UK Speedcube shop - Cheap cubes anyone?

[MalusDB]

£10 for a Zhanchi? That's a competitive price. Be careful to not go too high or low. Maybe price them higher firstly, and decrease the price a little when you have a larger product range and more customers

I think you got this wrong. Initially I would lead with lower prices to try and attract potential customers. Provide good service and people will be willing to pay that bit more for what you offer. You may have to be willing to make some initial losses to fly this project, which is why most people never follow through after saying all this about starting one up. So think of this as any other business venture. And good luck!

 

[cgell]

well i can sell for less than 8-10 pound not including p&p so hows that?

or maybe i can post for free depends

right ill get my first batch of cubes soon im thinking of getting 10 - 20 of few different types of cubes
Zhanchi, guhong v2, witden 2x2, shengshou 4x4, shengshou 5x5? hows that?

does your "store" have a website

 

[KongShou]

not yet

 

[applemobile]

If you had to ask the questions you did in your OP then I really don't think this is a good idea. The market in the uk is pretty small. Puzl sell loads of puzzles, so I would imagine speedcubers makes probably less than 10% of their profit/turnover. Before you go buying stock I would strongly suggest you research your market, or even find out if there is one. How many speedcubers do you think are in the uk?

 

[Kattenvriendin]

Europe? Nope. One reason: shipping. Unless you are selling the very RARE cubes no-one will pay the ton of shipping when they can get free shipping elsewhere.

You'd have to have prices like zcube.cn to even out with the shipping cost.

 

[tomzeng]

Would love a store to buy cheap v-cubes

 

[Kattenvriendin]

We all would. Ain't gonna happen

 

[KongShou]

i can do free shipping. ^^ maybe to europe too.

 

[Razorcube]

I would love to have another UK cubeing store

 

[mark49152]

I disagree about free shipping. Some people (like me) would pay more to get cubes faster. I hate waiting for weeks. For a cube that's usually $13 USD free shipping with a 2-3 week wait I'd be happy to pay £20 GBP including shipping to get it next day.

But I'm just one customer, and lots of cubers are more price sensitive. "More expensive but fast" is a niche market and you need to figure out whether it is big enough for you.

 

[pjk]

I am closing this thread. If you are interesting in advertising a new shop on the forum, please see the stickied thread in the "Puzzle Shops" forum. The idea of that forum is to prevent threads like this and other threads which promote a new or old puzzle store.

 

[mark49152]

ukcubestore.com?

Has anybody tried this store? Any good?

 

[Alex Rubik]

Interesting! another choice! sometimes i live in London

 

[Kirjava]

Lightake costs £6.60 for a GHv2 shipped
UK Cube Store costs £12.49 for the same

 

[mark49152]

Indeed, I wouldn't expect a UK store to be cheaper. The difference is a couple of Starbucks. If I really wanted a GH2 I'd be happy to pay that much more to get it in a couple of days rather than wait two weeks.

 

[Clarkeeyyy]

ukcubestore.com?

Wow, it apparently has shengshou v3's.

 

[Maccoboy]

probably 4v's and they haven't realised or even v5's

 

[Toddyt1]

The have a choice between v3 and v4. Maybe the owner(s) has a few v3s to sell. Or maybe you right hand they haven't realised.

 

[pipkiksass]

I've been in communication with Kong, the owner of the store (a forum member named KongShou) - they're just setting up (opened this week), and I'll be ordering ASAP. He's been very good at answering all my queries.

I asked what they intend to stock in the near future:

"I am already adding the Dayan stickers to my product range. Hopefully I will be able to add half bright, blindfold, diff oil, shock oil etc. as for cube wise I hope to be able to stock all the popular official wca puzzles, and on top of that some crazy ones, like the gear cube and cubic puzzles"

What lube they use:

"I use traxxas differential oil 50k weight with maru lube. It is a combination that has worked very well for me."

I pointed out to him that many stores now stock the SS 4x4x4 v5 - he wasn't aware of this:

"As for shengshou 4x4 v5 I will stock it , same with Dayan 2x2, shuangren and the panshi v2"

As for prices - Lightake (and the other large Chinese/Hong Kong based stores) have the advantage of ordering stock in massive numbers, and being able to pass these savings on to customers. It's completely unfair to compare a small, privately owned, and newly-opened store to an established wholesaler on price terms. Much more fair to compare to e.g. thecubicle.us (also run by a forum member) where a Guhong 2 is $12 (£7.68) + shipping. You'd pay a similar price to get a single cube from TheCubicle, and wait a few extra days.

I priced up an order of SS 4x4, 5x5, and a couple of Dayan cubes, and I could save £6 ordering from zcube.cn... but to get delivery within a month would cost £15.73, i.e. cost £9 more!

I, for one, will be supporting a fellow cuber who's trying to do something positive for the UK cubing community. If that means paying a few extra pounds while the shop gets its footing, then so be it. I think the long-term benefits will definitely be worth it.

 

[Toddyt1]

Not to mention that they may get held up and customs and you could end up paying vat etc..