{"id":3589,"date":"2019-01-01T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/blog\/?p=3589"},"modified":"2019-01-01T07:00:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T12:00:10","slug":"new-year-updates-increases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/new-year-updates-increases\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year Updates\/Increases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Postage<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have run with Flat Rate Priority Mail since I started.\u00a0 I am not changing the process, but postal rates have increased (for everyone) and while I get a discount through the service I pay for, postage is often a wash on orders I process.\u00a0 Sometimes it is a significant loss &#8211; like approaching $2 over what the flat rate charge has been.\u00a0 As you know, a business cannot survive selling things for less than what they cost.<\/p>\n<p>I was prepared to increase my shipping prices across the board, but then I did a tiny bit of informal analysis.\u00a0 The orders that cost more in postage than I charge are for heavy packages.<\/p>\n<p>Did you know that postage prices increase whenever you cross the 16 ounce (1 pound) weight?\u00a0 If you, the customer, can order 100 items that need a big box AND keep that weight under 1 pound, then I can ship for what I am currently charging.\u00a0 If your order weight exceeds 1 pound &#8211; or 2 pounds &#8211; then postage prices jump to well over the flat rate I charge.<\/p>\n<p>Well, the culprit in most cases is Rubber.\u00a0 Even a 1\/2 Pound box of rubber will almost certainly exceed 1 pound &#8211; the rubber weighs 8 ounces and the box it is in takes the total closer to 12 ounces &#8211; and then I pack it in another box.\u00a0 Boom &#8211; just like that it is over 1 pound.<\/p>\n<p>So, instead of increasing the postal charge for all, I am adding an extra charge for shipping Rubber:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1\/4 pound rubber will add $1 per box in the order<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 pound rubber will add $2 per box in the order<\/li>\n<li>1 pound rubber will add $4 per box in the order<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This should cover the excess postage.\u00a0 Note, contest delivery will NOT incur the extra charge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tissue<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Esaki Tissue &#8211; I believe it is No Longer Available.\u00a0 It is a long story, but the short of it is that the old couple that ran the hobby shop in Gifu, Japan have closed shop and retired.\u00a0 I understand that Esaki did not manufacture the tissue &#8211; they procured it and resold it.\u00a0 However, I do not know the source of the tissue.\u00a0 It has been about a year since I was able to contact Esaki and my 6,000-sheet order is running low.\u00a0 I have had to discontinue sales on White, Dark Blue, Yellow.\u00a0 If you see a color on my site, I still have a supply of it, although Red and Orange are running pretty low.<\/p>\n<p>I will be beginning the tedious process of trying to find a Japanese source for tissue.\u00a0 I have some very, very thin leads and time will tell if I can procure Japanese Tissue from a new source (at a reasonable rate).<\/p>\n<p>Over a year ago, I contacted a Chinese paper manufacturer and asked for a sample of their 14gsm (gram per square meter) tissue.\u00a0 Esaki stated their tissue was 12gsm, but 12 is tricky to find.\u00a0 I received samples in a variety of colors.\u00a0 This tissue did have a shiny side and a dull side, but did not have the good wet strength that we have expected.\u00a0 I will continue the search, but this seemed like a reasonable alternative.<\/p>\n<p>I did an experiment with some white tissue from my local department store.\u00a0 I bought a couple of different brands and I found one that was acceptable to me.\u00a0 The brand is FLOMO tissue and while it was apparently slightly heavier than Esaki, it worked well and was really cheap.\u00a0 Some &#8220;domestics&#8221; will work just fine and some have told me that Hallmark brand is not a bad tissue.\u00a0 However, for small models, where every 1\/2-gram counts, I am not sure we will be able to find a cheap alternative to Esaki (even though Esaki was not the lightest tissue).<\/p>\n<p>More to come on Tissue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kits<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sourcing balsa has become a game of chance &#8211; a roll of the dice.\u00a0 My primary source offers a great price, but they have had problems supplying in a timely manner over the past year.\u00a0 They have decent balsa, for the most part (more on this in a moment).\u00a0 My secondary source has very timely delivery, but the cost is twice as much per sheet.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, I weigh each sheet that comes to me (this is for 1\/16&#8243;x3&#8243;x36&#8243; sheets).\u00a0 I then sort the sheets into 5 categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>under 12 grams (under #7 wood) &#8211; keep for super light projects &#8211; this is about 3% of any order<\/li>\n<li>12g-13g (#7-#8 wood) &#8211; I use this for NoCals, Peanuts, Dimers &#8211; this has been about 12% of the order<\/li>\n<li>14g-16g (#8-#9.5 wood) &#8211; this is for normal Scale and small Old Timers &#8211; maybe 35% of an order<\/li>\n<li>17g-19g (#9.5-#11 wood) &#8211; this is for larger Scale and larger Old Timers &#8211; maybe 35% of an order<\/li>\n<li>20g and over (#12 and over) &#8211; I do not use this; I usually give it away in club raffles &#8211; maybe 15% of an order.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lately, my orders have shifted to the heavier side.\u00a0 I am getting hardly anything under 14g and getting more over 20g.\u00a0 In addition, I have had to order more from the more reliable, but more expensive source.\u00a0 I even tried the premium light weight (more costly) wood.\u00a0 The good news &#8211; it was all light.\u00a0 The bad news &#8211; it was all under 8g per sheet.\u00a0 This is too light for my kits, excepting some NoCals and small Peanuts.<\/p>\n<p>So&#8230;long story &#8211; I have held my basic Short Kit price at $10 since I started cutting kits 5 years ago.\u00a0 Any of these $10 kits will now be $11 to cover some of these costs.\u00a0 My larger kits that are $15, $20, or $25 will not change for now &#8211; it is only the $10 kits that are increasing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interesting Side Question<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As mentioned, I set aside the under #7 wood for special projects.\u00a0 I cut the Turbo Cessna 195 NoCal kit from this wood.\u00a0 And I have used it for some of my own light-weight models.<\/p>\n<p>As a customer, would you like to have the option to have your short kit cut from this wood?\u00a0 There would likely be a $2 upcharge for light wood.\u00a0 And it would probably only apply to some short kits, not all.\u00a0 Keep in mind that light wood is fragile &#8211; and some of my parts are already kinda flimsy (there is a downside to using light wood).\u00a0 Also, if there is high demand &#8211; and I have to start purchasing a lot of light wood, the upcharge would likely go higher.<\/p>\n<p>Let me know what you think &#8211; and <strong>Welcome to 2019<\/strong> &#8211; I hope it is a great one for you and yours.<\/p>\n<p>See you on the flying field\u00a0 &#8211;george<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Postage I have run with Flat Rate Priority Mail since I started.\u00a0 I am not changing the process, but postal rates have increased (for everyone) and while I get a discount through the service I pay for, postage is often &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/new-year-updates-increases\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customers","category-products"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volareproducts.com\/new2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}