Make Money From Plastic Injection Molds:
How To Acquire And Profit From Obsolete Plastic Injection Molds Free mp3 Download... "This site is PACKED with 117 hours of free audio interviews with the world's leading marketing experts Andrew Cavanagh (QLD Australia) "
I've been busy learning about about plastic injection molds. I have learned that there is a lot of opportunity in buying these molds. Here are a few related audios to get you started. Enjoy...
Please accompany me through a step-by-step system for exploring a new business opportunity in the plastic injection molding field.
An injection mold is the tool that is used to make a plastic molded part. Look around your home and you'll see many items made from this process. For example your mop bucket, kids plastic toys, your phone ext.
I am learning a great deal along the way and I am certain that through contacts I make and through my research, I will uncover several very lucrative money-making opportunities. And I want you to do the same.
The purpose of these recordings are to provide proof that this can be done. It's to show you evidence of the immense opportunities awaiting for you in injection mold shops throughout the US and the world.
The names and contact numbers have been removed from these recordings. If you want to explore any of these opportunities further, please e-mail me In the subject line, write in all caps "INJECTION MOLD DETAILS"
Here’s the background:
I sent a simple one page lead-generating letter to 300 injection molders in the United States inquiring about obsolete molds that injection mold businesses no longer use for one of many reasons.
Any old letter will not work because I had tested this before and had no response. You must know what to say in the letter to get them to call you back.
The end of the letter requested that they call me to discuss the details of any available molds. My purpose was to determine if the available molds may be a hidden asset that I could purchase and put back into use.
The letters are all sent out online. I never folded any paper, licked a stamp or addresses any envelope. The sending of this letter is 100% automated and can be sent from anywhere in the world.
The first five-minutes of this recording contains just some of the responses to my letter of inquiry where my assistant, Sarah, obtained the person’s name and telephone number so that I could return their calls.
Subsequent audio clips on this recording are my actual conversations with these injection molders and are detailed below as Case Studies
You will hear what the injection molder has available and how I ask important and leading questions in an attempt to determine if the mold would be a good business opportunity for being put back into use. Also, please take note of how I continue to probe these business owners about other molds that may possess that could be made available.
You will be surprised when you hear these people start to remember molds for products that they would not have thought of if I had not continued to prod their memories!
Each of these Case Studies is a valuable example of how to conduct a friendly, relaxed telephone call to get the information you need to make the decision of whether or not to pursue opportunities. Enjoy
Case Study: Roger
Roger states that he had one set of molds to create a product for infants. It's a Baby bottle holder. The company that was selling the finished product had gone out of businesses and so Roger now owns the molds.
Listen as I inquire about patents, the details of the actual mold, the product it made, and prices. I believe that I have actually heard of the product so I tell Roger that I will be researching it further and be back in touch with him.
I ask if Roger has any other molds that he may have available for producing consumer products. Yes, indeed! Roger has a mold for a product that holds a bride’s wedding gown train in place. It snaps through the gown and is designed not to harm the gown. The person who was selling the product had passed away and no one knows who owns the rights to the product – another possibility!
Roger also has the molds to make all of the parts comprising a veterinary syringe. He believes it had been patented. The product had not been pursued after its initial test because there were problems with the material used for one of the product’s components. I asked myself, “Could this be corrected?” More research!
Case Study: Boyd
This is a fun and interesting conversation that I know you will enjoy.
Boyd originally responded to my letter wanting to know if I was interested in buying an actual molding machine. I explain how I am looking for molds that are no longer being used in order to put them back into service.
I ask him to think back to any molds that he may have in his possession that produced good products.
Affirmative! When he thinks about it, Boyd remembers that he has all of the molds necessary to create parts for expensive bird cages (feeders, connecter pins, etc.). The company is no longer making these bird cages, but perhaps a contact at that company could provide information that I need.
You will hear me ask again about the kinds of molds that I may be interested in.
Boyd is delighted when he remembers that he still has the molds that he used to make millions of pogs slammers. Perhaps you remember that pog craze were kids all over the country were buying these things. Hundreds of millions of these were sold only less than ten years ago.
We go into great detail discussing the types of pog slammers that Boyd made, which were “specialty” slammers with beautiful designs and a unique manufacturing process. Boyd told of how he had made millions of them. One day the bottom dropped out of the market and no one wanted pogs or slammers anymore.
Boyd has everything needed to start making pog slammers immediately but there is no longer a market. I inquire about his manufacturing costs as well as the necessary materials. Could there be another product that could be made using Boyd’s pog molds? Perhaps! Could the molds be used to promote pogs to another country?
Then Boyd remembered that he is associated with an optometrist. Together, Boyd and the optometrist made special product to help people place their contact lenses in to their eyes. This is a problem for many people who use contacts. We discuss the history of the product. We review the components of the product, the cost of product, and its retail price. This product enjoyed huge mark ups and Boyd claims this optometrist would love to do something with me. Thousands have been sold already. What could be done with this proven product for Contact wearers?
All of this talk jogs Boyd’s memory and he recalls a product he invented and intended to sell to elementary schools to assist children in learning the alphabet, words, and arithmetic. Years ago, Boyd had sent sales letter to all of the elementary schools in California. He describes the products he manufactured in great detailed. He has all of the machinery and molds as well as fifty thousand of dollars worth of products ready to be shipped – if someone would buy them. He tells me the inventory is just sitting in his shop today. Most of it already packages and ready to sell.
Could I get this inventory at no cost and sell it for a profit? Could I make $10,000 to $20,000 on this deal? Perhaps.
Boyd agrees to send me a sample of this product right away.
Then he remembers yet another product – a spinner that goes on model airplanes for electric starting. Boyd manufactured 2-inch spinners because it is the most popular and sells the highest volume. Boyd says that his spinners sell for much less than his competitors.
After we say our goodbyes, Boyd calls back because he remembered a product that holds golf clubs in the bag. He wasn’t currently making any because he didn’t have the proper marketing to sell more (and he had a sales rep sell thousands of them). He has five thousand sets sitting at his plant, waiting to be sold. He had the packaging done, the promotional flyers too. We talk about its wholesale price. Boyd’s product was far less expensive than his competitors and he boasts that his product is universal to virtually any type of golf bag. He already made up his mind to send me a product sample. How much effort would it take to sell this lot? Do you think Boyd would be open to a deal? In part three you'll hear how to get into a deal like this without any front money. You'll also learn how to maintain complete control of the product.
