Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Here is a link to Bill's Blog for those who haven't read it yet.

http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/

Not very encouraging I must say!

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

i have to agree...not very encouraging words

with the amount of these that will be on the field during a game, its very disappointing to know we may only have 5 or less to practice with for the entire season.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Nice catch & thanks for posting.

You would think that somebody would check with the company that makes these & the company that sells these to ensure that there will be enough to cover the teams.

Sounds like a pretty big ooops to me.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Just to piggy back on this post:
I had a parent do a little checking about the game pieces and here is what she has reported:
So I think Bill's Blog is the info on the web. Being an Ex Wal-Mart employee, their ordering system is very streamlined. An employee can order an item and have it in the store in two days if it is stored in the local warehouse. From what I've been told, this item has been removed from their current line of products and cannot be restocked at your local Wal-Mart. This is a big setback to the teams that haven't been lucky enough to grab the last few off the shelves. It's going to be extremely hard to prototype with only one ball. With a supply being 2 weeks out ,(1 week for the site to come up and the 2nd for shipping) I hope a little GP shines through and those lucky enough to have a supply will share with those who don't.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Sounds like an opportunity for others for fundraising for enterprising teams.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

87.77 balls per store. Hmmmmmmm

We only found 4 at 5 different stores. Is that 28,000 number after FIRST has secured enough for competitions?????

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

My guess is that Wal-Mart might have 28,000, but probably most of them are in warehouses. I can't imagine these things are normally popular enough to take up the necessary shelf space to have 100 per store.

Sounds like FIRST contacted Wal-Mart and verified the total # available but failed to ask how many are normally kept on-hand in a store.

Also, it's possible they may have a smaller quantity in-store now than they would have in the summertime.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I'd doubt it John. Five Walmarts for our team - we found two balls, but one of them was so broken it wasn't even worth purchasing. I'm still waiting to hear back from a few other Philly area teams, but the report isn't great. We have two balls total and I don't anticipate finding any more before we might get our hands on a few from FIRST.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

The Cokeley family, on their drive home from Manchester, stopped at EVERY Walmart between Massachusetts and Connecticut - and found ZERO balls.

We, at our local Walmart, however, found 6. Being gracious, we bought 3, and saved 3 for our neighboring Allentown team. We also made sure to leave the chance of balls at the Hamilton Walmart for the teams out there in Hamilton.

I hope teams who come across this will remember to have the same principles!

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Exactly my point. There must be a few Walmarts with quite a few. Once we find them, teams can get them.

FYI We bought the broken ones also. I predict that the majority of balls on the field will have one or more hoops broken.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

You are also forgetting overhead. Have to account the ones that were stolen by customers/employees and the ones that are broken in store and thrown away without being accounted for.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

A friend told me Wyoming Walmarts had more than a fair share of them in stock.
Road trip??? :rolleyes:

Btw, I hate that Bill used blogspot, since that site is blocked at work. :mad:
Can someone copy/paste the contents of the message here?

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Here you are Señor.

Direct from Bill's Blog:
http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2009...oure-busy.html

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

That's a start. If you cannot find any call Walmart in Wyoming.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Interesting point. Here's some info on Walmart's distribution centers:
http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/779...FQZqswodMDorDQ

I can't find a list of those centers, however. Can anyone find a link I can't find? Is there a nice/sane/proper way of finding out/shaking loose any product that might be in these places?

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I hope that FIRST makes these available for sale as soon as possible.

I'm not particularly interested in buying anything from WalMart.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

yea. our team isnt really hot on that idea either. i mean, if you want to buy 10 more game pieces, thats $100. and we're really hesitant dropping that kind of money on something that a.) is going to break fairly easily and b.) will probably only be needed for roughly 6 weeks. and i highly doubt that, even if u found 80 of those in your walmart, that you'd get a bulk price.

its just an all around case of bad planning...

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I guess one of our mentors picked up like nine on his way home from our meeting after the kickoff. I don't know if there were anymore left. Also one of our teachers at the school(who is part of our team), picked one up like yesturday or today so he can have one, but it was a broken one. So there are or were some here in Minnesota.

Pool Noodles on the other hand is harder to find here in the middle of winter.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

You get the car, I'll get the sandwiches! :)

The only thing I can add to this -- Whyoming?

Sorry, one of the few times I can use that and it works.

The good news is that maybe in 4 or five months they'll be at Building 19!

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

There are only 3 FRC teams in the entire state of Kentucky. If you know anyone there I would call them and have them look.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Seconded.

