Apologies if this has been answered before but it just kinda dawned on me,
why don’t companies restock their most iconic or sought out after designs? (for those that don’t)
I completely get wanting to move on and pursue innovation/diversity for a catalogue
(and also labor/material costs and availability)
but yea, just curious
I’m sure companies don’t mean to spawn scarcity or scalper behavior but yk what i mean?
anyways I’m posting this photo again because It’s pretty neat and i’d love to have the opportunity to handle any marketing or advertising for any smaller companies if interested
I mean usually folks don’t run another because they moved on, don’t see more interest in the design from customers or it was not cost effective to make. Allot of YoYo’s are acts of love of the hobby that arent profitable or sustainable resulting in moving on or stopping the venture after a one and done run
Yoyoing is pretty niche, and while there’s so many yoyos to choose from, boutique companies are a niche in that niche. While a design might be great, choosing to rerun a yoyo is taking an economic gamble since there’s already some out in the wild already, while a new yoyo is usually a bit easier to sell since no one owns it yet (at least that’s my thought)
That said, if it’s been a few years, it’s usually a bit easier to rerun a yoyo.
As for me, I simply don’t have the time or energy to make all the yoyos people want me to make. I am one man, and if I made all them, I’d never have a weekend again. The first five years of that would be full-time Bloodcell making.
These days, I am focusing more on my unresponsive, factory machined models because I can deliver more of them to people who want my stuff, and I have things to ‘say’ in that department that others aren’t.
A great deal of the motivation to make some models with MK1 is that I knew that he could help take my designs, draw them well as metal and plastic models, market them and produce a good amount of them. Not because I couldn’t, but because I frankly couldn’t be stuffed (or rather, have no time or interest in) marketing and pushing them constantly on Insta and the like. Mark is very motivated and professional, and a great designer.
The Flying Lemon will be the next thing to sell out in flash and people will say there wasn’t enough, but I don’t want to take the risk of producing hundreds of them.
I think sometimes the yoyo was made with specific parts that are maybe no longer available, or they swapped the machine or ano shop.. probably a plethora of reasons really..
But one common habit I see a lot of brands are doing is intentionally limiting a colourway to like a dozen units just for the sake of calling it super rare and valuable.
Like come on.. we know you could probably order a 100 and let everyone have the chance to enjoy it and not have to spam the check out link or pay twice the retail.
Some ano jobs are a lot more risky and yield more B grades than others. Particularly very fancy spalshes or speckled ones. So they are limited for that reason.
Regardless, having a limited edition of something is fine anyway. They point of limiting it is to make something special.
I am well aware of that and like I said a plethora of reasons are to be discussed.
By nature some colour schemes feel more special than others and that is totally understandable.
Adding about $40-50 to the retail price of a yoyo just because it allegedly is super rare and combines some rainbow colours, is not however.
Just giving my honest opinion, but yeah if the company were to produce them in bigger quantities the yoyos probably wouldn’t retain as much hype and value later on.
I remember seeing some One drop swirl Par avions. This technique was also used by topyo on the Silenus. The price mark up was only about $10-15 compared to the normal splashes. Yet they were made available in large quantities.
Wish more companies would do the same, today’s market is basically overloaded with yoyos that are soon forgotten and barely noticeable, a prime example of quantity over quality, which only makes the special releases even more desirable, and the loop never ends.
No, I’m actually comparing the exact same anodizing job, same technique, done by the same person. One company only charges about $15 more, while another turns it into a Patreon-exclusive raffle and still adds an extra $40 on top, simply because they can
Do a lot of brands do this or is it just the likes of G2/Monkey finger? Because the most difference I tend to see between colour ways (not counting ti yoyos) is $10 to maybe $20.
On the topic of why don’t companies restock their iconic yoyos: they do sometimes (CLYW is currently doing several runs of their older designs, OD have done reruns of the Top Deck and other designs, W1LD regularly restock their popular designs, YYF restocks and reruns decades old designs all the time, etc, etc).
Another reason that sometimes companies might not rerun a design is if it’s a sig throw and the player is no longer part of the team (e.g. CLYW Wooly Marmot/Canvas/Scout) or it was a colab with another brand so it’d be poor taste to rerun without getting them involved.
Usually, it’s the brands that make smaller runs to make their products seem exclusive and rare. That way, they can justify the higher prices.
Since you mentioned Monkeyfinger and G2, here’s what I know:
Monkeyfinger’s pricing seems fair. It’s stayed consistent over the years, even with inflation and how rare their yoyos can be.
As for G2, I’ve lost interest over time. But to compare,I bought my first G2 Banshee for about $90 when it first came out. It had the premium diamond blast finish, was made in the U.S., and was already considered rare back then.
Now, a rainbow or kaleidoscope version can cost around $140–$160, potentially more, (without taking into consideration patreon subscription fees) if you’re even able to get one.
I would argue monkey finger make their yo-yos harder to get in general than g2. Jake runs as many as he has capacity to run as a one man shop with a family. He’s fairly transparent and he increases costs to support himself and his family so he can keep running g2 without having to reduce focus to support his family.
Jake has also tried to make more and create less barriers. He’s made so many different YoYo’s this year and the few super exclusive runs are like titanium and more passion projects like they toy where it’s sign up based but limited because of the high cost.
MFD it’s always a dog fight to the bottom when trying to get a yoyo and occasionally they do like an exclusive new person lottery but it’s still super limited.
Yeah, Jake is so transparent that I did the math once on how many he releases per month and markup, and he is definitely not out here Scrooge McDuck’ing into a swimming pool of money on limited releases at g2 hq He’s hustling unbelievably hard for a modest income.
I’ll note no one’s making it rich out here with yoyo. A few have made a reasonable income out of it but no one’s retiring early on yoyo funds out here…
I just want to note that you can’t blame companies for their fan base causing a scarcity. It’s not the brands fault that the consumers and collectors want to be first in line and causes the demand for some of these small run yoyos.
It’s IS the brands fault for curating and harnessing a community of guaranteed customers, but that’s just good marketing and advertising at work.
He’s hustling unbelievably hard for a modest income.