Greetings to all!
With the daily hammering of bad news about the economy, things are more than tight. These days job losses that continue to grow, bankers that keep getting bonuses and a sagging stock market is all the news seems to be able to report.
Well I say enough is enough, and it's fine time someone reported some good news! Luckily, today, I get to be that person, though I did have to ace Ron out and lock him in his office for a day... or two.
On with the news you say? Well here you go:
Reaper will begin reducing prices on all new releases starting with the street date release of 03.30.2009.
Q - How much will the reduction be?
A - Pretty substantial, a complete listing of the 03.30.2009 release is below.
Q - Why a price decrease?
A – With each price increase over the last two years we have seen a balancing reduction in volume. Simply put, we produce less and sell it for more. Sounds good at first, but what it really means is that we have been pricing people out of their hobby and people leaving our hobby is a bad thing at any level.
Q – Why did you wait till now to reduce the price?
A – The main component of our models is tin. The tin market has been in general decline since May of last year when it reached a record high of $25,150 per ton.
Even though the price of tin has been falling, the tin market remains extremely volatile. As an example on October 24th 2008 tin closed at $11,250 per ton, yet three days later on October 27th it closed at $14,995 per ton.
In the last 8 weeks we have seen a very stable pattern with tin closing between $10,800 and $12,000. We believe that this pattern will settle in for a while and believe we can pass this new price and market stability on to you!
Q – Why not a general price reduction? I mean you raised prices across the board.
A – While we would love to do that, it's not really as easy as it sounds. A distributor or retail store doesn't worry about you raising the value of their inventory with a price increase. Decreasing their inventory value and throwing their margins and percentages out the window is not something they generally take lightly.
I will say we are currently talking with distributors directly and retail stores across the country via an industry internet board to discuss a general price reduction procedure and strategy. I can't promise anything, but if we can do a general price reduction we will.
Q - What makes one miniature have little to no change in pricing, while others decrease by $3.00?
A – Currently tin is still the largest cost factor when it comes to determining the cost of most miniatures. As you can see in the release below this is especially true when it comes to larger models.
There are other very important factors as well, such as mold size, labor, and packaging requirements. We can't simply decrease the price by, say, 20% across the board but conversely we have never raised our price in that manner either.
Q – What can I do to persuade my store to go along with a general price reduction?
A – First tell them about this price reduction stating with the March 30th release. Discuss your feelings about this new price.
Simply because they stock and sell your hobby doesn't mean they understand your hobby. Explain to them that you don't buy miniatures to paint, rather you buy miniatures to daydream about painting and that you like to daydream a lot!
Lastly, preorder something off of the new release and jump back into your hobby! Excitement and commitment by you will do more than anything to convince them than we could ever hope to do on an internet board.
Q – What product lines will use this new pricing formula?
A – All future new releases into product lines currently in production as well as all cancelled numbers and parts in our online store.
Q – Will you reduce the price again in the future?
A – We hope we can. We will need to again see both a reduction in the price of tin and world market stability.
Thank you for reading this and best wishes to all,
Ed Pugh
Reaper Miniatures
