Item Limit Policy

[epeterson]

The good news is that this seems mostly to be a Night Walk driven issue that will mostly resolve once Night Walk is gone for good.

I kind of wonder how many FJNs we'll see appear on eBay in the next few weeks...

[John1970]

I'm obviously not Mike but all they had to do was have someone else buy the bag.

Item limits signal intent and prevent easy abuse but there's overall not much TB can do in a normal market system.

The best thing we can do is never buy from those sellers. If there is no market, they'll eventually stop.

The good news is that this seems mostly to be a Night Walk driven issue that will mostly resolve once Night Walk is gone for good.

[G42]

MikeV, any idea how someone got ahold of 3 Night Walk Side Kicks and is currently selling them on eBay for $400 each?

I'm obviously not Mike but all they had to do was have someone else buy the bag.

Item limits signal intent and prevent easy abuse but there's overall not much TB can do in a normal market system.

The best thing we can do is never buy from those sellers. If there is no market, they'll eventually stop.

[Kanne]

Thank you, Mike!
I have been bummed before when I wanted one specific item in a specific color and didn't get it because it sold out in the seconds before I got to paying my order and I later find a picture of one person having bought 10 of them and proudly presenting them here.

[Ladyrixx]

I've seen some of those scalpers on eBay. It really made me wonder, since I forgot to return some of my knitting tools preorder that I didn't care for during the return window. If people really are willing to pay that, I might have to do something with them besides letting them sit in a corner collecting dust.

As for buying new, I'm all for limiting them; unless it something you could legitimately need more than one of, like pouches or keystraps or something.

[hedd]

I have two sides to come from with this discussion, and I think the company's new policy ultimately makes sense.

I've seen people in the BST Facebook community pretty harsh on eBay sale prices, and I've responded (not recently) that - as someone who has limited funds and carefully saves up to buy each bag - if I'm selling something, it's because the current utility of the item is less valuable than the money I could get for it, even though it's something that I care for deeply, and I need that money.

The artificial scarcity is the few customers purchasing large quantities of popular items, holding on just long enough for those colors to sell out, then selling those now-unavailable items at highly inflated prices. This isn't a problem limited to Tom Bihn, but it is disproportionately affecting smaller companies, because more than, say, 1% (I have no idea, could be 0.5% or 10%?) of inventory ends up being quickly resold and regular customers get frustrated at the retailer for the stock outages because there isn't a fast turnaround on replenishment. For one example: I was working at World Market when Clearly Canadian was reintroduced, and it took an entire day to put volume limits on it, which was long enough for the whole stock to sell out. The people who saw the email announcement and had the mid-day time to come to the store bought all of it, leaving the people who came after their working hours or the next day out of luck.
It's the same problem as when people buy up sports/concert/theatre tickets right away and then list them for resale. The dynamic demand-based pricing solutions which have been implemented in some places to counteract scalpers are not the solution, because the people buying to immediately resell and profit are not going to balk at paying a higher price and then selling for an even more inflated price - plus it entirely cuts out people who weren't willing or able to pay those high prices. What solution works? As someone who spent years working in box offices, ticket limits work.

It worked great today with night walk side effects selling out in 3 hours instead of minutes.

[marbenais]

I have two sides to come from with this discussion, and I think the company's new policy ultimately makes sense.

I've seen people in the BST Facebook community pretty harsh on eBay sale prices, and I've responded (not recently) that - as someone who has limited funds and carefully saves up to buy each bag - if I'm selling something, it's because the current utility of the item is less valuable than the money I could get for it, even though it's something that I care for deeply, and I need that money.

The artificial scarcity is the few customers purchasing large quantities of popular items, holding on just long enough for those colors to sell out, then selling those now-unavailable items at highly inflated prices. This isn't a problem limited to Tom Bihn, but it is disproportionately affecting smaller companies, because more than, say, 1% (I have no idea, could be 0.5% or 10%?) of inventory ends up being quickly resold and regular customers get frustrated at the retailer for the stock outages because there isn't a fast turnaround on replenishment. For one example: I was working at World Market when Clearly Canadian was reintroduced, and it took an entire day to put volume limits on it, which was long enough for the whole stock to sell out. The people who saw the email announcement and had the mid-day time to come to the store bought all of it, leaving the people who came after their working hours or the next day out of luck.
It's the same problem as when people buy up sports/concert/theatre tickets right away and then list them for resale. The dynamic demand-based pricing solutions which have been implemented in some places to counteract scalpers are not the solution, because the people buying to immediately resell and profit are not going to balk at paying a higher price and then selling for an even more inflated price - plus it entirely cuts out people who weren't willing or able to pay those high prices. What solution works? As someone who spent years working in box offices, ticket limits work.

