Random Bag of Crap

Eldorian · 05-21-2008, 09:58 PM

Got my first bag of crap from a Woot Off from woot.com today and here's what I got for $1

archshrk · 05-21-2008, 10:27 PM

Cool beans!

Starphantom12 · 05-21-2008, 11:13 PM

Noice! I have that 8gb Sansa and it's awesome (except you do have to use WMP if you want to sync playlisty things). I may have to get in on this wootoff business! So far I've just watched.

**InkTank** · 05-22-2008, 11:27 AM

Wow, impressive!

Talondale · 05-22-2008, 11:34 AM

Don't see anything.

Eldorian · 05-22-2008, 12:05 PM

Was showing my roommate what I got and he was pissed because he just bought the exact same MP3 player earlier this week for $80.

Made my day since he's a jerk.

archshrk · 05-22-2008, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talondale

Don't see anything.

It's a YouTube video so it may be blocked by your work's firewall (like mine)

Gil · 05-22-2008, 12:23 PM

Holy crap an 8GB Sandisk player for 1$?

Verdick · 05-22-2008, 11:03 PM

Very nice! But dontcha have to say "Woot!" at the end or something?

Eldorian · 05-23-2008, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Verdick

Very nice! But dontcha have to say "Woot!" at the end or something?

Woot was the last word I said....

Verdick · 05-23-2008, 02:23 PM

Hmm, I seemed to have missed that then. Apologies.

Tyran333 · 05-23-2008, 05:32 PM

*laughs*

The funniest bit I thought:

"A wrapper... with nothing in it." ... I felt there shoulda been a "Uh.. woot?" there.

And the insta-jack phoneline things are kinda useless these days, but great if you're living in like.. a multi-bedroom apartment that doesn't have a phone line in every room, because that's all it pretty much does. Plug them in, plug a phone line into one, and the other ones will be able to pick up the dialtone off the electrical in the house.

Still, neat to see you got so much stuff. I can't help but wonder how more people either A.) Don't do it, or B.) Don't use it for evil.. I mean, hell, if you already HAVE an Mp3 Player.. you just got 2 more.. toss em on Ebay for like $5 each... buyer pays shipping... you just made $10 off $1. That's a heft profit margin. :p

Eldorian · 05-23-2008, 08:06 PM

There's a guy who actually got a 60" Plasma TV for his bag of crap in the same woot off as mine... so he definitely made out better than I did.

DinkyInky · 05-23-2008, 11:33 PM

So where do you go to look at this thing?

Adonis · 05-24-2008, 07:36 AM

Almost sounds a little fishy to me.

Sells stuff for one day only. No advance notice or number in stock listed.

It's like they're selling stuff off the back of a digital truck....

Does that player still have the serial numbers NG?

Eldorian · 05-24-2008, 08:06 AM

Yes it does... and most of the stuff you get is refurbished. And they only do the random bag of crap maybe once a month and it literally lasts maybe 1-2 minutes before it's sold out.

http://woot.com is the place Dinky.

Tyran333 · 05-24-2008, 06:17 PM

Well, Woot's part of the latest thing, which is the "overstock" game, apparently. A lot of their stuff is, in all probability, "Fallen off the back of a digital truck." I wouldn't be surprised to find that some of the stuff in the "Random Boxes of Crap"... were stuff they pulled from other sites like Overstock.Com or Amazon.Com or Ebay that were "great deals"... and put up for sale..

Gil · 05-25-2008, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyran333

Well, Woot's part of the latest thing, which is the "overstock" game, apparently. A lot of their stuff is, in all probability, "Fallen off the back of a digital truck." I wouldn't be surprised to find that some of the stuff in the "Random Boxes of Crap"... were stuff they pulled from other sites like Overstock.Com or Amazon.Com or Ebay that were "great deals"... and put up for sale..

I can't imagine even so that they can make a profit on those

Tyran333 · 05-25-2008, 02:05 AM

you'd be surprised in terms of cost economics.

