We are not interested in whoring our merchandise everywhere to make money. We would much rather have our products mean something, and be special than to produce thousands of shirts, bags, underwear or whatever. Besides, we want to spend time making music, not running mail orders.
We are sick of people buying our items in surplus, and then selling them on Ebay later and making tons of money off of us. Thats why we have been forced to limit the number of shirts sold to one person.
Besides the fact that we all live in different states now, me selling shirts that John has in Portland, when I live 2,000 miles away, is more work than its worth.
JWW
Fair enough. The only flaw is that by limiting your merchandise causes a greater demand for it and thus the price will increase... simple supply and demand. I'm sure you're aware that a copy of the Pale Folklore LP in the wooden sleeve went on ebay not long back for well over $500 (limited to 60 copies i believe?). Not only that, but it also increases bootlegged merch production which is something I can't say I would support, but it's a reality.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that you guys have different priorities for ways to spend your time as well as the fact that limited editions and
creating a demand for your product means you won't have left-over merch just sitting around. There's no debating whether or not that's the right way to do it. I don't want this to come off as i'm trying to force my own personal opinions of how to run the band, but why not have The End sell your stuff and just keep it out of your hands? I don't expect an answer on that because your relation with the label is none of our business, but it's just a thought that came to mind.
Since things are the way they are, I think limiting the number of items people can buy is a great way to handle it (like you said, stop people from making bank on ebay off of your material). Personally, i have no intention of trying to profit off of anyone else's band merch but there are people who would.
Anyway, since you're here i'm not trying to backpeddle or anything. It seems you guys have perfectly good reasoning for doing what you do, and i also understand that with a band you have to manage your time effectively and it seems that Agalloch is not a band that has the desire to be 100% active all the time. I just know that, as a fan, it'd be killer to be able to get a shirt without getting raped on ebay by some greedy motherfucker or waiting for a show to come around (which i'm lucky that you guys play within driving distance).
Anyhow, I'll be at the show next friday and I'm really looking forward to seeing y'all live finally. Cheers and thanks for the response.