Group Buys

[Marlin Junky]

Could someone please explain this "Group Buy" thing to me. Specifically, if enough members participate in the group buy, can we get Lyman to run some 311041HP molds? Or, is the group buy limited to Lee 6-cavity special orders?

MJ

[Leftoverdj]

Lee is the only company I know of that offers attractive group buy terms. Lyman uses cherries to cut moulds which increases the numbers needed to recover tooling costs. Lee has offered HP moulds in the past, but they have all been discontinued and I don't know whether they would do a custom run. It might be worth a phone call to find out.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Why don't you choose your mould and get Buckshot to make an adjustable Hollow Pointer for it? They look terrific. Mick.

[Marlin Junky]

Lyman should have the tooling for 311041HP. Wasn't it a cataloged item in the old days? You know, the old days... before yuppies, pin head liberals and "Xtreme" morons.

MJ

[Buckshot]

.................I'm very much afraid to say that the Lyman of today is not the Lyman of old. Used to be you could call them up and say I'd like a so and so mould, and could you please delete one drive band and lube groove? Why certainly sir, no problem at all.

I'm a bit more educated these past couple years in whatall is required as respects tooling and etc in producing things and they aren't cheap. Yet Lyman already IS tooled up to handle moulds and their production so the only additional tooling is the cherry.

I will admit 2 things, and these 2 things are the only 2 that I can see that stands in their way of producing a special run of a mould design. The first is that I do not know what it costs them for a cherry. I thought those were done 'in house' and you do have to pay wages and material, but these days they may be outsourced to China or the Malagasy Republic. The second thing is is that I don't know how many moulds they have to cut before showing a profit.

I thought it was such BS many years ago when they announced a special run of the old 45 caliber Collar Button moulds. It said they had FOUND the cherry (in the bathroom medicine cabinet, or the secretary's bottom right hand desk drawer?) and were going to produce a limited run of this design. As I recall it sold very well. I sure don't see why they can't 'Find' a couple 358009 or 323471 cherries, as a couple nifty NLA designs? I'd think they'd sell.

..................Buckshot

[9.3X62AL]

Wholehearted agreement with Buckshot here. I'm sure that many buyers of the Marlin 1894CB rifles in 32 Magnum would like to have a Lyman #313631 available for use in their new guns--but they are out of print. I'm sure that limited runs of Lyman #313631, #311316, or #257312 would sell like crazy. A couple of these each year would keep people looking in Lyman's direction, for sure.

Nicely enough, there are "smaller" makers like NEI and Mountain Moulds to service this market, but Lyman could be part of the program if they chose to do so. Yes, the "semi-custom" products cost a bit more, but are worth every penny in my view. I will thank these small makers with my business for their service to my hobby field, and largely reject Lyman and their "one size--usually too small--fits all" marketing strategy. Most of the Lyman molds I've bought for the past two years have been out-of-print blocks, for whatever that might be worth.

[Dale53]

A number of years ago, a good friend of mine, Frank Siefer of F&M Reloading, had a good relationship with Lyman. He ordered several of the old, discontinued bullet moulds (had to take a pretty large number of each one) that he figured would sell. He did very well with them and they sold quite well. I always wondered how a small operation like F&M (compared to Lyman) could afford to "take a chance" and Lyman (who already had the cherries and was set up for the task) couldn't afford to "take a chance"??.

It seems to me that modern business will not "take a chance" unless a jillion products can be sold. Where did that old entreprenuerial spirit go? What happened to "niche" suppliers?

Dale53

[Scrounger]

A number of years ago, a good friend of mine, Frank Siefer of F&M Reloading, had a good relationship with Lyman. He ordered several of the old, discontinued bullet moulds (had to take a pretty large number of each one) that he figured would sell. He did very well with them and they sold quite well. I always wondered how a small operation like F&M (compared to Lyman) could afford to "take a chance" and Lyman (who already had the cherries and was set up for the task) couldn't afford to "take a chance"??.

It seems to me that modern business will not "take a chance" unless a jillion products can be sold. Where did that old entreprenuerial spirit go? What happened to "niche" suppliers?

Dale53

Lyman can't 'Take a chance' cause they don't own the store anymore. For at least the last 30 years Lyman has been owned by one conglomerate after another. No one probably knows how many levels of management you would have to go through to find someone who can honestly say that they own it and they can do what they want. Most all businesses are like that nowdays and needless to say, that's one of the things weong with America.

[Beau Cassidy]

Lyman can't 'Take a chance' cause they don't own the store anymore. For at least the last 30 years Lyman has been owned by one conglomerate after another. No one probably knows how many levels of management you would have to go through to find someone who can honestly say that they own it and they can do what they want. Most all businesses are like that nowdays and needless to say, that's one of the things weong with America.

Too many cheifs, not enough indians. It's what's happening to this country. Look at GM. Look at China.

Beau

[floodgate]

Scrounger:

"Lyman can't 'Take a chance' cause they don't own the store anymore."

Atually, they do. The original Lyman family ran down in the '60's, and got sucked up into the "Leisure Group" in 1969 or 1970 (That's when "Lyman Orange" went to gray and black, appropriately enough). Then in 1978, J. Mace Thompson took them out of the consortium and set them up as an independent company again - and he's still at the helm. But they've been buying otehr firearms-related outfits up: Pachmayr, Trius, Butch of "Bore Shine" fame, A-Zoom, etc., etc., and are becoming a conglomerate of their own. I still get good responses out of individuals there (Tom Griffin has been very helpful on mould history, and Karen is great, too, in Customer Services) but I agree that they're missing a potentially pretty good-sized "niche market" here - though they have been responding the the Cowboy and BPCR activity. But dropping all their .41 Mag. and 6mm moulds, as they have done for 2006, says they're still losing touch.

floodgate