I dunno about outside of LA, (I haven't seen any here in CA, for example, but i'm sure there must be one...) ... but in LA we've got a place called "Big Lots!" that's sort of a similar concept. They take stuff where the packaging's changed, or it didn't sell well in another country, or it mysteriously "fell off the wrong truck in the wrong location" ... and then sell it for essentially pure profit.

the vacuum cleaner we had before our current one, we'd bought at Big Lots!. We bought it for like $15. It was also on sale at Walmart.. for like.. $90.

Of course the box, and the instructions were all in Spanish...

But it's not hard to figure out how to put together a vacuum cleaner these days. They're practically assembled for you, thank god. And it performed admirably for four or five months. (laugh) If i'd have paid $90 and it broke in five months.. i'd have been mad. but for $15.. who's to really complain?

They also do a lot of "Bulk Buying" (which is what Walmart does.) which helps to drive the cost down. For the average store.. they might buy.. you know.. 100 vaccuum cleaners this month. But if Big Lots buys saying.. 10,000.. they're going to get a cheaper price per vaccuum cleaner.

*shrug* Woot just seems like all the rest of the "Overstock" style websites, just saying that in all probabilty the stuff you get in the random boxes of crap is stuff they couldn't sell anyway.

Gil · 05-25-2008, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyran333

They also do a lot of "Bulk Buying" (which is what Walmart does.) which helps to drive the cost down. For the average store.. they might buy.. you know.. 100 vaccuum cleaners this month. But if Big Lots buys saying.. 10,000.. they're going to get a cheaper price per vaccuum cleaner.

That reminds me. Recently Carrefour was under goverment investigation. Because of this they released the piechart explaining how they calculate a price.
I don't remember the exact details but their profit was ridiculously low (less than 1% generally around 1cent per product). Their only chance is to move massive quantities of merchandise. Fortunatelly for them they do it quite well.

Tyran333 · 05-25-2008, 02:35 AM

I cant imagine any company only has a 1% profit margin.

unless they're a "producer" for another retail outlet.

The companies that MAKE the Wal-Mart products? Probably don't have much profit margins (and very little contract security, as wal-mart changes suppliers almost weekly it seems. Same packaging, but when you're buying a lot of hamburger, it's funny to notice how one week your hamburgers coming from "Company A" and next week it's from "Company B" and the week after that from "Company C"... It's almost like they simply say "If you can offer the same product for a cheaper price, you win."

But Wal-Mart on the other hand... marks it up by a very large margin.

When I worked for cingular, we always laughed at that.. that 8100 Nokia phone had just come out, it was like $300 with a 2-year contract, but we had the "negotiated price from Nokia" that Cingular was paying per phone.. as employees, we could buy it at the "negotiated price"... which was $26.

:p

And I know Cingular's not the only company that does that. Generally speaking, the more "luxury" the item is, the higher it's profit margin. Most kids toys cost less than $5 to make, but retail for $40 or $50. most video games cost less than $5 to make, but again, retail for $40 or $50. The only caveat i've seen comes in with the consoles, in which, most consoles cost MORE than they're being sold for (but the difference is usually made up for in that you have to pay $40 for a $5 controller.... and of course.. you need another memory card to go with it... and maybe an extra controller or two. So sure, that Wii cost $400 to make.. and it's being sold for $250.. but after you buy the three extra wiimotes, the three extra nunchuks, ... at $30 each of course.. you've spent an extra $180 back to nintendo, so that $250 is really $430. Not much of a profit, mind you... but it's still a "profit", so to speak... and then of course... you need to buy games... where the real money is.

Gil · 05-25-2008, 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyran333

I cant imagine any company only has a 1% profit margin.

Carrefour is like walmart ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrefour ). The price breakdown I saw clearly showed that they make less than 1% PROFIT (that's after substracting employee costs, space costs etc.).

Tyran333 · 05-25-2008, 03:07 AM

Quote:

On 26 June 2007 the company was convicted in a French court for false advertising. The suit alleged that Carrefour regularly stocked insufficient quantities of advertised products for sale. In addition, the company was convicted of selling products below cost and accepting kickbacks from wholesalers.