Case Study: Louis
Louis states that it’s difficult for him to stay competitive. His job is to make the tools and he is not a salesman. He wants me to come to his shop to see what he has that I might be interested in. I encourage him to talk with me on the phone first about available molds.
He quickly runs through a short list of molds that he has developed products for in the past, such as light fixture parts, a rubber shooting gun, and drinking glasses.
We talk in more detail about the rubber shooting gun and how he came up with the idea for it. It is a toy gun that you can put up to fifteen rubber bands on that you shoot. He could sell his plastic ones for cheaper than the wooden ones on the market. I find this interesting.
In the same mold, he has cavities to make what he calls “brown mirrors.” These are stand-up mirrors for ladies and he made them in two sizes.
Louis mentions that he not only made one of the first Barbie dolls but that he used to make Hot Wheels cars but doesn’t have any molds any more. We talk of history of these great little cars and both with that he still had the molds for them!
He goes on to describe a square cake tray he invented and produced a few of them that makes the serving and transporting of square cakes easier and less prone to ruining the delicate pastry. We discuss what it looks like and how it is used.
Louis also produced nose inhaler parts for a product that you put an oil or essence into it that smells pleasant, such as lavender. If you are in a confined place, such as an airliner, and there is suddenly an unpleasant odor, you can inhale your pleasant lavender essence instead.
It’s an ingenious idea that Louis must have come up with when he was in such a situation! Louis explains that this product is not meant for the pharmaceutical market but rather would be something that would do well in a novelty store. He does own the tooling for it.
He also has a vial mold that produced vials for taking blood tests. He had produced millions of vials for a client in previous years. However, the vial is for eight milliliters of blood and new blood testing machines now only require a drop of blood.
Louis promised to send me samples of any products that he still has that we had discussed.
Case Study: Carol and Robert
Carol’s mission was to determine what I wanted. You will hear me explain the purpose of my letter.
Satisfied with my answers, she refers me to Robert.
Robert begins to explain why he believes his company was never too successful. First of all, they couldn’t do the molding and the marketing both nor did they have an “entre” to large companies such as Home Depot and Ace Hardware. He was happy to hear that I did have connections to these retail outlets as well as several other distribution companies.
Robert has a mold for a product that patched gypsum walls. We discuss the details of the mold.
He was very proud of the bacon cooking tray that he developed for use in any microwave oven. They only marketed it over their web site so they only sold about 400 units. Robert and Carol had begun the patent process, but it was never completed due to financial constraints.
Robert also told me about a soap dish and a sun visor that he had developed and produced.
Without marketing time or expertise, their small company relied solely on their Web site to sell their products. However, they never were able to direct much traffic to their site and thus sold few products. Do you see any opportunity in these molds? Do you understand how important the ability to market is? Onward.
Case Study: David
The mold that David had available was for an oxygen sensor unit that was used in hospitals. After the products were molded, they were sent to the company who owned the product and was fitted with the medical telemetry necessary.
David ran the molds for almost five years. Although it appears that this was a successful product, the company who owned the product went out of business and now this fine mold is sitting in David’s shop.
David owns the mold and he is unsure if the company who owned the product ever patented it. How many letter do you need to send out to find a product with the tolling ready to go? I only sent out 300 letter when I did this test. How many letters would it take for you? With my letter and some direction from me, I can have your phone ringing off the hook with injection molders calling you.
Case Study: Felix
Like most of the people who received my lead-generation letter, Felix was extremely interested in what my real intent was.
After I gave him my full explanation, he told me that he currently owns two molds that produced milk crates. One mold would hold sixteen quarts or four one gallon jugs and the other mold would hold twenty-four quarts or six one gallon jugs. Felix explained that he had sold more of the twenty-four quart crates.
He had previously had a customer who bought tens of thousands of these milk crates but that the customer eventually found another supplier.
Felix is more interested in selling his molds because of the large amount of warehouse space necessary to house the milk crates. He currently produces battery cases which take up most of his floor space.
He will check to see if he has any other molds that fit my criteria and will call me back.
I was surprised to hear that Felix thought that I was in the business of buying molds and then selling them to third-world countries. I had never thought of that!
Case Study: Gary
After I explain the purpose of my inquiry and ask if Gary has any molds that might interest me, he states that he simply wanted to know what I was looking for. He really didn’t think that he had anything that would interest me but would think about it and get back to me if he had any ideas.
Case Study: Dick
Dick is curious about the purpose of my letter. Like Gary, he doesn’t think he has anything I’d be interested in. He is also reluctant to talk about any of the molds that are in his shop. The calls ends quickly.
Case Study: Mr. X
This gentleman produced millions upon millions of pipe risers to connect pipes for sprinkler heads and similar types of piping products.
He currently has more than a half million pieces sitting in his warehouse. He explained that he lost his customer after he fulfilled an order and there was a disagreement about the price – the customer wanted a bulk discount on this small order. He's now sitting on 500,000 units of a product that was once sold in to Home Depot. Note" Home Depot currently sells this exact product for .25 cents each.
As we discussed the history of this mold, I found that he had bought the mold and made modifications to it. He went into detail about the mold itself, the products produced, the prices, and who the end customers were. I found his pipe risers at Home Depot web site. He promised to send me some samples of each piece that he produced. What would you do if you were him. In part three, you'll learn how to gain control of that inventory without any upfront cost. We'll also show you have to buy time to market and sell the inventory. You'll have everything shipped from his location and you'll not have to do a thing.
Case Study: Sandy
This is a case study that I know you’ll be interested in because it can be visualized very easily.
Sandy has three molds that produce one product. The product itself holds a standard paper towel roll in the middle and has space for cleaning supplies on its periphery. It also has a self-contained water bucket. This product was specifically designed for car enthusiasts who go to auto conventions or racing runs and want to carry clean-up supplies to keep the car looking great – but they don’t want the clean-up supplies to take up a lot of space. This product is perfect because it is eight inches square!
Sandy hasn’t made the product in several years, although she is quite proud of it. She explains that this product does not fit with their other line of products. Further, their marketing company never properly marketed or even packaged it properly.
She owns the patent on the product and it is up to date.
