@AndreBoulay, and anyone who this applies to, what are some of the perks to owning/managing a yoyo store/website? Do you get discount off of your products?? Or do you get to try out each yoyo before you choose to carry it? Bonus question: how did you come about to starting/running your store/website?
Just curious on how does the whole process works 
Aha! The perfect opportunity to repost some Andre answers from Reddit that I had bookmarked but didnât have a topic to put them in⊠now I do! Source
YoYoExpert started for different reasons. I was working on a Masters in Neuroscience and was relatively burned out on school⊠And at the time kind of burned out on yo-yoing (and burned out on email questions about yo-yoing). I had worked for YoYoJam for a couple years and while I loved the experience I really craved being able to do my own thing and âmakeâ something. The Expert Village tutorials at that time and started circulating the web and everyday single day I was getting tons of emails asking for help, what yo-yo to buy, tips on tricks, etc. So I felt building a resource for that information and a place to go was something that I could do well. My wife at the time had just graduated in graphic arts so it was kind of a perfect fit and a great thing for her to work on and use her expertise.
Initially my goal was actually just to make tutorial DVDs with better breakdowns and trying to find a way to enable others to put a value on the tricks they were creating - but as I was still finishing graduate school my time was always very split and I never got completely back to that⊠(But I have finally jumped back into that this year - coming soon.
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From there the retail store grew out of design and my retail expertise⊠I had worked at a Toy Store (A2Z Science & Learning) for 7 years (Dev/wife did too) and I always enjoyed giving people advice on buying something that they were going to enjoy (whether that was a yo-yo, a board game, rockets, science kit, etc). It is all about fun and enjoying life to the fullest - and learning something with what you buy. And A2Z really taught me that giving people an âexperienceâ to their purchase was important. You arenât just buying something - there is more to it and my goal has always been to tell the story of the product and be there from the beginning to the end whether that is questions before you buy or questions after you buy - problems, curiosities, anything.
Further - Dev (my wife) is a very crucial component as most of the graphics you see are created by her. We work really well together in terms of finding creative ways to present everything and make it fun and interesting. That and we love working together and the bigger picture of what we are doing. So it all comes together out of love and hopefully people get a sense of how much we care about what we are doing here.
Another answer there which may be relevant
Funny enough I am not a huge collector. I have a ton of old YoYoJam prototypes and various special editions from when I was running the team. And I do still have them. I have one of every Dark Magic Color for the most part as I obviously had to collect those.
But generally speaking I play with anything I buy. I still buy myself a new yo-yo quite often as it keeps it fun and interesting - and I have tons of yo-yos lying around the house (my 1 1/2 year old son Pierce also loves playing with them too - haha). But my actual collection is literally lying all over the place.
I definitely have a few âprizedâ possessions though - yo-yos that people have given me that sometimes are one of a kind, etc. One of my favorites is a special Chief that Jason Wong anodized for me in one of his signature Skittle color ways.
Wow, tHaTs aLoT oF wOrDs
Thanks Codinghorror! That was exactly what I was wondering about.
Haha - this is still all very true too!
Perks of the job is definitely getting to throw so many amazing throws - I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting to see new designs before their release. Anytime someone sends me a prototype Iâm excited about it still feels like a kid on X-Mas morning opening that box - lol.
So the excitement is still very real and here.
Iâm going to add in a few thoughts from my experience owning a store.
I donât know if this exists, so please correct me if it does. I think it would be really cool if there was some way to try out yoyos for a small fee. Kind of like renting a yoyo for a week or something. I enjoy trying out different yoyos, but I donât have the money to buy every one that I would like to try.
@alexanderdalex If there was somekind of Blockbuster/Redbox for yoyo renting, they would go out of business because everyone would just keep the yoyoâs they love and the business would only have the bad ones. I would take out a prepaid card under an anonymous name and rent with it. So if they fee me I wouldnât be charged up for it. There are so many issues with the idea but it would be swell!
Yep, I thought of that too. Itâs too bad that it wouldnât work simply on honor system. I also wondered if yoyo stores had the option to allow people to try out a yoyo there in the store before purchasing it. If you had a well carpeted, foam-covered walls room, you wouldnât have to worry about them dinging up the yoyo. Right?
Youâre welcome to tryout yo-yos here if you come visit, just like at contests. We just have one rule - You ding it, you buy it.
Do you have people who just come to try out yoyos?? And thanks for the offer, but Missouri is the farthest East Iâve ever traveled!
Just to try out yo-yos, no. Typically someone will come in with a few different yo-yos in mind. If theyâre unsure what to purchase we let them try them out so they can pick their favorite to purchase.
A+++ agree your packages are the best! Canadian maple candy!!! 
I love when people throw in little fun items, I try to do that too when I can.
What a genuinely great reply. It brought a smile to my face. Thanks.