Bolded a bit.

Sure, the price breakdown showed they only made 1% "profit" from their products. but they still made money... from kickbacks.

Gil · 05-25-2008, 03:37 AM

Yeah that's what their being investigated for right now too.

The thing is they seem to be using those kickbacks to lower the price for consumers.

Eldorian · 05-25-2008, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyran333

Most kids toys cost less than $5 to make, but retail for $40 or $50. most video games cost less than $5 to make, but again, retail for $40 or $50.

You're talking pure manufacturing material cost there.

You're not including the cost of research and development and all the other overhead costs that go into creating a product.

archshrk · 05-25-2008, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Normalguy

You're talking pure manufacturing material cost there.

You're not including the cost of research and development and all the other overhead costs that go into creating a product.

Plus retailer's cost for advertising, leasing retail space and employee costs.

Ii suspect that Woot.com, like Big Lots! is buying up "left-overs" and discontinued products (new packaging, newer models, etc.). For example, today 's item is a "new" Compaq computer for $300.

Quote:

1 Compaq Presario PC 2.8GHz Pentium D 1GB RAM 250GB SATA HD DVD Burner

It may be pretty decent with relatively good components and decent specs, but Compaq may have redesigned their CPU cases or something so that they don't have enough to sell on their site (too much demand) and they don't want to just throw them away or store them (can't recoup anything that way). They can sell them to Woot for say, $200/each which may be more than a tax write-off would be worth and Woot sells them for $300. That's $100 for overhead (maintaining the site, staff, warehousing, etc.). Multiply that by say, 2,500 units and you have a decent profit even after expenses.

The Woot-Off is how they "move" the last few units and drive visitors to their site.

Tyran333 · 05-25-2008, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Normalguy

You're talking pure manufacturing material cost there.

You're not including the cost of research and development and all the other overhead costs that go into creating a product.

Most of those overhead costs are taken care of before the game even hits the shelves. We're not talking billion dollar pharmaceutical research here.

I'd go into depth, but it wouldn't matter, would it?

Let's just point out that All those "overhead" costs usually get covered into the production costs... GTA IV, was estimated to cost around $100 million dollars to "make". And at the currently accepted formula, would need to sell about 5 million units to break even.

It sold 4 million on opening day, another 2 million over the weekend, and pulled in $500 million dollars. Even when you cut out the original $100 million to make... Royalties (another $100 million) and Marketing (Say another $50 million) ... They've still made quite a bit of money, and at this point.. it's net profit. :p

Eldorian · 05-25-2008, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyran333

Most of those overhead costs are taken care of before the game even hits the shelves.

Either way you look at it, they still have to make money by selling products. While those overhead costs are taken care of beforehand, they still have to make that money back when the product goes live. By your own admission here, if they had sold that game at $5 then they would have had to sell 40 million copies to break even - so they would have taken a loss.

Tyran333 · 05-25-2008, 10:04 PM

yes, but sell it at $10.. or $20.. and you still make profit... just aggregate sales. However, we've come to accept inflation as a seemingly natural part of life, so it's not a terrible surprise to us to continue to pay ever increasing prices for products that don't cost that much more to make, simply because of their perceived luxury.

Who cares about Gold and Platinum, when we can worry about 52" inches of plasma goodness? And all for $1500! .. the fact it only costs $150 to make... irrelevant, clearly. :p

I'm just saying I don't see how a company can only make a 1% profit, because that sort of thing doesn't happen in today's market. People push for 20%, 30%, or higher. Squeeze as much as possible for as little as possible.

*shrug*

Eldorian · 05-25-2008, 10:52 PM

According to your figures - if they had sold it for $10-20 they still wouldnt have made a profit.

I just don't think you have a decent idea of everything that goes into a product other than just pure parts cost, you're not seeing the big picture.

