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wolflodge100 wrote:DantheDragon wrote:Quote:
I just snaged the emerald mouse wizard! Thaks for the heads up!
GAHHHHHH!! Curses!! ;_;
sorry Dan but I’ve been wanting one for a long time 😆 but come and see if my empea male I just ordered will match your mother.
I guess I can forgive, but next one is mine! ;D Ohh.. does it have dark purple? Every male I’ve seen has like, a violet nose, while the females are all dark purple :X
gryphondreamer wrote:well, i guess you will all have to realize they read this forum now, so when you post those things, they will probably quicky buy stuff up.
sucks for the rest of us with limited cash. 🙁
Isn’t that called profiteering? 😆 But yes it is a little sad they are buying all the retired ones for higher resale
Ouchhhhh, I sence the temperature rising. Let me try to address these things and try and shed some light on the situation.
Quite a few years back, I was a professional lizard breeder. During that time Windstones caught my eye for obvious reasons. At that time, I got the windstone bug and the collecting game was on! I used the money from my lizards and collected quite an arsenal.
A few years ago, my life changed dramatically, divorce, a new wife and now two beautiful children. My wife could no longer work with the kids and times got tough. Trust me, this is not a feel sorry for me story, life is much better for these changes. There came a day when we couldn’t pay the bills (it is tough living on Long Island) and my beloved windstones had to go.continued on next post
I just wanted my money back and low and behold, they sold for 2 or 3 times what I paid for them. 2-3 hundred pieces later, the light bulb was going off in my head. My wife loves to work and wanted to have her own business but was limited with the kids. She tried an online wedding business which sunk like the Titanic, hence, BTWedding. Both of us have a retail management backround of which I am still employed (miserable working stiff) and over the years had made many friends along the way, ex Windstone dealers and such. I was able to get huge lots of retired windstones to start “The Lost World.” It appeared to me that this product was really in demand but buyers had trouble finding product. We wanted to create a one stop shop for all of the best Windstones ever made.
You have to admit, even if you hate our guts, the store is a really cool place, I still get the “kid in a candy store feeling” when I browse it.Unfortunity, War & Pieces will have to continue on the next post, I keep getting timed out.
dragonkeeper wrote:Ouchhhhh, I sence the temperature rising. Let me try to address these things and try and shed some light on the situation.
Quite a few years back, I was a professional lizard breeder. During that time Windstones caught my eye for obvious reasons. At that time, I got the windstone bug and the collecting game was on! I used the money from my lizards and collected quite an arsenal.
A few years ago, my life changed dramatically, divorce, a new wife and now two beautiful children. My wife could no longer work with the kids and times got tough. Trust me, this is not a feel sorry for me story, life is much better for these changes. There came a day when we couldn’t pay the bills (it is tough living on Long Island) and my beloved windstones had to go.continued on next post
I meant no afront by my comment, just voicing my opinion. I am all for free enterprize, I just personly wouldn’t do it(buy all dealers retired stock) Now everything anyone gets on e-bay or at other places is fair game.
We have always known that our prices seem high. If you think about what goes into it, let me clarify.
The best I can buy the product for is full retail plus shipping and that is only a small percentage. Most of our pieces have come from large lots which I had to pay a fortune for. Add in the Ebay fees which many times has been over $600 a month and sometimes more, then paypal takes there fees as well. Factor in the shipping supplies which if you have ordered from us, you know we use a ton of bubble wrap and peanuts. Not to mention the tons of broken windstones that did not make it here in one piece, make you sick, nothing more heartbreaking then broken windstones.
Needless to say, this is not a walk in the park business to run. Many nights we are up until 2 in the morning just packing, listing, etc. Not to mention that it is not easy storing all of these windstones in hard to reach places (out of reach from the kiddies). If we were to significantly lower the prices, the profit level would be too low to keep the store open.
If I could lower the prices, I would. I think you guys are an awesome bunch of people, I dont like feeling like I am ripping anyone off. I debated for a long time before joining the forum but the truth is, I love windstones, I am a long time collector myself and I hope that I can provide some of you guys with some rare piece that you have been searching for.
I really enjoy selling windstones, I tried to become a dealer but was rejected by windstone because we do not have a brick and mortar store.I post this horrid novelle, knowing that no matter what I say, some will still feel its awful and unscrupulous, and I gues unfortunaltely I’ll have to live with that. The truth is we wnated to sell this product in a different light than was ever done before- and I still feel we have done that. These are all the cold hard facts, now the debateable stuff.
Do people want someone they can trust to sell them windstones?
What really is the price of a rare retired piece?
I have sold a white hatching dragon on auction for almost 200 dollars?
if I didn’t do what I’ve done, would the craze be the way it is?
How many people would still have huge gaps in their precious collections?
As we all do,buying windstones from any dealer is a good thing. Its good fro the economy, great for starving retailers, and super great for Melody-I think what she’s saying is that she’s worried now that the stores we *can* get retired pieces from for less when we post them here for each other, you’re going to beat us to the punch.
I can sort of see how that’s not exactly cool. It’s great you find the retired pieces not listed online and bring them to us, but it gets difficult when we now worry that the pieces we can find for a little less somewhere else, you’re going to snap up and sell to us for perhaps more than we can afford, when we would have been able to get them within our budget otherwise.
I can understand the worry, and feel it a little myself. I’d rather not pay $130 for a dragon I can get off someone’s website for $79, either.
But that’s just my $0.02. We’re not flaming you, but it is a legit worry.
OK guys back off a little!!
I think it’s GREAT that BT is here to help us out on HARD TO FIND pieces. As it has been stated everyone has to make a living. I just wish these guys had nto sky rocketed in value. I LOVE my pieces very much and will do what I can to keep them all in mint condition and I’m sure everyone here feels the same way.
More power to you guys BT if you have the ability to do what you are doing I say go for it. Too bad we can’t figure our a way to get slightly better prices here on the Forum.Ok I’m on a roll now and can’t shut up
Whats the sense of collecting other than the natural heart warming feeling, if its not worth some thing. It appears to me that we keep getting the prices up, and the folks on this forum are the ones who will over the long run, control the whole pricing strategy- and will reap the benefits. You are the visionaries that see the worth.
If you knew us personally, you’d see we’re just regular folks just like you, and did not come on the forum to cause aggravation, or drum up business. I would much prefer to just tell wacky Windstone stories and try to give some insight from time to time, after all we’ve dealt with over 600 pcs, and have seen some weird stuff.I apologize to anyone that I may have offended in any way, and as always mean no disrespect.
I don’t think anybody was getting angry, just voicing a legit concern.
Like I said, I think it is great they can find some of this stuff we can’t and put it up for sale to us! But like wolflodge, I twitch a little bit at the thought of not being able to get something for a little less elsewhere because another somebody grabbed everything up for resale.
making a living is great! And I’m all for it! But really, I’d get priced right out of collecting if I had to get all my retired pieces for that much. Capitalism at it’s finest.
I will still get the pieces I can’t find from BT, no problem there, but I’d rather not have to race them to an online store to pick up a piece, is all I’m sayin’. No angry, just stating a fact! 🙂
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