Members of the Maiden Fan Club? Share your experience

nuno_c

nuno_c

A hollow universe in space
I've been thinking about joining the official Iron Maiden Fan Club.

Are there any members around here? Is the package worth the price? How's it like? Please share your opinions/experiences.... Thanks
 
They have been very, very inactive when it comes to fanzines. I wasted money for the last two years. Now is probably the right time to subscribe.
 
I'm not a member but thought about it, however I'm leaning towards not joining it for several reasons:

- Ticket pre-sales in as many countries as possible.
Switzerland is dumb when it comes to ticket sales and very much a monopolized so no advantage here.

- Entry to the 'First To The Barrier' draws we hold for many shows.
Venues are held in a similar dumb fashion and ticket seller dependent so again, no advantage.

- 3 colour magazines a year
Not very many magazines a year.

- Membership pack including a glossy photo of the band, exclusive fanclub sticker, membership card and enamel club badge (replica of Steve Harris' bass)
Thats a very very basic package with nothing really useful or that special.

- Discounted prices on products in the Official Iron Maiden Shop
You'd have to spend a lot to make your annual fee's worth of money back.

- The chance to buy special Fanclub-only products from the Official Iron Maiden Shop
I don't know what those products are so I can't give an opinion here. It seems a UK based shop tho, thus shipping and customs probably wouldn't be worth it.

- You'll be automatically entered into our monthly prize draw, for a chance to win signed Maiden goodies.
Thats cool, but wit thousands of members, whats the chance anyways. Pretty pessimistic opinion I know.

- Membership of our Fanclub community forum where you can chat with fans all over the world.
Yeah... I have that here for free and if some posts here are anything to go by, its better here.

1 year of membership costs £25.00 if you live in the UK, £27.50 in Europe and £30.00 for the Rest of the World (the prices are different due to the postage costs).

Right now that would cost me around 44 CHF just for being a member, shipping and custom costs not included. Not really worth it for me. May be worth it for others. Wit 44 bucks I can buy the new CD and possibly even the vinyl record, too. Or some merch that actually interests me.

I'm curious about members' positive reviews on the fanclub, or the reasons they joined, i.e. why they think its a good idea.
 
I'm staying in it mostly for potential ticket pre-sales, but also options to buy occasional FC member-only merchandise, and the magazines, when they do turn up, are quite nice collectables.

We have been a bit short-changed with magazines over the past year, though, in fact they might have missed an edition the previous year too. I completely understand Bruce's illness had a major impact on all their plans, but they were already behind on magazines. I think they could maybe do a bit more with the mags, too, instead of filling it up with early days nostalgia pics and diaries from tour crew. That said, there was a nice interview with Nicko in the last (Christmas!) edition.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll stay in the club, to be honest. I'll work that out depending on when they next play in this country, and if the pre-sales thing proves to be useful.
 
The pre-sales, the magazines. and the Christmas Cards are really the main value to me. I order very little from them, so the savings there is not much to write home about.

The forum is crap, IMO, it is much better HERE. There is some occasional good venue information on the forum if you are going to a place for the first time, but that is it for me.

For the last 18 months, I do not think it was worth it due to lack of touring and lack of magazines. It should get better with the new album coming out and a tour next year.
 
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I've spent more money on worse things - it's great for ticket pre-sales and whatnot. I'd agree that this forum is better and that the FC magazines are mostly fluff, but still cool to receive whenever they do come out.
 
Agree with regards to the FC forum. They've lost a lot of members on there. it used to be a cool place for checking tour threads, gig reports, meet-ups etc - stuff like that might pick up again now that there is a buzz around Maiden again. But I stopped my membership because the place was partly dead the last year or so....and they weren't sending out FC mags because of lack in news...

But as Forostar said if you ever want to check it out and be a member you should probably do it now that there is a buzz around the band again. New album, new tour, lots of new and old fans turning up etc
 
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This forum is the main reason why I was not sure to suscribe again to the FC : access to the official forum was one the main advantages of the subscription, but their forum is bullshit compared to this (to many useless posts, private jokes and so on).
This said, being member of a fan club is a bit like buying a season membership for your football team even when it has fallen down to second division : a claim of unconditional faith. So, you've got good reasons to complain (most of all the mags), but it's hard not to subscribe again.
 
harrisdevot said:
This said, being member of a fan club is a bit like buying a season membership for your football team even when it has fallen down to second division : a claim of unconditional faith. So, you've got good reasons to complain (most of all the mags), but it's hard not to subscribe again.
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Well its a give and take situation. I give something to them (money) and expect something in return. Otherwise it would be called donating, not fan club. Paying for a season pass to see your team play is even: you pay, you get to see them play, at the advantage of not having to buy single tickets and I guess its also cheaper.

