Direct buying from The Company Store;..ponder , ponder.

[Maria]

Ettevy wrote:

An excellent example – the Sunset Griffin family… Not available at the Windstone direct store because they are sending their entire production stock to retailers! (and eager collector must wait… Noooooo!!!!! 😀 :wink:)

They are? That’s great.

[Jennifer]

Greater Basilisk wrote:

Ettevy wrote:

An excellent example – the Sunset Griffin family… Not available at the Windstone direct store because they are sending their entire production stock to retailers! (and eager collector must wait… Noooooo!!!!! 😀 :wink:)

They are? That’s great.

Yep! You can only buy them from retailers/dealers right now. They are unavailable through the store at the moment so that people will go to their local dealers first (if they have one).

Volunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.com

[laphon1]

Ettevy wrote:

An excellent example – the Sunset Griffin family… Not available at the Windstone direct store because they are sending their entire production stock to retailers! (and eager collector must wait… Noooooo!!!!! 😀 :wink:)

My local dealer called me Monday night. The Black Sunset Griffins have landed! They are holding Momma Griffin for me to pick up this weekend. Yippee!

[lamortefille]

That’s great that you have a local dealer like that, laphon1: -)

[Maria]

Nambroth wrote:

Greater Basilisk wrote:

Ettevy wrote:

An excellent example – the Sunset Griffin family… Not available at the Windstone direct store because they are sending their entire production stock to retailers! (and eager collector must wait… Noooooo!!!!! 😀 :wink:)

They are? That’s great.

Yep! You can only buy them from retailers/dealers right now. They are unavailable through the store at the moment so that people will go to their local dealers first (if they have one).

I think that’s perfect. I hope they do that with more production pieces.

[Art Slinger]

Skylover wrote:

Where are all of the current pieces that retailers are dumping on ebay? I see mostly retired pieces. Some of the current ones on ebay appear to be from estates (This is what they say in the auction). The only thing that I can think of might be BT’s store. However, they’re not dumping stock, but adding current pieces in with their retired ones in their store.

I really do sympathize though. Small businesses are having a really tough time. Both of my local retailers are suffering greatly. I know and have befriended the owners of both stores, and I do wonder how long they’ll be able to keep their doors open. I support them as much as I can and try to point customers in their direction, but there is not much else I can do. While Windstone’s store may provide some competition, it’s not the main complaint of either of these stores. Times are just really hard.
Reply: I stand corrected: I had not properly investigated the sources of the newer Dragons on e-bay. I don’t know who had the Gold Dragons up for sale there, but looking more deeply into it now, I see no such evidence. Also on my own behalf I will add : When your #s slip 75% in the first 2 weeks of a month, it’s easy to not see things clearly,(tears).

[Art Slinger]

Art Slinger wrote:

Skylover wrote:

Where are all of the current pieces that retailers are dumping on ebay? I see mostly retired pieces. Some of the current ones on ebay appear to be from estates (This is what they say in the auction). The only thing that I can think of might be BT’s store. However, they’re not dumping stock, but adding current pieces in with their retired ones in their store.

I really do sympathize though. Small businesses are having a really tough time. Both of my local retailers are suffering greatly. I know and have befriended the owners of both stores, and I do wonder how long they’ll be able to keep their doors open. I support them as much as I can and try to point customers in their direction, but there is not much else I can do. While Windstone’s store may provide some competition, it’s not the main complaint of either of these stores. Times are just really hard.
Reply: I stand corrected: I had not properly investigated the sources of the newer Dragons on e-bay. I don’t know who had the Gold Dragons up for sale there, but looking more deeply into it now, I see no such evidence. Also on my own behalf I will add : When your #s slip 75% in the first 2 weeks of a month, it’s easy to not see things clearly,(tears). Did I say “dumping”, I was so wrong, it’s “PUMPING”:..my Young Dragon in Rainbow has a bid of $170.00 + on it. Also my building of inventory on e-bay has created direct sales, sold The Owl Bookends today (at full list). I have maintained list price on everything except a few pieces that I’m really tired of dusting. I also have some pieces that I hope don’t sell, “what was I thinking?” I want to keep them for me, in case I can’t get more.

