If you think you can contribute to this project, drop me a line and I’ll add you to the small group who is working on this. If you have done research on a particular color or colors, own (and are willing to scan or have scanned) original factory color charts, or whatever may be your interest, we’d love to have your help, no matter which model or time period you may be interested in.

(You know, I could cut the price in half if I could guarantee selling enough calendars to have them printed on a press, rather than using “on-demand” printing. But the quantities I would need to sell would be daunting, about ten times what I sell now. I don’t have a good feel for how many people refrain from buying a calendar because the price is just too steep. Would I gain a ten-fold jump in sales by cutting the price from $20 to $10 apiece? I have no way of knowing.)

The calendars try to accomplish a couple of things: they provide those enthusiasts who buy them with something they can hang in the garage or office featuring their favorite cars, and they raise a bit of money to help pay for things like web hosting for the various sites.

When I say a bit of money, I really mean a bit. Last year, I sold just about 100 calendars. I “profit” to the tune of $5 each; when you pay $20 for a calendar, $15 of it goes to Cafe Press. So my income from the calendars last year was about $500. (Please keep in mind this “profit” doesn’t account for the 20 hours of my time involved in producing each calendar–something I’m happy to do, as I feel like I’m giving a bit back to a supportive community. But as someone who is a professional designer, my fee would be quite a bit more than $500 for a like amount of work.)

I do appreciate every sale. Many thanks to everyone who buys a calendar!

Now, if I want a calendar for myself–for my own use or to give to others–I still have to pay Cafe Press their $15 for each calendar. (I suspect Cafe Press makes most of their money from people buying their own products.) This year I’ll be using 36 photos, and giving each owner whose car is in one of the photos a calendar would cost me over $600 (if you include the shipping costs).

The first year I did the E-Type calendar, I did just that, gave everyone a free calendar, and I just barely broke even overall, despite only giving 12 away.

If I knew I was going to sell hundreds of calendars, I could print them on a “real” printing press (rather than the print-on-demand gig we have now) and get the unit cost down considerably. But the demand just isn’t there, and I cannot afford to front several thousand dollars in the hopes that a lower price would lead to much stronger sales. It would really be a disaster (I am not a wealthy man–probably because I own a vintage Jaguar!) to be staring at boxes of unsold calendars come February of 2010.

I would like to say that the vast majority of folks who I contact about appearing in the calendar understand my dilemma, and I thank them for being gracious about it and allowing me to use their photos. And I harbor no ill will to anyone who thinks not getting a free calendar is a raw deal, I can see your point of view–if someone asked me if a photo of mine could be used in a calendar, I’d want one as well.

Believe me, I’m very sorry that I just can’t afford to do so.

• Importing the entire production run of XJ-S Cabriolets into the database for xjsdata.com.
• Complete the 2010 Calendars. Will be going to the next set of selected cars if the current folks can’t get me their photos in the next few days. I have nine of the twelve E-Types and half a dozen XKs. I am considering Healey and Coventry Racer calendars, though I’m very thin on photos on both, and I’m not sure if there’s any interest in a calendar for either site.
• I still need to complete adding the small US plate graphics. Don’t expect lightning progress on this!
• I still need to move all of the old reg numbers that were recorded to the new fields. Another complicated, slow, process.
• I hope to move to a flash-based image uploader which has the advantage of allowing multiple file picks from the dialog box, and should be immune to file size problems. I’m also going to try and simplify the resulting thumbnail categorization page.
• I’d also like to get some small ads going, as I can see getting a dedicated server is definitely on the books this coming year.

I also have the bonus of all end-of-year not-data-site activities going on. Fun, fun fun.