Foam wing cutting

I thought it was going to be a 'how to' page but it was a 'how to buy' page.. :(

| | I thought it was going to be a 'how to' page but it was a 'how to buy' | page.. :( | | -- | David |

Yaaaawwwwnn! Just another Spammer.

Yeah, VHS no less. Probably be more successful if it was on DVD.

Sorry David, It was 11 pm when I posted the original note. I probably should have made it clearer. What questions do you have about cutting foam wings? There are dozens of web pages that cover the basics and years ago (20+) RCM used to have a book on cutting foam but as far as I know this is the only video that is an introduction to foam cutting basics. As far as having it in DVD format the cost of producing individual DVD's professionally so that they will play on most (but not all) DVD players is about $15 each in small runs. Ad that to the cost of the website, google advertising costs, postage, and my time and suddenly I would have to charge about $40 a copy. I have this in VHS format to keep the production cost down. I have been a modeler for over 40 years and have been cutting my own foam wings for about the last 15. The video was produced by a friend of mine that owns a control line specialty shop that is web based. The focus is on control line but the techniques are useable for RC, FF and CL. The intent was to make a video that modelers could use without a big learning curve. From comments folks have sent me I think we did that. Anyway sorry if anyone considered this spamming... that was not my intent. Chuckling.. now if you want to see spamming I will gladly forward the notes I get in my spam box here on Google... or the junk on some yahoo forums... See ya flying, Bob

Vance, If you have the resources to make DVD copies at a reasonable cost please let me know. I use VHS because I can keep the cost down. Professional DVD copies that can be read by most DVD players cost about $15 each in orders under 100 copies. To get costs down to about the same as VHS I would need to order 10,000 copies or more. I made this video to get the word out about how easy it is to cut foam wings, not to make money... That said, I don't have $1500 or more to put into an order. I have a daughter in college, a mortgage, a car payment and all the bills that come with living in America today. VHS equipment is still common and and VHS tape has an expected life of about as long as a DVD. If you really want a DVD I can burn one on my PC but I cannot promise that it will play on anything other than a matching PC. There are at least four formats for DVDs that I am aware of... and only one VHS tape format. Now... if you want to take the risk and front the money to produce DVD's that will need to sell for about $10 more than we are currently asking I would be glad to give you 10% of the net income from the sales once they happen (last year because of needing to buy a new VHS recorder I spent all the income off this little project so it's not a bet I would take). I am selling about one of these a week... Bob

HMMM.... You charge $30 per video. It costs $15 per DVD copy you say.

100% profit doesn't seem too unreasonable to me. All the other Hobby companies do it.

Exactly. This video is obviously for people too lazy to search google for info about cutting foam wings.

Oh, I didn't have any particular question but I am always on the lookout for fresh ideas. I though following the link might get me to some..

Dear Vance, You have never run a business have you? Postage is about $5. Packaging is another dollar. There is cost for the web site, a cbarge from google for directed traffic to the site, expenses for trips to the post office, and so on and so on. I clear about $2 on a VHS tape after all that is covered. All that is lost if one person in

30 sends me a bad check or reports they never got the tapein the mail so I mail them another or anything else that goes wrong. Again my offer stands. I will pay you 10% of the net sales if you want to front the money to produce the DVDs... The hobby business is full of guys who tried to provide a service and turned a lot of money into very little money doing it. If it was all income local hobby shop owners would retire as millionaires.. heck if it was that easy we would all be rich. Yours, Bob

Dear Vance, I am going to ignore you after this post. Yes the video is for folks who do not spend all their time flying the Internet... I guess it was really made for those who find it more fun to build and fly models Wishing you the best in life and that someday you will find personal peace and happiness in helping others rather than trying to tear them down, yours, Bob

If you were truely a business man, You wouldn't include the cost of S + H in your product. You would charge $29.95 + $6 for shipping and handling. The expenses of running to the post office and other odd expenses should be deductible on your business taxes. You did get a business license and get a business tax id didn't you? If not, you are risking much more than just taking checks that might be bad. Bad checks are a pain in the ass, but you can make it a pain in the ass for the person who passed you that bad check. It is a felony after all. I did indeed research starting my own business. I even went so far as to take small business administration classes at my local community college. After all that, I still decided I didn't need that kind of stress in my life.

