Buy 'em while you can

[nailshooter41]

You are mixing two different things up. Festool will now be like Tupperware used to be. If you want Tupperware, you buy from an authorized dealer. Only. BEFORE any of this started Festool was setting the prices to their retailers to protect their pricing and marketing strategies. Festool has never gone after the broader market, but once they have seen what they have here, they will maximize this opportunity. Nothing wrong with that at all, I am just waiting to see when the other foot will fall.

Jet, DeWalt, et al, never set the prices for their retailers, they just made strong suggestions and gave guidance. That enabled Woodcraft, Amazon, etc, to promote them with sales, pertinent give away items, etc. So if Amazon bought 10,000 mini lathes, they could not only sell the lathes at a discount, but because their pricing strategy based on volume gave them an even better discount they gave free shipping away as well. Other vendors were forced to be more competitive too, when this happened.

I didn't indicate that there was harm afoot. I do believe that in the future Festool will continue their price increases on a whim to see how much the market will bear. This won't hurt me one bit! Based on the other companies that have done this (DuoFast comes immediately to mind) it will be a "hide and watch" scenario to see what happens to their quality. I hope it doesn't change, the tools seem to make a lot of people happy.

What I was getting at when I posted was this: There will be no Festool competition, period. Dealers, are dealers, are dealers. As I said, "get 'em while they're hot". Now there is no hope of prices going down, competition between vendors, special deals, etc. for the public.

And again, no problem. I can see the value of some of their tools for specific uses, but to pay that kind of money I would need to use the tools they sell every day, hard all day, in a shop setting. I wouldn't take their stuff out to a job on a regular basis. It maybe engineered and manufactured much better than average, but their little plastic cases still break just like any other tool.

At this point, those tools may indeed represent a fair value. But the value is in the eye of the beholder. It will be interesting to see in the next 24-36 months to see where this path takes them in the marketplace, though.

Robert

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

It's just a matter of time when the Domino will be copied by everybody's line and we'll have some choice in the matter. I've lived without a Domino for 53 years; I guess a little while longer won't kill me. I'll get mine from Milwaukee....

[nailshooter41]

I believe that. I love a good tool, but I have also gone a ways down the road without the Domino. Not that I wouldn't like to have one, though!

I think Festool will ride the wave for a couple of more years, maybe longer and they will either have some natural competition, or they will license out the design. You know more than a few of those tools have been taken apart and studied.

There was another tool that reminds me of the what COULD happen to the Domino.

First, there was Lamello for the plate joiners when they were the rage. Good old Norm. That was the first time I ever saw one being used. Then DeWalt was in the fray. Other minor players came along. Then PC came out with theirs. However, PC was sued as it was too close to DeWalt's, so they revamped the line with a couple of tiny changes. All of this happened in about 3 years, IIRC.

It's the cycle of an innovative tool, I think.

Robert

[Robatoy]

There is no doubt that Festool created a 're-adjustment' in the industry. They proved that innovation and quality will sell. Others have walked that path before them. Elu, Lamello, even Freud. Can we all pay tribute to the Ryobi AP 10? Who created the first viable cordless drill? (Of any scale, I'd give that one to Makita.)

Point is... some restaurants are so busy, nobody goes there anymore. What to do, what to do... okay... let's dress up our tools to sell....not to do the godamned job.. but to SELL! Lime green, Blue rubber overmolds...WTF????

PACKAGING!!! A whole whack of shit , all colour matched in a BOX with TWELVE farking batteries!!! and LED's by the dozen!! Blue ones, white ones, green ones.

Dammit, Martha... I like the LIME ones... yeah.. gimme the LIME ones for my 68th birfday.. I will make you things!!! 48 FUKKIN VOLTS!!!!!!

*creams jeans* (made in China)

[J. Clarke]

I'm sorry but I still don't see where you're getting all this about dealers this and dealers that and dealers the other. The announcement didn't say a damned thing about any kind of change in "dealers", it sais that Festool isn't going to sell directly to end users. If you have some information about a change in policies regarding "dealers" please provide a link to it.

[Leon]

I think the Lamello was out quite a while before they caught on.

Good old Norm. That was the first time I ever saw one being

Actually PC had a plate joiner out long before the DeWalt. The current design that looks like the DeWalt is not the first version the PC came out with. I bought the first design in 1990 and it was belt driven, Model 556 IIRC I recall only a few players when I bought my first. IIRC Lamello, PC, Ryobi, and Makita were some of the first in the US.

