[Mr. Van]

I understand that FIRST and AndyMark have good, honest, gracious and professional people working for them. However, the system that has been put into place is unreasonable.

Why is my $5000 entry fee worth potentially hundreds and hundreds of dollars less than another teams? HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?

I've been doing this for long enough to remember the days when we had a limited part list and had to order only from Small Parts. While I'm not suggesting that we return to those days, I do think that there must be a better system for distributing the items that make up the kit - a system that goes back to trying to level the playing field a bit instead of making for the quick and the hungry.

I believe the major issue is the credit value unbalance. As has been pointed out, some items have a credit value nearly SIXTY TIMES greater than other items - and these high value items have just about the lowest total quantity available. This just makes for a lottery-like situation.

If teams were given 500 credits and the right angle drill was 170 credits, the classmate was 200 credits, talons 60 and CIMs 27 credits, would there be a mad rush for classmates? Possibly, but at least teams wouldn't feel so bad that their credits were now worth considerably less after the high-value, low-quantity items were gone.

Teams might actually wait until partway into the build season and order items they are going to actually use on their robot if credits matched street price values.

Correct the credit value and much of the problem will be lessened.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox