MP Molds Group Buy Progress Tracker

[BattleRife]

Monthly update and bump. I'm a little surprised the total order number remained so consistent. With Miha laid up sick and the 75gr 5.56 NATO moulds needing rework, it felt to me like there was very little progress over most of the month. I honestly thought I could feel frustration growing and it would show up in a growing number of drop outs, but in the end there were only a couple of buys that saw their tallies go down, and then only by one or two. Shows what I know.

[CPL Lou]

I think he does pretty darn good for a one man operation.
My .02.

CPL Lou

[Bigslug]

As the recently-launched 454423 is my first-ever participation in a group buy, I'm very curious as to rhyme and reason behind the process. We've got some on your spreadsheet that were open for only weeks, and others for years.

It might be helpful for the buyers if the honchos could get with MP and come up with a set of at least tentative goals/timetables for the buy at or near the outset so everybody knows what to expect. Need for some flexibility on the part of all parties should be implied with this; if the orders are pouring in, keep it open until Miha says "ENOUGH!"; if demand is CRAZY-massive, split the run to keep the early birds from getting cranky; if they're trickling, move up the cutoff date or encourage us to convince our friends they need one in order to meet a count quota.

Since you're tracking this data, it might be worth breaking down the rate at which orders come in for a particular design. When the time for a re-run of that design comes around, this information would be useful in helping to set the parameters described above.

All of this will help the buyers decide if they really want to play, will cut down on backouts, and will help Miha plan his operations. Don't see a downside here.

[Oreo]

You're not the first person with those ideas BigSlug.

[dragon813gt]

For every one that drops out, one slides into the slot. He doesn't lose any business w/ the current business model.

[btroj]

Many of those are reruns. The tooling already exists so they are quicker to get done. These reruns also eliminate the tooling cost so profits are better for Miha. Seems like sound business to me.

Yes, I'm in a buy. Started in 2012, still waiting on that 375 bullet.

[dragon813gt]

Yes, I'm in a buy. Started in 2012, still waiting on that 375 bullet.

There is hope for it. The 358156 finally closed after a few years

[45 2.1]

This Honcho doesn't have any idea what or when MiHec will do something next, and I've known him for some time. He did ask me some time ago what I thought he should do next. I gave him the oldest running GB's to do. The only problem is there is just one of him. If he lived next to me, the production would double at least.

[btroj]

I just wait. If I wanted it now I would order from Accurate moulds. I wanted the HP option so I decided to wait.

[Bigslug]

This Honcho doesn't have any idea what or when MiHec will do something next, and I've known him for some time. He did ask me some time ago what I thought he should do next. I gave him the oldest running GB's to do. The only problem is there is just one of him. If he lived next to me, the production would double at least.

OK guys - you heard it here. Let's chip in to buy 45 2.1 a plane ticket to Slovenia, where he can work on changing the country's name to "Fastvenia".

Honestly, I've got no (well, OK - few) issues waiting for a quality custom product, but SOME form of structure would be good to see. I can only imagine what the 84 guys on the 429244 buy (start date January 2012) want to do to the kneecaps of the 121 guys who participated in the 5th and 6th runs of the 125 grain 9mm (start dates January and April 2013 respectively) who already have their molds, or how they feel about the 3 guys signed up for the recently-started 7th run.

That said, if MiHec feels an urge to put the 454423 on the 30-day plan, I will not raise a stink. . .

[45 2.1]

OK guys - you heard it here. Let's chip in to buy 45 2.1 a plane ticket to Slovenia, where he can work on changing the country's name to "Fastvenia".

I said.... "If he lived next to me". You got the location backwards somewhat.

[BattleRife]

March update.

[BattleRife]

May update. I didn't bother for April.

March and April were pretty good months, production wise. Eight orders finished off, 273 moulds delivered. The total moulds outstanding dropped by 100.

[BattleRife]

July update.

328 moulds were delivered in May and June, and the number of buys and moulds on order continues to drop steadily.

On the other hand, there are now seven active group buys that have passed their second birthday.

[BattleRife]

September update. Holiday season definitely had an impact, with no deliveries credited in July and lowish numbers in August (82).

A notable first since I started following group buys: the Old Feller Frankenstein group chose to cancel their buy with MP Molds and move it over to NOE.

Current buy count stands at 29, there are 1123 moulds on order.

[BattleRife]

November update. Production in September-October remained below normal levels, with only 2 buys (134 moulds) completed. But with an unusually high eight buys closed, four of which have been invoiced, it seems some pent-up production is about to gush out.

Current active group buy count is 29, with 1085 moulds on order.

[Low Budget Shooter]

BR, thanks for working on this. LBS

[BattleRife]

You're welcome, LBS. I hope people are finding the tracker useful. And thank you for piping up, I admit I was beginning to get overwhelmed by the echo of my own keyboard in here.

Production for November-December was six buys closed and 229 moulds counted as delivered. These are about average monthly numbers, as illustrated by the following summary :

The count of active group buys and moulds on order continues to decline, down to 23 and 914, respectively. Nearly all of the long standing buys are listed as first run designs, re-runs of popular moulds are most often completed in 6-10 months. Speaking of long standing, the number of buys that are past their second birthday will be in the double digits within a few days of my posting this. But the pace of new buys has dropped off considerably (only four buys were started in the last nine months of 2014), and if that trend continues Miha should be able to put most of his resources into knocking off the old buys.

Happy New Year, everybody.

[BattleRife]

Updated for March. The big news since the last update was the loss of 45 2.1 from the forum for an indeterminate period of time. 45 2.1 had a huge impact on the running of group buys for Mihec. He designed many of the bullets, produced most of the drawings, and honcho'd an overwhelming portion of the buys. Of the 21 buys that are active today, he is listed as Honcho on 17 of them. In his absence, a couple of people have stepped forward to keep some of the sign up lists updated, but it is not at all clear what this will mean for MP Molds' group buys in the longer term.

Another unfortunate development was a sudden increase in delivery times for moulds. Whereas previously moulds were consistently arriving in the USA from Slovenia in about 9 business days, the most recent buys are taking around 25 business days. Canadian orders are also taking about twice as long as they used to, up to around 15 days, and other countries are seeing greater or lesser increases. Miha posted this, from the Slovenian postal service:

Delays in the transfer of shipments in the US
Dear users know that there are long delays in the transfer of mail to recipients in the United States ( also applies to shipments from the previous month ) .
Date: 02/05/2015
Shipments from Slovenia regularly eliminated , as well as a continuing air travel with Lufthansa until the congestion is occurring at the airport in New York. The reason for the delays weather conditions . Mail the US does not support incoming quantities , so it is expected some time delays and thereby substantially longer periods of transfer items.

Please understand .

Again, it is not sure how temporary or permanent this situation will be.

All that aside, there were no group buys finalized in January, but three finished up in February, totalling 178 moulds. Number of active buys is now 21, with the mould order total down to 822.

[BattleRife]

Update for May.

45 2.1 continues to be absent from the forum, fortunately freebullet and Beau Cassidy have stepped up and are keeping the buyers lists updated on almost all of the buys started under his name. I have now listed these two in the honcho columns, though I am not at all sure if they really wish to be viewed that way. If they object, they may certainly let me know and I will rectify the listings.

Delivery times from Slovenia seem to have returned to normal and may even be slightly improved, as the two buys completed in April saw US deliveries in 6-8 business days.

March and April saw 3 buys completed (197 moulds delivered), and the current order sheet shows 20 active buys, 702 moulds on order.