WANTED - Atari original injection molds

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PeteW
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by PeteW »

This is a really interesting thread. I wasn't aware of any of this history of people buying out warehouses etc.

My guess would be that maybe (just maybe), the supplier actually has far less stuff left than they like people to believe. If customers order from them due to a reputation that they have warehouses full of stuff, then it makes good business sense to keep up that illusion.

I base this on no insider knowledge, just behaviours that I have seen in other businesses in the past :)
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mrbombermillzy
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by mrbombermillzy »

Im going to go out on a limb here, but where I work we have a fair size warehouse. We basically ship PC parts and refurb laptops. We have a fair amount of space that they may be willing to donate for Atari parts storage.

If it comes down to buying the stuff and not having anywhere to store, then I could maybe get my boss to store the stuff.

However, we are in the UK, so that will probably put a stop to that idea (imagine the costs of shipping 100's of pallets from the USA!! :o )

And if, by chance we could do it cheap with containers, well...its still a mystery as to how much stuff it is anyway. How much storage would be needed?
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exxos
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by exxos »

Nobody knows.. but as far as I am aware he has got warehouses un-explored.. but never know..

Of course if someone did have the funds to buy him out, they would really need to be local to pick up and store all the stuff, basically silicon valley.. I don't think anyone is going to have the cash or capabilities to pull it off, and doubt he would sell out either.
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zack4mac
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by zack4mac »

Just a shame we cant get the molds, but I have just found this company plexilaser.de who make acrylic cases for the Atari 800XL, C64 and Amiga, I know the shape is more A3000 but 45 degree lines could be etched
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sety
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by sety »

I found a podcast interview with Bradley Koda, from BeST. He explains a lot.

Oddly enough he doesn't seem as eccentric in audio as he does when you email him. If fact, he sounds very Silicon Valley. Apparently Atari didn't manufacture their own cases, they only supplied the plastic. They used contractor injection moulding companies, and according to Bradley, there were many.

This could be a blessing because if you can find a list of companies, some of them may still be in existence and might provide a lead.

Unfortunately the interviewer doesn't ask him about succession planning even though at one stage the opportunity is wide open!

Anyway, have a listen;

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-in ... lectronics
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sandord
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by sandord »

sety wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:06 am I found a podcast interview with Bradley Koda, from BeST. He explains a lot.

Oddly enough he doesn't seem as eccentric in audio as he does when you email him. If fact, he sounds very Silicon Valley. Apparently Atari didn't manufacture their own cases, they only supplied the plastic. They used contractor injection moulding companies, and according to Bradley, there were many.

This could be a blessing because if you can find a list of companies, some of them may still be in existence and might provide a lead.

Unfortunately the interviewer doesn't ask him about succession planning even though at one stage the opportunity is wide open!

Anyway, have a listen;

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-in ... lectronics
That was a very interesting listen! Full of nostalgia and stuff I've never heard about before. The guys seems nice, doesn't really coincidence with some of the stories I've heard about best electronics.

By the way, if you look at their website... Have you ever seen something so humongous???
sety
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by sety »

I've always found Bradley to be quite professional and he always delivers. He's just super old school. Every time I email him I feel like I'm stepping back into the 1990's. It can sometimes lead to a lot of confusion.

Did you hear the part where Bradley was talking about his plan to work until he drops dead? That was the perfect time to ask about succession planning but the interviewer didn't do it! I was horrified!
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sandord
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by sandord »

sety wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 11:20 am I've always found Bradley to be quite professional and he always delivers. He's just super old school. Every time I email him I feel like I'm stepping back into the 1990's. It can sometimes lead to a lot of confusion.
That probably explains the way their website looks. If you can call it a website...
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exxos
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by exxos »

sety wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 11:20 am Did you hear the part where Bradley was talking about his plan to work until he drops dead? That was the perfect time to ask about succession planning but the interviewer didn't do it! I was horrified!
I started a thread on just that couple years ago elsewhere I think.. Is basically saying if the guy drops dead tomorrow, was going to happen to all the stuff, landfill ?

From what people tell me you have met him in person, they'll say he looks knackered. Apparently what I remember he refuses to employ anyone to help him out as he thinks they will start pinching stuff.

He claims to have loads of stuff untouched and unopened, if this is true,he is never going to get time get around to sorting the stuff out. Surely if you employed someone even if it costs in money for that person, he would double the stock and packages you can send out surely that would be a good thing... Oh well..

I remember way back when myself and Alison designed PeST, we approached Brad to be a distributor USA for the market, of course he got awards for best Atari support etc etc, and obviously sells a lot of Atari items so it made sense. But the price he offered was basically a insult. I remember he offered $3 for a item which was selling for about $25 or more at the time. We could not even buy the chip for that that alone recover the money invested in all the equipment, the cables, assembly times and costs etc etc. Basically was take it or leave it. Considering the amount of PeST sold over the years overseas, simply has not helped the community at all as every single person had to buy from the UK. So basically his support was zero.

Because shipping overseas is expensive, would have made sense for him to have a stock of these locally to USA people. It would make some money by just basically shipping stuff out and the community would get items cheaper rather than us shipping them from UK all the time.

His prices are pretty high as well. Granted if he only has limited stock it would make sense for the prices to be high on items, but we don't know how many items he has things. I wanted to buy loads of stuff from my web store in bulk. But he does not give bulk discounts, and even when I tried to obtain some switches from him a couple years ago, we was exchanging a lot of emails, when it came time to pay, he said he only had 1 switch and would try and look for some for me, which I doubt he ever did. My experiences with him simply never been good ones.

Credit to the guy for selling the stuff he does, but he just seems to be a businessman interested in maximum profits more than anything to me. He also does not like people reselling his stuff on eBay, says so on his site. I understand that to a point. But also as he has something like a $50 minimum order plus postage ? ,

If someone only wanted a small part, what are they going to do ?! Someone like me prepared to take on some stock and resell it in EU , so people can get small quantities of stuff, with cheaper postage, makes sense to me. Sure people have to make a little profit to make it worthwhile doing that. Even if I did manage to buy a lot of stuff from in his listed price, by the time I had paid postage and import fees etc my price would end up being double his to break even with the costs. He doesn't ever seem to want to sell in bulk, he does not give discounts. So he's just made it impossible to happen.

But the thing is, I could have brought a fair bit of stock from him for my web store, he would only be dealing with one person and reselling a lot of stuff .. For a business point of view this makes sense to me. But not to him. I think he simply does not like people reselling his stuff for any sort of profit. Probably also why he refuses to offer bulk discount as well. But of course this would help myself out generating profits my work, the community would get stuff they want cheaper more locally from my store, and even like the STF project where we could really do with connectors and such, just not viable to buy them from him at $5-$10 a pop.

So yes he is selling stuff for the community, plus point, but have to think is only interested in profits. My experiences with him have simply being bad from start to end. So I really just don't like the guy. He could support the community a lot more than he's doing, but he just doesn't. I am probably the only one in the world disliking the guy, of course with very good reasons to.
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
sety
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Re: WANTED - Atari original injection molds

Post by sety »

I started a thread on just that couple years ago elsewhere I think.. Is basically saying if the guy drops dead tomorrow, was going to happen to all the stuff, landfill ?
I hate to think what a large warehouse in Silicon Valley would be worth, but if his assets end up in the hands of surviving family, then they're not going to give a shit about the stocks... They will want the Atari stuff gone as soon as possible.

Landfill would be great because those guys are easy to bribe, but I fear it would end up in the hands of "free pickup" eWaste recyclers, and they aren't so easy to bribe - they will want to see it all crushed. =/
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