I know it's still only week one, but this is a little annoying to say the least. I wish FIRST would have had such a crucial part of the game lined up and ready to go. We have our kit ball and another mentor managed to find a super cell at the local Walmart.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I hope the balls are available soon as well, with some robots probably able to hold 40+ balls, teams will need a good supply to test. I know our hopper in 06 worked great with only 5 or so balls, but after that, it's performance went downhill fast.

Sidenote, if anyone has read, "The World is Flat", Walmart is an extremely interesting company.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Really?

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Provided they sell at 10 bucks a pop, are you willing to spend 400 dollars on Blip balls to practice being a ball hog?? :rolleyes:
And yes, John, I really believe some teams will become ball hogs, & go for the most on the field.
It's legal, granted you only start with your 7 at the beginning.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Speaking of ball hogs, might I suggest that teams in close proximity to each other organize "community play dates" so a good, fun orbit ball filled time can be had by all?

i.e......pool your orbit balls together and share them.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I got to one Wal-mart exactly 2 minutes before another local team did; there were 8 balls: 2 broken, 2 in original packaging (scanning at $9.97), and 4 out of the package with no SKU tag in the general ball bin marked $3.08. We split them and went to the customer counter to see if they would let us have any of them for $3.08 and the answer was no. We both decided that we would just pass and see what FIRST came up with for pricing (kinda like the bulk poof ball rate 3 years ago). Now I'm rethinking that decision - doesn't sound promising.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

When you go to your local Wal-Mart take a good look around the department. One store I went to had 3 Orbit balls in a bin of loose toys because the packaging was off and the units were slightly damaged...but I also got a discount. Good luck.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

FYI:

Called a local WalMart. They had some in the back, but the UPC number provided in the previous thread was no longer accurate. Keep that in mind!

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Last year there was a terrible headache because of the game...this year, the headache is on obtaining the game element.

It's a good thing that they expect to have them for purchase soon.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I'm just really hoping that Bill's "some available for sale" allows teams that are hosting scrimmages to get enough to play the game. We host Rally every year and this one looks to cost us quite a lot between the flooring and the game pieces (if we can get enough of them!).

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Yes. We want 150+ so we can outfit a fully legal competition field for all teams in the area to use.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Knowing the way Wal-Mart squeezes the lowest possible prices out of its suppliers, I wonder how much cheaper FIRST will be able to offer them to teams for, and how many they will be able to get their hands on. I doubt Blip has 1000s of extra of these laying around in a warehouse already (beyond what Wal-Mart already has), but you never know. Since they say "MADE IN CHINA" all over them, if they have to make new ones, even if they ramped up production now to produce a few thousand extras for FIRST demand, it'll take them a while to get here from Asia...

Also, if Wal-Mart really does have almost 30,000, that's still only a dozen or so for each team (assuming that it would even be possible to buy out their whole inventory, which is difficult to imagine).

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Our team just aquired 20 additional ones from a few walmarts in our area. Search around for a few.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Texas is getting organized and posting a listing of all nearby walmarts. We are going to try and pool the balls together so rookies have a chance to buy them.

http://houston.txfirst.org/node/48

Thanks to 2158, 2587, 1745 for putting together this list.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Although we will not be able to compete this year, (due to problems beyond our control) I still got one at our local
Walmart as we might still build and compete off season based on this years game. We should be back for next year.

As of 6PM EST at the Franklin, Va. Walmart there were three...I bought one
leaving two.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Blip does not have any in stock and cannot get any more made until March (after Chinese New Year). They had told us we could only buy from them in min quantity of 1200, which actually we figured was fine because we could just set up a webstore for teams to buy from us, but then they came back with the March date and that completely killed that idea. Im really hoping FIRST has something up their sleeve like that they are going to sell all their competition balls and work with Blip to get more for themselves by March. Oh and the price Blip initially gave us (without being able to work with a manager) was $8/ball. Not to say thats what Walmart or FIRST pays, just what they told us, so the Walmart price really isnt that much higher.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

We were pretty proactive in getting them early locally.
Even if many were broken when we bought them, they are much easier to fix rather than having to make them from scratch.
In fact, we were lucky to have a team beat us to a Walmart near my house, only to decide he didnt want them, because they were broken. I came about 5 minutes later and snatched them up!:D :D

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

From what Walmart declares is the total number of balls a store should have may be incorrect. If like at my local Walmart, the Orbit Balls were placed in the ball bin and taken out of the original packing. This means they have the incorrect price tag. Our mentor was able to contact someone at walmart to ask which stores have what quantities. One store in the computer at 30 Orbit balls, but at the store there was 0. Along with other stores which should have had other numbers like 5,7,4, there ended up being either none or a number less than that.