Gil · 05-26-2008, 03:36 AM

Let's break it down:

The company that actually makes a product invest a large sum of money. These are the production costs
On top of that we add marketing and actual publishing
From now on we have the retailers themselves. They take the published game and ship it worldwide to their stores.
Tipically there's 2 or 3 companies involved in this line that each make a profit not counting the actual shipping companies (that also make a profit but they don't care if they're shipping games or manure)

So the game cost 5$ to make. The cost of marketing drives it up to 10$. The studio publishes it for 20$. Shipping takes another 5$. The distribution company takes another 5$. It's now entered the door to the retailer at 30$.
The retailer includes his costs for keeping the item on their shelves including personell yada yada... (add 15$)
Total= 45$

The rest is retailer profit.

Eldorian · 05-26-2008, 10:38 AM

That's close to summing it up, the actual retailer profit though for games and consoles is insanely low. That's why you don't see more game stores out there that sell video games and the vast majority of the chains you do see are the ones that specialize in the used game market because that's the only way they can make a profit as a retailer.

Tyran333 · 05-26-2008, 12:10 PM

right, because Dev/Publishing Profits are high enough that you have to eliminate the retailer cost all together, which is why fewer and few companies (even WalMart.) are even Carrying games anymore, and the ones that ARE... those areas set aside for gaming (especially PC Gaming, as it's becoming a dwindling market.) are getting equally smaller. I haven't been inside one in a while.. but the first time I was in a best buy.. clearly half the store was "Gaming". The last time I was in? They had 2 double-ended (so both sides, plus end caps.) sections for PC Games.. and two similar double-ended sections for Consoles. That was it. Half the store, boiled down to four rows.

Ultimately, when you ask yourself about the "big picture"... you have to look at companies like Wal-Mart (for the few games they carry.) in terms of where that profit really has to lie.

How can walmart sell [Product X] for so much cheaper than anyone else?

Because they do it by pushing aggregate profits. We're not arguing different points, JR, even though it may seem like it. We're just arguing the same point from different positions. :p

Your math's a little off, by the way, Gil. As Marketing is a lump sum arrangement, usually included in the cost of development, and the studio's "publishing" is the "creating" fee, as that's all the Studio does when it "publishes" the game.

So it's more that the cost to develop and market the game is around $10/unit. The cost of publishing is around $5. Shipping is $5 (although that's entirely dependant on several factors, when you're shipping 10,000 units to a store, the cost of shipping may drop to as little as $1/unit.) .. And that's about it. You're looking at between $15 and $20 per game. The rest is retailer and publisher profit.

Go talk to the dev teams of companies that do it, and you'll see that sadly, my math ISN'T far off.

Gil · 05-26-2008, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyran333

So it's more that the cost to develop and market the game is around $10/unit.

That's exactly what I said.

Eldorian · 05-26-2008, 02:02 PM

That cost per unit to break even is also entirely dependent on how many units you sell.

archshrk · 07-29-2008, 10:54 AM

Wootoff in progress!

Eldorian · 07-29-2008, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by archshrk

Wootoff in progress!

Yeah, this one surprised me. I've never seen them do one on a Tuesday before.

archshrk · 07-29-2008, 11:14 AM

The last one lasted a couple of days, how long will this one last? where do you find out?

Eldorian · 07-29-2008, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by archshrk

The last one lasted a couple of days, how long will this one last? where do you find out?

Who knows... you can't find out. They don't tell anyone.

gwildor · 07-29-2008, 02:56 PM

<---- jealous..

i wish they would send to canada..

Gil_golden_eyes · 07-29-2008, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gwildor

<---- jealous..

i wish they would send to canada..

Screwed again.

Deraldin · 07-29-2008, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gil_golden_eyes

Screwed again.

Damn them! *shakes fist angrily*

Eldorian · 07-30-2008, 06:34 PM

Dang, that woot off was terrible. No Bag of Crap the entire thing.

The condoms and vibrator at the end was pretty fun though. Guess it's woots way of saying we got screwed.

DinkyInky · 07-30-2008, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eldorian

Dang, that woot off was terrible. No Bag of Crap the entire thing.

