Blader Passport Price Increase

Hey World Bladers,

We're raising the price of the Blader Passport to $15 USD.

The original $10 price was established over six years ago. To put things into perspective, back then you could have ranked battles at home without the supervision of an event judge, which was abused about as much as you might expect.

Since then, the WBO has grown exponentially and so have the local communities we’ve helped foster. We all see a very promising future in sight for the WBO and Beyblade — particularly considering the launch of Beyblade Burst — and this small increase will help prevent us from losing more money than we can bear to on our events.

Those of you who have active Blader Passports you purchased at $10 will of course be allowed to use them until they expire. If you have an auto-renewing subscription with us through PayPal, you’ll be receiving an email alerting you of the price change.

If you don't have a Blader Passport, you can subscribe to one here, or at any WBO event.

Finally, we’ll continue to sell Blader Passports for $10 at our Beyblade Bursts Onto the Scene events, because these events carry a higher entry fee and we really want to keep the barrier to entry for new community members reasonably low.

Thanks for helping us build a better WBO!
Question:

So, is this effective immediately (besides BOTS)?
(Sep. 06, 2015  9:46 PM)Bey Brad Wrote: Finally, we’ll continue to sell Blader Passports for $10 at our Beyblade Bursts Onto the Scene events, because these events carry a higher entry fee and we really want to keep the barrier to entry for new community members reasonably low.

thank you [Image: 77.gif]
It's not that big of an increase so I hope everyone is alright with it. Hopefully the WBO will drastically increase the money they have for prizes and events and such with this tiny increase in price.
(Sep. 06, 2015  9:53 PM)Angry Face Wrote:
(Sep. 06, 2015  9:46 PM)Bey Brad Wrote: Finally, we’ll continue to sell Blader Passports for $10 at our Beyblade Bursts Onto the Scene events, because these events carry a higher entry fee and we really want to keep the barrier to entry for new community members reasonably low.

thank you [Image: 77.gif]

Hahaha, we had you in mind in particular with this decision, but also the upcoming BOTS we want to do, including my own!

It is effectively immediately except for BOTS.
(Sep. 06, 2015  9:56 PM)BladeRager Wrote: It's not that big of an increase so I hope everyone is alright with it. Hopefully the WBO will drastically increase the money they have for prizes and events and such with this tiny increase in price.

Prizes are just one small part of our expenses, and I think that we're actually pretty generous with them — there are tons of Blader Rewards still in stock and our bigger events do tend to have pretty great prizes!

So yeah, we do spend a sizeable amount of money on prizes, but I'd like for people to also consider that we want to make huge improvements to the website and online community, along with how we manage and promote our events.
(Sep. 06, 2015  9:59 PM)Bey Brad Wrote:
(Sep. 06, 2015  9:56 PM)BladeRager Wrote: It's not that big of an increase so I hope everyone is alright with it. Hopefully the WBO will drastically increase the money they have for prizes and events and such with this tiny increase in price.

Prizes are just one small part of our expenses, and I think that we're actually pretty generous with them — there are tons of Blader Rewards still in stock and our bigger events do tend to have pretty great prizes!

So yeah, we do spend a sizeable amount of money on prizes, but I'd like for people to also consider that we want to make huge improvements to the website and online community, along with how we manage and promote our events.
Yeah that was just the first thing that came to mind. I know that there are many other things that the WBO uses the money for.
I just checked the CAD price:
$20!

Supaburn

But ey, it's worth it Unsmith
Can't wait to see what WBO does in the future!
Yeah, the exchange rate is terrible right now Unhappy But I think considering how active Toronto is, the price is fair!
Yeah I would pay 50 USD if Maine was that active. You guys are lucky. I bought one and I might only make it to one or two tournaments the whole year, but it's a small price to pay to help this awesome organization. And if you go to an event with prizes or win a giveaway, just one prize could more than pay for your passport.
It is really, hugely helpful to us if you do have a Passport, BTW. It's reliable revenue that really allows us to do way more than we otherwise could. So we are extremely grateful to every Passport holder, and particularly those who purchased them in inactive areas.
(Sep. 07, 2015  2:32 AM)Hato Wrote: I just checked the CAD price:
$20!

Supaburn

But ey, it's worth it Unsmith
Can't wait to see what WBO does in the future!

To give you some perspective: over the past several years Toronto has had close to 20 or even more tournaments every year! In 2009 not long after the Blader Passport was first introduced, Toronto had ... 2! As Brad mentioned in the opening post, the WBO has grown exponentially since then, and that also means there's a lot more work for us to do with the larger community we've helped to create, and bigger ideas for what the WBO can become. So, at the new price, it is still quite a good deal, all things considered. Smile
My proposal to charge $100 for the Toronto passport was sadly rejected.
(Sep. 07, 2015  3:39 AM)Bey Brad Wrote: My proposal to charge $100 for the Toronto passport was sadly rejected.

You really drive a hard bargain..

My offer is $20 Unsmith
I was hoping 20$ US but i guess this is fair :3
Shh don't give them ideas. This is fine by me. Whatever keeps the site up!
$5 more?
No biggie.
After discussing with a couple of people I think this is great. It's still great value too! Not to sound like a sales rep haha!
As a result of this change, UK prices will be changed.
UK passports will now be 10 pounds. Slightly more expensive, but 10 is a easy number. We used to have £6 passports, but now the playing field is even.

The entry fee will be raised as well, but the exact value will be determined at a later date.
As much of a shame as it is, I'm not surprised. Getting a year for free for the price of 2 events was way too good of a deal.

Hopefully the extra fee will do some good for the WBO!
Wow I'm slightly surprised in the price increase of the Blader Passport. To be fair though it really was a killer deal if you were in an active region. Although I really don't mind paying $5 more if it really helps this community a lot. Maybe with some extra money this site can get some better promotion and further entice more players to join!
(Sep. 07, 2015  1:14 PM)Thunder Dome Wrote: Wow I'm slightly surprised in the price increase of the Blader Passport. To be fair though it really was a killer deal if you were in an active region.

That's exactly it, and that's exactly our hope. For regions with less than 3 events per year, or if you're just a casual player, you might prefer not getting a Passport. The Passport is meant as a way for our most active communities to host as many events as they want while also helping the WBO survive and flourish. Smile

Thanks for the positive reactions all, it's much appreciated.
Just a heads up to everyone in certain regions, the following is how much it is going to cost for your country:

USA: $15 (USD)
Canada: $20 (CAD)
India: 1000 ₹ (Rupees)
England: 10 £ (GBP)
Rest of Europe: 13 € (Euros)
Australia: $21 (AUD)

There are no other active regions at the moment. If your country was not listed and they are active, please check xe.com.
Honestly I'm surprised it took this long to raise the price for passports. But We must do what we have to do to make the WBO as great as it is.
One small detail — for those of you who have purchased Blader Passports as automatically-renewed subscriptions with PayPal, we'll be slowly raising the fee over the next year due to the fact that PayPal will only let us increase existing subscriptions by 20% every 180 days.

You'll receive a notice soon saying the price is increasing to $12, and then we'll increase it to $14.40 180 days after that. Thanks for your understanding.