I want to begin by thanking everyone who attended ARPS last month. I was out-of-town, but heard a good time was had by all. In particular, I want to thank our co-sponsors for all their efforts in putting the show together:
- TRPS (TRPS.org) – A great organization comprised of awesome folks. Their wisdom/knowledge is invaluable to ARPS and our “hobby.” Thank you, Marty, Ben, Jethro, John, et al. If you’re not already a member, please consider joining their organization (https://trps.org/support-trps/).
- Matt Leunig (scrapedknee.com) – Obviously, he’s an awesome artist (https://expressobeans.com/public/search.php?artist=710), but he’s an even better human. Without him, we wouldn’t have the incredible artists’ rosters we have year-after-year. Thank you, Matt.
Additionally, we want to thank Sweetwater (sweetwaterbrew.com) for generously hosting the event and our volunteers for selfishly putting in the time and labor to make the event happen. We hope to see more of you at TRPS this fall and ARPS next year.
I’m currently preparing taxes for Year 2024. Our financials are not looking great. EB’s expenses run between $900.00 and $950.00 every month. However, our income is averaging $585.00 per month, with $360.00 generated by e-Bay income and $225.00 derived through donations (thank you to those who donate/donated – it’s greatly appreciated). As an aside, the good news here is our donations have increased over the last couple of years (again, thank you). EB is consistently losing over $300.00 per month and has been for the last couple of years. Expressobeans.com used to be self-sustaining with e-Bay income. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case any longer. We need to stop the bleeding.
With that said, here are some of the ways you can help Expressobeans.com:
- Donations – we desperately need them. If you want to help EB, the most efficient way is donating to the site. You can donate here: https://expressobeans.com/public/donate.php
- e-Bay Auctions - Besides donating to EB, a great way to help is by entering auctions. On average, every 5 auctions entered generate $1.00 in revenue for EB. Here’s how you enter auctions into the database: https://expressobeans.com/wiki/index.ph ... ressoBeans
- e-Bay Purchases – If you are unaware, ANY e-Bay purchase you make using ANY of the e-Bay links within Expressobeans.com also generates income for EB. So, please “go through” EB to purchase your e-Bay items, if possible.
- For Sale/Trade Forum – The, potentially, one silver lining in all this is the BOD has decided to reopen the For Sale/Trade forum to comments and edits. Our intent is to reopen it within the next week or two. There will only be 3 or 4 simple rules. And, we’re going to request a “voluntary” donation if you make a sale. Hopefully, this will provide some revenue for EB.
- Tech Team – This is another area where we desperately need help. Presently, we’re “mostly” a one-man show in the tech department with papaver (thank you) as our only consistent volunteer. Due to the size and complexity of EB’s database, we need at least 3 or more semi-consistent Tech Team Members. So, if you have a technical background and would like to volunteer to help EB, please reach out to papaver a/k/a The Tech Team.
Thanks to the collective efforts our Members, Team Members, and, especially, the Tech Team, EB is far healthier in day-to-day operations when compared to 5 or 6 years ago. However, EB cannot continue to incur $300.00 plus monthly losses. We need to “right the ship” before it’s too late. If you want to help Expressbeans.com, now’s your chance.
FYI and thanks.
whalaw
