Buy a calendar WITHOUT ads?

Is there a way to buy a GRM calendar WITHOUT the ridiculous eBay ads? I understand they help pay the bills, but blocking off three days a month with dark-colored ads renders the calendar much less useful. It's kind of disappointing, half of the reason I renewed my subscription was to have another kickass calendar in our kitchen, but the one that came is too full of shenanigans to be useful.

Sorry if this has been covered before, but I searched and couldn't find anything. Don't get me wrong, I love everything about GRM, but we use our calendar to write stuff down on, and all the ads make that much more difficult. My kitchen has significantly less sexy racecars now.

Try a sharpie.

What was the other half of the reason you renewed? Hopefully not more hot babes tearing junkyard cars apart!

Bryce

Been covered, but here's the conclusions:

1. No ads = no calendars.

2. eBay ads on days was either disliked, or of the people not actively disliking it, that were basically neutral. Bottom line is you probably won't see them like that again. In the meantime, I suggest putting it one day over and drawing an arrow.

3. Every year, we toss up the idea of finding one major sponsor for the calendar so we can clean up the look (having essentially 14 sponsors gets things a bit tight). But then we start hearing from the businesses that use the calendar as a tool to connect with our readership, and they tell us they LOVE having another venue to reach the readers. And they especially love supporting something that we give to you free, so they can feel like they gave something back to the people who buy their stuff all year. In that way, It's almost more like a Little League Baseball calendar: It's one part of the community giving back to the other who normally does all the money spending.

4. So, the final answer is "I don't know." We read and research all of the feedback about these projects and do our best to work in suggestions the following year. In the meantime, don't think of them as "ridiculous eBay ads." Try to think of them as thank yous to you for justifying their support of our magazine and events. Putting their money into a "bonus" project like that is a powerful way for a company to show that they feel they've invested wisely by entering this market.

What I'm saying is try to appreciate the message, even if you aren't too fond of the delivery method. That we can work on.

jg

1. In reply to JG: I love this place.

2. I don't care for the ads in the days either. They look like I have something scheduled on those days.

3. I keep my calendar posted by my desk at work and mostly use it for the pictures since I use the Outlook calendar for work things. I pretty much only write something really important on my EBay calendar, like if I am taking a day off.

Not a GRM exclusive complaint. In our house we USE calendars to keep everyone appraised of That Which Is Coming. If we can't write in a good sized block for a day and have it legible, the calendar goes into the trash. The saving grace of the GRM calendar was I could at least slice it up and use some of the shots as wall decor in the garage.

How about using iPhoto and your own (or internet stolen) photos and having them send you one. $19.99. I'll bet GRM wouldn't even mind if you put their logo on it (as long as you weren't selling it).

You can upload your cool photos and get one made at Costco for $9.99.

Yeah, but then it wouldn't be an iCalendar

Go to Staples and buy address labels to put over the Ebay days. Works like a charm.

I'm reminded of the old saying,"He would complain if he was hung with a new rope." It's a free calendar...compared to the calendars some other magazines send out, the amount of advertising on this one is pretty minimal.

I would just like a GRM theme for my google calendar. Ya, know... if it isn't too much trouble

The paper ones are just cool eye-candy for the garage fridge... unless they have some magic I'm unaware of that can ring my phone 45 minutes before I am supposed to be in a dentist or barber's chair.

I don't use mine just because of all the ads. You could do away with the calendar completely and it wouldn't hurt my feelings one little bit.

But let's face facts, who actually uses calendars nowadays. We use our smart phones and computers and let the Cloud notify us when we've scheduled something.

stuart in mn wrote: I'm reminded of the old saying,"He would complain if he was hung with a new rope." It's a free calendar...compared to the calendars some other magazines send out, the amount of advertising on this one is pretty minimal.

unevolved did offer to buy the calendar without ads. it's in the thread title.

I’m just going to tell my boss that I now worship GRM and I should have all “Ebay Motors” days off from work.

stuart in mn wrote: I'm reminded of the old saying,"He would complain if he was hung with a new rope." It's a free calendar...compared to the calendars some other magazines send out, the amount of advertising on this one is pretty minimal.

I subscribe to seven different car magazines. I get five free calenders a year. This is the first year of the last five that the GRM calendar didn't get chosen for the wall, and because of what the OP stated. The ads on the days are not a good idea. I don't care to use a sharpie, or sticker up the calendar, I had four others to choose from. Last year I ordered parts from a GRM calendar sponsor, because I happened to need it on that month and the ad reminded me. That has a zero percent chance of working this year. So providing feedback to the company so they can re-adjust their marketing will prevent that from happening again next year.

I won't chime in on the ads because the powers that be know how we feel and they are taking that into account. Actually, that's all I could really ask for. The only other magazine that has given me personal service like this was JP magazine, and that was 10+ years ago before they got bought up.
So, I'm simply asking this question out of curiosity. We all can agree that we'd love to have a GRM calendar with no ads right? How much would it cost to produce that? I know you can get a large, full-color calendar in the mall for $10 or less, but I'm sure economies of scale come into play there.
I'm not asking this so we can all pledge to buy the calendars if you print them, I'm just curious.
I'm going to guess that if you printed say 1.25 calendars for each subscriber, you'd have to charge $30 each for them.

And yes, I would complain if I were hung with a new rope. New ropes (unless nylon) can give nasty splinters.

If you'd like to buy a calendar without ads, you can make an offer. No lowballing.

$15?

That was meant as a joke in re: that other thread. lulz fale.

Alan Cesar wrote: If you'd like to buy a calendar without ads, you can make an offer. No lowballing.

Not only no lowballing, but you know what you have and what it's worth, so no low balling or tire-kickers.

carguy123 wrote: But let's face facts, who actually uses calendars nowadays. We use our smart phones and computers and let the Cloud notify us when we've scheduled something.

Not at all accurate. We travel constantly and nearly every shop / business we visit has our GRM / CMS calendars up on the wall. The folks we partner with to produce the calendar love it, as people are staring at their logo and contact info all year long.

We also figured our subscribers would like a free gift full of cool cars.

Sorry if your free gift didn't live up to your expectations!

I have no problem with the ads. I have it on the wall at work, and use it as an aid to writing schedules. Much easier than programming time off requests into my phone

I have no problems with ads in the calendar. The annoyance is not seeing the date at a glance. I have no issue with the banner ads or the sponsors. Not being able to read a date defeats the purpose of the whole calendar thing.

Mine is up on my office wall - ads aren't a big issue for me.

Joe Gearin wrote: The folks we partner with to produce the calendar love it, as people are staring at their logo and contact info all year long.

I'm sure the sponsors love having their name in it as often as possible, that's the whole point of advertising. I understand that. If you'll allow me to play devil's advocate here, the calendar's no longer hanging on my wall because it was too full of ads to be useful. So instead of having sponsor's names being viewed in my kitchen on a daily basis for 12 months, they're not being viewed at all. All I'm saying is there's got to be a line if it's going to be considered a useful calendar.

Sorry if I lit off a previous controversy.