As Sandy explains the components of the product and how they all fit together, I could visualize what a great little product this could be if marketed correctly. I will certainly think about this one! I only sent out 300 letter when I did this test. How many letters would it take for you? With my letter and some direction from me, I can have your phone ringing off the hook with injection molders calling you.
Case Study: Ron
Here’s a great call that I got from a fellow named Ron who owns and operates an injection mold company in California. This might be one of the most interesting calls that I received from injection molders since I sent out my letter of inquiry.
You’ll hear me explain that I am interested in molds for consumer products that may not be being used anymore but could possibly be put back into use.
Well, Ron had lots of information for me! He first told me about all different types of toy molds that he has and wouldn’t mind parting with. Some of the toys we discussed were:
The product that sparked my interest the most was the Razor ***. This is a magnetic razor sharpener that has been in production more than ten years. Ron had produced them for many retail stores including The Shaper Image and Home Shopping Club.
The inventor of the product owns the patent on the mold but has since turned the handling of the product over to his daughter. I had actually owned a Razor **** several years ago and still think that it’s a great product with lots of possibilities.
I was able to obtain some contact information from Ron so that I could make further inquiries about obtaining the rights to market the Razor **** product and called one of the contacts given to me by Ron.
As it happens, I had called the company that is the exclusive distributor of the product and produces all of its marketing material. I spoke with a gentleman named Jim. You will hear Jim tell me his company’s history and the history of this product.
I explained that I wanted the rights to sell the product. Although the inventor and his daughter aren’t doing much with the product, Jim thought my idea was great because it is a well-designed, unique product with tons of possibilities.
Jim has all of the marketing material ever produced for the Razor*** and said that it would be at my disposal should I obtain the rights to sell the product! Additionally, Jim stated that he would be willing to work with me to sell the Razor **** and would facilitate communications with the product’s inventor.
Jim was going to call the inventor’s daughter to discuss the possibility of me obtaining rights to market the product. It’s sounding very promising and I hope I have good news for you soon! These is a lot of meat in this call. The most important lesson you can understand is how to pick a winning product. This Razor product had been proven successful in the past. Has a huge market with unlimited demand. Getting exclusive right to it and having the use of past promotional materials could make this a real winner. Stay tuned. Go here for another great story about a guy who got into Home Depot.
Michael: Hi, this is Michael Senoff with HardToFindSeminars.com. Here is a 5 minute recording of nothing but messages being taken by my assistant Sarah and messages left on my voicemail machine. The results after I sent out 300 letters to injection molders. In this letter, I'm asking for specific things to identify injection molders who may be sitting on obsolete molds that I can possibly use in put back into use. What I'm searching for are hidden assets sitting in these molder's businesses. I'm looking for molds that maybe were once used with patented products, were maybe running large volumes of products that were popular years ago, but for whatever reason, the businesses went out of business, or they filed bankruptcy, or there were conflict between the partners, and for whatever reason, the production stopped. So many of these molding companies are sitting on lots of great tooling that the owners invested tens of thousands of dollars in developing and they're not doing anything. This is to demonstrate the response of how effective this letter was. And calls will still be coming in, but this is just a sample from three days of calls. In the next recording, you're going to hear what took place on these calls and you're going to hear all the molding and tooling that I dug out of them, that I know, where it is, where it's located, what it used to make, the cost, what it was made of. This is an extremely exciting opportunity and I hope to bring you more of it as I progress in this new field. Enjoy.
Sarah: Sarah, how can I help you?
Caller: Hi, I got one of your flyers in the mail where you're looking to buy used injection molds.
Sarah: Okay.
Caller: Are you interested in buying injection molding machines?
Sarah: Actually, that's something I would need to have you speak with Michael directly about. I'm not exactly sure what he's looking for. Perhaps a number I could have him give you a call back at. Okay, and what is your name?
Caller: Boyd. I'm the owner.
Sarah: All right, Boyd. I'll have him give you a call back as soon as he can. It shouldn't take too much longer. Michael Senoff's Office. This is Sarah.
Caller: Hi, Sarah. Boyd. I was just talking to Mike and there was one item that I forgot to tell him. He said if I thought of something. To call him right back. Is he still there or no? Something else that he might be interested in clicked in my mind and I've dug it out here. I'd like to talk to him about it.
Sarah: Okay, I'll let him know to call you as soon as he can.
Caller: Thank you.
Sarah: Michael Senoff's office. This is Sarah. How can I help you?
Caller: Yes, I got a letter here from Michael. He's looking for injection molds. I might have some for sale. Is there any way that I could get a hold of him and talk to him?
Sarah: Ah, he's not available to. Look, if I can take a number. I can have him give you a call back.
Caller: Okay. Tell him to call Leo.
Sarah: Okay.
Caller: I'm usually here between 9 and 2pm 9am 2pm
Sarah: Okay. I'll have him give you a call as soon as he can. It shouldn't be too much longer. He should be able to call you right back.
Caller: Okay. Thank you.
Sarah: You're welcome. Michael Senoff's office. How can I help you?
Caller: May I talk to Michael Senoff?
Sarah: Michael is not available at the moment. Can I take a message?
Caller: I received his letter and I would like to talk to him about this letter.
Sarah: Is there a number he can reach you back at?
Caller: 0044, extension 358.
Sarah: I'll have him give you a call back as soon as he can.
Caller: Thanks.
Sarah: Michael Senoff's office. This is Sarah. How can I help you?
Caller: This is a Mr. Merritt. I got a letter from Michael. Said he'd like to buy obsolete injection molds.
Sarah: That is something that you would need to speak with Michael directly about. Unfortunately, he is tied up at the moment. Is there perhaps a number he could call you back at? Ok, and I'm sorry, what is your name?
Caller: Mr. Merritt.
Sarah: Okay, Mr. Merritt, I'll have him give you a call as soon as he can.
Caller: Thank you.
Caller: Yes, I'm calling in regards to his letter that he sent me. He was looking for molding signs.
Sarah: Okay. He is actually not available at the moment. You would definitely need to speak with him. Is there perhaps a number I can take to have him call you back?
Caller: My cell number is 949.
Sarah: Okay. What is your name?
Caller: I'm Robert.
Sarah: Michael Senoff's Office. This is Sarah. How can I help you?
Caller: Yeah, I'm responding to a letter I got from Michael about obsolete molds.
Sarah: Okay. Michael is actually not available at the moment and we definitely need to speak with him. Is there perhaps a number I could have called you back at?
