I’m cool with my TiVayder, I don’t want another titanium ever for anything but collection purposes. It has a very distinct feel and I don’t need more yo-yos that feel like that in play. Not that I don’t like it, but I see why people don’t use titanium stuff to compete.
Takeshi does (TP Mustang) but that model was specifically designed for competition. TiVayder was not. Not that it’ll ever be common though, titanium are too expensive for most people to compete with.
3 Likes
I’m surprised a successful business man like yourself wouldn’t consider the impacts of this. It would actually raise the cost.
-
We hand test every yoyo which means it needs to be assembled, strung and thrown. If it’s good, we box it up. With this plan we would have to disassemble it which adds extra time. Added up over thousands of yoyos, this is a big increase in labor cost.
-
We would need to design a new box to ship our yoyos in as the current one is designed for assembled yoyos. The cost of designing and purchasing the die and all that is expensive.
-
Our customers would now have to assemble the yoyo out of the box. Many would probably like this, but also many wouldn’t. Everyone likes being able to throw the yoyo out of the box.
-
We have a long tradition (and pride) in making it so the yoyo can be thrown straight out of the box. We make sure the bind after testing is clean so that there will be no problems. We also undo the string noose so it looks nice.
-
Every customer having to supply their own bearing is a customer service disaster in the making.
22 Likes
I agree. IMO when buying a yoyo it should be playable right out of the box
1 Like
@da5id thought you’d appreciate my joke topic edit:
9 Likes
I love it :))
8 Likes
I was thinking more along the lines of shipping with a plastic bearing blank.
I remember getting a Cold Fusion off eBay and it had the brass fixed axle in it, I didn’t even notice for a while until I had thrown it a good bit! If the blank is smooth enough, which is easy for a plastic, it’s not that different than a transaxle or a smooth fixed axle which work… really quite remarkably well, for the cost of a few pennies per blank.
-
Bearing blanks work like fixed axles, so you can now test the yo-yo.
-
Same box can be used
-
Customers can throw the fully assembled yo-yo out of the box
-
Yo-yo can be strung and bound out of the box
If the intent is really “customers want to install their own bearing” this would honor that intent, and reduce prices by $1-$2 per yo-yo.
Another data point – I finally got one of those custom Discourse spinstars and the plastic-over-steel axle is pretty dang great to play with! That’d be virtually identical to a plastic bearing blank over a steel axle screw (or side effects.) For something you figure customers are going to replace anyway because there are so many preferences and no business can possibly be expected to handle that many preferences… it seems like a great choice to me, personally!
Like I have said in the past threads, I’m a fan of the One Drop 10 balls and it is a part of the feel of One Drops that makes them so good, if there was no bearing in my package, I would even be more upset then someone who needs a centering bearing because they’re afraid to rub their string up against the response pad prematurely. Who is playing Deep States without a 10 Ball?
2 Likes
You realize in plastic transaxle like the Spinstar that the “blank” is allowed to freely spin in the body. A true bearing blank gets sandwiched as the yoyo is tightened becomes a very wide diameter fixed axle.
Also are you seriously suggesting that One Drop shipping yoyos with NO bearing at all would represent an improved customer experience and meet with less friction than continuing to do what their customer base has always embraced (but for a keyboard happy minority)?
For the bazillionth time, it’s a solution to a non-existent problem. This thread has jumped the shark.
15 Likes
it would definitely have more friction XD
3 Likes
Imagine the costs of having a plastic bearing blank made. Injection molded, thousands of dollars wrapped up in the costs of having the molds made, then having the blanks made. Huge costs involved here would send the price of a One Drop skyrocketing, all for a part that isn’t meant to be used, not to mention the environmental impacts of all those blanks that would get thrown away.
OD has lathes, so say they make their own blank, buying the Delrin, the work that goes with machining delrin, again would send the prices up, all for basically a throw away part.
Using a plastic blank would never lower the price of a One Drop, I could see it adding a good $5-10 per yoyo, all for a part that isn’t meant to be used.
Mine does not have a 10 ball. Because I put a rubber shield bearing in it, still a flat bearing, but I like these better for responsive play, a little less maintenance involved with them.
6 Likes
For me, who has purchased 30+ One Drop yo-yos and replaced the bearing in every single one of them, yes that would be an improved experience.
I actually think a bearing blank (ala the fancy Luftverk) would be more interesting and useful to me than a generic flat bearing as well.
It is indeed an existent problem for me, and I buy a lot of One Drop yo-yos. I think if nobody actually cared about this, Ed, there wouldn’t be 673 replies, would there?
No way. I can literally get this shopped in China for a few grand to make tens of thousands of these, at pennies each. Yeah the initial injection mold might be spendy, that’s a fair criticism, true of all injection molding projects.
So now you are suggesting that One Drop out source to China?
2 Likes
Yes but that’s not a solution for everybody.
Many OneDrop customers want a flat bearing with their yoyos, and if most customers prefer centering bearings, then I think they would still want at least one bearing with the yoyo, whether it’s their favorite bearing or not.
At least I would
2 Likes
For a part that’s essentially meant for packing, yes – I doubt One Drop artisanally fashions their cardboard boxes in the USA, do they?
Did you not read this on National YoYo Day. They try and keep everything yoyo manufacturing in the USA.
https://americanmanufacturing.org/blog/entry/get-to-know-americas-only-mass-maker-of-yo-yos
1 Like
You can’t expect them to change their business model because of a tiny number of people complaining on the internet. The reason there are so many replies is the topic has shifted multiple times in the thread. Initially there was a lot of discussion just about whether or not centering bearings are better which is always a hot topic. Since shifting to discussing whether One Drop should change what they’re doing there’s been like 3 people suggesting they change.
And if you’ve bought 30 plus One Drops as someone who switches bearings every time, doesn’t that perfectly illustrate why it’s fine as is? You’re the most vocal about not being happy with flats but have still bought a bunch of their yo-yos. Thus exemplifying why its a non-issue. If their most ardent critic in this regard still buys their stuff as is, why change?
5 Likes