A question.
Do you want me to refuse selling our puzzle products to the obvious resellers?
One of the most common emails that we receive is about our limited productivity. Unfortunately, the time is limited and we can not increase our productivity dramatically. Many of our customers are not happy to see our products put on auction immediately after they are sold out at our official web shop, and the winning bid of the auction sometimes ends up two or three times higher than our retail price. I also don't like the activity to purchase our puzzles just for reselling purposes.
We often receive suggestions about a membership option on our web shop but there are several reasons that I don't want to take that option.
- It increases our work load thus we have less time to produce puzzles.
- There are more chances to make mistakes taking that option, like over selling, miscalculation for the shipping cost and so on.
- Since our productivity is limited, if the demands on the puzzle are larger than our stock level, we have to chose who can purchase the puzzle. A lottery option increases our work load as well.
- The resellers may pay for the membership and just add the cost for the reselling value. A membership option won't stop purchase for reselling.
- If we have only 20 puzzles and sell all of them to the members, we can not appeal to new customers.
So, how about the idea to refuse selling our puzzles to the resellers? If many of our customers prefer the option, I might take that when we start selling our new SD puzzle boxes. Please tell us your opinion through the contact form. If you like the option, please also tell us your idea in which way it can fairly be executed. It is disastrous to misjudge the genuine customer as a reseller, so it has to be applied carefully.
I'm aware that sometimes puzzle collectors have to part with their collection. Selling puzzles that are not to their taste is also understandable but buying whichever puzzles that can attract many collectors and then make a profit reselling them is a no no. Although we try to maintain our retail price as reasonably low as possible, if the majority of the products are taken by resellers and can not directly reach our genuine customers, it is very disappointing.
Quick update.Our new SD puzzle is coming to shape and is close to the finishing stage. We will probably have around 150 puzzles to sell and that means an additional 5-minute work for each puzzle and up to a day's work for all. I hope I can tell you good news very soon.
Juno