Caller: Sure.
Sarah: Okay. You said 626, correct?
Caller: That's correct.
Sarah: Okay. And what is your name?
Caller: Tom.
Sarah: All right, Tom. I'll have him give you a call back as soon as he can. It shouldn't be too much longer. No, he is not available. Can I take a message?
Caller: Okay. And this Marvin from Gentle Pasta. I received the letter from him. And he will buy you my injection mold.
Sarah: Okay. Is there a number he can reach you back at?
Caller: Yeah.
Sarah: Okay, Marvin, I'll have him give you a call as soon as he can. It shouldn't be too much longer.
Caller: Ok, thank you.
Sarah: Michael Senoff's office, this is Sarah. How can I help you?
Caller: Yeah, I'm responding to a letter I got from Michael about obsolete molds.
Sarah: Okay. Michael is actually not available at the moment. You would definitely need to speak with him. Okay, and what is your name?
Caller: Tom.
Sarah: All right, Tom. I'll have him give you a call back as soon as he can. It shouldn't be too much longer.
Caller: Okay, fine.
Sarah: Michael Senoff's office. This is Sarah. How can I help you?
Caller: Hello, is Michael available?
Sarah: Not available at the moment. Can I take a message?
Caller: Well, could you tell me a little bit about the company, what you guys do there and everything? I got a flyer here in the mail from them saying that you buy obsolete injection molds. And I've got a couple of large fellows injection molding presses and a number of old injection molds as well.
Sarah: Okay, and what is your name, sir?
Caller: My name's Todd.
Sarah: Okay, as soon as Michael's back in, I'll let him know and have him give you a call. And I'm sure he can tell you what he's looking for and if that's going to be, you know, if he needs it right away, and so forth.
Caller: All right, well, thank you.
Sarah: You're welcome. Bye. Bye.
Caller: Hi, my name is Carol. This message is for Michael
Senoff. My callback number is 760. Thank you.
Sarah: Michael Senoff's office. This is Sarah. How can I help you?
Caller: Yes, Sarah, I received a letter from Michael about we would like to buy your obsolete injection molding. I might have a few that I could get rid of.
Sarah: That is something I would need to have you speak with Michael directly about. I'm not really sure what exactly he's looking for. Unfortunately, he is tied up at the moment, but shouldn't be too long. Can I take a number perhaps and have him call you? I will have him give you a call as soon as he can. Michael Senoff's office, this is Sarah. How can I help you?
Caller: I'm an injection molder. Evidently he wanted plastic parts run or something.
Sarah: Okay, I will let him know to give you a call.
Caller: All right, thank you.
Michael: Hi, this is Michael Senoff with HardToFindSeminars.com. Now in the next 60 minutes you're going to hear and be able to sit in and listen in on conversations that I had with people responding from this amazing lead generating letter. You will find how amazing it is to find people who are sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tooling just sitting there doing nothing. And you'll also find how easy it is to talk to them. Keep in mind, these are people just like you and me. They've got tooling that's doing them nothing. I'm offering a chance to put that tooling into work and listen how I explore in the depths of their mind to think back in their careers all the tooling from all the different exciting projects they had at one time. And I'm listening for items that sound interesting to me that I believe may have some potential. So you'll get a firsthand listen on exactly how I talk to these people, how I tell them why I'm calling. You'll hear the actual conversations take place and I think you'll be absolutely amazed at some of the potential money making projects that we uncover in these calls. Stay tuned for more. Enjoy.
Michael: Hey Roger, it's Mike Senoff off out in San Diego.
Caller: How are you?
Michael: Good. You just called and I had sent you a letter about some molds and stuff.
Caller: Right.
Michael: Do you have anything in mind that you just sitting there and not doing anything with?
Caller: I have one set of molds, about five, five tools in that that could be available.
Michael: What does it do?
Caller: It makes. Is it the holder for a baby bottle?
Michael: A baby bottle holder. Okay. When's the last time you ran them?
Caller: Oh, probably about two years ago.
Michael: All right. Were you running a lot of them?
Caller: No, we ran a few thousand and the company went bankrupt and owing me about six grand
Michael: So you own the molds?
Caller: I've got the judgment against the tooling, yes.
Michael: Okay. So its holding a baby bottle. It's hard. Do you know what the. I wonder if I could find out. So that you ran some of them and they got them out in the market and failed. Right?
Caller: Right.
Michael: All right. Did the product make sense to you? I know you're maybe not the market.
Caller: To a certain extent. It was a lot of assembly in one part of it that. A little time consuming on them.
Michael: Were you doing the assembly in house?
Caller: No, they were doing it. They were doing the assembly. I just did the molding. It was a group of guys and they tried to screw each other, I think.
Michael: Okay. Do you know if they ever was a patented product?
Caller: I believe it was.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: And the owner of the patent sold it to this group that went under.
Michael: Okay. Do you have by any chance either on the mold, the patent number that I can go see what this thing Is.
Caller: No, I never repeat the patent number to put on it.
Michael: Oh, so you weren't even stamping a number on it?
Caller: No, it just says Made in USA.
Michael: Do you know what they called the thing?
Caller: Let's see here. I got the box here.
Michael: I'm good at research. Okay, go ahead.
Caller: Easy. E as in echo. Z as in zebra. Baby Products was the name of it. Hands Free Baby Feeder.
Michael: You know what? I think I know who this guy is. Was he. Yeah, I think I know exactly what this product is. It's really ironic. All right, Hands Free Baby Feeder. Let me do some research on that. So he only ran a couple thousand. All right, that's good to know. That's very good to know. Let me check this out. I want to just get a picture of what this product looks like, the assembly on it. Do you think there was any kind of glueing involved?
Caller: No, it was just snapping together.
Michael: And the molds, were they all single cavity?
Caller: No, some were 2 cavity. Most of them were 2 cavity, I think.
Michael: How much was all the molding, do you think that they were supposed to pay you for? Was it was expensive molding?
Caller: No, I'd have to look out, you know, it's been so long. I don't know what it would cost for the whole set, but it was under two bucks, I think.
Michael: Under two bucks a unit. I mean, to get the molding made. Did you make the actual dies?
Caller: No, the guy that owned the.
Michael: He just sent them.
Caller: He made the tooling.
Michael: Okay, and he sent them to you?
