Merch Appreciated

I've always been a big fan of band merchandise, however, obtaining it has usually been an effort. Today I decided to check out how Australia is doing in the online merchandise stakes.

So after a quick Google search, I was able to identify the 2 major band merch sellers in Australia. We have fist2face, and planet13.

Firstly, both of these sites ship merch Australia wide, and stock in both national and international artists.

Secondly, it appears that fist2face stocks more of the lesser known bands, while planet13 stocks more mainstream bands. While most people should have no troubles with this, I was able to find "We Came As Romans" on F2F to my pleasant surprise, whereas P13 wasn't even able to come up with IKTPQ.

And so, being the great (and sleep deprived) blogger I am, I decided to do a quick price check. After finding the same item, a Rise Against T-Shirt (Links - F2F | P13), I went through the processes to find out what a full final pricing was. As you can easily see, the merch isn't cheap as chips, but could easily be compared to buying it at something like a gig or festival. Fist2Face managed to sell the Rise Against T-Shirt to me for a total of $33 (That price is including $3 shipping Australia wide), while Planet13 did the same deal for $40.95 ($6 shipping Australia wide). As you can see, fist2face managed to come out cheaper both on the item price and shipping price.

Another interesting note is that F2F offered me 5 different sizes, whereas P13 only offered me the 2. I'm not sure how this varies throughout the rest of their wares, but is something to take note of.

Overall, I would say that F2F is a good place to pick up a bit of gear for a reasonable price. I checked out some of their other items, and while some of the gear is overpriced (Parkway Drive shorts that I payed $30 for they are selling for $50), it's not a bad website to see what's on offer. Final recommendation is to always check the artists page first to see what they can do for you, but I know that I will definitely be spending money at Fist2Face at some point in the future.

Steve-O