I'm still hoping to hear from more companies or individuals..........

Ocha

What is all the big deal about pre-ordering? Why can't people wait for a couple of months till the product is out and some feedback from actual trials in the real world is available (rather than piles of marketing hype, and sometimes white lies from people who been paid/co-opted to endorse the product). To be brutally honest, you should take a long hard look at the way magic is marketed, and use that study to your advantage, to enhance your purchasing power.

To Ocha, you stated you wanted you be part of the solution. The solution is not to pre-order. Don't pre-order, and you will be part of the solution.

If the effect is any good, it will be available again in no time anyway. Who is is going to miss the continued profit from a sell out? If it is no good, it might not be available again, but then you have saved yourself some cash. If you really like buying lame effects you can always buy left over stock, or get it at a knock down on Ebay.

I do understand your position on this subject, but in fairness if pre-orders worked the way they are supposed to , then when the effect is released to the public the you would already have those real world reviews from the pre-orders. As someone who would rather wait for reviews, you should be all for pre-orders so you would have those reviews sooner. I do not disagree with you, in fact (at least for the time being) I won't be pre-ordering ANYTHING unless or until pre-ordering is handled properly by companies offering them.
I do thank you for the post, and I agree with most of your opinions on this subject.

Thank you Blackshadow,

Ocha

I am going to chime in here with my experience with pre-orders.

Firstly, as a consumer, I have pre-ordered items in the past. I do not do it for the sake of saving money, but to ensure I receive a copy of an item in a timely manner. I have done this with videogames in the past. I have shown up on release days only to find the particular game I was wanting, had been sold out in a few hours. I don't want to have to end up waiting for a couple of weeks for demand to die down before being able to walk into a shop at my leisure and grab it from the shelves.

Now comes the experience with my own shop. I HATE offering pre-orders. If the distributor doesn't come through, my reputation gets hurt, and my customer doesn't get their product. If the manufacturer doesn't come through, same thing happens. My customer does not get what I said I could provide. I do not like putting myself in a position to be held accountable for outragious claims manufacturers make. That is irresponsible. Not to mention that I have noticed some manufacturers will fill and ship their largest orders first......to the wholesale distributors. Sometimes. Not always. Either way, not very fair.

I think I can count the number of items of pre-orders I have offered on one hand. Banachek's PSI Series, Tamariz' Mnemonica, Goldstein's Prism, (all of those were offered pre-order as I had a number of my friends/loyal customers wanting to pre-order) and recently I offered pre-order on all Masuda Products. The latter was offered because they are hand-made and there is a 1 - 2 month wait for orders from Masuda to be ready. Then they have to ship over from Japan. Rather than over-stocking, or under-stocking (with a 2 month wait for more) , I offered pre-order for about a week before placing the order. I did this to ensure everyone who pre-ordered was going to receive their products, and I would have enough in-stock to have for any future orders.

I can understand dealers wanting to pre-order for expersive items to guage their ability to sell. Especially to meet dozen minimums from manufacturers or distributors. For a shop like mine, where I STOCK about 2000 different products, I have to be certain I am stocking something in numbers that are not going to bankrupt me if there is no demand for it, and I end up not being able to sell them. Every manufacturer out there beleives they can demand certain numbers for shops as they beleive their products are the best thing out there and that they must sell themselves. I do not do business with them, or I pay a little more per copy, and deal with a disitrbutor of their item (if possible) where I can purchase the quantity I am confortable with purchasing. If not, someone else can stock it. I am not going to take a risk on stocking a ton of a product based on their minimum order policy. Hah. I have more titles in my shop that do not sell, than do. If I carried a dozen or so of each title, there is no way I could stay in business. Not to say they aren't amazing products, but the lifespan of most magic tricks is very limited. After 2 months, it isn't anything new, and nobody will remember it, and the next best thing is what is going to sell.

I guess my long-winded point is this: if a dealer is going to bring in a dozen copies of a product, that they are not sure about, but everyone is wanting because of the hype, they are going to make sure they are sold before they bring them in, to avoid the risk of being stuck with a ton of the product.

Another point: If a dealer thinks an item may be a hit, re-stocking the item after it's initial release could take weeks after it is sold out. So they offer pre-sales to test it's demand to know how much they should stock, and to ensure their customers received their's.

And the final point........
When doing this, the dealer is taking a chance that their manufacturer or distributor will not come through for them and their customers.

But keep in mind, there are other reasons for pre-orders being offered. This is only my own experience with them.

Sincerely,
Wayne Stevenson
The SpookClub
http://www.spookclub.com

Thank You for your input Wayno. Are there any other takers?

Ocha