Bethesda must have found a vault full if canvas because they're going to send out the bags they initially promised.
Black Mamba
Bethesda must have found a vault full if canvas because they're going to send out the bags they initially promised.
Senior Member
Fun fact, PVC, one of the primary ingredients in canvas, is on list 2 of section 301. That may have played a part in the decision to go to nylon, since the materials became more expensive to import. Still a shitty implementation of a bad decision after they advertised canvas, but if I were the importer eyeing that, I'd have given a hard look at nylon too. The materials there are also affected, but at a much lower starting cost. Clearly if I'd already advertised one thing I wouldn't swap it, but the costs for those mix boxes add up faster than you think. Especially when you've got customized items in them. They're some of the lowest margin products I sell, all said and done, and I -got- the lower material prices before the tariffs hit.
Senior Member
Trump caused Fallout 76.Originally Posted by Stumplicker
Last edited by Taernath; 12-03-2018 at 11:57 PM.
You had better pay your guild dues before you forget. You are 113 months behind.
Senior Member
Fo sheezy.
Out of curiosity I decided to eyeball import everything in the kit because I was doubting my previous comment. There's a little bit of leeway depending on how many they produced, but I'm guessing between 2500-5000 to retail at $200. 5000 would be a million gross on just a high end novelty product. That's probably a stretch, even for AAA. I don't know if the $200 includes shipping, but I'm going to assume it does.
The helmet itself is between 3-5 molds, one LED kit, one sound kit, painting and assembly. The molds are expensive. Looks like there's a bit of aluminized steel piping on there also, which ups the cost. All in, that helmet probably costs $50-60 for them to produce at such a low quantity run, part list 1 tariffs, part list 2 and part list 3. Call it 4 molds here plus one for the plastic figures below, that's about $10000 divided by however many they produced to add to the overall cost. Assuming the middle at say 3750 units, call it $2.85 each extra to offset the mold costs.
The plastic figures are 1 more mold. That's the biggest cost there. Rest is pretty automated. Gonna produce those in bulk and polybag pack. That bag probably costs $2.00 if there are 20 figures in it with a two color offset printed cardboard topper, list 3 tariffs.
The map and book can be produced by the same print house. Assuming the inside of the book is medium weight and only color on the binding, $2.50 each, maybe $0.75 each for the maps, list 3 tariffs.
Box with single color printing outside, $1.15 each or so at that quantity, list 3 tariffs.
Nylon bag, maybe $2.25 each, list 2.
Custom steel game case, $2.00 each, list 1 tariffs.
They're drop shipping these anywhere in the US. Probably a 10 pound package, about 15x15x10 size. Call it $13 for standard shipping on average assuming they've negotiated decent deals with their carriers.
$~55 Helmet
$~2.85molds
$~3.25 printed goods
$~2 case cost
$~2 plastic figures and polybag
$~2.25 nylon bag
$~13 shipping
$60 base game
So you're at $140.35 and you haven't yet paid tariffs or accounted for overhead, not to mention you haven't factored in that 10% of anything you get from even the good factories in China is going to be too defective to sell. You haven't paid your employees to write the 300 page book or make factory drawings for the individual mold pieces of the helmet. That part's not a big leap considering you have 3D modelers on staff, but there's still some work. You're retailing for $200. Yeah I'd have gone with the nylon too. Two thirds of the products on the list here are 10% tariff in addition to the about 3% they were before the trade war, the other third are 25%.
Trump killed Fallout.
Last edited by Stumplicker; 12-04-2018 at 08:23 AM.
Bethesda leaks thousands of peoples credit card info, address, names, phone numbers, etc... through their ticket system. In an effort to give people the initial canvas bag they promised.
Oof.
It is their fault for not buying and having the items already on hand when selling them. It was a limited item, they should have already had those and priced it accordingly.
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
I heard it was just names, phones numbers, and addresses. Because CCs aren't in the ticket system.
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
It was also credit card info. There's a few reddit posters who were claiming they could see the last 4 digits.
Senior Member
Oh no doubt their fault and they should eat the cost. Having put a bunch of those types of things together though, the timeline is usually very tight. By the time R&D finishes, you've got to immediately place orders. It'll take 10-20 days for the back and forth between all the factories to determine what you want. It'll take 10-20 days for mold creation. 10-20 days for samples. 10 days for back and forth with the bank wires. 20-30 days in production. 10-20 days waiting on FCL as all your products get trucked into one port from different factories. 45 days on the water. 3-7 days in customs in New York. Depending on your trucking port, maybe another 3-10 days for hopping another ship. 3-10 days arranging trucks for delivery. Before you know it, 6 months have gone by and you're praying you can get your trucks in in time to throw the packages together and get them out to consumers.
And mind you, you can't start the R&D on this package too too early, because what if one of the things you're including gets cut from the end product? R&D on the retail stuff happens about 2/3 of the way through development. Basically right before crunch time. It sucks.
But yeah, they handled it like crap and absolutely should eat the cost.
Last edited by Stumplicker; 12-06-2018 at 02:29 PM.
Senior Member
Stump, you might have already answered this, but how much did you estimate the canvas bags to cost?
You had better pay your guild dues before you forget. You are 113 months behind.
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