The condoms and vibrator at the end was pretty fun though. Guess it's woots way of saying we got screwed.

roflmao

DinkyInky · 07-30-2008, 08:09 PM

Bacon salt...

Adonis · 07-30-2008, 09:56 PM

*Photoshop inspiration* (it doesn't take much)

sablewing · 07-31-2008, 08:40 AM

I'm still waiting to see an ad for Brain Bleach.

Spider · 07-31-2008, 12:55 PM

I've purchased a few things from woot, but never the random bag of crap. If they put one of those up again I'm going to make sure I get it this time.

archshrk · 07-31-2008, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spider

I've purchased a few things from woot, but never the random bag of crap. If they put one of those up again I'm going to make sure I get it this time.

Good luck. I was in the woot-off that last offered the Bag of Crap and the page wouldn't even load before it "sold out".

archshrk · 09-23-2008, 08:13 AM

Its time for another WOOT-off!

Midori · 10-03-2008, 11:02 AM

Apparently, an equivalent exists for Switzerland: http://www.qoqa.ch/

I still need to find a product that interests me before I try to order...

Midori

05-21-2008, 09:58 PM	#1
Eldorian Elite Inky Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,233	Random Bag of Crap Got my first bag of crap from a Woot Off from woot.com today and here's what I got for $1

05-21-2008, 10:27 PM	#2
archshrk Elite Inky Shark Join Date: May 2008 Location: My Blue Heaven Posts: 757	Cool beans! __________________ This space available.

05-22-2008, 11:27 AM	#4
InkTank Head Cheese Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Sunnyvale, CA Posts: 935	Wow, impressive! __________________ I'm back, baby!

05-22-2008, 11:03 PM	#9
Verdick Elite Inky Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 147	Very nice! But dontcha have to say "Woot!" at the end or something? __________________ A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation." -- Stephen Crane

05-23-2008, 02:23 PM	#11
Verdick Elite Inky Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 147	Hmm, I seemed to have missed that then. Apologies. __________________ A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation." -- Stephen Crane

05-21-2008, 11:13 PM	#3
Starphantom12 Elite Bad Wolf Inky Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Rio Rancho, NM Posts: 309	Noice! I have that 8gb Sansa and it's awesome (except you do have to use WMP if you want to sync playlisty things). I may have to get in on this wootoff business! So far I've just watched.

05-22-2008, 11:34 AM	#5
Talondale Elite Elven Archer Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1,452	Don't see anything.

05-22-2008, 12:05 PM	#6
Eldorian Elite Inky Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,233	Was showing my roommate what I got and he was pissed because he just bought the exact same MP3 player earlier this week for $80. Made my day since he's a jerk.

05-22-2008, 12:23 PM	#8
Gil Elite Robot Overlord Inky Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1,943	Holy crap an 8GB Sandisk player for 1$?

05-23-2008, 05:32 PM	#12
Tyran333 Elite Cheese Royale Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,174	laughs The funniest bit I thought: "A wrapper... with nothing in it." ... I felt there shoulda been a "Uh.. woot?" there. And the insta-jack phoneline things are kinda useless these days, but great if you're living in like.. a multi-bedroom apartment that doesn't have a phone line in every room, because that's all it pretty much does. Plug them in, plug a phone line into one, and the other ones will be able to pick up the dialtone off the electrical in the house. Still, neat to see you got so much stuff. I can't help but wonder how more people either A.) Don't do it, or B.) Don't use it for evil.. I mean, hell, if you already HAVE an Mp3 Player.. you just got 2 more.. toss em on Ebay for like $5 each... buyer pays shipping... you just made $10 off $1. That's a heft profit margin. :p __________________ Beauty is an affirmation of admiration for that which has been created. We say it for books, movies, and paintings. But we say it about flowers, and birds, complex protein chains, and sunsets. Who created a Sunset? Food For Thought.

05-23-2008, 08:06 PM	#13
Eldorian Elite Inky Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,233	There's a guy who actually got a 60" Plasma TV for his bag of crap in the same woot off as mine... so he definitely made out better than I did.

