Is the whole world out of stock?
Heliguy is looking to expand its range of contacts and suppliers but when I go to place orders there is an endless wait for stock to arrive. Let me give you some examples….
From ESKY I ordered the first batch of HoneyBee King Feb 2006 - never received those from the factory had to use my agents in China to acquire them and actually got them Nov 2006 (never got any from the factory!). Cool still not produced - ahh but they did sell me spares - no use to man nor beast if there are no choppers! - You live and learn!
Align - Trex I hear they have the worst production and yes I have come to believe it as true. I went to order from the UK distributor to find the majority of Align products out of stock - poor Keith had had them on back order since November. He’s between a rock and hard place! I can’t even grey import these because they are out of stock (no names mentioned). Align why produce hand painted canopies? Great idea - but not practical! Double your work force - run the factory 24 hours a day for a few months?
Moving on…
Heliguy wants to introduce it’s flying toys division aimed at the under £60 gift market. High quality, good instructions and well packaged! I pick my line and ordered my choppers (7 of them) - every one I put on back order because they have no stock! Only got a moderate amount and unsure if they can ensure good supplies up to Christmas.
Falcon 3D - I have been waiting 2 months for these. Decided to bring this is as competition to the King and to alleviate possible stock problems I know I will encounter. Already ordered the second batch even though I haven’t got the first!
Back to the King… The MK2 is coming out supposedly - when will we see it? How long is a piece of string? I know the US versions will come out first we’ll have to wait in line after the USA. The production of these new lines has been a giant farce ESKY sort your self out and treat us better!
Ripmax - back to the UK. I rang up recently to order the 401, Futaba 6 HELI and S3154—-Guess what? Out of stock! Back ordered to middle of April! Is there any excuse for Ripmax distributing Futaba? They have been doing it for years and still they can’t get it right! No sympathy for these guys sort it out. Revenue dropped 1 million for these guys 2005/2006 (when I checked out there company accounts) - long may it continue!
Amerang-group. Ordered HS55, HS65, and HS56 - all out of stock - shipment due any day I’m told. Any excuse - on servos - no! Amerang have been doing Hitec for years! Their revenue increased 2005/2006 I suspect this is down to their exclusive collectables division - where they have got the market sown up real tight that no one else can get into the market. Directors paid them self £250,000.00 dividends - just for interest.
Lets get onto the UK as a whole as it is a unique area. Exclusivity rules. There is one place that nearly every product is bound to be exclusively distributed - here in the UK. What does this mean? Higher prices. *But wait just a second as the distributors haven’t got it that easy. Import duty and VAT - this is set by the Government and not to say the high cost of living here all makes it more difficult for a UK based distributor 
than other places in the world (except the poor old Germans who have got it even worse!)
So what about us being out of stock? Well the things we order from the distributors we wait in line with all the others, we moan and grumble whilst doing so. The things we buy from the factory directly e.g. EK50206 Lama central holder we have got a few angry emails about this - some of them telling us to get new suppliers! In retort I would love to, and yes we should have ordered more but we never expected them to go out of stock for 2 months. In a perfect world I would order 500 of each one but then I would be bankrupt only to find it had become obsolete anyhow with the factories next super duper offering.
Time to get off my soap box, have a great day.
Joel
P.s. I am working hard to improve things.