Plans to Restock Items?
 

This thread is more of a question to anyone in the community who could perhaps shed light on an answer.

My Big Question: When are certain products going to get restocked?

I have been keeping an eye on both the VexPro and West Coast Products websites, in hopes to see that some particular items get restocked. In my searching, I have found a number of items that are not in stock. I understand that the two sell a number of different products that the other may not sell, and that I have listed more WCP exclusive items.

Here's a quick idea of the "items" that I am referring to (I have kept the names that I am using to refer to these items exactly what the product description is to maintain continuity):

• 775pro Motors
• GT2 (3mm) - 12T, 9mm Double Flange, RS775 Motor Pinion
• Flanged Bearing - 0.500in x 1.125in x 0.313in
• 20t Gear with 3/8" Hex Bore
• 20t Gear with 1/2" Hex Bore
• 30t Gear with 1/2" Hex Bore
• 36t Gear with 1/2" Hex Bore
• 54t Gear with 1/2" Hex Bore
• Timing Belt (HTD 5mm) - 150T, 15mm Wide
• 12T RS775 Motor Pinion - 32DP
• 12T RS550 Motor Pinion - 32DP

Perhaps you think I am being too particular in this list and just looking for a scapegoat, but the motor that many teams quickly fell in love with has been out of stock for quite some time. Beyond that, I know that a number of these items are extremely popular or frequently used. Teams are getting back in school, and some are getting back to work. Some of us also need to restock on our supplies for internal team uses. Again, if anyone could lend a hand in giving some insight, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

I emailed them about this a while ago. They said that they intended to grt most of the VexPro inventory by November.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

These items are ordered in bulk to reduce cost. Companies have to forecast how much of an item to purchase and the lead time needed.

Companies will order stock to minimise how long it will be in inventory. Having a lot of cash sitting on the shelf is not good business practice and it's even worse if they are operating on a line of credit.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

These products may be out of stock for a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, they know their main customer, robotics teams, are much less active during the summer than they are during the school year, so it makes sense that they wouldn't plan on carrying much stock over the summer (typically companies want to carry stock for as short a time as possible, as stock sitting on a shelf represents money invested that isn't generating cash flow).

You should also keep in mind that these companies have been known to release product updates in the fall (example), and they may want to let products that are being updated empty off the shelves before they become obsolete, and to free up room for the new products.

The only way to know when a particular item is going to be restocked is to e-mail or call the company themselves to ask. Answers you may get on CD won't be as accurate as those the company can give you.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

I also want a more solid answer about when we will have BaneBots wheels back. You can still get all the sizes 2.875 and smaller in the thin profiles, but they have been displaying the larger sizes are coming back for a while now. The update info keeps getting pushed back.

It currently says

But the updates have been sliding for months.

#IWantBaneBotsWheelsAgain
http://www.banebots.com/category/T81P.html

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

Good news! 775pro motors are now back In Stock on our US site. Our Canadian warehouse, West Coast Products and The Robot Space should also have some in the next few weeks.

For the other VEXpro items you mentioned, we have products arriving daily and aim to have all products back in the November timeframe.

The www.vexrobotics.com website is your best source for stock status, and you can always call or e-mail us with any questions.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

I'll add in that I'm hoping that VexPro gets the 4 inch Right Mecanum Wheels back in stock sometime soon.
#WhoDoesNotWantBaneBotsWheelsAgain?
WooHoo!! :yikes:

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

Thank you for your reply! As others had mentioned, I understand that it may not be in the best of your interests to keep stock during a time of year where you do not sell rapidly. I figured that this may have been the reason as to why some items were still out of stock, but it was great to be able to hear the news of what is happening from the people who run the operation.

I appreciate all that you guys do at VexPro, and this update was certainly good news for myself and others to hear.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

We are working hard to re stock and should have items being re stocked between now and November (at the latest). We are also working on a number of improvements that should slowly be rolling out in the coming months: site, manuals, how tos, videos etc...

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

OOOOOoooh. Got my 12 775pros in the mail today. Fast shipping VEX.

12! :ahh:

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

FYI, as a completely random aside and since I happen to work in the marine shipping industry, I thought I would give everyone some fun facts!

The global container shipping industry is experiencing an unprecedented event with the largest bankruptcy of a shipping company in history.