I do not believe there are 28,000 of these available across the 319 Walmarts.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

According to the wikipedia article on walmart, there were 3800 walmart stores in the US in 2005. That means that less then 1 out of 10 stores have the balls.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

yea this definetlly is NOT good.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

That's interesting. WalMart told me they'd be stocking more during the spring refresh in two weeks.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I found 2 balls at a local walmart and they were in the general ball bin and got them for $4 a piece, they had a couple of breaks in the bands...

my sister found me three more, 2 in the packaging and one not. those were $9 a piece and that was at the walmart in the town she goes to college at, that puts team 1737 up to 5 balls from walmart and 1 KOP ball.

and as for FIRST selling all of the competition balls, the Kansas City regional is feb. 26-28 so that means that they couldn't sell all of the competition balls because at least one regional would short on game pieces

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Is there any way that some American teams would be willing to sell a few of their orbit balls to Canadian teams? To the extent of my knowledge, NONE have been found in our WalMarts, Toys-R-Us, Zellers, local toy shops etc.

If anyone could possibly lend a few, please send me a private message and I can pass the information along to other local teams.

Thanks!

- Jenn

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

To all First competitors,

I would like to take this opportunity to clarify many of the rumors regarding the Blip Toys Orbit Ball. At this time Blip Toys does not have any stock of the Orbit Ball to sell to competitors directly. First has purchased extra units for the competition and has informed us additional balls we will be sold via their website in the next 24 hours. To date Walmart has been the only retailer to carry the Orbit Ball and has elected to not purchase the ball for the upcoming spring season. All remaining orbit balls through Walmart are available in their stores and are being sold on clearance. They were not offered by Walmart via their website or in any other countries. Our analysis shows around 14,000 pieces throughout their stores across the U.S.

Customer Service
Blip Toys

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Can someone sticky that response from Peter?

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

No, but I can do this:

HEY YOU! Read peter's post two posts up!

That said, I checked a Target and two Wal-Marts around Columbia. Zero, zero, then five today on my lunch break (two with a band broken and let go for $2 after a chat with customer service--it may have helped that I was buying the other three at full price.) There was something on the terminal screen I saw there that I thought read a cost near $5.00; I don't know how relevant the figure is. The balls are currently residing in the back of my car, shuttling along with me between 1618 and 2815 meetings. (And, occasionally, back to work--nothing like a brightly-colored ball to drum up interest!)

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

+1 bump inb4lock spam spam spam

aka

i would like to move that we sticky peter's post. do i hear a 2nd? and consent?

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I'd assume you'd let 1293 in on a slice of that ball heaven pie for a day or two eh?

Pwetty pweeze?

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I'm afraid these "orbit" balls are export controlled; if the Canadians got them they might be able to reverse engineer them and find all the secrets to our space program. ;) (they were built in China?)

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Too bad this isn't still running. It would make a great centerpiece for a US-Canada orbit ball smuggling operation. Reverse Prohibition! :rolleyes:

We have a grand total of.....4.....and are trying to collect more to share among the 6 local teams. But we'd gladly sell one to you - $1,000 and it's all yours....:(

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

How...generous (?) of you :) I think we'll wait for the FIRST Store to come up

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Looks like there's a list of walmart stores with balls on Bill's Blog. What does the () in red mean? Broken balls? I wonder if these numbers were verified in any way or just pulled from a computer inventory. I can tell you...there are no balls here on this island in Hawaii.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Went to 2 stores, one of which stated having 9, the other having 16.

Neither had any. I had gone to one of them on Saturday.
Looks like the list is not all that reliable.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Now you know why Walmart wants to RFID everything.

Several of the stores we've been to already were listed as having them, despite being out. We called one store that was listed as having a bunch as soon as we saw the list. They said they've received calls from all over the country today, and had already sold the ones they had.

I assume that the ones in (red) means that they've sold more then they thought they had. That is a common accounting notation.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Yep, red means a negative number. I will personally attest that Wal-Mart's Inventory Control is only as good as the folks they have working at that given store. When I working for Wal-Mart, I would spend 30 minutes looking for an item that was listed with large counts and never finding them, or seeing a negative 12 next to an item when I had 100 in the box next to me.

I just sent my parents in GA to their local stores when I saw two stores in their area on the list.

Update: just got a call from the parents: don't bother going to the store on Bobby Jones in Augusta, they were just bought out. :eek:
The other store on Augusta should still have some.

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Just when you thought this whole orbit ball thing couldn't get any crazier. . .

