Lets put this together for him shall we. I am not throwing CarPosters under the bus, he is doing pretty good considering that there were no factory Cougars sold in Australia.
1967 Standard, GT, XR-7, Honorable mention XR-7 GT
1968 Standard, GT, XR-7, GT-E, XR7-G Honorable mentions, XR-7 GT, XR-7 GT-E,
1969 Standard, XR-7, Eliminator, Standard Convertible, XR-7 Convertible Honorable Mentions: Boss 302 Eliminator Cobra Jet 428 Eliminator
1970 Standard, XR-7, Eliminator, Standard Convertible, XR-7 Convertible Honorable Mentions: Boss 302 Eliminator Cobra Jet 428 Eliminator
I think that is pretty darned good, Bill. Maybe we can also help him with available exterior and interior colours and patterns, as well as options for standards and XR-7s as well as for the GT, GT-E, XR7-G, Eliminator, and so on. Maybe a nod, if not also listing, some of the regional “special” Cougars (Cougar 500, Calypso Cougar, Ski Pak Special, Rocky Mountain Life, and so on).
If this is done well enough maybe there could be a first gen poster for the 67 and 68, a second gen poster for 69 and 70, and if popular enough, a third gen poster for 71 to 73. I wouldn’t want to see the poster’s crammed with too much to get it to fit in a certain space, but I also want to see it all.
Shipping from Australia is going to be very expensive for those wanting the customized/personalized posters, unless a way that the electronic file could be sent and then printed in North America (where the vast majority of sales will happen). Selling the generic versions with Cougar parts vendors would also save a lot of overseas postal costs.
Thanks everyone, I appreciate your assistance to help me improve this poster.
More factory models will mean the special editions will go. I like to specialise in including obscure special editions as they get overlooked more often than not, and my posters help keep information alive for another generation. I’d love to be able to break up the work into posters for specific year groups but the truth is they just won’t sell well enough and it’ll be too much effort.
One of the problems with adding more factory models is I would have to do a lot of rewriting of the text to “spread” it in a way which makes sense with the order/history and also “fill in” more info for the new models. I’ve already spent two days rewriting everything to the point I’ve written enough content to create a small book! (I have self-published 10 books about Australian cars over the past few years.) It’s good to have every single model/combination possible but it’s another thing to provide all the text, a lot of which could tediously repeated.
The shipping from Australia is indeed expensive and has always been a problem for me. But, as many people have pointed out to me, my products are unique (I’m the only person in the world making posters like these) and if someone really wanted one they will see past that and value my creation.
I’m sorry but I would not be able to share my print files. I tried to organise a bulk sale to a Cougar specialist but the numbers didn’t work. I’ve approached several clubs in the past over the years also and had no real interest.
Carpostes, Something you should know about Cougar ownership. Cougar owners are enthusiasts, not speculators. No one buys a Cougar and restores it because they can make a profit. The Mustang sold about ten times as well as the Cougar, so it casts a long shadow. Never the less the Cougar did outsell all of the other Pony cars except the Mustang and Camaro. So people think they need to at least throw the Cougar people a bone. It is our curse. We are appealing enough to get some attention, but almost never appealing enough to do it right. So we get Mustang parts catalogs that promise ALSO FITS Cougar, only it doesn’t and we get articles about Cougars that are filled with inaccuracies… Things like 1969 Cougars with 429 engines… I would suggest to you that if you really want to do this, don’t make the errors and omissions the topic of discussion. Get it right and it will sell for along time to come. Of course it is your product and you get to do it any way you chose, so knock yourself out.
Also, in the US print on demand has really taken hold. Probably the majority of books sold by Amazon are only printed following the order. There are vendors that will do this for a poster or calendar or almost any printed item. You don’t have to give up your files.
xr7g428, thanks for your insight into being a Cougar owner. I can imagine what kind of frustration there must be when you are told Mustang parts will fit a Cougar but they don’t. I strive to get the information correct in ALL my posters, otherwise I’d get customers wanting refunds, and even the smallest things can get people quite annoyed. I think nothing in print will ever be 100% correct because every single car book I have has at least 2 errors!
As for print on demand, I have looked into this over the last couple of days, exploring a number of websites and prices. Some of them simply block sellers outside of the US. I have sold on Zazzle in the past but now they block non-US sellers. But the problem with these sites is many of them are royalty-based, meaning I will get very little per sale. As these are very specialist prints, not just a photo of a car or plain illustration, I charge accordingly. I get down to very fine details and differences of each model and, as mentioned before, the text content is enough to make a small book and takes a long time to finalise.
The other thing is that to get close to my size (19x13") I saw prices much higher than what I charge, even including postage, for a much more basic style of poster. I was surprised to see my prices are actually very competitive even with the postage added.
As mentioned also in my opening post, I will discount the price if there’s enough takers for this poster. Expect around a third off the usual price.
Not sure what else I can do! All the text is there in the last poster graphic so it can be read and checked for errors. I’ve tried my best and put a huge amount of work into this.
By the way, does anyone else always press the Submit button and then get get some kind of “invalid form” error whenever they post a reply, requiring another press of Submit?
That’s about 4 so far, I think. Really hoping for 10 so I can do a discount group price. Unless anyone thinks there are errors in the text you can read in the last graphic I put up for show then it’s ready to sell today. I just need to add in some extra output specs relating to the CJ engines.
So, I’d like one if you can post to the UK and can make the 69 Convertible green ,
shall I go to your eBay sale or wait until you can get enough buyers here?
8 so far, I think. No problem to the UK and custom green change. What exact green pain colour? Please wait to buy as you’ll save with the discount price.
Please take my money!