05-23-2008, 11:33 PM	#14
DinkyInky Elite Inky Mommy Join Date: May 2008 Location: where there's more than corn. Posts: 2,146	So where do you go to look at this thing? __________________ Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me...Darn it Bean, no Looting until after you eat your dinner! The above Certificate and sig courtesy of Adonis

05-24-2008, 07:36 AM	#15
Adonis Elite Photochopper Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 2,967	Almost sounds a little fishy to me. Sells stuff for one day only. No advance notice or number in stock listed. It's like they're selling stuff off the back of a digital truck.... Does that player still have the serial numbers NG? __________________

05-24-2008, 08:06 AM	#16
Eldorian Elite Inky Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,233	Yes it does... and most of the stuff you get is refurbished. And they only do the random bag of crap maybe once a month and it literally lasts maybe 1-2 minutes before it's sold out. http://woot.com is the place Dinky.

05-24-2008, 06:17 PM	#17
Tyran333 Elite Cheese Royale Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,174	Well, Woot's part of the latest thing, which is the "overstock" game, apparently. A lot of their stuff is, in all probability, "Fallen off the back of a digital truck." I wouldn't be surprised to find that some of the stuff in the "Random Boxes of Crap"... were stuff they pulled from other sites like Overstock.Com or Amazon.Com or Ebay that were "great deals"... and put up for sale.. __________________ Beauty is an affirmation of admiration for that which has been created. We say it for books, movies, and paintings. But we say it about flowers, and birds, complex protein chains, and sunsets. Who created a Sunset? Food For Thought.

05-25-2008, 02:05 AM	#19
Tyran333 Elite Cheese Royale Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,174	you'd be surprised in terms of cost economics. I dunno about outside of LA, (I haven't seen any here in CA, for example, but i'm sure there must be one...) ... but in LA we've got a place called "Big Lots!" that's sort of a similar concept. They take stuff where the packaging's changed, or it didn't sell well in another country, or it mysteriously "fell off the wrong truck in the wrong location" ... and then sell it for essentially pure profit. the vacuum cleaner we had before our current one, we'd bought at Big Lots!. We bought it for like $15. It was also on sale at Walmart.. for like.. $90. Of course the box, and the instructions were all in Spanish... But it's not hard to figure out how to put together a vacuum cleaner these days. They're practically assembled for you, thank god. And it performed admirably for four or five months. (laugh) If i'd have paid $90 and it broke in five months.. i'd have been mad. but for $15.. who's to really complain? They also do a lot of "Bulk Buying" (which is what Walmart does.) which helps to drive the cost down. For the average store.. they might buy.. you know.. 100 vaccuum cleaners this month. But if Big Lots buys saying.. 10,000.. they're going to get a cheaper price per vaccuum cleaner. shrug Woot just seems like all the rest of the "Overstock" style websites, just saying that in all probabilty the stuff you get in the random boxes of crap is stuff they couldn't sell anyway. __________________ Beauty is an affirmation of admiration for that which has been created. We say it for books, movies, and paintings. But we say it about flowers, and birds, complex protein chains, and sunsets. Who created a Sunset? Food For Thought.

