It's Complicated! (Please Read)

Master printmaker Ctein with his life's work,
much of which will go on sale here on Friday

It's only four days until our fantabulous Black Friday Ctein Dye Transfer Master Print Sale. It'll start at noon Pacific Standard Time on Friday, November 29, and run for exactly one week. This is the only print sale we've ever had for multiple pictures—many of 'em—and there is a severely limited supply of prints of each picture, so it's going to be complicated to try to get you happily matched up with a picture you want.

ALL THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FOR FRIDAY, when the sale starts. It doesn't start until then. This is just so you can familiarize yourself with what going to happen then.

Bonuses
First, all the prints—you can view them here—are $650 regardless of rarity and size, plus a $39 shipping and handling charge for each order regardless of the number of prints you buy (that's higher than usual, but Ctein will be packing these extremely well). There is no limit on the number of prints you can order. There are bonus incentives for multiple-print purchases: digital prints (here's the most complete list) or even an extra dye transfer print of your choice (subject to availability). We'll give you the details later.

Layaways are available!
You'll be able to pay for prints by personal check (which we'd prefer) or PayPal (necessary for buyers who don't have a US bank account or wish to use credit cards). You will also be able to purchase prints on layaway, paying $50/month for 13 months for each print you want to buy (plus a bump for shipping and handling in the last payment). Here are the layaway terms.

What you'll do
Here's how it's going to work (the final and official instructions will be in the live Sales posting here on the 29th):

1.) There will be a request link on TOP and on the print listings page on Ctein's website. Use either of those to send Ctein an email. If neither link works for you (they fail for about 1% of viewers for unknown reasons) email [email protected] and put "My print requests"—exactly those words—in the subject line.

2.) The email should contain ONLY the following information:

• How many prints you want to buy (e.g. "I would like to buy three prints.")
• The titles of the prints you want, including alternative selections, if any. You can rank them by preference as you like, or not. If the photograph is available in more than one print size (if they are, that's indicated on the inventory page), make sure you state which size you want. If there's only one size, just give the title.

That's it. Don't include your mailing address, payment information, any special shipping requests, bonus prints you'd like, anything else at this point. All that will be taken care of when Ctein confirms your selection and directs you to place your order.

3.) Ctein will send you an acknowledgment of your email within an hour of receipt (unless he's asleep—remember he's on Pacific Standard Time and won't be on the computer from roughly 1:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m.). If you don't get an acknowledgment, send your request again.

4.) Within 24 hours of your request, Ctein will confirm which print(s) you can buy. In all likelihood it will be a lot less than 24 hours, and if none of your choices are available, Ctein will let you know that very quickly (unless he gets totally slammed with orders in the first hours, in which case there will be a notice posted on TOP letting you all know there will be delays). With your confirmation, Ctein will send a link to the order page. You will place your actual order there, following the instructions posted.

Ctein will make an effort to match up people's choices and alternatives with print availability to maximize happiness (and sales), but there will be—of necessity!—a very strong "first come, first served" component.

The earlier you get your request in, the more likely you are to get what you want.

(Did Mike emphasize that enough?  :-) 

Ctein will be updating the webpage showing which prints are still available as orders are confirmed, but as you can appreciate, there's going to be a substantial lag, because there will always be print requests that haven't been processed yet. That's why it's a good idea to provide alternates to your first choices, if you have any. By the time you place your order, the inventory will have changed. Especially overnight (his night, not yours).

We'll tell you all this again on Friday. This is just a heads up.

Meanwhile, between now and Friday, you can check out the prints and make up your wish list in advance. Please do not send it to Ctein before the start of the sale.

Questions
Any questions? Please post them in the comments and we will endeavor to answer them promptly.

—Mike and Ctein

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and Ctein. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Comments

[Stefan Latkovic]

I have probably missed it, but are we living outside the US included in the sale?

[Gaspar Heurtley]

I’ve always loved that picture of Ctein surrounded by boxes of ‘his life’s work’, I remembered you posted it a few years ago (I still can’t believe you’ve been around this long!).

If my five year old son ever becomes a photographer, that same picture would be him holding a 500TB external hard drive that’s smaller that his hand.

In just a couple of years we went from fixed iso and just a few frames (a.k.a. film) to digital cameras that can shoot dozens of pictures in a snap, can autofocus with nearly zero light and stabilized sensors that allow two-second exposures.
It’s astonishing how technology keeps going.

[Ctein]

Dear Stefan

Absolutely! About a third of my sales are international. In fact the main reason we're taking Paypal at all is because most international buyers don't have a US bank they can draw funds on. Also, the same price ($650/print plus $39 S&H/order) applies no matter where you live.

pax / Ctein

[Ctein]

Dear Gaspar,

Unless he becomes a print-oriented photographer like moi, in which case he's still gonna have a big stack'o'boxes of digital prints (as I do).

pax / Ctein

[Ari]

This is definitely not the only TOP print sale with multiple pictures — not even the first Ctein dye-transfer sale with multiple pictures!

[Ctein]

Dear Ari,

Yeah, I noticed that [smile].

I think what Mike was trying to say is that it is the first sale with a huge number of different pictures being offered. Which is definitely true.

The logistics are, ummm, interesting.

pax / Ctein