away random M:TG related items that I happen to have lying around my house, and you get to help pick what goes next." Winner of the "Reality show with the longest name" award for 2010.

This go-round your choices are as follows (see the poll above for your chance to vote):

1. A random box-topper from the 3 I have remaining (Ambition's Cost, Avatar of Hope or Underworld Dreams - all 8th Edition). See this earlier post for details on what a box-topper is if you don't already know.
   
2. The Tahngarth life-counter card from The Duelist issue #31. More details (including what it looks like) can be found in this entry at the Magic Librarities.
3. An unopened pack of 8 Double-Sided Tokens. At the risk of sending business to another store, this store is selling them if you want to see what they look like. I have several packs of these to give away.
   
4. An Ultra Pro Dual Life Counter featuring art by Elmore (the "Dragon Rider" version seen in this search). I've got two of these to give away, ultimately.
   

Those are the options this time (to be given away by random drawing to a subscribed to my email newsletter [sign up at www.DonsMagicAndSundry.com] on Thursday, December 9, 2010). Future choices will probably include the very oversized Thorn Elemental promo card from Starter 1999, a Lorwyn playmat as well as more Fallen Empires tokens & counters from The Duelist.

"You're giving away WHAT now?"

In my latest Blog Poll, the option of "Box-toppers? Really? Don't you have anything ELSE to give away?" narrowly edged out the 9th Edition Hell's Caretaker box-topper for the next giveaway prize. This meant I had to go find something besides a box-topper to give away (which I would have had to do eventually, once I ran out of them, but I thought I'd have a few more months).

Then I remembered that I had a box of these beauties sitting around:
These are cardboard punch-out counters and tokens intended to accompany the Fallen Empires set. They were originally included in an issue of The Duelist Magazine (issue #4 to be exact). Here's the Magic Arcana article from Daily MTG that covered these for those possessed of incurable curiosity.

Fallen Empires was a set notorious for generating lots of different token creatures (1/1 White Citizens, 1/1 Green Saprolings, 1/1 Blue Camarids, 0/1 Black Thrulls and 1/1 Red Goblins) from lots of different cards (such as Icatian Town, Elvish Farmer, Homarid Spawning Bed, Breeding Pit and Goblin Warrens, respectively). It also made lots of different counters (Spore, Credit, Time, Javelin, Net and Tide as well as -1/-1, +1/+1 and a variety of +/- combinations that are no longer used in Magic at all) for lots of different cards (Spore Flower, Icatian Moneychanger, Tourach's Gate, Icatian Javelineers, Merseine, Tidal Influence, respectively, as examples).

So, to help with all these different tokens & counters, WotC included these in with The Duelist.

When I rediscovered these, I Tweeted to my followers the above photo and asked if these were junk, or an awesome giveaway. The overwhelming response as "awesome giveaway". So, this coming Thursday (October 28, 2010 for those who may be reading this later) I will be giving away some subset of my collection of these beauties to a random winner chosen from amongst the subscribers to my email newsletter (I say subset because according to my inventory & this handy website detailing the exact contents of one of these sheets, I have 2+ sheets worth of these guys).

Not already a subscriber? Visit my home page at www.DonsMagicAndSundry.com and sign up - it's free and easy and I promise not to overfill your email inbox (I typically send less than a newsletter a month).

New contest time!

Well, not so much a new one as a continuation of the old...

I goofed up and forgot to have the drawing last night (Thursday, August 19) for the 8th Edition Lord of the Undead box-topper (the one chosen by your vote two weeks ago). So I had the drawing tonight and have emailed the winner. Hopefully I will hear back from him or her soon.

But, anyway, that means that in two weeks (Thursday, September 2) I should hold the next drawing. But what will the prize be this time? This is where you come in, trusty reader! Up above is a poll (assuming you're reading this before Thursday August 26) with four choices of box-topper giveaway prizes. Vote for your favorite, and the one receiving the most votes will be given away in two weeks!

Store & Contest Updates

Just a few quick updates that would take more than 140 characters...

1. The "Great Foil Project" continues. I still have hundreds more foils to process (which includes processing their photos & getting them into inventory). While I am doing this I am also readjusting the prices on most foils in inventory. I used to have these somewhat arbitrary lower limits on foils when I was pricing (I wouldn't let a foil common be under $0.75 for example) which ended up with many of the cards being overpriced. That's being fixed.
2. The giveaway last night was successful. The Ninth Edition Force of Nature box-topper was shipped off to the lucky winner this morning. The next giveaway will take place on Thursday August 19 at 9 p.m. EDT. Again, all one needs to do to be eligible is sign up for my email newsletter on my store's home page: www.DonsMagicAndSundry.com.
3. Which card will be given away next? Voice your opinion by voting in the poll at the top of the page. Deadline for your vote is next Thursday (August 12).
   