If your town has a community college, they might have resources or be able to point you to an organization that helps new businesses start or small ones grow. Don't limit your self. You really can offer your video on DVD for about 30 - 35 dollars and even increase the amount you get to keep as profit.

I BTW do not have a VCR and your VHS tape would do me no good. Movies are no longer sold on VHS (new releases), and VCR's are increasingly harder to find at stores. Even the combo DVD/VCR machines are disappearing. I currently have a Sony Blu-ray player and am noy inclined to find a VCR.

Vance, If you have the resources to make DVD copies at a reasonable cost please let me know. I use VHS because I can keep the cost down. Professional DVD copies that can be read by most DVD players cost about $15 each in orders under 100 copies. To get costs down to about the same as VHS I would need to order 10,000 copies or more. I made this video to get the word out about how easy it is to cut foam wings, not to make money... That said, I don't have $1500 or more to put into an order. I have a daughter in college, a mortgage, a car payment and all the bills that come with living in America today. VHS equipment is still common and and VHS tape has an expected life of about as long as a DVD. If you really want a DVD I can burn one on my PC but I cannot promise that it will play on anything other than a matching PC. There are at least four formats for DVDs that I am aware of... and only one VHS tape format. Now... if you want to take the risk and front the money to produce DVD's that will need to sell for about $10 more than we are currently asking I would be glad to give you 10% of the net income from the sales once they happen (last year because of needing to buy a new VHS recorder I spent all the income off this little project so it's not a bet I would take). I am selling about one of these a week... Bob

| VHS equipment is still common

... commonly found in the garage. Next to those kits you're going to build sometime this decade, maybe.

I'm guessing that less than half the households in the US have VCRs that are working and hooked up and ready to use.

| If you really want a DVD I can burn one on my PC but I cannot promise | that it will play on anything other than a matching PC. There are at | least four formats for DVDs that I am aware of...

DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM and what?

Only the first two do DVD Video, so you can discount anything after that.

| and only one VHS tape format.

Actually, there's more than one ...

In any event, these people --

probably sell a few more videos than you do -- and they're on DVD-Rs (I've got one in front of me.) And they've got this FAQ on it --

They probably use a professional disk duplicator because it's quicker, but I'll be a standard DVD-R burner would work well enough for low volume.

Switch to DVDs and you could probably sell two or three videos a week!

CD's are indeed cheaper to produce commercially. However, they are only able to hold 700mb's per cd. DVD's are able to hold 4.7gb's or more if you go dual layer.

The original poster needs to realize that VCR's are not as common in households anymore as he would like to believe. Even the combo dvd/vcr machines are starting to disappear. He also needs to invest money in his business if he expects to make money. I bet if he shopped around, he could find a company willing to make his dvd's for less than his original estimate.

I also do not buy from people who spam usenet even if it is related to modeling r/c or otherwise.

Getting the VHS tape to CD is dirt simple.

Obviously, you have the master tape somewhere. Go to a production house and get it transferred to CD/DVD.

If you've got a reasonable speed PC and the hardware/softwre, you can generate a very good AVI or MPG format file from the output of the VCR, especially if you are using one that permits a direct link to the TV rather than going through converting the image to RF (Channel 3) -- copies of copy.

Once you've got the digitized video, you simoply can use one of the better movie-maker programs to write the video to DVD.

With a bit of work, you can make a fairly professional-looking DVD.

Making copies is as simple as outputting the DVD image to disk. Make

10-20 and then replenish as stocks run low.

We're looking at $.50 for the DVD blank, $.10 for the label, and $.25 for the box... Probably less than $2.50 for the whole package, delivered to the post office.

I agree with a previous append -- if you are not running this like a business, you are not taking full advantage of the tax laws.

