Kiteboarding Magazine Deal..

[Flat-water]

Found a site with Kiteboarding Magazine for $6.14 a year..

www.magazineblowout.com

Cheers!!

[Greg]

that should make them happy..
Lim

[rubyred]

3.89 on ebay


Have ordered mags on eBay no problems too.

[Greg]

(Oh, that will make them VERY happy! No wonder this sport is broke...

My little town has two news papers, each gives about the same "information", two pages worth then all ad's. The papers are free so I get both copies, free (sometimes I get several copies becouse the people that hand them out want to get rid of them real quik. The workers probably dont get paid SHIT- so they probable dont give a shit and it shows..).
Now why did I tell you this??? Well I guess I'd like more then another mag filled with ad's.
If the mag is good (I believe it currently is) it should be worth more then 2 cups of coffee, wouldnt you agree? So if the asking price is fair, why cut them off at the knees for the price of a coupla hamburgers..
If nuthing else, let the penny pinchers find there own friggen "deals", this sport is broke enough already.
Yes, what we really NEED is to outsource this sport some more,
Gregory Boyington (aka, L.M.G.)

[rubyred]

actually mags make their money from advertisers. And getting subscribers on a magazine's count allows them to market to their prospective advertising customers as "hey advertise with us, we have a readership/subscriber base of xx,000 people"

So despite getting a good deal, you are helping out over the person who won't buy the ratty issue at the local surf shop that everyone has thumbed through because they were not willing to shell out the $5.50

My guess is that if you have a problem with content, that's something you would want to approach the editor on?

[Bulldog]

Any way you slice it, you're not going to get objective gear reviews from any publication that the gear manufacturers are advertising in.

I just got done with the first issue of Powder Mag (skiing), supposedly their "gear review issue". Trying to figure which skis are better than others from their review is impossible. I just feel sorry for the writer who was told, "write up creative and funny comments about 100 pairs of skis without making a single negative comment".

[Flat-water]

This sport is broke? :shock: When did this happen? I spent a ton of hard cash on kites, boards and etc.. Whatís the mark up on a kite these days? I buy most of it from local shops as well. Helping fellow comrades save a few bucks is hardly going to send this sport into chapter 11 status.

[Rascal]

Greg:

Ordinarily I agree with you on 99% of your posts. Your heart is clearly in the right place.

However, on this particular issue I think you are somewhat misguided.

Players in the kiting industry may not be making a killing. But that is not the result of the consumer getting a super deal or super value. I can assure you of that.

I own a small company that manufactures diving gear. So I have a reasonable handle on what it costs to make things. And in terms of the ratio of what it costs to make versus what the consumer ultimately pays, the overall margins in kiting are fat.

Consider a board. Consumer pays $600 plus, but cost of manufacture can't be more than $70 in reasonable volume. Consider kite lines. Spectra in volume is cents per foot, but consumers are paying $80 plus for a set of lines.

The problem in kiting is one of distrobution, you have a ton of small players all battling to eak out a living, with the consumer paying a lot relative to cost of manufacture. You can also see this in the premium that very new gear gets over used gear or slightly out of date gear. the pemuim is high, an 06 will lose about 60% of its value when the 07 stuff rolls out, because it is no longer "the on the run gear."

The high cost is because of the nature of the gear. its specialised, you want a specific size kite and a specific sized board, if you are looking for a 12, a 14 won't do. So distributers need to carry a large inventory on the off chance that they will have what you want. So the distrobution mechanism prices in a huge amount of inventory risk. That the consumer ultimately pays for.

As the industry matures, I would expect direct to consumer plays to win out, just as they have in other industries (think Dell) where a consumer orders what they want, and it is dispatched from a centralised wharehouse that reduces inventory risk. It pains me to think that Best will be the likely winners here, but they are best positioned to be just that. If they could just come lure away one or two of the top kite designers, they have it made. No legacy distrobution network to pacify, big margins. Stranger things have happened.

I am in japan right now, that economy is a perfect example of the perils of shitty distrobution. I can buy a cannon camera in san mateo, california, cheaper than anywhere in Tokyo. Likewise, I bet you it costs as much to buy a Naish kite in Maui as it does 5000 miles away in Florida.

Rascal

[Sander]

How you gonna demo gear over the internet? Or provide same-day service? Local shops are worth whatever small premium they add.

[Rascal]

If you want to demo gear ... go for it man. I am all for the local guy adding value and trying to make a living.

My little diving gig demo's gear all the time. With mixed sales results.

But history tells you that if the market reaches a point where economies of scale kick in, the lowest cost provider will win out.

And don't decieve yourself about the "same day service" Sander. You are dreaming. The only benefit you get is if you need to buy a kite or board immediately. If you have damaged a kite under warranty you will know that the shops send the kite to the reps for their review. And that takes time.

Not to be the bad guy here. I buy local. Out of principle. I always will. But the economics of the situation speak for themselves. Consider ebay? If kiting gets big, the major players will go direct to consumer. The economics of doing so are overwelming. The largest seller on ebay, is IBM!