Now, in the case of the Maiden FC, the giving bowl of the scale dips way below the taking bowl, at least for me. If there were things like a yearly goodie bag, with useful/special/unique things instead of (frankly uninspired) tidbits, and maybe fan club exclusive pre-listens of new songs in high quality, then yeah, sign me up. Hell even the possibility to preorder the new album and receive it one day prior to worldwide release would be a big thing for many!

For me being a member of the fan club or not has nothing to do with claims of faith. By that logic you'd have to be a member even if it costs 50 bucks a month and you just receive a card where it says you're a member. Otherwise you don't have that unconditional faith, no? I'm exaggerating, of course, but it goes in this direction with all kinds of fan clubs and their fans.

You see I'm not a big fan of fan clubs.
 
Mrcl said:
Paying for a season pass to see your team play is even: you pay, you get to see them play, at the advantage of not having to buy single tickets and I guess its also cheaper.
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But sometimes, you pay, and you guess you are going to be bored to death by painful matches ;). But I get your point. And IM FC is NOT a complete robbery. Their magazine policy is just questionable.
 
harrisdevot said:
And IM FC is NOT a complete robbery. Their magazine policy is just questionable.
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I never said that. I get that there is a lot behind the scenes, productionwise and all, so of course paying for being a member is absolutely justified. Its just that IMHO that special gimmick is missing to make it worthwile.
 
The last renewal, they gave away an FC t-shirt .. forgot about that .. that helped a bit this year make up for the lack of magazines.
The magazines are really my main complaint, they should be released on a consistent basis. I understand Bruce's illness and that probably caused some things to shift, but there should have been something coming out
 
I have found that the most meaningful benefits of being a FC member relate to concerts: ticket presales and "first to the barrier" drawings. Don't care about the magazine or forum. Never won a giveaway. I'm not aware of other perks. It's largely worthless except when the band is on tour.
 
Old thread I know but felt like chipping in so apologies if this conversation was done and dusted.

I joined the fan club back in 1995 during the blaze years. At that time and for a few years it was great. Regular magazines, plus the band held actual meet and great events just for the fan club members. I remember going to one after metal 2000. It was the very next day at the old Astoria and it was a great event. Plus everyone got to meet the band and get something signed.

I was also able to go and see maiden in Paris and Rotterdam on the European tour which was basically a warm up for Bruce and Adrian when then they came back. This was in 1999 and I think it was called the 'give me ed' tour although I'll have to check my ticket stub :)

It was a fan club special and for a very reasonable £150 each me and my mate got 2 tickets for the 2 shows, picked up on a coach along with loads of other maiden fan club members, taken to Dover and ferried over to France plus a nights accommodation in Paris then another nights accommodation after the Rotterdam gig then coach and ferry home. Awesome experience and very cheap for what we got. Oh and a goody bag was given to us all on the ferry over to Paris which had a ltd edition t shirt you couldn't buy for the tour plus some other cool swag.

Back then the fan club was awesome. I kept up membership till around 2008. During that time they also did another cool fan club trip to Paris for the early years part 1 tour. 2 nights in Paris and gig ticket and travel all for less than £200. Bargain. Sadly that was the last decent thing the fan club ever did.

They haven't done a meet and greet since 2000. Fan club mags dried up, and so did the cool fan club trips unless you wanted to pay a fortune for the Bruce air trips they started doing.

Sadly I stopped my membership as it just seemed like a waste of money. A band the size of maiden should have a great fan club with regular events just for members. Compared to other fan clubs it's a bit of a joke these days.
 
It sounds like Magazine 100 is going to press in the next few days, those of you who are in the FC.
 
I'm a member. I think it's a decent deal. I've gotten three t-shirts as renewal gifts. The magazines are ok, if they arrive. The presales and FTTB (first to the barrier) are nice perks. The discounts at the shop are also ok. The main reason I joined was actually because of the forum. Back then it was £10 for online memberships. Now you can only be a full-member, which is much more expensive.
 
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