Chris and business

Chris pictured at his "Work Room" in January 2016

Chris launched an online business in June 2014, selling custom arts and crafts through eBay. A year later, he moved shop to Etsy, under a brand titled "Cwcville Shopping." He also began selling printed copies of Sonichu on Lulu. He held a steady stream of customers, despite issues with production and sending orders on time. For a while, he had achieved his dream of selling his own Sonichu merchandise, and was making plenty of money.

However, exactly two years and one week after the start of his business, on 8 June 2016, Chris's infamous laziness caught up to him, and he was banned from Etsy for ignoring orders over a span of months beginning from when he bought a PS4. He did not take responsibility for the self-inflicted failure of his business. Instead, he lied to save face and cast blame on Lulu.com's staff for having stressed him out by labeling Sonichu as fan-fiction and banning his account half a year beforehand in December 2016 (even though he had actually ban-evaded by opening a private account and was back to offering books through Lulu's services only weeks later).

After the Etsy ban, Chris fell back on begging and Paid Video Requests to cover Barb's credit card bills and his expensive toy purchases. In May 2017, he felt like returning to work on the Sonichu comic and, throughout the next several months, began to rebuild his business, using Patreon, Lulu and Redbubble, and accepting interviews for money.

List of ventures

Ebay

Main article: eBay

On 1 June 2014, Chris began cashing in on his Internet infamy, by offering custom artwork for sale. He later expanded his sales to include autographed photos, medallions, and custom Amiibos.

Etsy

Main article: Etsy

On 2 September 2015, Chris relocated his online business to Etsy. He continued the same offerings from eBay and added a donation listing for the continuation of the Sonichu series. Days later, on 5 September, a YouTuber named DStecks donated $1,000, thinking that Chris would deliver 100 pages of Sonichu. Instead, Chris completed 16 pages before dropping the project. This move remains controversial with Christorians, as while some believe that he honestly wanted Sonichu #11 to continue, others argue that this weenish move validated begging in Chris's eyes, as seen with the influx of begging videos in the Financhu Crisis. In addition to DStecks, dozens of fans had also donated. Chris simply claimed that he was too stressed to continue Sonichu #11.

However, Chris still had passion for making custom Amiibos for several months afterwards. He wasted hundreds of dollars buying up Amiibos on Ebay, thinking that the market for his custom figures would sustain itself indefinitely. This was not the case. and Chris eventually grew apathetic and bored with earning his own money.

To complicate things, in March 2016, Chris purchased a PS4. The new life upgrade proved too distracting, and he ignored Etsy orders, often for months. Ultimately, Etsy took notice and banned his store from doing business.

Lulu

Main article: Lulu

In September 2015, Chris began selling printed copies of the Sonichu comic on Lulu.com, as well as offering autographed versions through Etsy (by ordering the comics from Lulu, signing them, then shipping to the buyers).

In December 2015, Chris was banned from Lulu for selling fan fiction. In true Chris fashion, he responded by threatening Lulu’s executives with physical violence, despite the fact that he was on probation for an act of violence against a GameStop employee.

Chris was able to continue selling comics in January 2016. It’s likely that he simply rejoined Lulu under an alternate account.

Zazzle

In November 2015, Chris announced that he would be setting up a shop on Zazzle.com. He mentioned it again half a year later, in June 2016.

He has yet to finish opening a shop there.

It’s unknown why Chris is dragging his feet on making a Zazzle store. All he would have to do is take some Sonichu drawings and upload them. There are no startup costs. Zazzle takes care of manufacturing and shipping.

In 2015, Chris was willing to drive hundreds of miles through Virginia just to buy parts for Amiibos to sell on Etsy. In 2016, he couldn’t even be bothered to move the mouse on his computer a few times to earn some money from Sonichu.

Paid Video Requests

Main article: Paid Video Requests

In December 2015, the singularity happened. On Etsy, Chris offered to create a personalized video message for anyone who paid $50. Many of his fans took him up on the offer, thinking they could become a part of Christory by simply handing their money over to him. He received four sales within the first three days, although those customers opted for their videos to be unlisted. A few people also chose public videos for their birthday shoutouts..

After losing his Etsy shop, Chris continued offering video requests through text messages.

