Rental Blue Guns

[rickybobby]

I also posted this question on another thread, but thought it needs its own.

QUOTE (Lobo @ Apr 30 2009, 09:08 AM) Someone needs a forming piece, they send you $50 (enough to cover replacement, if necessary, plus postage to get it there). When finished with it, he returns it to you (postage at his expense), then you refund $40.

Your risk is covered. You make a few bucks (about $5 after postage expense). The forming piece pays for itself in about 7 or 8 rentals. The rental user gets to fill his order(s) for about $15 net cost (including return postage) rather than $45 to $50 to buy a dummy gun.

I Have been thinking about this rental thread (because I need a blue gun I don't have right now!) and want some input from some of you on what would be a fair "RENTAL" price for 7 days? Ray (Lobo) had a great idea but like he said "Not much return for the effort" But maybe there could be? I know I need one sometimes and would use something like this. I am "small time" so I can't afford all the dummy's I want in one order so I pay a greater price buying one at a time.

1. Do enough people have PayPal to use that for payment and refund ?

2. Is there enough need for this service (Rental Blue Guns?)

3. How many hobby holster (or Pro's) makers would use this service?

4. If the Rental Co. paid postage both ways (supplied pre paid envelope) do you think you would have a greater chance of getting your Blue Gun back on time?

5. What would a fair "late fee" per day be?

6. I am open to suggestions, this maybe something I take on for a second business

I am looking for positive and negative information. Some of you may have a better idea for all or part.

Thanks, Rick Jorgenson

[RMB Custom Leather]

I also posted this question on another thread, but thought it needs its own.

QUOTE (Lobo @ Apr 30 2009, 09:08 AM) Someone needs a forming piece, they send you $50 (enough to cover replacement, if necessary, plus postage to get it there). When finished with it, he returns it to you (postage at his expense), then you refund $40.

Your risk is covered. You make a few bucks (about $5 after postage expense). The forming piece pays for itself in about 7 or 8 rentals. The rental user gets to fill his order(s) for about $15 net cost (including return postage) rather than $45 to $50 to buy a dummy gun.

I Have been thinking about this rental thread (because I need a blue gun I don't have right now!) and want some input from some of you on what would be a fair "RENTAL" price for 7 days? Ray (Lobo) had a great idea but like he said "Not much return for the effort" But maybe there could be? I know I need one sometimes and would use something like this. I am "small time" so I can't afford all the dummy's I want in one order so I pay a greater price buying one at a time.

1. Do enough people have PayPal to use that for payment and refund ? YES

2. Is there enough need for this service (Rental Blue Guns?) YES

3. How many hobby holster (or Pro's) makers would use this service? I WOULD SAY IT WOULD BE MORE HOBBY CUSTOMERS BUT THERE IS ENOUGH TO TRY IT

4. If the Rental Co. paid postage both ways (supplied pre paid envelope) do you think you would have a greater chance of getting your Blue Gun back on time? YES

5. What would a fair "late fee" per day be? $1.00 A DAY AFTER 7 DAYS THEY HAVE BOUGHT IT

6. I am open to suggestions, this maybe something I take on for a second business IF YOU DON'T IT WOULD BE SOMETHING I MIGHT

I am looking for positive and negative information. Some of you may have a better idea for all or part.

Thanks, Rick Jorgenson

READ MY ANSWERS ABOVE, JUST MY SUGGESTIONS

Edited June 22, 2009 by wwwrmbbladescom

[DCKNIVES]

I suppose it could work,but it would require a rather large cash outlay on your part.Ring's mfg's about 70+ handguns plus 70+ mags so to make this work you would need at least several of each. I would say five of each would be minimum, maybe 10 each for 1911's and Glock's.Truthfully that may not be enough.I would also be willing to bet many don't have paypal, I don't and most of my customers don't either.Would I use this service, possibly. I am looking forward to seeing what you all come up with.Dave

[K-Man]

I think it's an interesting concept, but not very viable IMO. Like Dave mentioned, you would have to have quite an inventory just to meet potential demand, even on a small scale. I make holsters for over 100 guns, and the great majority of those are the most popular guns in the marketplace today. So having an inventory of five guns for say 20 popular guns creates an inventory of 100 guns needed. At an average cost of $40 per gun, that's a $4000 initial cost outlay.

