List of Discontinued Kits?

[egnald]

Hello fellow IAP members,

Does anyone know of a source (or sources) that would list the pen kits that have been discontinued? There have been a few posts recently about discontinued kits only being identified when someone desperately needs a kit or two to fulfill a customer order, but the typical suppliers all show "out of stock" or simply erase the offering from their online catalog.

I think I may have found two of them just today. After finishing up a PSI Southwest Twist pen in Antique Copper with Red Coral accents, I found it listed as "out of stock" or simply gone from suppliers online catalogs. The same is true for the chrome PSI Mini Designer NT kit. It sure would be sweet to have a heads-up or even a list that confirms discontinued status after supplies of discontinued kits dry up.

Regards,
Dave

 

[SabertoothBunny]

By chance have they been modified or rebranded? I have run into kits that were rebranded before.

 

[Edgar]

I don't know of any source for the information you seek. The closest is probably our Bushings & Tubes database.

We have spent considerable effort reviewing all of the supplier websites (for the 41 suppliers in the database) to determine what kits have been discontinued for no longer carried. We have flagged all such kits as Discontinued.

The iOS version of our app displays those kits in a different text color so they are readily recognizable. You can also search for "Didcontinued" and get a list of just those kits.

Some caveats:
It's a tedious manual process to peruse all supplier websites to update the discontinued kits, so we may not catch them all in a timely fashion.

Since it's a manual process, it's subject to human error. We might accidentally miss some or even flag some that aren't actually discontinued. We correct errors as soon as we realize it or someone points it out.

We only flag kits that are totally discontinued or no longer carried. We don't consider whether certain platings are no longer available.

Not exactly what you asked for, but it might help.

Edgar