[Maria]

I’m glad your pieces are selling, Art.

[Art Slinger]

Greater Basilisk wrote:

I’m glad your pieces are selling, Art.

REPLY:
Thank you, and I mean Thank You again, you were such a great help during my contest that circumstance somewhat frustrated,(I’m not really as ready to publish as I hoped, so I’m not able to promote and sell the photography of the contestants). I know that it’s typically an American Holiday, but , Happy Thanksgiving.

[Bella]

As a retailer and e-tailer, I think I know what Art means. Here in Omaha, NE, I carry almost the full line in my brick and mortar store. I sell almost none though. It disappoints me that we don’t sell them in the store. I wish you folks lived in Omaha!

I do sell several online in my webstore and I was very happy that they were doing well and I could provide these gorgeous statues to folks all over the world. I panicked too when I saw that Windstone was selling online. I saw a very good source of income leaving. I called Susie and she was very sweet and assured me that most folks were buying from online retailers or local stores, not the Windstone website. Our brick and mortar would be hurting if not for our website, we do more online business now than in our physical store, it is very hard to keep the doors open without a website nowdays.

I know that I have gotten some great referrals and met some wonderful folks through this forum and I am very appreciative of that and how easy Windstone is to work with and how gorgeous their statues are.

I am thrilled that Windstone is making the Sunset Griffins available to the retailers. My family arrived yesterday and I will have them online in about an hour.

I agree that layaway if very helpful. we offer layaway too, we have for a decade! It has helped a lot of nice folks get the Windstones they dream of!

Blessings,
Cindy

[John]

Bella wrote:

As a retailer and e-tailer, I think I know what Art means. Here in Omaha, NE, I carry almost the full line in my brick and mortar store. I sell almost none though. It disappoints me that we don’t sell them in the store. I wish you folks lived in Omaha!

I do sell several online in my webstore and I was very happy that they were doing well and I could provide these gorgeous statues to folks all over the world. I panicked too when I saw that Windstone was selling online. I saw a very good source of income leaving. I called Susie and she was very sweet and assured me that most folks were buying from online retailers or local stores, not the Windstone website. Our brick and mortar would be hurting if not for our website, we do more online business now than in our physical store, it is very hard to keep the doors open without a website nowdays.

I know that I have gotten some great referrals and met some wonderful folks through this forum and I am very appreciative of that and how easy Windstone is to work with and how gorgeous their statues are.

I am thrilled that Windstone is making the Sunset Griffins available to the retailers. My family arrived yesterday and I will have them online in about an hour.

I agree that layaway if very helpful. we offer layaway too, we have for a decade! It has helped a lot of nice folks get the Windstones they dream of!

Blessings,
Cindy

We for years put off going direct on-line because we didn’t want to compete with our dealers but what ended up happening is that a couple of dealers selling on-line were under-cutting the brick and mortar store prices and none of them were really reaching the customer base that we need to develop. We know the volume of sales of our on-line dealers and it doesn’t amount to as much as you would think. Under-cutting store prices certainly damages everybody’s chance of success. And it was also certain that no dealer could really establish our lines’ web sales in Europe and the rest of the world. It is much easier for a manufacturer selling direct to win the confidence of international buyers and it is also much easier for us to get publicity and search engine position then a dealer.

Every bit of web exposure we get helps create new collectors and local shoppers and, whether we like it or not, this is the direction commerce is headed. We do get a lot of traffic on our dealer referral pages and many calls to the factory from people looking for a dealer. We never try to sell to these callers without first directing them to a store but often they are a hundred miles or more from the nearest dealer.

[Jvargas0667]

Great Idea! I just wish my local dealer had more inventory. I hate having to order a piece without bieng able to see it first.

[twindragonsmum]

Jvargas0667 wrote:

Great Idea! I just wish my local dealer had more inventory. I hate having to order a piece without bieng able to see it first.

Me too!

twindragonsmum

tdm

[Jasmine]

I wish I had a local dealer at all… 😥

[Starbreeze]

Me too!! 🙁

[Author]

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