Also, if you're simply pocketing the profits without accounting for them with UNCLE SAM, you're playing with the devil and that's why they're called the Infernal Revenue Service......

That's why Al Capone got nailed -- even if it's illegal money, you have to declare it and pay taxes.

Done, that cost me $29.99. Additional copies from the same source are about $20 each.

Here is where the problem starts. I am perfectly happy with my 2 year old Toshiba laptop and my 4 year old Gateway tower... to even consider this requires a dedicated investment in a new PC. I have a daugther in college, a mortgage on my house, a monthly payment on my van and I work for the state of Nebraska where I get less than $50,000 a year before taxes. My take home is about $2000 a month and just barely covers my bills. I am not purchasing a new computer any time soon.

Purchase of a new PC to do this makes the cost per unit much higher. Depending on the units sold and taking the estimate that I saw in another note of 2-3 a week that would be about 150/year. My cost per unit for the first year would be closer to $15 each... if the PC worked for two years it would be down to about $10.... and since it would be in use for commercial purposes the normal home warrenty would not apply.

OMGosh I am not sure who started that part of this string. I have been paying taxes all along... so the price of the video has to include the "cost" of taxes. There are no "advantages" to the tax laws. If you do not show a profit in 3 years or so the IRS calls it a "hobby" and you cannot use the loss to off set any other income. Believe me I had the audit to prove that one. I cannot believe I got so much flack for offering a service that no one else offers... an introductory video to cutting foam wings.... If you are not interested just don't follow the link. Bob

PS My son suggested I not get into this nonsense of replying to usenet complaints. I think I needed to listen to him.

Maybe if you offered it on DVD, more people would be interested. Besides which you need to stop spamming usenet. I usually don't even respond to spammers let alone buy from them, but I was interested in a video about foam cutting wings. Then I saw you only offer it on VHS and I don't even have a VCR. Of course, according to you, everyone has a VCR.

If your not willing to invest to update your offering to include DVD's, then I don't see you making any money to make it worth your while to even continue to offer the VHS.

If you have a copy already, then making copies is dirt simple -- since you are the copyright holder, nothing is stopping you from using that copy as your master and making your own copies. If the copy firm says otherwise, they're spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). They made a copy of your work, and this does not give them the copyright protection to force you back to them in the future unless they have put some form of copyprotection on. In which case, you take it back to them, toss the disk on their counter and tell them to make another copy without the protection as you are the copyright holder.

Making a copy on the older systems that you have is not a real problem, unless you're getting hundreds of orders per day or something like that. Making a copy takes about a half hour at most. My home system uses the free Nero and creating a 4.5 gigabyte data disk takes about an hour. I suspect that your copy is on a 770-megayte CD, so you're looking at a lot less time. Windows Media Player should have the same facility and that comes with Windows.

See above -- your current systems are more than adequate. My system is even older than yours and it just rolls along with no problems. At most, you may have to invest in a 16X DVD read/write drive (shouldn't be more than $50, probabaly less in computer part sellers). Also, any warranty on the computers has long gone bye-bye unless you bought some sort of extended package (even the Consumers Research people say that most extended warranties are just a cash-cow for the companies.)

Bob, what I've seen so far has been valid customer responses. You see a niche that you can put a product in. Potential buyers have been giving you feedback and helpful suggestions. Some good, some bad -- you'll get that from everyone everywhere.

My suggestion is that you don't have to have all new equipment until you have the resources (sales) to support it. Most of what you can do can be done on your home systems. Also, the costs associated with DVD/ CD-ROM versions is a lot cheaper than tape, which is one reason why the studios are pushing the product.

Also, another possible sales source may be eBay or the RC forums (yes, another expense but that's sales-driven....)

Water-off-of-duck's-back......

I do not consider his post as spam. I have a VCR( about 6 actually, you can have one if you want). Posts of intrest to the hobby are what this group is for. I just bid on an eBay item listed here. I do think that some of the posts in the thread are useless. Maybe even mine. Unless I unload a VRC. :)

mk