Also see http://www.logoloc.com/first/ - “Orbit Balls Coming Soon”
Also see: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=73298 - “Lunacy Game Ball Kits”
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.
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.
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
team 1718 i was told walked into a nearby Walmart, and walked out with 10 undamaged orbit balls…
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.
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What about that random report about one being available at KB toys? Fluke? I didn’t see any at my local KB last night.
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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.:rolleyes:
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.
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 :mad:
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?
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.:ahh:
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?
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.
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! 
I talked with a Walmart employee. He claims that he started working there 4 months ago. He remembers the ball and said that when he started they were on clearance.
Anyway, the Walmart in Tewksbury, MA had zero.
please see my post under Source for Orbit ball page 6. I explain how to go to Walmarts and use their Telxon system for finding Orbit balls in nearby stores.
in kenosha, wi (30min south of milwaukee) we found that the “WILD TIME ORBIT BALL” (not ZOOM BALL) happened to be in a walmart in kenosha when the director of the school and purchasing students came back they had their arms filled with 18 orbit balls!!! 
it was quite hilarious seeing them walk in.
i think these are the most fun game pieces i’ve seen thus far
while I purchased 3 from one walmart, and 1 from way across town (20 miles from the other), I did see one at a Big K-Mart. However, It was so badly destroyed and mangled, being at the bottom of the ball rack, that it hardly represented anything close to what I would be willing to spend money on. The store I went to and got the 3 balls at actually had an employee there looking at the orbit balls and asked me if I was on a FIRST team. Apparently he was at our local kickoff event and was glad to see a FIRST team take them instead of a “random” customer. Just found that to be interesting.
They have had that on there before with previous game pieces and it has taken until either mid season if I remember correctly or not until after the season or even the competition. But that is what I noticed when viewing their site, but each year is a new year and I guess we will see what it is this year.