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I wonder if the author is worried that now that they have had success getting their story on Hacker News and Reddit they will face much steeper competition. The

I wonder if the author is worried that now that they have had success getting their story on Hacker News and Reddit they will face much steeper competition. The product is cool but expensive, I suspect there is a lot of room to undercut their prices.

caio1982 9y ago
Not everyone is up to the challenge of working on this for 3 years to reach the same sweet place he is in now.
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  Which is exactly why copycats come in - they see the results of three years of innovation, get some insights in the production process and the challenges overcome (also via interviews like this), and just copy it at scale; larger manufacturing companies can probably get to churning these sets out by the thousands within a month. For a recent example, see the fidget spinner / cube situation, so many copies from so many manufacturers, it was unreal.
  - learc83 9y ago
    >larger manufacturing companies can probably get to churning these sets out by the thousands within a month. No way. The combination of materials and small size are too novel. Toy manufacturers have the equipment and experience to make small items out of plastic. Cinder block and brick manufacturers have the equipment and experience to make large blocks out of concrete. No one has the machinery necessary to make tiny concrete blocks like this at scale within a month. Even if a company took the time to build the setup required to make this product at scale, these things are much denser then the average toy and shipping costs from a cheap overseas factory will eat into the already thin margins.
lostapathy 9y ago
There seems to be a goldilocks zone in smaller markets like this - where you can make a product at a decent profit that looks easy to undercut, and the market is big enough to support a very healthy business ... but the market isn't so big that a competitor can come in on razor-thin margins and "make it up in volume" and displace the genuine article. Add in the fact that hobby purchases are very discretionary and a lot of people are willing to pay a little more for quality/genuine articles and this business is probably safer from simple undercutting than one would initially think.
- mathofma 9y ago
  You've hit the nail on the head. There's a LOT that goes into something like this. It's hard to replicate, and even if you did, the margins aren't there to undercut much.

caio1982 9y ago

Not everyone is up to the challenge of working on this for 3 years to reach the same sweet place he is in now.

Cthulhu_ 9y ago
Which is exactly why copycats come in - they see the results of three years of innovation, get some insights in the production process and the challenges overcome (also via interviews like this), and just copy it at scale; larger manufacturing companies can probably get to churning these sets out by the thousands within a month. For a recent example, see the fidget spinner / cube situation, so many copies from so many manufacturers, it was unreal.
- learc83 9y ago
  >larger manufacturing companies can probably get to churning these sets out by the thousands within a month. No way. The combination of materials and small size are too novel. Toy manufacturers have the equipment and experience to make small items out of plastic. Cinder block and brick manufacturers have the equipment and experience to make large blocks out of concrete. No one has the machinery necessary to make tiny concrete blocks like this at scale within a month. Even if a company took the time to build the setup required to make this product at scale, these things are much denser then the average toy and shipping costs from a cheap overseas factory will eat into the already thin margins.

lostapathy 9y ago

There seems to be a goldilocks zone in smaller markets like this - where you can make a product at a decent profit that looks easy to undercut, and the market is big enough to support a very healthy business ... but the market isn't so big that a competitor can come in on razor-thin margins and "make it up in volume" and displace the genuine article. Add in the fact that hobby purchases are very discretionary and a lot of people are willing to pay a little more for quality/genuine articles and this business is probably safer from simple undercutting than one would initially think.

mathofma 9y ago
You've hit the nail on the head. There's a LOT that goes into something like this. It's hard to replicate, and even if you did, the margins aren't there to undercut much.