5 ms·

Destroying thousands of units kind of sucks - would it cost a great deal to have the inventory shipped to some sort of low-cost offline storage for later sale?

Destroying thousands of units kind of sucks - would it cost a great deal to have the inventory shipped to some sort of low-cost offline storage for later sale? Or is that just going to eat into margins? Edit: since the game appears to be kid-friendly and non-partisan, maybe the company should consider a crowdfunding campaign to buy back the extra stock and send them to schools for free.

ikeboy 10y ago
It costs 50 cents per item to recall, but you sometimes can't send the same item in again for some time. By the way, based on the rank of the items, it's selling around 50-100 units a month as of now.
- mmastrac 10y ago
  I know zilch about the physical inventory world - is that $.50 something Amazon will charge?
  - ikeboy 10y ago
    Yes, Amazon charges 50 cents to recall an item. Sometimes they offer free recalls (right before q4 when they wanted to clear out their warehouse, for instance), but then you usually can't send the same item in for some time. They really don't want people using them for long term storage, they've been pushing for people to only send in inventory that will sell soon. That's why they have extra fees if you have something there past 6 months, and again past 12 months. They also started charging extra for storage during q4 (November and December).
acveilleux 10y ago
It's likely to add up to the printing cost pretty fast.
JPTeasdale 10y ago
Yeah it does suck. We're going to look exactly at how much it'll cost to ship / warehouse them vs destroy. My gut instinct is shipping + storing 5000 for the duration until they sellout would be comparable to just printing a second edition in China if demand picks up again.
- guiomie 10y ago
  Can't you give them away? Would be some extra marketing.
  - JPTeasdale 10y ago
    Even giving them away cost's ~$6 per unit to ship them somewhere. We're looking into donating a bunch to schools / libraries / other non-profits.
    - karmajunkie 10y ago
      well, i just bought a couple, so knock that problem down a couple more units...
    - arnarbi 10y ago
      Offer current buyers the option of giving a second copy to charity for an extra $5?
      - lxmorj 10y ago
        Charity up-sell is an interesting idea. Sort of like the popular buy-one give-one business model, but optional.
    - robertelder 10y ago
      Idea: Give them away or destroy them in a spectacularly interesting way that millions of people will want to watch: https://holidayhole.com/ https://holidayhole.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMDMoNu66_1Hwi5-MeiQgw/featured https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMDMoNu66_1Hwi5-MeiQgw/fea... https://www.youtube.com/user/Blendtec https://www.youtube.com/user/Blendtec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXtSlEW1XmE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXtSlEW1XmE
mabbo 10y ago
The expensive part is shipping. Option 1: Ship to paying customers. This is the ideal outcome. Option 2: Ship everything back to the seller, or to a storage place, etc. Expensive because Amazon has to have labour go and retrieve it all (look up videos for how Amazon stores its items- it's madness and it's awesome). Then you need to essentially pay for one or more pallets of stuff to be shipped, which is cheaper than shipping individually, but not free. Option 3: Destroy it all. Amazon charges you because even destroying it isn't that cheap. It's cheaper than shipping it, yes, but there's still a lot of work involved. I think if you want to help these guys out, encourage people to buy the game.

ikeboy 10y ago

It costs 50 cents per item to recall, but you sometimes can't send the same item in again for some time. By the way, based on the rank of the items, it's selling around 50-100 units a month as of now.

mmastrac 10y ago
I know zilch about the physical inventory world - is that $.50 something Amazon will charge?
- ikeboy 10y ago
  Yes, Amazon charges 50 cents to recall an item. Sometimes they offer free recalls (right before q4 when they wanted to clear out their warehouse, for instance), but then you usually can't send the same item in for some time. They really don't want people using them for long term storage, they've been pushing for people to only send in inventory that will sell soon. That's why they have extra fees if you have something there past 6 months, and again past 12 months. They also started charging extra for storage during q4 (November and December).

acveilleux 10y ago

It's likely to add up to the printing cost pretty fast.

JPTeasdale 10y ago

Yeah it does suck. We're going to look exactly at how much it'll cost to ship / warehouse them vs destroy. My gut instinct is shipping + storing 5000 for the duration until they sellout would be comparable to just printing a second edition in China if demand picks up again.

guiomie 10y ago
Can't you give them away? Would be some extra marketing.
- JPTeasdale 10y ago
  Even giving them away cost's ~$6 per unit to ship them somewhere. We're looking into donating a bunch to schools / libraries / other non-profits.
  - karmajunkie 10y ago
    well, i just bought a couple, so knock that problem down a couple more units...
  - arnarbi 10y ago
    Offer current buyers the option of giving a second copy to charity for an extra $5?
    - lxmorj 10y ago
      Charity up-sell is an interesting idea. Sort of like the popular buy-one give-one business model, but optional.
  - robertelder 10y ago
    Idea: Give them away or destroy them in a spectacularly interesting way that millions of people will want to watch: https://holidayhole.com/ https://holidayhole.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMDMoNu66_1Hwi5-MeiQgw/featured https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMDMoNu66_1Hwi5-MeiQgw/fea... https://www.youtube.com/user/Blendtec https://www.youtube.com/user/Blendtec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXtSlEW1XmE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXtSlEW1XmE

mabbo 10y ago

The expensive part is shipping. Option 1: Ship to paying customers. This is the ideal outcome. Option 2: Ship everything back to the seller, or to a storage place, etc. Expensive because Amazon has to have labour go and retrieve it all (look up videos for how Amazon stores its items- it's madness and it's awesome). Then you need to essentially pay for one or more pallets of stuff to be shipped, which is cheaper than shipping individually, but not free. Option 3: Destroy it all. Amazon charges you because even destroying it isn't that cheap. It's cheaper than shipping it, yes, but there's still a lot of work involved. I think if you want to help these guys out, encourage people to buy the game.