Craft Supplies Enters the Game
- Thread starter DCBluesman
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bruce119
Member
I just got the e-mail ans watched the video. Hmmmm first time I saw craft supply get on the boat sort of say.
From the same supplier in Florida perhaps ????
From the same supplier in Florida perhaps ????
pensbydesign
Member
color, selection price looks the same to me.
mick
Member
Personally I won't want to buy a blank where I only see a stock picture....I much prefer the individual selection our vendors offer.
jskeen
Member
Could be, but does it really matter to us? We know where to get them better and cheaper, and those that don't will pay more for inferior blanks, and most likely therefore charge more for a inferior pen. We will continue to produce superior products at a lower cost, generating higher sales volume at better margins.
Kinda sucks for Curtis, not getting a royalty, but hey, if he wanted to go into full production churning out thousands of mediocre blanks, he could have done so long ago. I personally am glad that he handcrafts a (relatively) few amazing blanks, and sells them to us. We all know that if he was looking for maximum profit from minimum effort, The last thing he would do would be to Moderate a bunch of knotheads like us for free, and custom build houses for a living.
Kinda sucks for Curtis, not getting a royalty, but hey, if he wanted to go into full production churning out thousands of mediocre blanks, he could have done so long ago. I personally am glad that he handcrafts a (relatively) few amazing blanks, and sells them to us. We all know that if he was looking for maximum profit from minimum effort, The last thing he would do would be to Moderate a bunch of knotheads like us for free, and custom build houses for a living.
ironman
Member
those are pretty sweet
OKLAHOMAN
Member
You still think so at $20.00 each?
mick
Member
Eugene's average 12 bucks and I get to see and pick individual blanks.
Didn't mean to leave Curtis out but I can't remember what his sell for but it's much less than $20.00
wolftat
Product Reviews Manager
Pitiful.
ldb2000
Member
And they have allot more life then the ones at CSUSA . Care is put into the making to give the best looks , they're not just slapped together .
ironman
Member
Well they are the same price since the first time i saw them today, so then yes my opinion is still the same, i think they are sweet.
cowchaser
Member
Not to be offensive here to anyone, but I also see others here taking someone elses idea and selling for profit. I mean look in the classifieds right now and you can see several examples from blanks to casting molds. I don't know who's idea it was to begin with, but it was someones and somebody else is jumping in trying to take business away from originator. I do know one guy that is capable of copying an idea of another here and absolutely refuses to and what the idea is makes beautiful pens.
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glycerine
Member
Eeeewwww, keep that stuff to yourself... :biggrin:
Snorton20
Member
I am so glad someone else caught that.
phillywood
Member
phillywood
Member
lou, You know that they are lurking under guest in IAP and find some sucker who tries to copy stuff for them for cheap. they wouldnt have the marbles to go direclty to Eugene or Curtis to buy it from them.
MesquiteMan
Retired Head Moderator
I actually talked to Rex at CSUSA at the recent SWAT meeting. I showed him some of my stuff and he said he was already talking with an outfit from Florida. I asked him what they were charging and told him I could almost match it on my basic blanks. He said my blanks were too "uniquely individual" and it would be hard to sell them with stock photos and that he was probably going to go with the outfit from Florida. I told him that I was the originator of the idea as far as I knew and as far as anyone has been able to prove but that did not seem to matter. Oh well. I would not have made enough with what they want to pay anyway. I put WAY too much work into the prep of my wood.
jskeen
Member
As is perfectly obvious to anybody who looks at them.
MesquiteMan
Retired Head Moderator
Dustin, this is very true and I find it rather ironic, actually. In the Woodcraft thread, everyone condemned Woodcraft for "stealing" my idea and then went on say they would only buy from the IAP vendors. Well, I hate to say it, but the guys selling this type of blank here on IAP copied my idea without asking too. Two of them TOLD me they were going to but never asked and I never complained. They are still profiting directly from my idea and my tutorial without giving me any royalties or even credit, at lest not directly. What's the difference? I am not necessarily complaining, I just find it rather ironic how members here will jump to protect our own, even when our own are doing EXACTLY the same thing!
That brings up a whole new subject in this whole thing...my original tutorial had a copyright notice on it that said it was for personal use only Pretty much the same thing as when you buy a plan to build something. You are permitted to make a couple for yourself but you are not allowed to sell the items made from that plan. Is a tutorial not the same when it spells out how to do it step by step?
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keithkarl2007
Member
But it would be fair to say that it is possibly a member here manufacturing and supplying these blanks to CSUSA.
cowchaser
Member
There I fixed it for the grammar police. 
MesquiteMan
Retired Head Moderator
NO, IT IS NOT A MEMBER HERE MAKING THESE. It is the same outfit out of Florida that is selling to Woodcraft. At least according to Rex at CSUSA who is in charge of new products.
mick
Member
I wasn't necessarily defending anyone for making them....my main point is I wouldn't buy blanks from stock catalog photos. Most all the members I buy from post individual pictures when possible. That's why I buy from IAP folks.
glycerine
Member
There I fixed it for the grammar police.
We were just seeing how far off topic we could get this thread! :biggrin:
glycerine
Member
As for the topic at hand though, it's odd how CSUSA picked up on them so soon after Woodcraft... None at PSI yet? Curtis, you better start making some phone calls!
MesquiteMan
Retired Head Moderator
I can't lower my standards enough to be able to sell them to them for $9.50 each!
