Astronomy Club Shop Ideas

[Swithin StCleeve]

At the last meeting of the Wolverhampton Astronomy Society I set up a 'shop', (which was basically a table with a load of used astronomy books kindly donated by a member). I sold books for £1 or £2 to raise funds for the society, and I made quite a bit. Enough to fund a year of observation sessions! (We rent out a village Hall in the countryside).
Now I'm thinking of making a 'club shop' a permanent fixture. Members are happy to donate old copies of Astro mags and books, and we're looking into getting t-shirts made up, and perhaps hats and mugs.
I wondered if anyone has any ideas on things to sell at a club shop? We don't want to sell expensive things, and don't want to get into selling telescopes and equipment, but I'm thinking about things I could buy perhaps buy on ebay that I could put a quid on, to sell on?
Has anyone ever run a club shop at their astronomy club? 

[Peter Drew]

We ran shop items for a number of years as well as an "astroboot". Shop items do have their problems, T shirts for instance, look at the size and shape of your members, you need a lot of stock, and then there are colour preferences! We had some specialist, limited edition mugs made by a local potter, they were in the form of a Dobsonian with the observer being the handle. They were not cheap and sold slowly until there were just a few left and were finally considered to be collectors items. Our biggest fund raising schemes were raffles and eclipse glasses for the general public but of course we had the advantage of a nation wide membership base to help promote and sell them. Items that are inexpensive but useful sell well, ever been to a Tupperware party ?     

[daz]

I would stay away from clothing because as Peter says, you'll end with stock you can't sell, or they will be made to order in which case very expensive!

We have tried several times with our society...

If you don't mind cash being tied up with stock, then mugs and beanies are OK - you might want to canvas opinion though to see if members want to buy them. Also consider the turn over of members - once a member has a mug, how often will they buy another one?

Most mug printers will have a minimum order qty, so again, you'll have cash tied up in the stock...

 

And you'll need a mechanism to i) bank the money and ii) report it to the members at the AGM and iii) somewhere to keep the stock. If this is someone's house, does their house insurance cover any loss?

 

All sounds a bit OTT, but it needs thinking about...

 

[Swithin StCleeve]

All good advice, thanks. Clothing would have to be made to order. I've priced up collared T-shirts and they'd only be £12.99. Might get a sample made, and take deposits.
 

Two things I'd like to have a stock of are planispheres and red torches.

[Stub Mandrel]

Bahtinov masks

[Helen]

Handwarmers?  a quick ebay search gave cheap options for both single use and reusable ones

Helen