"ADB, Inc. Announces New Prices for Starline 2500 Miniatures" Topic

STAR FLEET ALERT
18 APRIL 2014
NEW 2500 PRICE STRUCTURE
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When ADB, Inc., became solely responsible for the manufacture and distribution of the Starline 2500 range of pewter starship miniatures, we conducted a top-to-bottom review of the manufacturing process and pricing structure. ADB, Inc., has today implemented a new strategy for manufacturing, pricing, and distributing this product line. This does NOT affect our other product lines.

DISTRIBUTION: These will now be distributed solely by mail order from our Amarillo, Texas facility. We will no longer be able to sell these to wholesalers or retailers because (to make any profit at all) we would have to raise the unit prices far beyond what any customer would pay (e.g., $20 USD for a cruiser). The actual cost of manufacture turned out to be higher than the original prices can support.

AVAILABILITY: If it's on our shopping cart, it's in stock in Amarillo and will ship within a day or two.

PRICES: In most cases, these have gone down. For a few large ships, they will go up. From now on, each ship will get its own price based on its cost of manufacture. We will not push every ship into a one-price-for-all packaging system. Prices will range from $5.95 USD to $19.95 USD (higher for battleships).

OVERSEAS: A new shipping option for miniatures (of all types) is available on our shopping cart that gives customers a more accurate cost ($24.95 to Europe for up to 18 miniatures from any of our ranges). Previously, the cart charged the rate for the largest flat-rate box (over $60 USD). We then changed it to the much lower actual cost, but this left many customers confused and reluctant to order.

PACKAGING: We will no longer sell the ships in sets or boxes. We will sell only individual ships. Players will be able to design their fleet (for any of our game systems) and then buy exactly what they need.

QUALITY CONTROL: ADB, Inc., has always had a very high standard for quality control and has not had any significant returns of 2500-range ships dispatched from our warehouse. Our casting facility has always had a very low rate of defective ships that reach Amarillo.

ALL METAL: We have eliminated all resin ships from the range and will replace them with identical ships cast in pewter. The resin ships had insurmountable quality control and production delays.

NEW SHIPS: The 2500 range will continue to grow. As this Alert is dispatched, we have almost a dozen new ships in the pipeline: Kzinti DN in metal; Tholian PC, DD, TK5, CA, DN; Orion BR, DW, CA, BC, BCH, DN; Klingon C8 and B10 (in metal); Augmented Battlestation (in metal); and several more.

Looks like the end of this range for non US customers postage and customs will make it unworkable.

macedon, the prices have dropped dramatically on many of the minis. What would have hurt non-US customers is pricing them so that ADB would turn a profit, the wholesalers would turn a profit, and the retail stores would turn a profit. If a mini cost us $5 USD, then we'd have to sell to distributors at $10 USD, retailers would pay $20 USD, and the customers would pay $40 USD, plus any import duties, for example. Even at a substantial online retailer discount, the consumer would pay at least $30. USD

Remember that our minis are each one quality checked at the casting house and obviously bad ones (missing metal or with the post holes filled in) are not even sent to Amarillo. Then when they arrive, they are closely inspected here in Amarillo and any imperfect ones are rejected. All of our customers benefit by knowing that they are getting a good ship on the first shot.

Also all the customers benefit by getting affordable ships in the quantity and mix they want. Many of the minis are either the same price or cheaper than they were originally. No more boxed sets where you get a dreadnought that you don't need more than one of and you cannot sell it for love nor money.

All of our customers benefit by knowing that they are getting a good ship on the first shot.

That has been my experience consistently. Quality, service and speed are always there and they have always been very straightforward on pricing and shipping.

Just doing a rough check. For a Federation fleet of four frigates, two war destroyers, a cruiser, a dreadnought, and six shuttles the old price would have been $110. USD Under the new structure that fleet would be $89.50 USD.

We hope that the price savings will help with postage and customs.

Thanks I appreciate reply.

At the scale and price I will get 4 to 5 ships per race and use them with the Federation Commander boardgame.

I would get smaller scale minis if I intended to use bigger fleets.

Not having overseas distributor will hurt sales as customs and handling charges are an expensive lottery. It's great to be able to pick individual ships but ordering from US is out.

I've just ordered a Federation Squadron Box from Blackhat mininatures and will put up with the unwanted ships in the box.

It is a better price if you were buying individual ships before ($15 a ship retail price, $10 USD-12 online). If you were buying mainly fleet boxes and squadron boxes, the price per ship was considerably less ($8-9 retail, $6 USD-7 online) per ship typically), but you got extras of the big ships which many of us didn't need.

So from the standpoint of flexibility, the new structure is a good thing. Price-wise, not necessarily; you have to figure out whether buying singles or scrounging up one of the fleet/squadron boxes from the dwindling supply online is the cheaper way to go.

Their overseas postage is not as bad as it could be. I pay a small fortune to import Ground Zero Games lead miniatures from the UK. 60 ships, shipping ran about 73 British Pounds ($122). But GGZ did give me a few free ships when it was clear that the website was charging too much postage. Nice of them to do.

First off it's nice about the price drop but for myself I don't have to worry since I'm sticking to the smaller size Star Trek minis which includes my good selection of FASA miniatures and as many people say nothing beats FASA.

I have always had great service when ordering from ADB.

Any idea on if the Lyrans, Hydran and ISC will be added to the 2500s? I haven't swithced to the 2500s because of the size issue, but I would like to have each of the empire's CAs one day.

malleman, I truly don't know a timeline on those. They require another volume of ACTASF to be considered for Starline 2500 minis.

The last I heard was that the Lyrans would be released as part of the "2nd ed" rulebook around the 4th qtr of 2014 with the Lyran-specific rules and ship stats. Based on that, I would not expect the Hydrans and ISC before late 2015, as they would also require a revised rulebook or supplement with their special rules and ship stats..

Has that release date for the 2nd ed Rulebook/Lyran minis slipped from the late 2014 date SVC previously suggested?

mdauben, I want us to get out the revised rulebook first. Extensive playtesting to get it absolutely right has slowed that release. Then we'll have a better handle on the next release.

I am with Macedon, it is hard when you have a customs "crap shoot" as you will, I really have no idea until my item gets here what the real cost is.

One of our customers mentioned that if you know someone on a post there that maybe something could be worked out to combine orders or something.

Steve Cole reports on the Starline 2500s: We have 13 masters on the way to or already at the factory. Figure four more days before they get there, call that 12 May.

Bruce (who runs the casting house we use) will put some of those into ADB Master Mold 2501. I am not sure how many will fit, maybe eight. He will drive that over to the mold factory on the 13th. It will take about seven days to get the master mold back, call it the 20th.

Then Bruce will spin the master mold (one day) and sent us samples on the 21st (five days in mail, they arrive the 26th). We will review them (an hour) and notify Bruce which ones are good enough to go into production molds. The production molds for some of the eight(?) will thus be ordered on the 27th, and will take 7 days to get back (3 June). Then a day for production, overnight some samples, two days for a production run (ship the 9th, a week for them to arrive at ADB (16th), a day or two for us to put them on the cart (photos, product descriptions, news releases and promotion). Call it new minis on the cart on or about 18 June, give or take.

What races will the minis be of?

Darkrazor, there are a couple of options; I'll know better when the master mold is done. I don't want to promise something and then have it not fit. :)