By Ronbo
From WESTERN VA
Feb 20, 2013
| Damn, just went online to order some more basics and saw the price went up to $70 a peice for this year. Bummer. Just throwin that out there so your not as shocked as I was. | 
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By John Wilder
From Las Vegas, NV
Feb 20, 2013
| Not surprising, considering they were probably not making a huge profit on them and $70 is still cheaper than the Fixe Aliens and the new BD X4s.
They may also be experimenting with pricing that would allow them to use retailers in the states rather than continue the direct distribution model indefinitely. |
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By DrApnea
From Salt Lake City, UT
Feb 20, 2013
| And their normal totems are now $80
So much for getting them as my next cams |
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By bearbreeder
Feb 20, 2013
| www.totemcams.com/blog/?id=2139
This year our objective is to reach to more climbers, and we want to get the collaboration of retails stores. The cams will be closer to the hands of the climbers community, but a bit more expensive.
so basically its being marked up so that store owners will carry them ...
didnt they just get bought out? ... corporate marketing at work? |
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By John Wilder
From Las Vegas, NV
Feb 20, 2013
| The boys at Totem always wanted to get into retail- the reason they didnt is because the wholesale price of their cams landed at the retail price of most others. I remember when they first showed up at Outdoor Retailer and their retail price on their cams would have been $125 or more per cam.
I suspect that they have made enough from their cult like following that they are starting to see economies of scale in production and can get their wholesale price down to a level where the retail pricing is doable for most customers. $80 is a bit steep, but you can still sell it. |
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By DrApnea
From Salt Lake City, UT
Feb 20, 2013
| Jacking up the price won't get them into the hands of climbers. |
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By bearbreeder
Feb 20, 2013
| DrApnea wrote: Jacking up the price won't get them into the hands of climbers.
sure it will ... theres always people who will pay $$$$ for the latest and greatest
now im not saying totems arent good or dont have certain advantages ... but there are plenty of folks wholl buy em just because they costs the most ...
mean while i whipped on my 30$ rock empires last week ... course i also have some of those fancy dragons as well for those nifty slings
;) |
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By Andrew Mayer
Feb 20, 2013
| bearbreeder wrote: but there are plenty of folks wholl buy em just because they costs the most ...
huh? even with a price increase to $70 per cam they are cheaper than Fixe aliens at $80 per cam and equal to the new BD X4 coming out this spring at $70 a piece.
DrApnea wrote: Jacking up the price won't get them into the hands of climbers.
+1. I would argue this price increase will make people more likely to get mastercams at $60 per cam and easily found on sale for less. |
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By bearbreeder
Feb 20, 2013
| Andrew Mayer wrote: huh? even with a price increase to $70 per cam they are cheaper than Fixe aliens at $80 per cam and equal to the new BD X4 coming out this spring at $70 a piece. .
80 smackaroos for the regular totems ;)
well i guess links are more expensive ... plenty of people buy those because they are $$$$ and fancy as well ... |
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By Scott McMahon
From Boulder, CO
Feb 20, 2013
| I'm glad I don't need anymore cams!! |
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By JLP
From The Internet
Feb 20, 2013
| They need to come up with the rest of the sizes before pricing themselves so close to Fixe, IMO. I have the Basics, but I would not buy them again if the Fixes were just $10 more. The main reason is that the Basic sizes are different than the Fixes - too many mis-matches and overlaps by having a mix - not worth the savings anymore. Also, when they first came out with the Basics, new and reliable Aliens didn't exist, so it was a no-brainer. This isn't the case anymore. I don't think people are going to go for the higher price. |
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By reboot
From Westminster, CO
Feb 20, 2013
| JLP wrote: They need to come up with the rest of the sizes before pricing themselves so close to Fixe, IMO.
I'm not quite following this line of thinking. The sizes totem does not have are the black & blue aliens, which were never the money sizes for aliens (and if totem comes out with an internal spring blue, that'd be something). As for the sizing, I guess this all depends on how many of the old aliens you have. Yes they made their red in between the grey & red aliens. I liked this better, you probably found it to be annoying. Regardless, I feel totem made a few minor but noticeable improvements to the original alien design. The fact it's cheaper makes it an even better deal. And if they are distributed to an online retailer, the effective price when on sale probably wouldn't be much different than now. |
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By Andrew Mayer
Feb 20, 2013
| bearbreeder wrote: 80 smackaroos for the regular totems ;)
Oh gotcha. I was thinking basics. I don't have any experience with the regular totems. |
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By Andrew Mayer
Feb 20, 2013
| reboot wrote: Regardless, I feel totem made a few minor but noticeable improvements to the original alien design. The fact it's cheaper makes it an even better deal. And if they are distributed to an online retailer, the effective price when on sale probably wouldn't be much different than now.
Agreed. Totem basics are my first "aliens" and I went with them over Fixe due to price and reading about some of the minor improvements here on MP. Although they are now $70 rather than $60, they are still less than the $80 that Fixe charges.