In addition, there are quite a few guns that are popular choices that are not on the Ring's available list. That means you would most likely have to go to Duncan's to get those, and that means your price just went up.

What's your contingency plan when one of the gun's get damaged in some way - a piece breaks off or die gets onto the gun itself?

I would not use the service. In part, because there's too great a risk IMO that the gun I would need would not be available at the time I'm ready to make a holster. That means potentially that the customer is going to have to wait longer (and who knows how long) in order to get a holster that we've quoted them a turnaround time on. That makes for a very unhappy customer. Trust me when I say that 98% of the customers become very unhappy very quickly when they've got to wait longer than advertised for their holster.

I would think that the majority of your customers would be the hobby guy, rather than a holstermaker who makes holsters for a living. You might get a few of the "pros" if you happen to have a gun on your inventory that they rarely get a request for. But I wouldn't see that happening until 2 or 3 years down the road.

[Rayban]

Sounds to me like a good idea.....I've had two inquiries recently on a holster for guns that were not available to me...this service could have saved the day.

I don't think you would need to have 5 of each...maybe just 2 of the most sought after. The customer would just have to understand that the blue gun he wants is "out on rental" and will have to wait til it's available.

[Jordan]

Interesting concept, you might look at the business model of that on line company that rents uncommon how to videos, their name escapes me at the moment, to see how they do it.

[claybuster101]

Sounds to me like a good idea.....I've had two inquiries recently on a holster for guns that were not available to me...this service could have saved the day.

I don't think you would need to have 5 of each...maybe just 2 of the most sought after. The customer would just have to understand that the blue gun he wants is "out on rental" and will have to wait til it's available.

Has Tandy Corporate thought about becoming a stocking dealer or distributor for Rings or any of the other manufacturers? The deeper the pockets, the less financial risk is involved. They could do the return mail similar to Blockbuster or Netflix. When the customer leaves the store (pre-paid on the rental with his/her charge card number) they also receive a postage paid envelope to return it back to the store, better yet a UPS package so it could be tracked. OR, if Tandy Corporate didn't want the individual stores to have them, they could come from a distribution point. 4 distribution points would provide good to very good coverage for the lower 48 states. I am willing to bet if they did their homework and came up with the 10 most popular and sought after models and provide enough for each distribution center (say 4 of @model x 10 most popular x 4 distribution points) they could buy them real right (kinda sounds like a math question for "Are you smarter than a 5th grader, ha,ha).....after 2 or 3 dozen rentals, they sell them for what they paid for them and order fresh. If a customer wanted to purchase one or more for their own holster making, Tandy could also sell new.

From a "real time" perspective, I think it is terrible that the handful of companies that make the replica firearms take FOREVER to get one to market after it has been introduced. There seems to be either terrible commuications with the manufacturers OR the chosen few holster makers are given first shot (no pun intended) to produce leather/kydex etc as a new model pistol/revolver is introduced.

Ok you say, what if a request comes in for one Tandy doesn't have? There are 2 clear answers here. The customer can order one for himself/herself, or Tandy steps up and orders 1 to be put into distribution. If Tandy should get backlogged on requests for that particular model, they increase their distribution inventory with a lesser number. There may be some models (Colt 1911, Glock 23, Springfield XD & XDm) that require more in distibution to satisfy demand.

While I applaud entreprenural ideas such as this, I can see late fees backlogging due to various reasons (customer changes something, I screwed up the leather and am waiting for more, additional orders for the same gun came in and I need to bogart the replica a while longer...etc, etc)

Food for thought.....

Everyone have a nice day!

Dennis

[figthnbullrider]

i like the idea for someone like me who makes very few holsters. i think if you target people like me you might do well but you would need to raise your rental price. i would be willing to pay upto about a third of the cost of the blue gun i need. because i most likely will never need it again so even if i pay 15 dollars to rent it. its better then paying 45 to buy something im not going to use twice. just my input hope that helps

[rickybobby]

READ MY ANSWERS ABOVE, JUST MY SUGGESTIONS

Thanks, Some good info.

I think it's an interesting concept, but not very viable IMO. Like Dave mentioned, you would have to have quite an inventory just to meet potential demand, even on a small scale. I make holsters for over 100 guns, and the great majority of those are the most popular guns in the marketplace today. So having an inventory of five guns for say 20 popular guns creates an inventory of 100 guns needed. At an average cost of $40 per gun, that's a $4000 initial cost outlay.

