Face it, we all want another world championship. We want Beyblade to still be the hit game. So why not expand it? A lot of us came from OtC, but some of us just found the site by shear luck and nostalgia. If we put it out there, maybe more will join in, too!

Beyblade Inventory

As Beyblade is in limbo of a dying sport and a reviving craze, we'd need to see that Beyblades, as Brad pointed out, are made readily available to new participants. Yahoo! stores are quite common for our shopping needs; maybe we can create our own? Here's a list of current ideas that I'd love to add to:

• Most major toy stores that used to or still vend Beyblades offer wholesale prices. Maybe we could offer to buy their remaining stock to keep our store replenished
  
• By buying the remainder of all stores, we'd know the current seller (us) is, of course, reliable, and flexible with shipping and sales.

Offer a used Beyblade section. Similar to the Beymarketplace, only at a set and definite price. This would be under tighter control than the marketplace.

Makes a great way to distribute new MFBs

Advertising/Recruitment

Because there's only a small amount of us here in comparison to other games, we should also focus on advertising. Again, more ideas; feel free to add!

• Create a set of posters to hang in well populated areas (E.G. School, Subway, Bus Stop)
  
• Topics among other forums and sites such as GaiaOnline, WoW, or RoosterTeeth even
  
• Paid advertising on sites such as VGcats
  
• Public battling; not just tournaments, but actually recruiting strangers.
  
• Seeing if locally run toy stores would want to help stock the new MFBs and help promote a growth in the Beyblade community via hosting local tournaments.
  

Hey, I know not everything any of us say may be completely possible if even worth the effort, but maybe one silly idea may spark a brilliant one from another one of us. Let's keep even the silliest of ideas going!

I'm game for devoting more time to improve the community. Let's try to make it work, guys. Even if it's not *SUPER EFFECTIVE*, if we can get at least twenty more active users, it'll be worth it.

If there's enough demand for any of this, I'll be supporting the store initially with my own set of funds. As I get the gist of it (as well as a taste of the responsibility of running an online store), maybe I'll extend an invitation for everyone elses assistance. I'd prefer not to mix my errors with your funds provided I can't handle any of it.

Hey, just remember we have to maintain what we already have. Hopefully I'm the only one that missed the nifty donate button! :]

[Image: donate.png]

Let's keep it together, guys!

I personally love the idea of a store. Many places I find to purchase Beyblades are very sketchy.

And I'll mention the WBO to my friends, don't know if they will be interested, but it's worth bringing it up.

Also has anyone designed any posters, T-Shirts, or anything similar?

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I personally love the idea of a store. Many places I find to purchase Beyblades are very sketchy.

And I'll mention the WBO to my friends, don't know if they will be interested, but it's worth bringing it up.

Also has anyone designed any posters, T-Shirts, or anything similar?

Once I get my tower hooked up to my TV, I'm going to shop some stuff up. I'll work on drawing some characters as well. It also helps to have more than just text.

I'll design and print the posters along with any other volunteers. I have no issue with taking any of this to office max and having this all printed professionally. It works considering whenever my boss has to order supplies, he orders them from office max...and they give him a gift card he can't use for spending so much.

If anyone has PSD files with images they'd like to contribute, I'll work to include that as well.

Time for me to be Negative Nancy, I guess.

In regards to creating our own store, simply put it's not the sort of financial risk I am prepared to take on right now. I think you are seriously underestimating just how much work goes into running a business and how big of a risk it is. When Sasch ordered his RBV2, he ordered spares for people who said they wanted to buy off of him, and all of his customers bailed on their orders. I sell Beyblades for spare cash and nothing else. I ran a Beyblade business before and I barely broke even. It's just not the sort of thing I am willing to get into again.

That being said, if someone else here wanted to give it a shot, I would endorse it.

Offer a used Beyblade section. Similar to the Beymarketplace, only at a set and definite price. This would be under tighter control than the marketplace.

I don't understand why we should tell people what they can and can't sell for? Some Beyblades could be in better condition than others, will that affect the price? Honestly, if someone is willing to pay it then good for them. As the disclaimer states, we don't take responsibility for transactions between members.

As for your advertising ideas, my opinion is that it's simply more effort and money than it's worth. Money that would go into paid advertising on the sites you mentioned
-- which would arguably get a very negligible response -- would be better spent sponsoring activities we are already involved in, such as contests, giveaways, tournaments and supplies.

The best way to get new people into Beyblade right now is simply to talk with people you know, and yes, definitely trying to get interest from hobby stores is a good idea. Ask for permission to do a Beyblade demonstration before or after an event they are already holding, and you may be able to get some people hooked that way.

I admire your ambition, but frankly, the activities we are involving ourselves in already are ambitious. What you're proposing would cross the line of ambition and into wasting resources.

We would all like Beyblade to be incredibly popular like it was in its heyday, but that's just not a realistic expectation for now. The best we can work towards right now is steady sustenance until MFB appears overseas.

