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Showing 1 of 13 conversations about:
Alex101
4
Feb 9, 2015
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DJohnson123
0
Feb 10, 2015
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Alex101I don't think you realize what's involved in designing, producing, marketing, and selling products. At a profit large enough to pay for your machines, workspace, utilities, consumables, and time.
How much would you charge for a top that you carved out of metal and plated gold?
How much would you charge for a top that you carved out of metal and plated gold?
zoomorph
423
Feb 11, 2015
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DJohnson123There are MANY products available in the world around this price range or cheaper than $60 including many.... headphones, CD players, musical recordings, keyboards, monitors, books, etc, etc, etc.
Do you really believe that a spinning top, literally one of the simplest possible things to design with no moving parts, electronics, etc, is really worth the same? Is it harder to design than to write a 1000-page novel? Harder than to build a bicycle or a pair of IEMs? Funny one.
Someone is just very greedy for easy profit and they know there's a market of idiots out there willing to pay for anything made in the U.S.A. by some lazy, greedy American kids who think they deserve to make $200/hour for doing nothing. It's as simple as that.
And Massdrop is the perfect audience. We are accustomed to seeing all sorts of retarded products on here such as $200 pieces of solid aluminum, $100 pieces of stained wood, $30 keychains, etc. Massdrop does not make profit on selling cheap stuff and good deals. They make their profit by tricking us into buying extremely expensive niche products that are passed off as exclusive, high quality goods. They are often manufactured by little, unknown companies, because these people aren't for sale on the bigger marketplaces where prices are more competitive and more easily traced and scrutinized. By the way, there are still a few good deals on here; when users see a few good deals on a few products they're more likely to blindly assume that everything else is a good deal as well. As we know, that couldn't be further from the truth.
Do you really believe that a spinning top, literally one of the simplest possible things to design with no moving parts, electronics, etc, is really worth the same? Is it harder to design than to write a 1000-page novel? Harder than to build a bicycle or a pair of IEMs? Funny one.
Someone is just very greedy for easy profit and they know there's a market of idiots out there willing to pay for anything made in the U.S.A. by some lazy, greedy American kids who think they deserve to make $200/hour for doing nothing. It's as simple as that.
And Massdrop is the perfect audience. We are accustomed to seeing all sorts of retarded products on here such as $200 pieces of solid aluminum, $100 pieces of stained wood, $30 keychains, etc. Massdrop does not make profit on selling cheap stuff and good deals. They make their profit by tricking us into buying extremely expensive niche products that are passed off as exclusive, high quality goods. They are often manufactured by little, unknown companies, because these people aren't for sale on the bigger marketplaces where prices are more competitive and more easily traced and scrutinized. By the way, there are still a few good deals on here; when users see a few good deals on a few products they're more likely to blindly assume that everything else is a good deal as well. As we know, that couldn't be further from the truth.
AlexGk
143
Feb 13, 2015
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zoomorphThere's no need to overreact and argue with each other about something this trivial. First, all of us have different passions and hobbys which we like spending money on, that doesn't mean that one is better than another. Second, I might reply that a high end smartphone costs the company making it more or less a third of its sell price. Why sell something for $X if people will buy it for twice as much? Why does Sonos sell its Connect, which is a Play:1 without amp and speakers, for $349 ($150 more than the Play:1)? Because the Play:1 has to compete in a market full of products, while the Connect is addressed to a niche of people with high-end audio system, and there's really not much competition for such a product. Tops don't have what could be defined a huge market, so the few companies working in it can pretty much set the prices freely. I agree with you that many companies sell mediocre products at high prices passing them for extra high quality goods, but this happens on all sectors. That doesn't mean that all companies do that, or that it's a good thing to do, but why would they do differently if they can sell like this? Third: the company behind these tops is Canadian, based in the Toronto area.
AlexGk
143
Feb 13, 2015
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Nope, sorry! Tops aren't my kind of drug! And I'm not in the US, BTW.
zoomorph
423
Feb 13, 2015
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AlexGkI don't get your point. Yes, any company can set their price as high as they want; I'm not arguing against that. I'm just explaining why to me this is a horrible deal and I wouldn't personally buy it or encourage anyone else to. But you're all free to buy whatever you want. That's all.
AlexGk
143
Feb 13, 2015
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zoomorphYou don't get mine but I get yours. I was just pointing out how niche products tend to follow different market rules. The company behind them usually has to make most components itself, without the advantages of decentralized manufacturing, which is impracticable beacuse of the low stock of production and the international cross-shipping. In this particular case you might argue that manufacturing is fairly straightforward, but with low stock of production paying the cost of CNC machines would be impossible without increasing the prices of the products themselves. You also has to admit that you've been a little harsh towards buyers... But please, my comment wasn't addressed to you only. I answered you because you wrote the most articulated and, in your opinion, justified message.
zoomorph
423
Feb 14, 2015
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AlexGkWhat you've said is mostly applicable to small, inefficient companies. They are often found in niche markets because they can't survive in more popular and competitive ones. I would describe them as expensive niche products that, even when on sale, are very much luxury items: they'd be cheaper to make yourself unless you have a pretty high value on your time. One source of such inefficiency is if whoever runs the company wants to make big $$$ without doing much work and therefore simply charges big dollars for a simple product as he can due to lack of competition. This, IMO, is probably the case when talking about $60 tops and $30 pieces of stained wood. Such companies are great for massdrop because massdrop can take a nice % of their large profit margin and sell their product to a big group of dummies who think they are getting a discount. Just my $0.02 and I'm talking very generally here.
AlexGk
143
Feb 14, 2015
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zoomorphWe just have different opinions. Thanks God we do, otherwise these discussions would be extremely boring. You said that "whoever runs the company wants to make big $$$ without doing much work and therefore simply charges big dollars for a simple product as he can due to lack of competition.". You speak about this as it if were a bad thing. From a costumer point of view it is, it is terrible, a cancer for the development of a fair market. But from a business point of view this is brilliant. Doing less to earn more, because there are people who would spend this much. I'm not saying that this company in particular is doing this, and neither I'm saying that people buying high priced niche products are dummies. For instance, I love pens, and I have some that can be defined niche products. You joined a drop for a knife, whose material and manufacturing costs were certainly much lower than the sum you paid for it. Neither Massdrop nor the companies that sell through it are charity foundations. Now, I understand wanting to make people know when a drop might not be a good deal, I've done it myself a couple of times. But going in every single discussion to say that there's a better deal on xxx.com / the price is not discounted enough / shipping is too high / this thing is useless / people buying this are dummies isn't the solution. Do you write negative comments for work? I'm not sure if you work for or against Massdrop, because commenting like usually has the opposite effect than causing people to withdraw.
DJohnson123
0
Mar 22, 2015
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zoomorphAs someone who designs, manufactures, markets, and sells his own products. Yeah I do. I make knives, I generally spend 150 hours on each one and sell them for around 600 dollars each. I made a net loss last year of around 15000 dollars doing this. Yet my products sell instantaneously upon completion.
If I sold them for 25 bucks each I would have a much greater loss.
If I sold them for 25 bucks each I would have a much greater loss.
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