In addition, there are quite a few guns that are popular choices that are not on the Ring's available list. That means you would most likely have to go to Duncan's to get those, and that means your price just went up.

I would think that the majority of your customers would be the hobby guy, rather than a holstermaker who makes holsters for a living. You might get a few of the "pros" if you happen to have a gun on your inventory that they rarely get a request for. But I wouldn't see that happening until 2 or 3 years down the road.

K-man, I see your point. This could be more hassle than anything. No need to upset anyone by not getting their rental to them fast enough. Pro's would buy their own anyway, I am working on my collection a little at a time.

Sounds to me like a good idea.....I've had two inquiries recently on a holster for guns that were not available to me...this service could have saved the day.

I don't think you would need to have 5 of each...maybe just 2 of the most sought after. The customer would just have to understand that the blue gun he wants is "out on rental" and will have to wait til it's available.

Rayban, that would be the number to start with.

Has Tandy Corporate thought about becoming a stocking dealer or distributor for Rings or any of the other manufacturers? The deeper the pockets, the less financial risk is involved. They could do the return mail similar to Blockbuster or Netflix. When the customer leaves the store (pre-paid on the rental with his/her charge card number)

While I applaud entreprenural ideas such as this, I can see late fees backlogging due to various reasons (customer changes something, I screwed up the leather and am waiting for more, additional orders for the same gun came in and I need to bogart the replica a while longer...etc, etc)

Food for thought.....

Everyone have a nice day!

Dennis

Dennis, Most of the time Tandy's can't get you what you need that they advertise, them handling rental guns would be a nightmare!!

i like the idea for someone like me who makes very few holsters. i think if you target people like me you might do well but you would need to raise your rental price. i would be willing to pay upto about a third of the cost of the blue gun i need. because i most likely will never need it again so even if i pay 15 dollars to rent it. its better then paying 45 to buy something im not going to use twice. just my input hope that helps

Thanks for the info, a fair range would need to be found for price vs. return. If there is a need and it is a service that can be made available to hobbyists, I think it could be a help for some that could bring their work to the "next level". Having the right tools is a huge help!! I can see the ad on LW now!!!! lol !!!

Edited June 23, 2009 by rickybobby

[Shorts]

Good thoughts above. I haven't posted because I really have no idea how such a venture would go. A small piece of random input though.

From the perspective of your customer, I'd like it if you were local. If I didn't have to wait on shipping where I could drive over & pick it up. But I think that's my feelings on most if not all supplies I use. I wish I didn't have to wait on shipping but could walk outside, get in my truck drive to the corner get what I need and drive back.

[rickybobby]

Monica,

Local would be great but now with all of us being "connected" we are doing business "world wide" and have geared our business' for shipping products, materials, ect. So to get a volume one is going to at least ship within the U.S. and try to be as prompt as possable and up front with realistic delivery times! Did I say REALISTIC DELIVERY TIMES to leather workers??? lol!!!!

Great thought!

Rick J.

[Shorts]

Monica,

Local would be great but now with all of us being "connected" we are doing business "world wide" and have geared our business' for shipping products, materials, ect. So to get a volume one is going to at least ship within the U.S. and try to be as prompt as possable and up front with realistic delivery times! Did I say REALISTIC DELIVERY TIMES to leather workers??? lol!!!!

Great thought!

Rick J.

lol I lived in Japan the last 3 years I KNOW about shipping heartaches. Never again!

So is the Star Trek beam-me-up-Scotty dohickey being sold in stores yet???

[Bree]

To be brutally honest... I wouldn't quit my day job at $10 gross a pop. Just to gross $100K is going to require 10,000 rentals... that's over 27 a day 7 days a week. That's gross of any expenses. The real question becomes how many rentals are necessary for you to pay your mortgage and buy food?? The net net.

I don't see it happening. Sorry.

[Lobo]

Having been involved in the original concept, I have given a fair amount of thought to this (while cutting, sewing, forming, dying, finishing, etc). Here are my conclusions.