While a nice idea, don't you think that this is all too ambitious at the moment? I mean the Bey Marketplace seems to add unnecessary work to the admin. Prices fluctuate over time, and values for particular blades will change. What I would have paid 6 months ago for a Samurai Changer is different than what I would pay now. We would need to consistently adjust the prices since we would be setting the market price.

Buying off stores current stock on old beyblades seems like potential suicide. Many old beys (especially the good ones are not cheap) and to have enough for a store would require significant capital. Even if you are willing to take the burden of initial cost what will you have to sell it at to make a profit? Face it, spending all that time and effort and not selling it high enough for profit would not be worth the effort. Also the problem of who would buy the blades comes up. While I would happily purchase from the WBO, I don't know how many other members would do so. Sure we have 700+ members, but I have a feeling that many would just say they would buy, and not follow through.

Maybe you guys would be able to find a way to make it work with the new MFB since those are hard to get unless you use YJA. I do not have the numbers so I cannot make a comment on how financially plausible this is. There might be potential in the future, but I have a feeling that it will be a while before there are enough donations flowing through to finance such an endeavor.

Now to not sound like a complete killjoy I do like some ideas you have on advertising the WBO. Posters, free battles etc would work nicely as long as we keep them in a context where there is a potential market. Sort of like what Brad is pursuing at Anime North this year. The attendees there are more likely to pay attention to us and what we are promoting. If we do it in random public we probably will just look really silly.

I know I sound like a wet blanket, and I want the WBO to grow but being a logistical person these are the first thoughts that came through my mind. We are still too small of a community to pursue most of these ambitious goals. However I am always willing to be proved wrong.


EDIT: Brad beat me to the punch as I was typing.

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Thanks to Kai-V for the avatar and signature!

arjun and i are the same person apparently

arjun and i are the same person apparently

My god I think my head just imploded...and financial accounting was not the cause.

Also another problem with the store that arises is that the WBO will have to assume responsibility of what happens. If someone gets scammed we are partially if not fully responsible to reimburse the victim. This can pose some potential legal problems. When you take on the responsibility of being a business, you will have to take everything into consideration. Honestly this much risk for a beyblade is a bit much.

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Thanks to Kai-V for the avatar and signature!

That's why a topic for this is good. Even hearing the negatives about ideas might stop me from doing something stupid, or even give me a better idea.

Brad, I want this to be excluded from WBO's funds. This will be my project unless I can get it successfully and stably off the ground.

I didn't think the used section through carefully. I didn't consider damage.

Paid advertising would be a very distant venture. It's a door I'd like to keep open, even if just a crack.

I have no problem updating the prices of Beyblades, losing profit with the store, or spending more time than it's worth. Personally, I love marketing and business. That's why I love my job in sales. Losing profit to me would be like playing any MMO that requires payment. That also eats your time and money. Maybe I'll make a few sections for Evan's goggles (provided he'll allow me) and my knitting to make a profit gain. :]

Something I learned last year, was when I give my all into something I believe in, even if it's futile, something good will come of it, even if it's nothing like what I wanted it to be.

If you can fund it and start it up, then go ahead. Just think things through first.

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Thanks, Kai-V, for my banner

If you can fund it and start it up, then go ahead. Just think things through first.

That's why I'm posting; to get a broader perspective of the pros and cons.

Your light-hearted view on a net loss worries me. Even though I know you say you will take full responsibility for funding; I can't help but get the feeling that you are underestimating the work involved. An MMO is an outlet for entertainment; everybody knows hobbies tend to cost money. A business's main job is to turn a profit. However if you choose to pursue this I wish you the best of luck, and hope that I am proven wrong.

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Thanks to Kai-V for the avatar and signature!

Your light-hearted view on a net loss worries me. Even though I know you say you will take full responsibility for funding; I can't help but get the feeling that you are underestimating the work involved. An MMO is an outlet for entertainment; everybody knows hobbies tend to cost money. A business's main job is to turn a profit. However if you choose to pursue this I wish you the best of luck, and hope that I am proven wrong.

Right. I'd be fighting to make the profit, but really, I just wanna help out.

Money talks, but it's all just materialism to me. The biggest profit of all is the experience gained from my mistakes.

I know this is an old post and should be closed but i just wanted to that INSTEAD of creating a store, we should have a reccomended section for sellers on ebay such as AllAtKorea,Dimsum2u..etc So it would be a simple icon stating "Top Seller of Beyblades-World Beyblade Organization" Sure it require lots of snooping around the sellers feedback and more but atleast we would have a system. And all beyblade sellers would think its a honor to have the badge/icon stating that they are a very good seller by none other than the biggest Beyblade fan site around. It could feature in the "BeyMarketplace" i think this would be a great way for Beybladers to know who to buy from. The assesment would take 3 things 1. Quality of the beyblade 2.Price and disptach time and 3.Customer Service. Thats just my idea though.

We're working on Affiliated Stores. :]

I'm going to close this spectacularly outdated thread now.