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: Okay. And they owed you six grand and you got the judgment for it, right? How long ago wasthe judgment?
Caller: Oh, a couple years ago.
Michael: Okay. All right. Are you sitting on anything else like that?
Caller: Well, I'm sitting on a mold that the person died, and no one has ever contacted me back about who owns the mold or what. Never was patent. It makes a. It was a thing he was trying to market. It holds the trails for the wedding gowns and stuff.
Michael: Okay. It holds the trail, like as the brides walking
Caller: snap on things that snap through the clothes. The wedding dress. He had a rental company at that time that wouldn't do damage to the clothes.
Michael: Oh, that's interesting. Did you ever run a lot of them?
Caller: No, we only made a few hundred shots for him.
Michael: Okay, that's interesting. All right. Anything else you can think of, consumer type products like that?
Caller: Well, let's see. I've got one mold here, and they said they'd discontinued that one. It just didn't go over for them. It was a for a veterinarian, a little goes on the syringes. Makes a flexible tip for inserting liquids into the ears of something of an animal.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: That mold was setting here.
Michael: All right. Was that a patented type thing or. No?
Caller: No, not that I know.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: I don't have any idea if they patent it or not.
Michael: Did you run a lot of them?
Caller: We ran a couple hundred thousand for them on the beginning of our samples.
Michael: And they're real tiny, little. How big is this thing?
Caller: Oh, it makes, let's see, one, two, three different parts. They're small. They're probably about, the longest is about 2 inches long. Then it has a cap to go on the end of it. I think it makes about four cavities on each one of them. I think there's three different parts to it.
Michael: Okay. EZBaby. I'm just looking at that EZBaby bottle thing. Okay.
Caller: And the problem in that. You see the picture of it.
Michael: Hold on. I'm just right at a. I see it. Let's see here. Shop for products. What was the. It's the holder. Right. It's not. I gotta find that. There's all kinds of stuff on here. I'll find it, though. But tell me, what were you going to say the problem with that is, was.
Caller: What was the flex part of it? They used the snap to hold a bottle to the shaft. You might say that hung from the window or the baby carriage or whatever.
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: It wasn't. They made it out of polypropylene and what they designed that after was an item they used in machinist shops for transferring fluids and holding a certain position for the fluids.
Michael: Right.
Caller: Run on metal parts.
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: And they made theirs out of Delrin. And these people made this out of Polypro, which had too much slip to it.
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: And it wouldn't hold weight of the bottle is what I heard. The last I heard of it.
Michael: Do you have a solution for it? Do you know of a better way to go?
Caller: Use the right material on it. But it put them out of the. I guess the pricing of the Delrin material was too high.
Michael: Oh, I gotcha. Okay. All right.
Caller: You can buy that product off the shelf at different footages is, you know, for. Like in the machinist shop.
Michael: Right.
Caller: But they had a tool melt for it. I don't have the tool for that. Another molder has that one. But I have all the other components.
Michael: Okay. Okay, great. Okay. Very good. All right. Well, I will be in touch. Thank you very much for taking time with me.
Caller: All right.
Michael: All right. Bye Bye.
Michael: Hey, Boyd, this is Mike Senoff here. You called earlier.
Caller: Yeah, I got one of your flyers in the mail. I don't. You know, I've got a couple of molds around here, but I have to dig them out. But that's not what I called about. Are you interested in any injection molding machines?
Michael: Probably not. You getting out of the business?
Caller: No, I just got one that I took out of service because it was not what we were using anymore. It's a 75 ton Newberry. It's in excellent shape. It's an older one, but it's in excellent shape. It's a four and a half ounce shooter. I've got a Marley tower that I could give with it and a Mokon Moldheater. I let the whole thing go for $2,500.
Michael: Yeah. What do you think the real value of it is?
Caller: Maybe another thousand or twelve hundred?
Michael: Yeah, I'm really probably not. Are you still in the business though?
Caller: Oh yeah, I've been in business for 25 years.
Michael: Alright, well, I appreciate you offering, I really do. I'm more interested in putting some dead molds that are sitting there like boat anchors in your place back to work. Maybe with you running them, if you've got any.
Caller: Where's your marketing?
Michael: That's what I'm doing. My marketing is large distribution. Home Depot, Home Expo, Lowe's and international markets. That's what I am, a marketer first. So what I would ask you. Can you think back of any stuff you were running big numbers on where maybe the company went bankrupt and you've got the molds or the partners we're fighting?
Caller: I do. I've got some of them and they're high dollar parts too. But I don't know what you could do with them.
Michael: Well, that, that's what. Let me. If you can tell me what any consumer type products. What were they pumping out? What were you making with that?
Caller: I was making parts for expensive bird cages. For Petco.
Michael: For Petco?
Caller: Petco and several other was selling it. But the company actually was called Animal Environment.
Michael: Animal Environments with an S?
Caller: Yes.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: Animal Environment. I don't know.
Michael: All right, all right. And they were a manufacturer of bird cages?
Caller: Yeah, the high dollar ones, the ones stainless steel or you know, for parrots, expensive stuff. They didn't make any of them fifteen dollar things.
Michael: What parts were you making for it? The whole thing?
Caller: Well, I made feeders for them. I made connector pins that hold the cages together. I made hinge pins, several little items.
Michael: That went with those cages.
Caller: Yeah, went with those cages. Now I know that some of those. I know there's still a market for the stuff because they were in business for years and then they just got to feuding the husband and wife and she ran it in the ground by buying everything and they just walked away. They had a huge. I used to make the stuff and send it down there to Tijuana. In that Mecadora area there?
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: And then they finally got the Federales walked in and padlocked that place. And then they had a big 25,000 square foot building over there in Carlsbad.
Michael: Wow. How many of these parts were you putting out?
Caller: Oh, I was doing I don't know, 20 grand a year.
Michael: So how many units? If you were to figure out how many.
Caller: I don't know. This was years ago. I still got all the molds, but.
Michael: But the molds are really just for pieces of the cages.
Caller: Yeah, they weren't the whole cage.
Michael: Yeah, that's all right. That's that. I mean that's very interesting that you told me that, but that probably. Who, where was the company? Where were you? Where was the main company?
Caller: Were they operating Carlsbad and Tijuana?
Michael: What was in. Do you have the name?
Caller: I just told you, Animal Environment.