05-25-2008, 02:35 AM	#21
Tyran333 Elite Cheese Royale Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,174	I cant imagine any company only has a 1% profit margin. unless they're a "producer" for another retail outlet. The companies that MAKE the Wal-Mart products? Probably don't have much profit margins (and very little contract security, as wal-mart changes suppliers almost weekly it seems. Same packaging, but when you're buying a lot of hamburger, it's funny to notice how one week your hamburgers coming from "Company A" and next week it's from "Company B" and the week after that from "Company C"... It's almost like they simply say "If you can offer the same product for a cheaper price, you win." But Wal-Mart on the other hand... marks it up by a very large margin. When I worked for cingular, we always laughed at that.. that 8100 Nokia phone had just come out, it was like $300 with a 2-year contract, but we had the "negotiated price from Nokia" that Cingular was paying per phone.. as employees, we could buy it at the "negotiated price"... which was $26. :p And I know Cingular's not the only company that does that. Generally speaking, the more "luxury" the item is, the higher it's profit margin. Most kids toys cost less than $5 to make, but retail for $40 or $50. most video games cost less than $5 to make, but again, retail for $40 or $50. The only caveat i've seen comes in with the consoles, in which, most consoles cost MORE than they're being sold for (but the difference is usually made up for in that you have to pay $40 for a $5 controller.... and of course.. you need another memory card to go with it... and maybe an extra controller or two. So sure, that Wii cost $400 to make.. and it's being sold for $250.. but after you buy the three extra wiimotes, the three extra nunchuks, ... at $30 each of course.. you've spent an extra $180 back to nintendo, so that $250 is really $430. Not much of a profit, mind you... but it's still a "profit", so to speak... and then of course... you need to buy games... where the real money is. __________________ Beauty is an affirmation of admiration for that which has been created. We say it for books, movies, and paintings. But we say it about flowers, and birds, complex protein chains, and sunsets. Who created a Sunset? Food For Thought.

05-25-2008, 03:37 AM	#24
Gil Elite Robot Overlord Inky Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1,943	Yeah that's what their being investigated for right now too. The thing is they seem to be using those kickbacks to lower the price for consumers.

05-25-2008, 10:04 PM	#29
Tyran333 Elite Cheese Royale Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,174	yes, but sell it at $10.. or $20.. and you still make profit... just aggregate sales. However, we've come to accept inflation as a seemingly natural part of life, so it's not a terrible surprise to us to continue to pay ever increasing prices for products that don't cost that much more to make, simply because of their perceived luxury. Who cares about Gold and Platinum, when we can worry about 52" inches of plasma goodness? And all for $1500! .. the fact it only costs $150 to make... irrelevant, clearly. :p I'm just saying I don't see how a company can only make a 1% profit, because that sort of thing doesn't happen in today's market. People push for 20%, 30%, or higher. Squeeze as much as possible for as little as possible. shrug __________________ Beauty is an affirmation of admiration for that which has been created. We say it for books, movies, and paintings. But we say it about flowers, and birds, complex protein chains, and sunsets. Who created a Sunset? Food For Thought.

05-25-2008, 10:52 PM	#30
Eldorian Elite Inky Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,233	According to your figures - if they had sold it for $10-20 they still wouldnt have made a profit. I just don't think you have a decent idea of everything that goes into a product other than just pure parts cost, you're not seeing the big picture.

05-26-2008, 03:36 AM	#31
Gil Elite Robot Overlord Inky Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1,943	Let's break it down: The company that actually makes a product invest a large sum of money. These are the production costs On top of that we add marketing and actual publishing From now on we have the retailers themselves. They take the published game and ship it worldwide to their stores. Tipically there's 2 or 3 companies involved in this line that each make a profit not counting the actual shipping companies (that also make a profit but they don't care if they're shipping games or manure) So the game cost 5$ to make. The cost of marketing drives it up to 10$. The studio publishes it for 20$. Shipping takes another 5$. The distribution company takes another 5$. It's now entered the door to the retailer at 30$. The retailer includes his costs for keeping the item on their shelves including personell yada yada... (add 15$) Total= 45$ The rest is retailer profit.

05-26-2008, 10:38 AM	#32
Eldorian Elite Inky Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,233	That's close to summing it up, the actual retailer profit though for games and consoles is insanely low. That's why you don't see more game stores out there that sell video games and the vast majority of the chains you do see are the ones that specialize in the used game market because that's the only way they can make a profit as a retailer.