[Cpmcnamara]

I find this very sad. I don’t think you , new owners, understand the amazing community that has grown up around the TB products. The BST group sells mostly at retail or reduced prices and the spend a lot of time and energy supporting each other. It is rare that a TB item is priced much above retail and only gains traction if it is rare. Collectors collect. Why would you feel the need to police the secondary market? This feels like a clumsy PR move to me.

Not entirely sure why this bothers you. Sad in what sense? Sure, I get that some people would prefer to buy multiples (for them plus a gift), but you can still do that on non limited edition bags. It’s only the ones that have a line up of eager aficionados - why should they not get priority over a “customer” being gifted a bag?

[Jlange]

I appreciate this decision. It's frustrating missing out on multiple runs of popular bags and feeling manipulated by a scarcity mindset.

[bchaplin]

I’m a member of the FB BST group, and love the discussions, reviews and the opportunity to trim my collection or (as I did recently) scout out a few more Taiga accessories.

But it actually makes me cringe when something is in high demand and I see posts that someone just bought three or four of an item. Most of us are honest and fair and don’t sell on eBay at those inflated prices, and the extras are often let go later at fair prices. But all the same, I think it would be better if certain items were limited in quantity so that more people have a shot at purchasing one when they are first offered.

epeterson, I had my scooter today and a lot to bring to work, and I also wore my Smart Alec. Great bag!

[epeterson]

I find this very sad. I don’t think you , new owners, understand the amazing community that has grown up around the TB products. The BST group sells mostly at retail or reduced prices and the spend a lot of time and energy supporting each other. It is rare that a TB item is priced much above retail and only gains traction if it is rare. Collectors collect. Why would you feel the need to police the secondary market? This feels like a clumsy PR move to me.

I think "Limit N" is a pretty common thing to see from retailers when there is a limited quantity of product, or a special deal, or whatever. If anything, it allows MORE people to collect that specific product.

[John1970]

I find this very sad. I don’t think you , new owners, understand the amazing community that has grown up around the TB products. The BST group sells mostly at retail or reduced prices and the spend a lot of time and energy supporting each other. It is rare that a TB item is priced much above retail and only gains traction if it is rare. Collectors collect. Why would you feel the need to police the secondary market? This feels like a clumsy PR move to me.

I am curious why you think this would prevent you from collecting, unless you are collecting multiples in the same item in the same color in the same fabric (and even then only if the item was one subject to the 1 per person limit, which will not be the vast majority of items).

[kjquilts]

I find this very sad. I don’t think you , new owners, understand the amazing community that has grown up around the TB products. The BST group sells mostly at retail or reduced prices and the spend a lot of time and energy supporting each other. It is rare that a TB item is priced much above retail and only gains traction if it is rare. Collectors collect. Why would you feel the need to police the secondary market? This feels like a clumsy PR move to me.

See posts #9, 10 and 11.

[micmul]

I find this very sad. I don’t think you , new owners, understand the amazing community that has grown up around the TB products. The BST group sells mostly at retail or reduced prices and the spend a lot of time and energy supporting each other. It is rare that a TB item is priced much above retail and only gains traction if it is rare. Collectors collect. Why would you feel the need to police the secondary market? This feels like a clumsy PR move to me.

[Denises]

I can't imagine how international customers must feel when they live on the side of the world opposite Pacific Time).

The time difference is manageable. I have got up at weird early morning times for plenty of other things and I can do the same with Tom Bihn. What really makes a difference for an international customer is the shipping charge which for me in New Zealand is $60. That means I order several items at once to make it worthwhile and I'm not going to order one item that is a limited edition. Night Walk looks like a colour I would really like, but I've resigned myself to not getting something in that colour because the chances of it being in stock at the same time as various other items are very low.