Tiger's Den Hobbies Update (for those interested...)

[tigeraid]

My fellow AFers have helped me out a whole bunch in getting Tiger's Den Hobbies up and running and generating some sort of income, so I figured I'd let you guys know what was up.

I've gone ahead and closed the online store.

Failure (or miscommunication) on Aoshima's part is the main reason. From the start the president of the company made it sound as if we could work out a
business arrangement for small orders first; they initially demanded a $2500 minimum order--both my and my business advisor's theory was that it would be kind of foolish to order $2000 worth of kits and parts (plus FOB and shipping and customs--total bill for me might've been $3000--now you know why Japanese kits are so expensive!) when I have no idea what will sell in
the Canadian market from them. Hence why I posted all those polls and opinion threads last year asking for what you guys want to see from them.

I decided to make an order with my North American supplier (Revell, AMT, Fujimi, Tamiya) first, since they were closer, cheaper, and I knew how a large
portion of it would sell. Then came time to order from Aoshima this past January--went to place my order, whereupon they demanded $2500 minimum order and would not budge .

So anyway, not to bash Aoshima, they have great products, but it's obvious there was a communication breakdown somewhere. So I gave up on Aoshima.
As it stands, I only sell a handful of kits a month, so I decided to shut the store down. I may sell them on ebay, but mostly I'll just post up my inventory on AF and some other modeling places on a regular basis and sell em off to you guys. My other supplier was thankfully nice enough to retain my account, since I still sell kits to my Build Service customers, so technically I *am* still a retailer and I *can* still get you guys new kits if you need them.

The Build Services on the other hand, as you guys have seen from my WIP threads, is going swimmingly; lots of customers, lots more lined up, no chance of it really slowing down. Unfortunately, I can't build them fast enough (without sacrificing quality of course) to make steady money every month. I might go one month making $800-1000 on them, the next month almost nothing.

So I got a new fulltime job at a commercial auto parts place, which pays well and looks challenging but easy-going at the same time. I'll continue to do the
Build Services on the side and after work, at a reduced pace of course. Tiger's Den will indeed live on.

Comments, suggestions, "I told you so, loser" welcome.

[freakmech]

Originally Posted by tigeraid

they initially demanded a $2500 minimum order--both my and my business advisor's theory was that it would be kind of foolish to order $2000 worth of kits and parts (plus FOB and shipping and customs--total bill for me might've been $3000--now you know why Japanese kits are so expensive!)

Then came time to order from Aoshima this past January--went to place my order, whereupon they demanded $2500 minimum order and would not budge .

Im "failing" to see the "miscommunication" here? Also did you ever consider Bluefin, the US distributor of Aoshima? Otherwise sorry to here it. good luck.

[gionc]

Sorry to heard that, good luck. Ever though that when passion come into job... yep no easy to manage rationally. Good luck.

[tigeraid]

Originally Posted by freakmech

Im "failing" to see the "miscommunication" here? Also did you ever consider Bluefin, the US distributor of Aoshima? Otherwise sorry to here it. good luck.

Sorry, guess I worded that wrong. INITIALLY they demanded the $2500 minimum order. After discussing it with him via email a whole bunch, we settled on "do some research, and let me know what you can do for a minimum order, and we'll work something out." Then when I did some research and let them know what I could do for a minimum order, they went back to "sorry, $2500 minimum."

And no, I had not considered or heard of Bluefin, to be honest heh. I see I could've gone through them, though to be fair, in terms of cost it still would've been rather ridiculous by the time it got over the Canadian border and customs for US as well.

[Enzoenvy1]

Sorry to hear that John. Like we talked about a while ago, I have been looking into starting something here in the states also. But, the research has only began.

Keep your head up, it is only a speed bump.

[yelo]

SH*T! another canadien dealer who was looking to be something good goes away, sorry to hear that...

Do you still got that little MOLA SPORT Cappuccino. (Suzuki)? I think it was blue on the box and I'm sure it came with Volk's racing TE-37 wheel's.

If so, I was really thinking of getting it from you and, now that youre close, I might get it ASAP....

Please let me know...

[mike@af]

Why didnt you order through a distributor instead?

[tigeraid]

Sorry yelo, all my Aoshima postings were on the assumption that I was setting up for my first big order. Now that's out the window. But I want to make it clear, if there's something you want ordered and don't mind waiting for me to do an order every couple months or so, I can likely save you money on it (since this is no longer a life-sustaining business, I don't need to charge you full retail--just a small markup for my effort.)

Mike, to my knowledge, and I did research it reasonably well here in Canada, there is no distributor that works directly with Aoshima. I even researched through my LHS, who's been around forever, and he made it clear the only time he's ever had Aoshima stuff is when someone requested a kit and he found one on ebay for them.

And as mentioned above, I could've gone with the American distributor, but by the time it got here I would've paid even more than ordering it from Aoshima directly (distributor's markup due to FOB + shipping from America + customs duty at Canadian border...)

[yelo]

Ok then, I know another place where I can get it anyway...

Thank's again and sorry for your buisness...