05-26-2008, 12:10 PM	#33
Tyran333 Elite Cheese Royale Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,174	right, because Dev/Publishing Profits are high enough that you have to eliminate the retailer cost all together, which is why fewer and few companies (even WalMart.) are even Carrying games anymore, and the ones that ARE... those areas set aside for gaming (especially PC Gaming, as it's becoming a dwindling market.) are getting equally smaller. I haven't been inside one in a while.. but the first time I was in a best buy.. clearly half the store was "Gaming". The last time I was in? They had 2 double-ended (so both sides, plus end caps.) sections for PC Games.. and two similar double-ended sections for Consoles. That was it. Half the store, boiled down to four rows. Ultimately, when you ask yourself about the "big picture"... you have to look at companies like Wal-Mart (for the few games they carry.) in terms of where that profit really has to lie. How can walmart sell [Product X] for so much cheaper than anyone else? Because they do it by pushing aggregate profits. We're not arguing different points, JR, even though it may seem like it. We're just arguing the same point from different positions. :p Your math's a little off, by the way, Gil. As Marketing is a lump sum arrangement, usually included in the cost of development, and the studio's "publishing" is the "creating" fee, as that's all the Studio does when it "publishes" the game. So it's more that the cost to develop and market the game is around $10/unit. The cost of publishing is around $5. Shipping is $5 (although that's entirely dependant on several factors, when you're shipping 10,000 units to a store, the cost of shipping may drop to as little as $1/unit.) .. And that's about it. You're looking at between $15 and $20 per game. The rest is retailer and publisher profit. Go talk to the dev teams of companies that do it, and you'll see that sadly, my math ISN'T far off. __________________ Beauty is an affirmation of admiration for that which has been created. We say it for books, movies, and paintings. But we say it about flowers, and birds, complex protein chains, and sunsets. Who created a Sunset? Food For Thought.

05-26-2008, 02:02 PM	#35
Eldorian Elite Inky Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,233	That cost per unit to break even is also entirely dependent on how many units you sell.

07-29-2008, 10:54 AM	#36
archshrk Elite Inky Shark Join Date: May 2008 Location: My Blue Heaven Posts: 757	Wootoff in progress! __________________ This space available.

07-29-2008, 11:14 AM	#38
archshrk Elite Inky Shark Join Date: May 2008 Location: My Blue Heaven Posts: 757	The last one lasted a couple of days, how long will this one last? where do you find out? __________________ This space available.

07-29-2008, 02:56 PM	#40
gwildor New Recruit Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 62	<---- jealous.. i wish they would send to canada..

07-30-2008, 06:34 PM	#43
Eldorian Elite Inky Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,233	Dang, that woot off was terrible. No Bag of Crap the entire thing. The condoms and vibrator at the end was pretty fun though. Guess it's woots way of saying we got screwed.

07-30-2008, 08:09 PM	#45
DinkyInky Elite Inky Mommy Join Date: May 2008 Location: where there's more than corn. Posts: 2,146	Bacon salt... __________________ Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me...Darn it Bean, no Looting until after you eat your dinner! The above Certificate and sig courtesy of Adonis

07-30-2008, 09:56 PM	#46
Adonis Elite Photochopper Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 2,967	*Photoshop inspiration* (it doesn't take much) __________________

07-31-2008, 08:40 AM	#47
sablewing Moderator Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Southern California Posts: 547	I'm still waiting to see an ad for Brain Bleach. __________________ Do not anger the dragon for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. Chaos, it's not just a theory, it's a way of life!

07-31-2008, 12:55 PM	#48
Spider [NPC] Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: In the moment Posts: 241	I've purchased a few things from woot, but never the random bag of crap. If they put one of those up again I'm going to make sure I get it this time. __________________ "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes." My deviantART account - Please note my dA account contains some mature images that are NSFW. Caveat lector.

09-23-2008, 08:13 AM	#50
archshrk Elite Inky Shark Join Date: May 2008 Location: My Blue Heaven Posts: 757	Its time for another WOOT-off! __________________ This space available.

10-03-2008, 11:02 AM	#51
Midori Elite Inky Join Date: May 2008 Location: Fribourg, Switzerland Posts: 373	Apparently, an equivalent exists for Switzerland: http://www.qoqa.ch/ I still need to find a product that interests me before I try to order... Midori __________________ EEEEEEE, I got a baby Matthieu was born on October, 06.