This would be something that hobbyists (those making holsters for themselves, perhaps a few friends and acquaintances) might find of interest occasionally. However, someone making a holster for himself, or for a friend, has access to the handgun for which the holster will be made, so how frequently will a dummy gun be rented?

Those of us who are making holsters and accessories as a business know that most customers want rapid service. Any significant delay in delivering an order can only result in an unhappy customer. So we buy what we need to have on hand to meet orders as they come in.

If I saw that sufficient potential existed to realize a reasonable return on the investment required to start up such an enterprise I would do it. I do not see that potential, so I won't.

Best regards.

[rickybobby]

To be brutally honest... I wouldn't quit my day job at $10 gross a pop. Just to gross $100K is going to require 10,000 rentals... that's over 27 a day 7 days a week. That's gross of any expenses. The real question becomes how many rentals are necessary for you to pay your mortgage and buy food?? The net net.

I don't see it happening. Sorry.

Bree, Thanks for the onfo, I have run this up and down and really come up with "a lot of money, labor, exposure $, for not much return"

Having been involved in the original concept, I have given a fair amount of thought to this (while cutting, sewing, forming, dying, finishing, etc). Here are my conclusions.

This would be something that hobbyists (those making holsters for themselves, perhaps a few friends and acquaintances) might find of interest occasionally. However, someone making a holster for himself, or for a friend, has access to the handgun for which the holster will be made, so how frequently will a dummy gun be rented?

Those of us who are making holsters and accessories as a business know that most customers want rapid service. Any significant delay in delivering an order can only result in an unhappy customer. So we buy what we need to have on hand to meet orders as they come in.

If I saw that sufficient potential existed to realize a reasonable return on the investment required to start up such an enterprise I would do it. I do not see that potential, so I won't.

Best regards.

Ray, I agree with you and K-man, slowing down your regular pay customers while shuffling rental orders is not a way to keep people happy. I am going to stick to what I know and do what I do best (not rental guns!!).

Thanks for looking at the idea!

Rick J.

Edited June 24, 2009 by rickybobby

[Rayban]

Does this make sense??.......start a "file" of folks that have blue guns and willing to rent them out on a as needed basis.........same deal.....if I see you have one I need, I PayPal you $40 and when I send you back the blue you PP me $30

Here's my list:

Colt 1911

[Lobo]

Pretty short list there, Rayban!

[carljc72]

Pretty short list there, Rayban!

That looks like my blue gun collection. One 1911 Colt Commander...I am ready to monopolize the market.

[electrathon]

Does this make sense??.......start a "file" of folks that have blue guns and willing to rent them out on a as needed basis.........same deal.....if I see you have one I need, I PayPal you $40 and when I send you back the blue you PP me $30

Here's my list:

Colt 1911

I really like the idea and what you are trying to do. I think shipping will be your downfall though. You will have $8 or so shipping each way, also about $2 paypal fee each way. For the cost of a blue gun it might be cheaper just to buy one that to try shipping it back and forth. If you lived in the same town and could stop by and pick it up, I think it might work out.

[kissholsters]

i need a wather pps. if you have one to rent.

[ABC3]

Maybe we need to look at this another way. Rather than one person making the investmet & renting the "blue guns" why not start a club where you just loan the "blue gun" for one week.

Late charge if it's not back on time, ect.

Honor system..We did this on another forum with holsters & it was alittle slow but the idea could grow. I know I've offered a couple of "blue guns" as loaners (you pay the postage) & to date - not screwed yet.

Just an idea.

[Rayban]

I'm needing to "rent" a Ruger GP100 6"...or maybe just a pattern??

Thanks!!

[ABC3]

Rayban,

That one I don't have. But if I did you could certainly borrow it.

Sorry...

[BigRiverLeather]

On some other forums I have seen members go together on a "Group Buy", like on Maxpedition Carry bags, Magpul AR15 accessories etc. I wonder if something like this might work out where a group gets together, agrees on a list of 5 guns (or whatever the number is) and shares them. A thread or blogspot keeps track of who has what, when it is needed it is shipped to that person. If 10 people get together and get 5 guns (hypothetical numbers), that can ease the pain considerably.

Just a thought which might have some wrinkles to work out, but....

[Echo4V]

I also saw someone looking for a how to video, so maybe if you started with the guns then you could branch out into videos/books as well. Looks like a substantial investment but once established I think it could work for you.

david