Michael: Oh, okay. Well, who was the lady you dealt with? I mean, who was the person doing the ordering?
Caller: Well, the day the woman I dealt with was one of the owners.
Michael: What was her name?
Caller: Carmen Daly. But she's still around. I mean, you might be able to get a hold of her.
Michael: Okay. All right. Interesting. Okay. And anything else you can think of?
Caller: No, not offhand.
Michael: Nothing offhand.
Caller: There's more around here, but I'd have to go dig through the.
Michael: Nothing that sticks out in your mind like that.
Caller: No, I. There was a toy thing we did years ago that. I have a brand spanking new mold.
Michael: What was it?
Caller: Tell me, 10 or 12. Are you familiar with when they. The thing went on with the kids called Pogs?
Michael: Yes.
Caller: Okay. I have the slammer molds.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: I made millions of them suckers. And I built a brand new 10 or 12 cavity mold. I don't remember what it was. Now we built it, sampled it and that's when the bottom fell out of it.
Michael: No shit. So you've got the slammers. Weren't the slammers made out of metal?
Caller: Some of them in the beginning. And then after that we started making them out of glass filled polycarbonate. And then, then they went to glass filled anything.
Michael: What were. Did you have designs and stuff on the slammers?
Caller: Yeah, I've got. I've got several molds with different designs on them and all kinds of.
Michael: Now that's interesting. And that's. And that's a. How many cavities is that thing?
Caller: Well, okay, the big new mold that I built, I built it with a blank front end. So we can either put what we wanted in it or they could. What they got into big time was before that fell apart was those multi laser cut decals.
Michael: Yeah, yeah. And they were sticking those on the front on the flat end.
Caller: Yeah. The things that were really exotic looking.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: So when I designed the mold, I designed it with that in mind, thinking if it didn't fly for that, we would go ahead and put our own designs in it. Okay.
Michael: Was there a lip that you could put the design in?
Caller: Yeah, it was class act.
Michael: All right.
Caller: And then the other mold I have. Have designs. I've got all kinds of hot half parts that just enter. The way I designed my molds were 6 cavity on the other one. And then you would just swap the hot half and you'd have a whole new set of designs right in the machine. We were running them things by the millions. I mean, they were just everywhere.
Michael: Let me ask you, was there a company name on the mold?
Caller: No.
Michael: So it was all generic.
Caller: Yeah. Now, right at the end, we did have a name on them of what they called it. What the hell was it now? But no, what I've got is they're plain jane's.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: Well, we had our own little thing on there called. What the heck was it called? I don't know.
Michael: Anyway, all right, if you can think of it, this is good. See, I pushed you. And this is very interesting to me.
Caller: What you got a market for something like that?
Michael: Market for anything.
Caller: Yeah, well, those things. As a matter of fact, I still have a few of them around here.
Michael: Few of them. And you were making them out of polycarbonate?
Caller: They got towards the end. We made them out of anything.
Michael: Anything. But you couldn't make them out of metal, could you?
Caller: No, no, no, no.
Michael: Anything plastic, though.
Caller: Yeah, anything plastic.
Michael: What were you making them out of most do you know?
Caller: Glass filled anything.
Michael: You could fill them up with glass?
Caller: Yeah, we put about 10 to 15% fiberglass in them.
Michael: Huh.
Caller: And that gave them that ring like metal when they drop them and things.
Michael: You know, they were beautiful.
Caller: Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, when you put glass in them, it gives them a. Like a gunmetal texture. Yeah.
Michael: And so what company was. Who was doing all the marketing for these?
Caller: I sold them to everybody. People, you know, swap meet guys were coming In? I sold them things by the truckloads to everybody and his uncle.
Michael: So you design and you own all the mold?
Caller: That's right.
Michael: What did it cost? Give me an idea, because I'm not the mold expert, I'm more the marketing expert. When you were pumping these things out at that kind of volume, what was the cost on a unit? Forget punching them out, but materials and stuff.
Caller: Well, you have to get around without a label.
Michael: Without a label? Let's just say the design, somewhere between.
Caller: Five and seven cents apiece.
Michael: Now were you putting a bunch of labels on them at one time?
Caller: No, no. We had a company in those days that had designed a machine and they could put them on faster than you could watch.
Michael: The machine could.
Caller: It was a blur otherwise it was too.
Michael: So were you sending them out to that company?
Caller: Yes, we sent them out. Or sold them to him blank. I don't know where he's at anymore. I'd like to have got a hold of his machine, but I don't. You know, he designed it and built it himself.
Michael: So the label machine.
Caller: Label, yeah, it was a beautiful thing too.
Michael: Where was he at? Do you have his information?
Caller: No, not anymore. It was up in LA somewhere. La Mirada is where it was at.
Michael: So you realized you were selling millions of these things?
Caller: Millions of them.
Michael: How many million did you sell?
Caller: I don't know, maybe eight or 10.
Michael: But how did the word get out that you were producing them?
Caller: I don't know, I never advertised them or nothing. Just one guy tell another guy or whatever. And I'd have them starting on a Wednesday afternoon. They'd be small people, like with vans or pickups, and they'd back up in my driveway out here and they'd pull out a sandwich of money and they'd start counting and we'd start loading. And when they ran out of money they'd drive off and we'd get the next guy in.
Michael: What were you selling them for?
Caller: I was selling them for a quarter then.
Michael: Oh man, you must made a shitload of. You must have made a million bucks
Caller: Frickin money. That's what paid for the building and everything.
Michael: That's exciting. All right. And that was just like a second thought. What? Anything else you can think of, any other. That's, that's fair. You could. You could start running those immediately, couldn't you?
Caller: Okay. I'm also in partnership. Oh yeah, they're ready to go now. I'm also in partners with a doctor on a thing that you might be interested in.
Michael: Tell me.
Caller: He's never been able to make the freaking thing fly. And I know he'd be well interested if I could come up with somebody that would pettle him.
Michael: Alright, what is it? Okay.
Caller: He was an optometrist.
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: And in the eye industry, a lot of people are handicapped with large fingers or fingers that won't move correctly. You know, arthritis or whatever the case is.
Michael: You mean patients?
Caller: Yes.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: Anybody that wears. Anybody that wears contact lenses is what I'm going to talk to you about. Okay. A lot of people want contact lenses, but they don't have the delicacy to put them in their eyes.
Michael: Got it.