Hanjin Shipping, the world's seventh largest containership company operating over 100 ships has filed for bankruptcy. (Over 7% of the total container capacity from Asia to North America)

Dozens of ships have been denied port access and are anchored or drifting with containers onboard because the ports/stevedores do not trust that they will be paid.

Hopefully the ripple effects throughout the container industry, will not have a major impact on the upcoming season. . .
This the the 4th container company (in the top 15 largest 9 months ago) to be out of business or going out of business.

source: http://gcaptain.com/sinking-shipping...uoy-survivors/
http://gcaptain.com/food-water-dwind...n-ghost-ships/

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

Yeah... Why so few?

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

Yeah this could get ugly because I bet the big companies that ship thousands and thousands of containers per year will get priority and little companies with small volumes may feel the squeeze with long waits until items ship and/or significant price increases.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

I almost bought more. We'll see how summer/fall projects go first.

As for Hanjin, living by Long Beach, CA, I see lots of their ships just sitting there out in the channel. Hope they can get in port soon.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

I saw something over the weekend that said Hanjin ships were starting to be offloaded. Apparently the 4 that were stuck in Long Beach were afforded asset seizure protection by a federal judge and the South Korean bankruptcy court had approved the release of $10 million in funds to pay for the offloading. It looks like some $14 billion in merchandise was sitting on those 4 ships.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

I saw mention of this development this weekend too, and the article noted that shipping prices had already "skyrocketed".

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

Container prices are up ~50%, but this is a change from $1100 to $1700 for a COMEX box. So in relative terms its an increase, but given the price of what you can move, its not much. Rates are still well below where they have been in the past, which is probably contributing to the bankruptcies. This is similar to how oil was up $10/barrel (30%) from its low, but still down over 50% from the highs many years ago.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

That's kind of surprising since there is a glut of shipping space (container loads) for the last year. Shipping prices have been dropping and the demand has also been dropping. This is one of the reasons that Hanjin got into so much trouble was these two factors.

China's slowing economy is also a problem. Not as many goods in or out in the last year. There are over 170 large container ships in a port in Malaysia that have been mothballed because of lack of work.

Short term rates may go up, Hanjin has raised theirs to get back some cash flow. But they are still way under what they were 18 months ago.

The other interesting side effect is that for the last two years you could purchase containers fairly cheaply. You may have seen lots of articles about people building house, offices, etc out of containers. This was to ease the glut of non active containers, since if they are not on a boat full of goods, they are empty in your storage yards costing you money. The availability of containers is slowing and the cost is slowly going back up. If you were planning to get containers and covert them into robot spaces the time is now.

A second wave of problems is that the containers got offloaded, but the trucking and train companies are not picking them up, since they are worried about getting paid for transport. It will take some time to get that sorted out. But presently there are truckers looking for loads from the major ports.

It should get sorted out by mid-November when all the Christmas goods start showing up in full force in warehouses.

The joys of living in a world economy!!

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

I may have been overly optimistic about Christmas. This followup article from the Economist explains some more details on what is going on. Evidently there is still about $14 billion (USD) in goods floating around out there looking to get unloaded.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

BaneBots wheels are back in stock!!!!!

http://banebots.com/

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

Hooray hooray!

Also, I'm a little embarrassed that I just now noticed the different colors of wheel had different durometers.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

Is the hub thing new to the product? I didn't really look at these wheels this year, but it seems like a clever way to avoid having too much stock of one type of wheel and not enough stock of another. Plus teams can reuse hubs and just buy a lot of wheel stock.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

Yes, the hubs are a new feature. They have their pros and cons however.

Also there is now a 4th durometer now. 60A in Black which is more firm than the Blue wheels.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

Does anyone have any insight as to when the 3:1 and 4:1 VexPro Versaplanetary stages will be back in stock? They have been out of stock since May.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

I know! We're dying for them too.

Plans to Restock Items?
 

Same here. We use a 4:1 on our shooter, so they're pretty important. Luckily, we were able to find a local team (shout out to 5026) that had one they were willing to get rid of, so we at least have one spare.

Re: Plans to Restock Items?
 

The 3:1 and 4:1 Gear Kits should both be back In Stock by mid-November.

Thanks for your patience!