Group Buy Interest?

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I will be very upset if it is. What issue. What was on the cover of that EQ. I can't remember if I got it or not. I get most of the mags here, but rarely have time to go thru them.
NAMM booth 4650, are they advertising for the summer Namm show already ?
 
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Chance, it's the March 2006 issue with Harry Gregson-Williams called Making Audio Visual. It's the same issue with the article by Lynn Fuston about buying mics from China. I hope N*dy didn't steal your plans! By the way, how is that condenser mic you had Ningbo build working out?
 
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nuitronic said:
By the way, how is that condenser mic you had Ningbo build working out?
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Still got a few bugs to work out. I sent out to all group buyers, some audio clips, but I got a reply of "delivery failure". Maybe the file was too big.
 
Chance,

I'm wondering if you came to the same conclusion Lynn Fuston did regarding importing mics as a DIY project - if you figure the value of your time, you're not really getting a deal. Or is that not really an issue for you?

Just trying to spark a little conversation around mic purchasing models.

Thoughts?
 
MichaelJoly said:
Chance,

I'm wondering if you came to the same conclusion Lynn Fuston did regarding importing mics as a DIY project - if you figure the value of your time, you're not really getting a deal. Or is that not really an issue for you?

Just trying to spark a little conversation around mic purchasing models.

Thoughts?
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I enjoyed it. I did the same thing about 5 years ago with 797 audio. I have learned so much. The only thing that took a lot of time was dealing with the people wanting to get in on the group buy. The next group buy will have to be devided up. I will give someone all the info, THEY will have to deal with getting orders together. I can handle transferring funds recieving and shipping. This company actually approached me, from having done bussiness importing from 797. The savings, and I have to be careful here,
are still more than half of what you would pay here. The cost by itself is 1/4 the cost. then you add the shipping and duty. The group buy that is now in transit included tube/condenser mics, condenser, dynamic, and ribbon mics. We got around 95 mics and I transfered $4K. The shipping was just a little over a note in the key of C ($108.00)
 
chance said:
The group buy that is now in transit included tube/condenser mics, condenser, dynamic, and ribbon mics. We got around 95 mics and I transfered $4K. The shipping was just a little over a note in the key of C ($108.00)
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That comes to a little over $40 per mic, yet the cheapest mics I saw on the list were over $40 with many in the $50 to $60 range. That would also make the shipping just a little over $1 per. Are you sure there are that many mics in the order? :confused:
 
chance said:
The only thing that took a lot of time was dealing with the people wanting to get in on the group buy. The next group buy will have to be devided up. I will give someone all the info, THEY will have to deal with getting orders together.
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That's what I was getting at. Bulletin boards are ideal spaces to hold group buy feature and model discussions - but they're inefficient spaces to actually organize group buys. It seems like if some enterprising software jockey could come up with an automated order taking process the group could then present itself as a self-organized buying block to any number of vendors - from factory direct Chinese manufacturer to re-badging US distributors.

The potential to the right vendor is not just a quick one-off sale but potentially long-term, repeat sales to this group. The "life time customer value" concept. A self organized group represents a sizable database of buyers who could be marketed to. So I believe a quantified, interested and easy-to-reach buying group has a lot a pricing leverage power with vendors.

I'm envisionioning different buyer's groups that come together around different product types - preamps, compressors and A/Ds for example. There was a little discusion around this idea on the Tape Op board as a result of that ribbon mic group buy. In fact, the Tape Op buy not only involved discusion of which stock model mic to buy, but also what features the mic should have.

Look at the power of bulletin boards to launch and drive awarness of procucts through peer-to-peer buzz. The EH 12AY7 pre-amp for example. I just think it would be cool if peer power could get applied to the front end of the process - design features, as well as the purchasing end.
 
crazydoc said:
That comes to a little over $40 per mic, yet the cheapest mics I saw on the list were over $40 with many in the $50 to $60 range. That would also make the shipping just a little over $1 per. Are you sure there are that many mics in the order? :confused:
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The last order that I saw showed a total of 69 mics in the order. That would put the average cost at just under $60, and the average shipping around a buck and a half.

Duties will add something to that, as will local shipping and handling once the mics arrive in the US.
 
The hard thing now, and stirred so much interest is that I posted the price of what these mic will cost us. I got in big trouble over this. 5 of the brand name companies complained. Now it will be hard to get interest, because the cost can not be posted. Posting allowed many to reply from just one post. Now everything will have to be individual E-mail or PM's. One thing I can say. Does anyone remember that mic that was ordered and a substitute had to be ordered?( HRM-5 & HRM-12), well the mic we are getting that was substituted is the N--- RMS-4 at $359.95. for us it is the HRM-15. I'm now glad I got a pair.
I checked and there was 69 mics ordered.
 
Chance, I just got your email. So when are you expecting to receive the mics in CA? I was hoping they'd be here sooner (who wasn't) but whatever. We got a great deal.

Thanks again for doing this!
 
nuitronic said:
I was hoping they'd be here sooner...
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Yes, it took them about two months just to get the mics onto the boat. It does seem to have taken a bit longer than necessary. I can't help but wonder whether they may be trying to discourage us from placing another order. Or maybe that's just the normal pace over there.

I originally thought that we'd get them sometime in February. Now it looks like April might be optimistic. We'll see.

Like you, I'm still glad we went ahead with it. I'm glad we didn't pay extra for air freight, though. :rolleyes:
 
well, when we did the tapeop message board group buy we had the same situation come up--it took the factory longer to get the mics to us than they first said, and there were holidays and things like that involved. but, in the end it was definitely worth the wait. i use my alctron ribbons all the time (especially after ripping out the unnecessary inner mesh in the grill). i didn't mean to sound bitchy in my last post--i'm truly curious when we might expect to see these mics because i'm eager to try them out!
 
Like a little kid the day before Christmas...settle down young man...it will come. I see here in my book you've been a good boy. No coal in your stocking this year :D
 
Chance,

Is there a way to still order any of these mics in a group purchase? A second group order maybe?? There are 5 I wanted to order, and now am kickin myself. :mad: I also see others who missed the boat but are interested as well.

Thanks
AJ :cool:
 
Chance -
I got your e-mail also. I'm just curious...don't know if I'm misunderstanding it or not...but it seems like the prices are quite a bit under what we discussed. Is that an error on their end in the paperwork or did our price include something not on the paperwork? Maybe I'm not reading it correctly. Thanks for keeping us posted!
 
There's a very interesting discussion going on here at Lynn Fuston's 3dB forum about Chinese mic group buys. Well worth a read.
 
Just a quick note
I just got the bill of lading, and went to the shippers site and tracked, and it shows ETA of 3-28. I will Email all the info this afternoon (to everyone that made an order)
 
If everyone who ordered has checked their E-mail, I will ask again publicly here. Send me an E-mail. In the subject area, put "SHIPPING" in the message area, put your name, shipping address, and forum name. As many of you know, Alctrons main brands like Nady, Apex,etc threatoned to stop doing business with them, because of these group buys. At the NAMM show I have an agreement with them (Alctron) that any future buys can not be on a public forum. PM and E-mail are OK as they are private.
I picked up our mics yesterday at customs and will start shipping next week. If you have not E-mailed me with your shipping info, the sooner you do it, the sooner you will get your mics. DO NOT RESEND IF YOU ALREADY SENT ME THIS INFO as it will only slow the process down a lot
 
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