Caller: So we made a special set of plastic tweezers with a silicone tip on them that allowed you to pick them out of a plate that we make also and put them in your eye. We sell these things, but we can't get it off the ground. And we've been selling them for 10 or 12 years.
Michael: Who do you sell them to?
Caller: Okay, the guy's name. Hang on, I got it here somewhere. It's called Marlin Industries, but Dr. Jerry Hirsch is the guy you want to talk to.
Michael: Did he patent it?
Caller: I don't think it's patented. No, we never did patent it.
Michael: Okay. And was he just selling them to his patients?
Caller: No, that too, but he has a thing called Marlin Industries and he sells doodads through it. I don't know what all.
Michael: How many of them did you manufactur?
Caller: I'm a manufacturer I'm not a marketer.
Michael: I know. How many have you made for him over the years?
Caller: We've probably done, I don't know, maybe 50 to 100,000.
Michael: Wow, that's pretty good. And what, what does it cost to make that thing?
Caller: Oh, we make good money on that. I sell them to him for, I think it's 28 cents a piece on the on the tweezer. And then he puts the silicone on it. I think that cost him three or four cents apiece. And then he sells them for wholesale. I think by the time they get to the consumer, they're like $5 or $6 bucks.
Michael: Do you know what the product was called, what he called it?
Caller: No.
Michael: I bet I could find it Very interesting. Okay. All right.
Caller: He's up there in Northern California. What the hell is it called? I've got his phone number and name and everything around here if you want to get serious about it. He hadn't ordered in a while.
Michael: Well, let me see if I can. I'll see. I'll search him and see if I can find it online.
Caller: Marlin Industries.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: And it's A medical supply.
Michael: Okay, very good, very good. All right.
Caller: It would be more, you'd be more apt to find it under optometry.
Michael: Okay. All right, tell me anything else. Since I got you going?
Caller: No, that's, that's, that's it, that's all it clicks in my mind.
Michael: All right, let's go back to the Pog molds. These molds, these things. How many times you built new ones because they were kind of wearing down.
Caller: The other ones were getting kind of wore and we wanted to make more money obviously, so we, I even bought a molding machine. I bought a 150 ton JSW molding machine to run the 12 cavity mold in and we, because like I said, we were making money hand over fist and we bought all that stuff, got the machine in, got it all ready to go, got it hooked up, did some cycle runs on it, finished the mold, put it in the press and made about I don't know, maybe 100 shots, maybe 1000, 1200 pieces on it, you know.
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: And that's when the frickin bottom fell out of it.
Michael: Out of it and there's no one came around that was it.
Caller: Just like you turned a switch off.
Michael: Isn't that wild? Wow.
Caller: Where are you having your stuff made now when you buy these molds?
Michael: Well, when we find a mold, we have the molder just put it back to use.
Caller: Oh, I see.
Michael: Yeah. So we're not moving it or anything. In some cases we would and we'd just contract with maybe a shop that would be local, that's more convenient.
Caller: Where is your marketing? Out of San Diego?
Michael: Yeah, I'm out of San Diego, California. Well look, I've got all. This is great. I'm really glad you called. I appreciate it and this has been some great information. I'm going to do a little research here and let me ask you a question. Do you have some of the slammers laying around with the different designs?
Caller: Oh yeah, something else. But hang on, I got something else. All right, what I about eight or 10 years ago. I'm glad you jogged my memory on this one. About eight or ten years ago I was dating two school teachers and they were elementary school teachers and they kept complaining about implements to teach ABCs and the basic math conditions, you know, times divide, da da da to the fourth graders down. Because those little kids find it difficult to pencil and do things, see. So I come up with this idea and it's a tile. It's 1 inch square, 1/8 inch thick so that they can't chew it, they can't swallow it. It can't be put in their eye or up their nose or up their butt or anything like that. So you have a product liability insurance factor there. Okay. And it's made out of medical grade ABS, so even if they managed to chew a piece off of it and swallow would just go through their system.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: So anyway, we did all this research. We did all this B.S. and then I even made flyers up on it. And I. And at that time we didn't have the Internet or anything, so I was buying hit lists from those marketing companies that sell research for, you know, a specific area, like hobby shops.
Michael: Right, you were buying a direct list. Okay.
Caller: Anyway, so I bought one for all of the elementary schools. It cost a lot of money too.
Michael: Yeah. Back then it did for all of the west Coast. Okay. That encompassed Oregon, Washington, the actual elementary school teachers.
Caller: No, elementary schools only.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: And then I would send these flyers, would sit down and peel these labels off and put them on an envelope. Put these flyers in an envelope and send them. And we targeted fourth grade down, because that's the market. But I suppose it would apply even up a little.
Michael: Okay. Yeah.
Caller: Anyway, fourth grade and this item, we sold them in packages. And then it also. I don't know if they still use. I'm sure they do you remember in school when they had the overhead projector where they would. The teacher would have you at your desk with pencil and paper and you sit. She'd sit in the back of the room and project a figure or whatever up on the wall?
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: Okay. I even made transparent ones that would work on that machine so that you could blow like, say you're trying to teach the kid two plus two equals. Da, da, da.
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: So she could blow this thing up on the wall. He's got these tiles and learning instruments and in front of his face and he could put the picture together along with his program. And then he began to understand what was going on. I even have all of that. That was a big item. And I'll tell you what I got on that. I've got about. I probably got $50,000 worth of product all molded up and or stamped. And some of the stuff was even bagged up, ready to go.
Michael: Where? That's all sitting in a warehouse.
Caller: It's all sitting here in my shop. Yeah. All the stamping machine, the molds, everything. It's all here.
Michael: How many different. How many different molds? I don't. I don't have a picture of what this unit is.
Caller: Okay. It's a 1 inch square.
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: 1 inch square, 1/8 thick. Plastic. White. Plastic disc plate.
Michael: Yeah. Okay.
Caller: And on that is stamped figure ABCs.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: Well, each one of those would be stamped with the appropriate one.
Michael: Kind of like Scrabble.
Caller: There you go. Like it's Scrabble piece. And then on the. Then on the. The mathematics, you got all of the schedules, like equals times, and then zero through nine.
Michael: Okay, got it.
Caller: So it was a. It was a. Exactly. A puzzle of some sort. Yeah, that the teacher could teach the kids how to assemble to make it practical for him to decide that I want to buy an ice cream for 9 cents, and I've got 25 cents in my pocket. What would I have left?