MesquiteMan
Retired Head Moderator
Not completely sure about that, Charlie. I know absolutely without a doubt that is not the case with home plans. If I draw a set of plans for you as my customer, even if you commissioned me for a custom plan, it can only be used for one home. Any further use without permission is a violation of the copyright. There have been many court cases where the architect or home designer has sued for this very issue and won.
MesquiteMan
Retired Head Moderator
Nope, it was all handled in intellectual properry lawsuits and had nothing to do with breach of contract. Then agian, I believe there may be special rules for architectural works.
cowchaser
Member
Sorry guys I didn't mean to come back here and immediately start a debate. However, you look at it using someone elses work and making profit from it is not right. That person put in the effort to make it their own and should be the one profiting from it. Maybe to me it's more of a moral thing or a personal opinion or it could be the lortabs and oxycontin the doctors have me on talking about what is none of my business. For some reason it just struck me wrong. I see Curtis put in the effort it took to make worthless wood blanks, bonnet blanks and cactus blanks and getting stepped on for someones profit with no recognition. There are alot of new guys here that don't know the truth behind it all. I was filled in when I started here. Okay, I'll shut up now and mind my business. Sorry Jeff, Curtis and everyone else. I apologize I am just going through alot right now.
bitshird
Member
Eugen's are far better, and less expensive with more choices. and I have seen some copies of Curtis's Cactus blanks, I'll stick with Curtis for Cactus Skeleton blanks, I've not tried any of his Worthless wood, cause I mostly make my own as does animefan, you can turn Curtis's blanks with out having them explode and sending chunks fly all over, you can even drop them and they don't shatter like glass.
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wizical
Member
After reading all of the posts on what people are saying, and cruising over to CSUSA website and taking a look at what the new pen blanks look like! WHO CARES! If you dont like them, dont buy them! The marketplace usually works itself out....they may sell, they may not! But to get all fired up over it, it seems like a waste of time to me, where I would rather be turning, but that is just me
OKLAHOMAN
Member
I have mixed feelings on this subject, would I take someone else's ideas and profit from them. The answer is yes but not at the expense of the originator. If someone makes and sells blanks, I see nothing wrong with making the same or simular blank and making pens from them and selling the pens, but to go into direct competion and sell blanks no. Now if I see a completed pen lets say made from pigs ears and that person who made it sells in a completely different venue will I make a pigs ear pen and sell it.....yes I would as all of us who sell pens make pens that someone else has made before from simple cherry slimlines to exotic Emperors pens made of gator jaw bone or cactus.
MesquiteMan
Retired Head Moderator
And that, my friend, is the exact spirit in which I wrote the 2 different tutorials I have shared here over the last couple of years. I shared my process on Worthless Wood so that folks who were interested could make their own blanks to be used to make their own pens, not to teach everyone and their brother how to compete with me here at IAP on making and selling these types of blanks. I was naive to think that folks would not try to profit from my idea directly by making blanks and selling them here.
Now you see folks with ads for 60-100 worthless wood blanks at a time every week here at IAP. Some of the guys are even in an ad war at times! That is the primary reason I no longer advertise my blanks here.
PenMan1
Member
Well said, Roy!
I feel that CUSA is feeling the "pinch". IAP members can buy far superior blanks at the same or lessor price than CUSA.
Additionally, now that we can buy hardware in reasonable quantities at much discounted pricing directly from Dayacom, CUSA will lose much of the professional and advanced amateur market.
No disrespect to CUSA, but I found better or the same products from other sources, long ago. The only thing I really buy from them anymore is the $9.99 9 piece mm set. And simebody somewhere sells those for $ 7.99, I just can't find the link.
I feel that CUSA is feeling the "pinch". IAP members can buy far superior blanks at the same or lessor price than CUSA.
Additionally, now that we can buy hardware in reasonable quantities at much discounted pricing directly from Dayacom, CUSA will lose much of the professional and advanced amateur market.
No disrespect to CUSA, but I found better or the same products from other sources, long ago. The only thing I really buy from them anymore is the $9.99 9 piece mm set. And simebody somewhere sells those for $ 7.99, I just can't find the link.
Texatdurango
Member
The simplest solution to keep potential competitors from copying your work is to do away tutorials all together, pull existing ones from the library and stop answering members questions when they ask how you do something! Just show your work and let 'em figure it out or better yet....... just stop posting photos of our work if it's unique in nature.
There problem solved!....... oh wait, isn't that what the IAP is all about - sharing ideas and helping others?
Perhaps some ethicical guidelines might be in order and adhering to these guidelines might be a prerequsite to posting things for sale in the classifieds! Just imagine.... ethics and honesty in the classifieds!
There problem solved!....... oh wait, isn't that what the IAP is all about - sharing ideas and helping others?
Perhaps some ethicical guidelines might be in order and adhering to these guidelines might be a prerequsite to posting things for sale in the classifieds! Just imagine.... ethics and honesty in the classifieds!
MesquiteMan
Retired Head Moderator
George, if you have some concrete suggestions for the classifieds, I am all ears. There are going to be some changes in the near future.
Pens By Scott
Member
I'd say it looks like the difference between quality vs. quantity... Eugene wins in my eyes!
rjwolfe3
Member
So, how bout them Cowboys?!
OKLAHOMAN
Member
0 and 2, next week 0 and 3:biggrin:
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