**FIRST EMAIL**/Game Pieces Available

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by dlavery

But then one week before Christmas Wal-mart announced they were discontinuing sales of Orbit Balls, with no prior notice. That late in the process, two weeks before kick-off, there was no opportunity to negotiate an alternate distributor with the manufacturer or identify an alternate game piece. FIRST had planned to ensure that reasonable access to game pieces could be realized by those teams that wanted to obtain them. But they were caught at the last minute by forces beyond their control.

Thanks for sharing, Dave. As big as FIRST is to us, we sometimes fail to realize that it really isn't a major economic force in the world. Corporations, outside of specialty shops like AndyMark, aren't going to make production and supply decisions based on 1600 potential customers.

I think it's good of FIRST to share a limited access to pieces that they will be taking out of their own game stock. Hopefully there won't be a plea in April, "Please bring your Orbit Balls with you to Atlanta!"