Kind of a bummer though that you will now have to search/wait for a sale to get them for less than $70 (but I guess on the upside you might be able to find them 20-25% off once or twice a year down the road) |
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By Ray Pinpillage
Feb 20, 2013
| bearbreeder wrote: sure it will ... theres always people who will pay $$$$ for the latest and greatest now im not saying totems arent good or dont have certain advantages ... but there are plenty of folks wholl buy em just because they costs the most ... mean while i whipped on my 30$ rock empires last week ... course i also have some of those fancy dragons as well for those nifty slings ;)
You should stick to climbing. Totem raised the price because retailers didn't want to stock the basics with the current low margin. Totem was selling basics direct at a slim margin and the discount they were giving retailers wasn't enough to get retailers to place large stocking orders. So yeah, they raised the retail price so that they could get more retailers to buy their cams. |
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By bearbreeder
Feb 20, 2013
| Ray Pinpillage wrote: You should stick to climbing. Totem raised the price because retailers didn't want to stock the basics with the current low margin. Totem was selling basics direct at a slim margin and the discount they were giving retailers wasn't enough to get retailers to place large stocking orders. So yeah, they raised the retail price so that they could get more retailers to buy their cams.
all that doesnt matter to the person whos looking to buy cams ;)
the price tag is what matters ...
=P |
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By bearbreeder
Feb 20, 2013
| Ray Pinpillage wrote: So now you speak for all climbers? OK
so basically i would be paying more for a cam because they want to sell it in stores? ...
i will say that MOST climbers here would have preferred to pay a lower price ;) |
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By Ray Pinpillage
Feb 20, 2013
| bearbreeder wrote: so basically i would be paying more for a cam because they want to sell it in stores? ... i will say that MOST climbers here would have preferred to pay a lower price ;)
If more dealers stock them I don't think you will end up paying more. They still cost more than your Rock Empire cams though so you probably still wouldn't be happy. |
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By Brian Hudson
From Greenville, SC
Feb 20, 2013
| Ray Pinpillage wrote: So now you speak for all climbers? OK
Are you a Totem rep? |
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By Killing In The Name Of
Feb 21, 2013
| Nah, usually Ray has good stuff to say. I'm guessing it's been about three weeks or so since he's gotten laid and his coffee machine's broken, or equivalent. Reel 'er back in, cowboy!
I'll gladly pay the higher price for sick cams. No biggie, really. The part I find insulting is BD shipping the operation to China and keeping prices the same. Fixe and Totem are small-batch companies, I'm fine paying premium dolla for something essentially handmade. That's how it works.
Plus you can't get a cam to replace the Totem regulars, so buy em or start a teardrop collection are about your only options... |
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By 20 kN
From Hawaii
Feb 21, 2013
| bearbreeder wrote: but there are plenty of folks wholl buy em just because they costs the most ...
Like who? Let's see a show of hands. How many people on this forum bought a piece of gear because it was the most expensive out there? I suspect we wont see many hands on this one. Climbers are not typically Ferrari-driving CEOs that hire guns to go out and find the best products on the market just so they can say they have them. Most climbers buy gear for functionality and quality, not status. I think Totem made a poor move, and I think they will suffer profit loss from it. When you consider that the Master Cam is now some 30% less expensive, made in the USA, and is pretty much as functional as the Basics, Metolius has a serious leg up on the market right now. |
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By bearbreeder
Feb 21, 2013
| Ray Pinpillage wrote: If more dealers stock them I don't think you will end up paying more. They still cost more than your Rock Empire cams though so you probably still wouldn't be happy.
Well youll be paying more right now ;)
Happiness is in going out an climbing and using the gear ... Not in paying more for it so that they can sell it in stores
Ill go off and whip on my rock empire, and dragons, and camalots, and tcus, and zeros, and aliens
Just go out and use the darn things =P |
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By bearbreeder
Feb 21, 2013
| 20 kN wrote: Like who? Let's see a show of hands. How many people on this forum bought a piece of gear because it was the most expensive out there? I suspect we wont see many hands on this one. Climbers are not typically Ferrari-driving CEOs that hire guns to go out and find the best products on the market just so they can say they have them. Most climbers buy gear for functionality and quality, not status. I think Totem made a poor move, and I think they will suffer profit loss from it. When you consider that the Master Cam is now some 30% less expensive, made in the USA, and is pretty much as functional as the Basics, Metolius has a serious leg up on the market right now.
Walk around the bluffs in climbing season and youll see plenty of shiny new link cams, and even a few big bros for people leading 5.7/8/9s
Hopefully MPers have more sense
But then we do have the $$$$$ biners, amazing megatron gridlocks, and threads about such shiny nice toys ;) |
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By Killing In The Name Of
Feb 21, 2013
| 20 kN wrote: Like who? Let's see a show of hands. How many people on this forum bought a piece of gear because it was the most expensive out there?
For those of us who on occasion need to work in order to move up in the world from Wish Sandwiches with No Bun, just ignore the above and rock the Rock Empires. Yer gunna die. |
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By Ray Pinpillage
Feb 21, 2013
| bearbreeder wrote: Well youll be paying more right now ;) Happiness is in going out an climbing and using the gear ... Not in paying more for it so that they can sell it in stores Ill go off and whip on my rock empire, and dragons, and camalots, and tcus, and zeros, and aliens Just go out and use the darn things =P
I know you won't get this but it's kinda nice having local dealers carry the gear. You know, the dealers you demand take your broken shit back at the drop of a hat.
Anyhow, I'll let you get back to worrying about what everyone else is doing, it seems like a full time job for you. |
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