Went tonight to our local Walmart to check yet again for the balls. I had checked Sunday, and found none, but Bill's list said they had 3, so I figured what the heck. Guess what . . . found a precious 1 ball, slightly damaged. So I asked at customer service what they would sell it to me for and was told . . . THEY WON'T SELL IT TO ME!!!!! :ahh: :ahh: The assistant manager on duty said it was a hazard because if it broke further a child could become injured and Walmart could be sued. Now I'm a lawyer, but even to me this seemed ridiculous. The plastic was snapped at only 1 point, and it was still covered by fabric. Any way, I had a fit, informed them that FIRST teams across the nation were buying these balls damaged, so she put it in the manager's office with my name on it and I have to go back to see him when he returns on Thursday. I'll be bringing with me all the emails from you good folk proving that these balls can, in fact be sold. Wish me luck!!!:D :D

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Yet I'm sure they've sold bucketloads of Chinese products.....you know - "NOW FORTIFIED WITH LEAD!" :rolleyes:

They say the Warren store near me has 7. However, a few days back, I only found one broke-down scrap heap reject. I doubt they materialized out of thin air - maybe when I go back for my next lead booster I'll check again.....

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I just got off the phone with a technical sales support rep from Logoloc and he told me that they will be selling a grand total of 1800 balls. There will be a limit of one package (3 balls) per team first come first serve. I guess its time to send the scouting parties to check those far off walmarts for balls.

Here is an interesting little video: Walmart Store Spread

Good Luck Teams

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

argh have been looking around NJ, no luck yet
none at the princeton, north brunswick, edison, piscataway or union :(

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

The Northeast is wiped clean dude, no luck for us either...

We'll be lucky to have 2 by the end of week 3. :(

What were they thinking by using this ball and not knowing about Wal-Mart's intent to not purchase them beforehand...

Oh well...

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

who knows? But seriously, there have to be orbit balls somewhere...maybe in other countries who knows
I tried ebay and amazon
no luck

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

I learned something today!

This "issue" falls into an area called "Industrial Engineering."
thanks to those who continue to mentor me ;)

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

can anyone find the place to order them on the first website since its been over 24 hrs and i still cant fins it anywhere????

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Coming soon (Right side of main page)
Keep checking this website.
http://logoloc.com/first/

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

We managed to come up with a store that had 9....after a team member spent 5 hours driving to 10 other walmarts, he finally found them on the 11th try. Keep looking!

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Everyone,

Just spoke with a representative at Logo Loc Ltd. The Orbit Ball should be available by the end of this week. I am assuming this means by the end of Friday. He told me that they are still ironing out the logistics with FIRST and creating the website page. He also apologized for any delay this may cause. He was not able to give me any pricing information at this time.

Hope this helps....

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

As I posted here:

Teams will be hearing officially from FIRST today or tomorrow. Don't expect to be able to buy many balls, though. Don't even plan to count them with a full hand.

It's going to be slightly cheaper than on Walmart. :)

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Wow, I didn't originally think the FIRST Logoloc store was going to be so tight on the number of available balls per team.

With this update, it looks like making your own balls may be very beneficial. :)

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

Thanks to the proof supplied by your many emails on this forum discussing how you all purchased damaged balls at numerous Walmarts, I was able to convince the manager of our local store to sell me the slightly damaged ball I argued with his assistant so vociforously about on Tuesday. Now, with the 3 balls I'll be able to order from FIRST tomorrow, at least we'll have the 7 we'd be allowed to start off with in our bot.:D

Re: Update on the Orbit Balls
 

This is very surprising to me. I really thought that FIRST would have the toys manufactured again. Only 3 per team? that's going to put a lot of teams in a disadvantage. I hope you guys can find some more like we did. Here's some hints...

- Go to your local WalMart with this UPC Numer.. 065838282040K, ask them to type that in to there inventory scanner to give you and up to date on-hand list of all walmarts within 150 Miles.

-Call those Walmarts and have them set aside for you(Note:It is Walmart's policy to not hold items but when Colin and I did this we spoke to some managers and they were very accommodating.)

-If there On hands say they have some but the employee you talk too says they don't if it's on your way it's worth stopping by because we were able to find several in the ball rack out of there packages with all the other plastic balls.

-Get a GPS, and hit every Walmart that supposedly have some on hand. Colin, John and I headed out to Syracuse to 4 stores to pick up 11 Balls and one of the employees helped us with his inventory scanner and we ended up going to seven Walmarts and got 27 Orbit Balls. Several of the stores we stopped at had originally told us they didn't have any when we called them but they were just in the ball rack and the employees didn't think to look there.

Good Luck in your search, also look into making your own, it might be worth it.