I bet it is quite some time before the Domino is copied simply because of patents.

[nailshooter41]

I saw this before when I was reading on the actual intent of making a plate joiner. Betcha didn't know they went THIS far back!:

needed better marketing.

You know, I thought they did, but I coudn't remember for sure. Wasn't that first one a rather simple affair without a lot of adjustments?

Someone will come up with something, though. They may have a bit that uses a spiral plunger that only goes back and forth, not moving like a Domino does. Who knows. But whatever it is, it won't be too close as the Domino bit action and the internal method of operation are completely unique to my knowledge.

I will be looking for the Breadstick, a machine that cuts a rounded

9almost round) and uses little wooden connectors with a waffle pattern on them that make them look like breadsticks. (NOT Dominoes!)

Cool.

Robert

[Mark & Juanita]

Maybe the Milwaukee version will be scaled and calibrated in real people units.

/just sayin'

[russellseaton1]

I agree with you. As posted by nailshooter above:

"What I was getting at when I posted was this: There will be no Festool competition, period. Dealers, are dealers, are dealers. As I said, "get 'em while they're hot". Now there is no hope of prices going down, competition between vendors, special deals, etc. for the public."

Festool competition? Hope of prices going down?

Festool competes with other companies producing tools. If you don't like Festool's price, buy another brand of tool. Why would you ever hope prices are going to go down? Festool has been successful in the USA with setting the price its dealers can charge and will likely enforce this rule whether they sell to the public or not. Why would they change something that appears to have worked very well for them? Make a good tool, set a fixed high price, sell lots of tools in the USA to people with lots of disposable income. Where did this hope of prices going down fantasy come from?

[nailshooter41]

SNIP

Uh, huh.

OK.

I know your type.

You're the guy that goes around telling little kids there is no Santa Claus. No tooth Fairy. No Easter Bunny.

After seeing so many commercials from Obama about hope, I was just starting to have some.

Thanks a lot. I guess I'll just go ahead and eat the eggs I was going to dye this year.

Robert

[Han]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news:1dd5383c- [e-mail]:

Robert, there is hope, and then there is false hope. Ask any politician. If Festool makes a tool that I can afford, and that is clearly better than anything remotely comparable, why should I buy HF? Correct, I'm a cheapskate, and I'll sand and plaster until it fits . But if I can afford the Festool? Hmm, have to think about it. Maybe someone will come up with something approaching the Festool, but cheaper. Wait, maybe I then have to wait until my teeth don't hurt me anymore and my arthritis has evaporated in the crematorium.

Better make Congress act responsibly in the meantime ...

Note the !

[nailshooter41]

Well... I thought I was the silly one believing in the Easter Bunny!

Congress + responsible?

I can sure see Old Saint Nick, I can't even imagine that one.

But I am glad to see I am not the only one with "hope".

Robert

[Andrew Barss]

: What I was getting at when I posted was this: There will be no : Festool competition, period.

What you're missing is that there neve WAS Festool price competition. That's not their business model, and never has been.

Their decision to not sell directly from the factory has zero, none, nada efect on this.

(I can buy a Scion anywhere in the country for the same price. Period. Whether or not I can order one directly from the factory in Japan is beside the point.)

Dealers, are dealers, are dealers. As I : said, "get 'em while they're hot". Now there is no hope of prices : going down, competition between vendors, special deals, etc. for the : public.

Yup. Nor was there in the past. So what? Same thing for Lie-Nielson planes.

-- Andy Barss

[Han]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news:a169f12a- [e-mail]:

Yeah!

The sad thing is that while the saying goes where there is a will, there is a way. However, where is the way will make Congress responsible, since there seems to be no way?

[J. Clarke]

I'm starting to get the impression that nailshooter thinks that "no direct sales by Festool" means "no online sales by anybody".

[nailshooter41]

[Mike]

It's more a case of "as the US dollar goes down the pan, no one except Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will be able to buy anything made by Festool"

Meanwhile, closer to the Festool production location, the rocketing cost of raw materials means that the locals won't be able to buy anything made by Festool

So, the answer is to buy now and use it, because next month you might not be able to afford it and even if you could all the lights will have gone out and by all accounts a hand cranked Domino is useless.

Global Economic Meltdown, coming soon to a planet near you :)