Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyB
2002 - Soccer balls (Standard soccer ball...)
2003 - Bins (As Joe said, available at any Target)
2004 - Playground Balls (Standard playground balls I think, could be wrong though)
2005 - PVC Tetras (Pretty easy to build yourself and you only needed a few)
2006 - Poof Balls (Like $4 or $5 a piece if I remember right, though a bit hard to find in some places)
2007 - Inner Tubes (Dirt Cheap, only needed the ones in the kit)
2008 - Trackballs (Only needed the one supplied assuming you didn't pop it)
I think 2009 marked the first game where aquiring the game piece was a signifigant problem. And it wasnt really FIRST's fault.
I don't know what your talking about when you say "very high markups" either. Mind elaborating? I'm pretty sure the Orbits were the same cost from FIRST as they were from Walmart... at least after shipping and handling. The cost per ball was only $3 from FIRST.
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I s'pose I was mostly referring to 06, 08 and 09. If you wanted a trackball, the only place that I can remember our team being able to find it was through FIRST, and the price seemed a bit much for an exercise ball... This year the orbit balls were pretty difficult to find (due to the discontinuation), and if you wanted any number of them, it was almost impossible to get (especially early on in the season (even through FIRST)).
I guess I just wish FIRST went with more generic item that can be purchased at local retailers reliably, like in 03 and 04. Lately FIRST has been moving to very specific items in which supply can be a major problem (especially in a game where 120 of the game piece can be on the field at any one time, and getting a dozen of such said piece can be nearly impossible.)
Also, I could be wrong, but I remember FIRST marking up the trackball to almost double the price found on *very* similar items from other online retailers.