What does a $400 to $450 TAC-One mean to you

[shartley]

[Lohman446]

Originally posted by AGD
We are thinking about ways to deal with the fact there is no dealer price. One idea is to sell it without a warrantee and let the dealers upcharge for that.

AGD

Possible in theory, the problem is, following through with a no warranty issue would be something you would have to do (been in that situation). From what I have seen of AGD's customer service I can't imagine a customer sending one in that had a defect issue and AGD not repairing it at no charge - regardless of that stated warranty.

[dansim]

but you see not everyon elikes teh tacone body, so some may still be inclined to go ule, but if your doing the CO2 option make the hpa pin like 90$ to cover the costs and keep it competitive with current ule stuff i would really love to get my hands on just the tac1 body to throw in with my anno order coming up...hint hint

[bryceeden]

I agree with Cilio - Knightmare Tango that if it has the X-valve, ULT, and I-frame I plan to pick one up for myself, and probably one for my store. I figure if I get one for the store and sell it at cost with no markup people will see it, and though they can't afford it directly they will pick up Classics and Minimags to upgrade into it. Then after it sells people will see the preformance and buy mags because they want the fire power. So in my mind the dealer issue isn't a big deal because the low price CAN help us too. Just my thought on the matter.

[Severe]

Shartley, while I understand your pricing concept of a lower opening price, I think this would be an inherently bad idea. Mainly because issues with AGD meeting production demands. I don't think, "..taking the scenario world by storm..." includes a 6 or more month wait to get this marker (or any other).

As for the resale value, I don't think AGD should concern themselves with such things necessarily. I mean, these are markers they have already made money on if you look at it strictly from a business view point. However, I certainly see the dealer issue. While I understand the Tac-One is targeted towards an informed scenario market, to truely take anything by storm you have to be available at the local store level. And that's going to come down to just how inexpensive the production process is and how little margin the local dealers (and AGD) are willing to accept. I honestly think if dealers only marked up $25-40 over the web price (if such a thing is even feasible) that it would not discourage the in-shop spontanious buyer. Also, most shops already have a "we service what we sell" policy.

The warranty issue bothers me. I originally purchased AGD partially because of their factory warranty. I do not thing the factory warranty should be modified at all. It's been the foundation of much admiration of AGD. Besides, consider again you're targeting Tippmann's cusotmer base and Tippmann has a phenomial customer service/warranty program.

Under selling current stock at any reseller is going to be an issue. Since I'm not knowledgable about how much vendors pay for their mags and such I won't touch this.

What it means to me? It means I will, fairly soon I hope, own my third AGD based marker, fourth overall. I sold my Micromag because of tolerance issues I had with it, my first was a Spyder Compact 2000.

My only question with this whole thought process is, why has this concept not been done with the current line of ULE bodies?

[shartley]

Originally posted by Severe
Shartley, while I understand your pricing concept of a lower opening price, I think this would be an inherently bad idea. Mainly because issues with AGD meeting production demands. I don't think, "..taking the scenario world by storm..." includes a 6 or more month wait to get this marker (or any other).

Originally posted by Severe
As for the resale value, I don't think AGD should concern themselves with such things necessarily. I mean, these are markers they have already made money on if you look at it strictly from a business view point. However, I certainly see the dealer issue. While I understand the Tac-One is targeted towards an informed scenario market, to truely take anything by storm you have to be available at the local store level. And that's going to come down to just how inexpensive the production process is and how little margin the local dealers (and AGD) are willing to accept. I honestly think if dealers only marked up $25-40 over the web price (if such a thing is even feasible) that it would not discourage the in-shop spontanious buyer. Also, most shops already have a "we service what we sell" policy.

[Pstan]

It means I'll finally buy a MAG because there will be one that isnt priced ridiculously too high. AGD will finally get my money......and that's something they've never been able to do up to this point.

[Smokee_2_7]

Hmmm. I missed the point about undercutting dealers earlier on. That is definitly not a good thing.

Howver, I am not looking for a huge profit margin on this marker anyway. In fact, I generally don't look for much in the way of profit in ANY marker I sell. The internet has already taken care of that.

As far as this tac-one goes, nixing the warranty is an interesting idea to get dealers back in the loop, but i do not believe this to be the best idea. In essence, you are taking one of the GOOD things that people have always said about AGD, and screwing with it. Not necessairly a good idea.

My suggestion is to come up with a dealer price, however small the margin of profit is. Lets make it a profit by volume thing.


Carl

[dansim]

it wont have ult and i belive hes removing the hpa part for co2 on the xvalve, i say throw a classic valve in there

[Severe]

I think we need to get this "Classic valve" concept out of our head. Just because it's a classic valve does not mean it's cheaper to produce! You're confusing performance and pricing. Ironically, the X-valve is going to win both.

Because it's aluminum, the X-valve is inherently cheaper, probably MUCH cheaper, to produce than the classic. That is, I believe the whole motivation behind Tom's indication that AGD wants to move to a single valve product line.

No matter what, when AGD moves to this single valve product line there is going to be a back lash on the current Classic valve owners. Oh well, it's a natural progression and at the root of it, those Classic valve owners bought their markers knowing full well what its' capabilities were..and with the current upgrades from AGD those have been exceeded. No one should grip about this move and just accept that this as a great time to aquire a new AGD marker with the X-valve.

Build the Tac-One with the X-vavle, include the C02 compatible part and advertise the fact that with the change of one small part current C02 users will get a tremendous upgrade when they get the opportunity to move to HPA. That alone will be an incentive for new buyers!

[dansim]

yes but i belive there are already valves made he stated he is trying to clear some stock not make more, how many classics are currently made and sittign in teh factory?

[bryceeden]

Originally posted by RogueFactor


Let's compare:

MiniMag:
Stock Trigger Frame
Classic Valve
SS Body
Store Prices: $325-$375

Tac-One:
Intelliframe or Y-Grip
XValve
Aluminum Body
ULT
Factory-Direct Price: $450

If a marker(Automag, Minimag) on your wall that didnt sell before is put up against an upgraded marker(Tac-One) with ALL the upgrades that can ONLY be bought factory-direct and is a mere $125 more...

you will NEVER sell the marker on the wall or any upgrades.(In store XValve is $300 alone, I-Frame is $110, ULT is $45).

Cutting the dealers out of the loop is a step in the wrong direction.

While it makes scense that people would spend the extra money on the Tac-0ne instead of upgrading that isn't how things work in reality. People can buy a Nightkast "cocker for $950 or they can buy an Outkast for $550 and a worrblade for $450, common scense says get the nightkast, but I have more people who buy the outkast and the worrblade at the same time than I have buy the nightkast. People don't always see what is the best deal, they see what they can afford now.

[AGD]

We can't get dealers to handle our product unless the customer comes in and specifically asks for it. We can't sell a competitively priced product until the volume goes up. So you have a chicken and egg situation here.

Our strategy is to price this thing to get the volume going, then we can get better pricing and offer a dealer price. Unless you have some other ideas this is the only option we see for promoting volume.

AGD

[Odder]

My 2 cents

It has been over 10 years since the classic Mag came out, and AGD still makes and sells them, that has always been rather puzzling to me. why not phasing them out?

With this new Tac One coming out, since it will be price attractively, isn't it a good oppertunity to phase out the some of the other models?

[shartley]

Re: My 2 cents

Originally posted by Odder
It has been over 10 years since the classic Mag came out, and AGD still makes and sells them, that has always been rather puzzling to me. why not phasing them out?

With this new Tac One coming out, since it will be price attractively, isn't it a good oppertunity to phase out the some of the other models?