The videos Chris delivers are characterized by:

• Laziness. He has often been late on delivering, missing deadlines for birthday greetings, despite having an abundance of free time.

• Sloppiness. Chris chooses not to edit his takes or look presentable. He has delivered a video featuring an upskirt shot of his maxipad.

• Explicitly stating that the content is boring. In many videos, Chris has mentioned his low opinion of his customers, saying things like, "Eh, whatever," and "Wow, that's crazy, that's jus'... I feel like... it's weird. Whatever," while rolling his eyes.

• Filling up paid content time with drivel or off-topic rambling, despite the fact that his videos are advertised as "around a minute in length, on average, but can be longer in time length."

In spite of these issues, he has a continuing stream of customers. One, a Kiwi Farms user named Vanillacone, summed up the mindset of the lot with his review of the $50 paid video he ordered from Chris (which consisted of him being late, babbling to fill up time, failing to spell the recipient's name correctly and delivering a video 39 seconds long out of the minimum one minute):

To be honest, I got what I expected out of the video, and money well spent in my opinion.

Sonichu Entertainment of America

Main article: Sonichu Entertainment of America

In May 2016, Chris displayed a level of financial ignorance that shatters any hope of him ever becoming competent with money. Days after begging for donations to assist his ailing household, he announced that he would be starting his own business, with the declaration that each employee's salary would be 25% of the profit. Naturally, Chris completely fails to realize that under these conditions, he would have no money at all if he had four or more employees. However, that's just the tip of the iceberg; days later, he uploaded a video attempting to go into business with Sega to create official Sonichu products. In the video, he demands a six-figure salary, along with full insurance benefits and maternity leave. These incidents seem to indicate Chris's belief that money comes out of nowhere and is unlimited in value.

Skylanders custom merchandise

On 24 November 2016, Chris asked his audience to watch a clip of him playing Skylanders, by uploading CWC vs Koas, in order to promote the idea of selling his in-game figure to them using the game's Skylanders Creation app.

He would charge "$20 extra" for his autograph. He also said, "I am not sharing my creation app chirp," since this would allow people to order directly from Skylanders and cut off Chris's goal of profiting from his self-image .

On 12 January 2017, Chris uploaded Skylanders Imaginators Leader Christine W Chandler: random Review N' Stuff as a half-hour advertisement video. He showed off multiple Skylanders products he had ordered, a $15 card, a $30 T-shirt and a $50 3D-doll, all emblazoned with his avatar image, totaling at least $90.

Stamp raffle

The Skylanders raffle prizes, featuring images of Chris's custom game avatar.

Chris's largest business failure to date.

Various Skylanders avatar products and a Son-Chu figure were announced as prizes for a raffle Chris conceived to push sales of his stamps, slated to run from 27 March through 31 April 2017. Cost of entry was buying one of Bob's stamps or Chris's stamp album on eBay, with a limit of one entry per buyer.

Initially, Chris announced that the winner would receive a Son-Chu figure and a Skylanders figure, and 15 runners-up would each receive a Skylanders card. A week later, he added more prizes to the mix: Skylanders T-shirts. Chris seemed to be banking on the $1,000 album selling, as it was the only scenario in which he could have shown a profit from the raffle - he promised an automatic win of a set of all three prizes.

His expenditure for the raffle prizes: $840.

No one bought the album, and less than 15 people participated in the raffle (although a mass buyer had purchased 18 stamps). He was left with a negative profit of $674.24..

Patreon

Main article: Patreon

Chris joined on 30 November 2016 as a response to pressure from the Financhu Crisis. He initially set it up to beg for money, claiming that he would produce more Sonichu comics if his fans paid off his mortgage and bills - he was met with low support levels, generally below $40 per month.

This suddenly changed around June 2017. Picking up momentum from resuming the Sonichu comic of his own volition in May, he revamped his Patreon to offer more reasonable support tiers for fans. He has enjoyed a significant uptick in support due to his continued work on the comic - earning around $500-600 per month.

Redbubble

Main article: Redbubble

Interviews

In October 2017, amid being the subject of interviews by Merryweathery, Sachumo and CopperCab, Chris announced that he was open to being a guest on more interviews for payment. Although he didn't specify his going rate, Merryweathery mentioned that Chris had asked him for $200.