I get exhausted when it’s eventually time to restring, lube, and QC my club yo-yos. I only have 32, and they are expected to vibe from being smacked on the ground enough, it’s trying to figure out if I should try and keep them in the rotation or retire them to be given away before they are unplayable.
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200 is pretty standard for an aluminum/plastic yoyo for most boutique brands with a solid customer base.. our first run of assassins and 5050s back in 2021 were about 100-150, whereas reruns were much much larger after we saw the demand from the community. My orders are usually 300+ (monarchs we did 600!) this is including b grades though.
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That’s awesome! Didn’t realize you could go that big on a run for a boutique.
Just want to say I’m super excited to see these prototypes. I love the material, and wish that I had a printer that could handle it.
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Yeah ultimately (pun intended) I decided it would be better to pay a machine shop to machine them instead of dropping 5k on a printer that can handle it. I’m excited! It’s gonna take like a month to get the protos, the wait will be hard.
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I don’t know if I’m ever going to do a production run or not, taxes are daunting, but I am planning to do a PIF with 1 or 2 of the protos when they get in assuming they work out.
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I want to know more details so bad now. What material? What design? Can I buy one? When?
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I don’t want to hijack this thread too bad so I’ll post some info about the proto in another thread or make one later today.
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Dang just read this thread and it is wild how we’re still having the same convos abt this. Not all yoyos need to be for everyone. Having rare or exclusive colors can be cool and people really like chasing rare and limited colors for yoyos. If that’s not for you, then just don’t try to buy those yoyos. There’s tons of brands making dope yoyos rn so we are truly blessed. Capriccio is easily one of the best monos I ever played and it is relatively cheap for a comp worthy yoyo (Isaac used it to final worlds) as an example. Yoyo price is obviously about more than the dollar amount of materials, labor, production cost type stuff etc. I am absolutely down to spend more money for exceptional products that have been designed by the best designers in the world. That is why I support the brands I support. Design, intention, and craft matters to me. Idk sorry I’m ranting now but there’s lots of options for everyone and that’s dope.
Shoutout to Dreamcraft for curating such an insane and thoughtful experience w their yoyos. Shoutout to Turning Point for producing some of the best playing yoyos in the world with a ton of nuanced design decisions you don’t see everywhere. I appreciate the little things w those, like how the bearing posts recede in at the seat a bit so there is extra room for the bearings to wiggle back and forth when removing them as an example. Kentaro is making yoyos that often have a unique feel I like also. Shoutout MK1 and UNPRLD and Mowl. Lots of other dope brands out there too! Ppl should just support whoever they want and accept that not everything needs to be for everyone. The focus on costs and price and scarcity seems to be missing the point. Yoyos are niche and it’s cool so many designers and companies have different approaches. I love all y’all yoyo ppl and mostly just wanted to rant a bit lol
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I mean I’m not really a company but I sell yoyos and for me personally like, it feels like a risk alone selling a certain yoyo and when I make another I’d kind of want to also interesting to the people who like my brand in general ig?
Like personally I just love adding waifus to yoyos haha, so like if I do one order of them (when getting a yoyo you need a minimum order amount from a manufacturer) so It’s like $800 to sell like let’s say 30 yoyos, bro once the one I’m doing rn sells out I’m just gonna go for a new anime girl design cuz that way I find it more fun personally to collect more yk? If not at least a new yoyo shape entirely at least.
And it may interest people who wanna get it too, but also that if I sell the same one again, I’m gonna have it pray I find more people to buy it. Maybe because a yoyo got popular they assume most people got it so they’d rather make something else to become popular?
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I feel we are very fortunate that given how small the yoyoing community is, there is such a wide variety of yoyos being put out there each year. In many ways, we are spoilt for choice and for the most part this is being enabled by people’s passion projects. Indivduals cannot necessarily risk huge runs or repeats due to the personal financial risk involved and taking a substancial loss could result in them having to close up shop.
The price entry point for a decent performing yoyo is actually very low when you think about it compared to many other hobbies. Plus, there is always something available at small incremental increases in price. If someone wants to do smaller releases for high value yoyos, good for them. If someone wants to make the best performing budget yoyo, good for them. Each to there own and I don’t see any harm in people doing what they need to to keep themselves doing what they love.
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I feel like it’s disingenuous to be lumped in like that. I did make small amounts of yoyos at first, but it’s not like they sold out in an afternoon or a week. There were always yoyos available. I never relied on instant sell outs to drive sales, I always ordered more than I thought would sell in a month.
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I was gonna say - 200 is like the “let’s try it and see” for me. My largest single run was 550 yoyos. I have been trying to have stuff in stock for people to pick from.
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It’s funny, while it’s great to have stock, I’ll have to admit that if it looks like there’s still stock left some time after a drop, I may question if a throw is really that good. Anyone else do this? It’s kind of a, in the back of my head, kind of thing. You wonder why more people haven’t jumped on it, when it could be more of an issue of how big or small the run was.
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I do this too, it gives me a second chance to rethink my financial decisions 
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It’s because the best yoyos aren’t the best selling yoyos. The coolest yoyos are the best selling yoyos. It’s always been that way. Marketing and sales tactics makes more money than the best products. It doesn’t super matter in yoyos though, since nearly every yoyo is really good these days.
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Sometimes I think its as simple as needing to be sure the units will sell. On The Goods it was brought up how damning dead stock can be to your profits.
I also think artificial scarcity is quite real, but for some brands, that is literally their thing. To which I say rock your dedicated customer base they drink the kool aid, it makes them happy, happiness is important.
Some are really darn cool, but at the end of the day, its spinning objects with the same bearing as everyone else, with some exception occasionally
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The yo-yos I get most excited by are handmade or designed by friends.
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Oh I disagree…
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You were first I thought of when noting the exception 
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