4. I'm trying to decide what to tackle next after the Great Foil Project is finished. My choices are basically two-fold: get back to processing common cards from that 400,000+ collection I bought over a year ago, or work on the non-English cards I have. Maybe I'll have a poll to see what y'all think I should work on next :-)

That's all for now - just wanted to get those up quickly. Perhaps a more substantial entry in the next couple of days.

Contest, Redux!

Well, the poster giveaway is over now, and served its intended purpose: the email newsletter had about a 50% increase in size (which sounds more impressive than "went from 20-couple to 30-couple"), so that's great. Congrats to @alithra for being selected as the winner of the Vengeful Archon poster.

I had so much giving away the poster (seriously - everything about it was cool, from seeing the email list grow, to hyping the contest on Twitter, to deciding how to randomly pick a winner, to tracking down a poster tube on Freecycle to mail the poster in) that I have decided to keep the giveaways coming!

I have had sitting around for a while now several oversized "box topper" cards from 8th Edition and 9th Edition. Recent questions on Twitter have shown me that not everyone knows what these box toppers are, so here's a brief explanation. For 8th Edition and 9th Edition, Wizards of the Coast added an oversized card to the top of each box of booster packs as an incentive for people to buy an entire booster box. [This was abandoned after 9th Edition; its most recent counterpart is the "buy-a-box" alternate-art foil promo cards WotC has been making for the last couple of sets].

Each box topper shows on one side a reprint of a card from the appropriate set (with a black border instead of white), with the flip side being a larger version of the art for the card (in landscape orientation). Below is a photo montage of the front of such a promo (with its smaller cousin beside it for comparison) and the back:


Currently I have 10 of these that have been sitting around waiting for me to decide what to do with them. I had always intended to eventually put them up for sale, but as I said - I enjoyed giving away the M11 prerelease poster, so why not continue the contest and give away the box toppers?

So, that is what I am going to do. Every couple of weeks (I'll announce specifics via Twitter - so follow me there if you want to keep up) I will give away another box topper promo until I run out of them. By popular demand (sort of - it got two votes where other cards only got one each), my Tweeps picked the 9th Edition Force of Nature to be the first one given away (which is why I chose it for the photo).

After that, who knows? I have an even bigger Thorn Elemental promo that I could give away, as well as many other nice goodies that I wouldn't necessarily be able to easily sell, but that someone would love to own nonetheless (altered art Daze, anyone?; or the strangely misprinted Words of Worship shown to the right?) - and maybe even some that I most definitely WOULD be able to sell, but am willing to give away anyway.

The 9th Edition Force of Nature box topper promo card will be given away on Thursday August 5, 2010 at 9 p.m. EDT. I picked Thursday this time instead of Friday as I know many of my followers are busy at FNM on Friday nights!

So, what do you need to do to win? It's easy - just sign up to be on my email newsletter list. Subscription is easy: at my store's home page there is a form wherein you enter your email address. You'll be sent a confirmation email, in which you click a link to confirm your subscription. And that's it! You'll be entered to win all future contests, as long as you remain on the list.

I'm still trying to decide what to do regarding past winners: is EVERYONE eligible to win, or only if you didn't win a previous contest, or only if you didn't win the LAST contest...I'll see what the poll results are (see the poll at the top of the page and VOTE, please!) before making a final decision on that one. I'll post that decision here when I make it.

Contest!

This past Saturday (July 10, 2010 for those reading this way after the fact), my older son and I had the pleasure of attending the prerelease for the newest set of Magic, the Magic 2011 Core Set (AKA M11).

At the particular site where we attended, the first X number of people to register received a free promotional poster featuring art from the M11 card Vengeful Archon [to see what this 24" x 36" poster looks like you can go here]. As my son and I were the first two in line (we arrived a bit more than an hour before the doors were scheduled to open), we each received a copy.

My son plans on keeping his, in the hopes that some day it is worth something as a collector's item. I, on the other hand, am giving mine away!

As I have mentioned on my Twitter account, next Friday (July 23, 2010) at 9 p.m. EDT, I will select one random subscriber to my store's email newsletter to receive this poster as a free gift. No purchase is necessary, no postage shall be charged - all one needs to do to be eligible is subscribe to the newsletter. So if you're already subscribed, you don't need to do anything at all!

Subscription is easy: at my store's home page there is a form wherein you enter your email address. You'll be sent a confirmation email, in which you click a link to confirm your subscription. And that's it! You'll be entered to win the poster.

So what happens to you if you subscribe? Will you be receiving hundreds of annoying emails? Not to worry - I don't send very often. When a new set is added to inventory (like the upcoming M11 addition) I send an announcement. And if anything else significant gets added to my store (like when my Revised Edition Toolkit was created), or if I have a special sale or event such as that, I send an announcement. So far in all of 2010 I have only sent out three emails (and a fourth will go out next week to announce M11). So you need not worry about me clogging up your email box!

As of this writing there are only 18 subscribers to my store's newsletter, so your odds are looking very good for winning if you sign up. And if you are already a subscriber and, for some reason, wish to NOT be considered for the drawing, please let me know. I will simply leave you out when I pick the winner.