I’m not a big fan of the Genesis but I would like to see one in Ti. The rim weight to center weight ratio is already crazy enough. Imagine if YYF took it to the next level. Forget the Buddha King, that thing would spin for hours!
Something odd has happened with the market for titanium yoyos.
Aluminum yoyos were the same way for a while and the market corrected to sort itself out so there is hope but stick with me here…
They cost a lot to make, that is given, both in materials and machine time/effort but thats not the problem that keeps them from being in stock constantly there being new releases from a variety of brands and there being more in bst and in the world.
The problem is the people who made them sold them for so little above cost that there was so little incentive for them to make more (or continually). Selling direct, forcing stores to make less margin… In the end it isn’t sustainable. We were guilty of this even with the catch 22. The solution would be to charge more but now the market sees the high price and thinks that is high already without considering the long run cost is less variety and availability. I know I don’t want to be the bad guy who tries to sell it for what it actually costs, which is a pitty, because I love the feel of titanium and wish more people could too.
So yeah. I’d like to see everything in aluminum in titanium. It’s neat stuff
How high of a price are we talking? People pay about 140 for newer CLYW, about 200 bucks for a YYR. Obviously if it promises any sort of increase in performance then there is a market for it.
Pump out some more Ti, Ben. Be the bad guy and sell it for whatever you think is sustainable. Yoyo Factory pioneered a new age of production quality and performance. Maybe this is the next step. If YYF could prove that there is a market for such a thing then other companies would soon follow. Really, YYF is one of the only companies that makes enough money to take such a risk anyways.
I bet he’s thinking closer to the $300 range to make it sustainable. People do pay quite a bit for high end throws, but there’s a point where the bell curve of interested buyers falls quickly to near 0. Based on the statements you already read on here complaining about throws in the $150+ range, that’s probably about where you’d see it happen.
I always assumed that this was the reason Ti throws were impractical from a business perspective. Regardless of whether or not they’re worth $250, or if that number makes you a profit, you still need a large enough buyer pool to justify producing the kind of volume that would make it a worthwhile venture. If you can only expect 20 or 30 buyers at that price, a run that small is just going to drive the necessary price up even further…or cut the profitability of each. Either way, hardly seems worth the effort in the first place when you can sell hundreds or even thousands of aluminum models.
the skywalker was not a direct carry over to the ti walker, there were slight variations in design…
i do not know if this is because an aluminum and ti do not play exactly the same, or heath just wanted to make slight adjustments for whatever other reasons.
unrelated, all of the 4 bipbop chiefs on ebay went for around 4-600 dollars. i still see posts where the catch 22 is in demand.
granted a smaller run of ti wouldn’t garner as much profit as an aluminum run of thousands, i think there is a market for even more expensive yoyos above the 200$ range. over a run of 100-150 idk… but all you need is the right yoyo.
personally the chief is my favorite atm. i would plop down whatever amount close to about the 500 Edit: 400 dollar range to see one (im not ballin out of control, i just think it would be worth it imo). the bst would go nuts on these tho as said…
ti is really something else, i was just throwing my tiwalker the other day thinking how awesome it is, just has a unique feel aluminum cant replicate. shame there arent more.
True, the “right” yoyo is always going to be profitable. The question (imo) is whether or not a company is willing to take a risk on creating the right throw, and more importantly, whether or not the reward is even worth the attempt. I’m sure Ben has some real insight into this but all I can go from is what we see on the market, or lack thereof. It doesn’t seem really effective thus far, despite a few collectors out there who are willing to fork over lots of cash for rare throws.
I just wonder if Ti is really even practical at all outside of being a luxury oddity in this application. It would be interesting to know what the absolute minimum price of a quality Ti throw would be given a run of 50-100. If it’s under $200, I could maybe see that working depending on the brand name behind it.