I love the look of this. I am eagerly awaiting mine.
Not to dampen the parade, this looks like a pretty slick yo-yo… but has anyone taken into account that this is hurting YoYoExpert and other YYF retailers?
They are selling roughly 100 of these titaniums direct at $200 a pop while retailing them for $300 when they hit the virtual store shelves. Anyone that wants to pick up one of these is already going to have it at the reduced rate while the stores are going to be sitting on the higher priced stock. I know many will say that they will sell… but honestly those who are going to buy it already know about it and how many $300 yo-yos sell more than a run of 100.
And now for the funny aside. The video does look intriguing but did anyone catch the shipping box?
Here is a screen grab of the video:
Here is an up close of the box:
I was wondering if it was the name of the machining company and instead see that it says “beauty massager”… does this mean it vibes? I kid of course but that is darn funny.
Haha did they put it in the box to just take it out for the video? This is what I was wondering because aren’t they in the YYF HQ, where they are supposed to be assembled? Did I just start a conspiracy? ;D
Looked pretty sealed up to me and I know some international shipping requires the brown paper wrapping like that. I am betting the proto came assembled. It would not surprise me if they did a test at machine shop to make sure it worked before shipping it off.
I thought about this when it first appeared. I do not know the whole story, but two things came to my mind:
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There must be more than 100 made. This means that the extra yo-yo’s are subsidized by the initial investors. This MIGHT mean that YYF can sell to YYE at reduced prices and still maintain margins. That would mean more Ti yo-yo’s for less money.
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This crowd-sourcing reduces the risk to both manufacturer and retailer. This makes them less-sensitive to carry-costs; allowing them to hold more inventory for longer without margins eroding.
I guess the thing that really caught my attention is “why”? Why is YYF crowd-sourcing this yo-yo? Is buying stock-Ti really beyond the means of YYF to invest in for production? Even in China?
The best guess/answer I could get was that these initial investors are actually paying for the whole run. That would make the risk to YYF essentially zero and provide additional yo-yo’s to sell at 100% margin. This would be the ideal scenario for any manufacturer.
Just a guess though… If anyone knows the real story, I am curious.
My guess is the same as YoyoGeezer’s. I saw it more as risk mitigation than profit increase, though. I’m sure it’s both.
But unlike certain parties, I’m less likely to cry “evil!” when a company tries alternative tactics like this. I did think of what saintrobyn mentioned (harm to my favourite retailer and possibly harm to YYF themselves) but at the end of the day I don’t begrudge anyone opportunities to try things a new way, and I don’t feel bad for buying from the only place I could buy. YYE and YYF have a strong relationship-- I don’t imagine that will change in the least.
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Did you make any comments like this when CLYW moved nearly all of their operations to their own website for a considerable amount of time? Surely that had a far larger effect on retailers than this single yoyo…
Personally i’m all for selling direct. I don’t have any particular allegiance to a store - bottom line and getting the product i want is all that matters.
10 more and they’ll be giving away the aluminums. Or aluminiums for Gambit, my British friend.
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So much win here. I would always say aluminium, but I think it sounds ridiculous in an American accent.
I always say “aluminium”. Thankfully it’s rockin’ in my Canadian accent, which is totally unlike a midwest American accent.
typically we work exclusively with retailers. I don’t think we could have got a big enough retail commitment to put this yoyo into production. We needed ‘real’ demand. We have shown the demand isn’t super strong. We haven’t sold 100. The U.S. dollar is a monster, it’s not a hot time of year. This got it to happen. We will invest in stock. Our production moq is more than 100 pieces to get it to this price. The indiegogo won’t fund total run production but it does reduce the risk to us on what is a marginal project. In 2 months when someone wants what we believe will be a legendary yoyo they can either try pry them from an indiegogo customers hands or go to our retailers. long game, the retailers will do ok. Without this it’s an opportunity we couldn’t have provided to them.
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Rock on! ;D
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Yay!!! A straw man argument, we can always count on you for that.
No, I didn’t make that comment. Why, because they didn’t move nearly all for a time CLYW moved ALL business to their website. This on the other hand is selling the first 100 units at a lower price while letting the retailer sell the rest at a substantially higher price point.
While you may not have an allegiance to YYE, quite a few of us do. Sales here provide the server space and bandwidth for you to come in and make some of you “fun” comments to the community.
YoyoExpert actually supports this project.
Wow, that video was crazy. :o We got to see yyfben2 throwing some yo-yo too, so that was really cool. I’m happy to see that we are steadfast toward the goal.
But, I sense another goal to be set before the deadline. Hmmm…$35k, $40k? ;D
Ben seemed to like one backer’s suggestion of a gold CT upgrade for reaching a stretch goal. That’s something I can dig. I have one of the gold CTs and it’s great.
Not to nitpick (which means that’s exactly what I’m going to do), but I dont think NathanC’s argument should be categorized as a strawman. Make no mistake, he is engaging in a logical fallacy (as we all do), but I believe his argument is better described as a false equivalence. A logical fallacy no matter the term, but for the sake of the children and future philosophers reading this board, I thought I’d chime in.
Happy to be corrected if I’m wrong here.
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anmo, you and I should be friends.
Deal 
Hey I just saw that you could heat anodize titanium. Does anyone have any experience with this? Gambit, maybe you and your ricochet can participate in another experiment.
Hmm, I dunno if false equivalence exactly is the right one to call it either…def closer than strawman but still…meh screw it, I don’t want to be the one that nitpicks lol.