Official word on Orbit Balls

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by peter

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

Also see http://www.logoloc.com/first/ - "Orbit Balls Coming Soon"

Also see: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=73298 - "Lunacy Game Ball Kits"

[IKE]

So somewhere in the US there must be a Walmart store with about 1,000 of these things, because everywhere else seems to only have a couple.

[Jim Wilks]

Originally Posted by IKE

So somewhere in the US there must be a Walmart store with about 1,000 of these things, because everywhere else seems to only have a couple.

Most of the teams that have found them have found some of them in the "ball bin" with no label, etc. Those are sold as clearance items and are not recorded against the inventory. There's likely a big error in this inventory by now. I think that there are a lot less around than Wal-Mart thinks. This is well supported by the many teams including mine which have found none yet.

[Greg Peshek]

Citing Wikipedia here, because I'm too lazy to find the original source..

In 2005, Wal-Mart had $312.4 billion in sales, more than 6,200 facilities around the world—including 3,800 stores in the United States

So 14,000 / 3,800 stores comes out to about 3.86 or 4 balls per store.. which seems to be the average that people have found. Personally I found 4 at my local Walmart. Some people have been reporting not finding any and some people have been reporting finding them in numbers upwards of 10.. so it actually makes sense.

Of course these Walmarts aren't always in the most convenient places for teams, so there will be a lot of random Walmarts with these balls in stock, while tons of other will be wiped out.

[Wetzel]

I think the error came in reporting them at 319 Walmarts. Inventory control and tracking is something that Walmart is extremely good at, and a big part of why they have done so well.

Wetzel

[XXShadowXX]

team 1718 i was told walked into a nearby Walmart, and walked out with 10 undamaged orbit balls...

[suewanninger]

Yes, I think that it is really a matter of where you are located. I was traveling yesterday and, on a whim, stopped off at a Walmart about 40 miles from home (Milwaukee) and found 13 orbit balls nicely packaged in their boxes. We don't have that many FRC teams here in Wisconsin (and lots of little towns with Walmarts), so that is probably to our advantage.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by peter

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

1) What about that random report about one being available at KB toys? Fluke? I didn't see any at my local KB last night.

2) And are they GOING on clearance, or were they ALREADY on clearance at the $10 price? If they are going on clearance, then can those of us who bought them at the regular $10 price get a price adjustment now?!?!?
Oh, And if they were on clearance at $10, why the heck did they ever sell for more than that?? Seriously now. Or, maybe they didn't, & that's why they are discontinued.



On a seperate note, I'm glad Logo-Loc is picking up the slack of Blip/Walmart this time. I guess FIRST has one more company they owe a huge favor to after this one. I'm wondering how much they will sell for on the Logo-Loc website with my 2nd question above in mind.

[Brandon Holley]

This entire situation depresses me....Knowing that whatever we design and come up with may not be able to be tested to the best of its ability until competitions....its sad

[BrianT103]

There has been discussions that you must fill out an "application" in order to purchase orbit balls through FIRST.

Could someone perhaps provide a link that explains this possible "application" and where you would fill it out?

[Team 135]

I search around about 5 area walmarts only to find 1 or 2. I drove about 30 miles and after asking an associate they presented me with 4 cases of 3 balls each. These cases were still sealed from the factory. We now have a total of 28 balls and that is most likely as many as we are ever going to be able to find.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by jgw

This is well supported by the many teams including mine which have found none yet.

I think it was clear in the statement that the balls were only ever carried in the USA. I have had no better luck finding them in canada

Perhaps some Halton teams should pool some resources and make a few?

[Greg Needel]

I called every walmart within a 100 miles of my team and got the same answer at all of them. They remember having them instock but in the last week or so they were moved to the clearance section of the store and now are none. The problem is that once something is put on clearance it is removed from the inventory tracking system, so all the computer come up having zero in stock and zero at surrounding stores. The only walmarts that we found them in are ones who have not yet taken down there "ball bin" for the winter. Within a few weeks I doubt there will be any of these in any Walmart, regardless of teams in the surrounding area.

[KateLasPumas09]

If you go to the Blip toys website www.bliptoys.com you can find other stores that may carry the orbit balls. I think the only other stores more common then Walmart were Target, Radioshack, and some Kmarts.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by KateLasPumas09

If you go to the Blip toys website www.bliptoys.com you can find other stores that may carry the orbit balls. I think the only other stores more common then Walmart were Target, Radioshack, and some Kmarts.

That was a good idea, until we just got word from Blip themselves that the only official retailer of the Orbit Balls were Walmart.
The company sells lots of other things, & in turn those other items are sold at the stores you have stated.
Sorry. Don't go on a wild goose chase for these there, or you will be wasting your time.

Their cool foam ring gun is the most popular of their items that I have seen so far at stores.
And, did anyone see the Stilts that Blip sells? Those are pretty cool!