Michael: Would you be willing to send me one of those things? Can you dig it in?
Caller: I could do. I could send you a. I could put your little package together and send it to you.
Michael: Put a little package. This is what I want to see. I want to see some of the designs of the slammers and one of those units. If you got $50,000 worth of those things sitting there, maybe we can.
Caller: Plus the molds. Plus the.
Michael: So how many different molds? How many molds was it for that? Just one.
Caller: With all the two mold made. All of those parts. No, that's not true. There was two molds because the clear ones had to be a thinner plastic. So there's got to be two molds for it.
Michael: Okay, and what were you making that one out of? ABS only. Yes.
Caller: Yeah, we make it out of clear ABS.
Michael: And it came out real nice.
Caller: Yeah, it came out pretty nice. It didn't come out clear like your other dead clear plastics. But again, I was back to the same thing. I didn't want to get in.
Michael: Are the letters. The indent of the letters, are they clear? Are they.
Caller: No, we use a black stamp. A hot stamp machine. Black stamp.
Michael: Oh, and you just stamp them on there. Is it raised or.
Caller: No, it would be slightly. It would either be level or maybe a half a thousandths underneath. It's a hot stamp machine.
Michael: Okay, very interesting. That's interesting. Boyd. Your first name's Boyd?
Caller: No, it's Clarence Boyd, but everybody calls me.
Michael: Okay, Clarence. All right, excellent. Let me just give you my mailing address.
Caller: Okay, well, I got one here on this flyer. Yeah, do it.
Michael: That's fine.
Caller: 4735 Claremont.
Michael: Yeah, put a little package together. I will definitely. I will definitely look at it. I want to do some research on the eyepiece. And then this is. This has been great.
Caller: Okay, now I got some other molds popping my head okay, good. Now, are you into the model airplane business at all?
Michael: Not really, but I'm. I know people who can be.
Caller: I was a project engineer for Cox Manufacturing who makes those small UControl 049 control airplanes and cars and stuff. And. And so over the years I have had wild hair ideas and one of them was that I did some research on the spinner that goes on model airplanes. The most popular volumed spinner that's ever been sold is a 2 inch.
Michael: Now, is this not the propeller? Is this the propeller?
Caller: The spinner that goes over the propeller.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: It's the pointed thing on the front end.
Michael: Yeah. Okay, got it.
Caller: Because everything today they use electric start. Everybody got their fingers chewed off so bad over the years, they decided that the electric start was the way to go and that's it. So you got to have a spinner to do those things. And the 2 inch one is the most popular volume consumed product there is. I researched that to make sure that because I was only. I wasn't going to build a mold and not have. Well, anyway, I didn't want to build a mold that I couldn't sell parts on.
Michael: All right. This is for the model airplane industry.
Caller: I have that mold too.
Michael: And how many unit, how many cavity mold is that?
Caller: One front, one back plate. And it's capable of making a pretty clip, pretty good rate, but that's not the point. The cheapest 2 inch spinner you can buy on the market anywhere that I've been able to find is $2.49. I can make these, package them and ship them for about 45 cents.
Michael: And just as good as any other 2 inch spinner.
Caller: Yeah, same thing. I copied them as a matter of fact.
Michael: How many different spinners are out there? Did you see on the?
Caller: They go all the way up. They start from about an inch and a half up to six inches. But the problem is when you get up to about 3 inches, there's a mix between plastic and metal.
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: And then after that they're all metal.
Michael: Okay. All right, that's interesting. Probably. Probably not something for me, but that's good to know. Any other thing pop in your head?
Caller: No, not right now.
Michael: Okay. If some pops in your head, call me back.
Caller: All right?
Michael: All right. Get me something out by Monday or Tuesday. Okay. All right, thank you very much.
Caller: As I hung up, I thought of an idea here that we've got that you might be really interested in. Okay, let's do it. The big thing now is in the golfing business. About four years ago, I come up with an idea on how to hold the clubs in a bag. And the nearest thing that after I researched it, I could find sold for $29.95 and it was a cheap piece of junk.
Michael: What is.
Caller: It holds clubs in your bag? And I'm going to send you my package sample with all of my literature. I sold them. I sold them for several years.
Michael: How many did you sell?
Caller: Any freaking. I couldn't get any market I need. I didn't have any end. I didn't have any in for any kind of a volume thing.
Michael: Yeah.
Caller: Probably sold 30, 40,000 packages of them.
Michael: And how much did they sell for?
Caller: They. They. I'd like to see them list for $9.99, which was about a third the cost of the nearest competitor.And mine was at least twice, if not three times better.
Michael: Okay, what made yours better than other stuff out there?
Caller: Well, when it gets to you, I don't want to go into.
Michael: Okay, go. I send it. All right, that's fine. You didn't patent it or anything.
Caller: It's patent pending.
Michael: Oh, you got a patent pending on it?
Caller: Well, no, but I said I do.
Michael: Okay, that's fine.
Caller: That's what scares everybody off anyway.
Michael: Yeah, that's true. Okay.
Caller: Anyway, this item, I've sold it for years.
Michael: But who'd you sell 30,000 of them.
Caller: To all over hell? It was some guy up there in Oregon used to buy him from me. World. I don't know who the hell the guy is. You ask all these questions like, I'm doing your work for you. Well, you're the marketer guy.
Michael: You. No, but that's fine. But what happened to him?
Caller: Well, it just. One thing led to another and it didn't go anywhere. Hang on, I'm pulling it up for you. Okay, I got it. I sold it. The guy was really pumping them out, and then he got. He was a Jewish guy and he. He got somewhere where. You start making money, more money on something else. Yeah, and he started doing that and letting mine slide. Then we had a blowout, and I said, to hell with it, and I just slid the thing aside. Okay, I've got all the literature done, all of the flyers. I mean.
Michael: How many do you have made up?
Caller: Oh, there's probably 5,000 sets around here in packages ready to go.
Michael: Okay. And one other question. What it cost to pump it out?
Caller: I wholesale them, depending on the volume, anywhere from a buck and a half to $2 ready to go to the customer hanging on the rack at the at the market.
Michael: And let me ask you this. Were you ever a golfer yourself?
Caller: No, I never didn't do anything.
Michael: But the thing worked. It kept the club.
Caller: Yeah, because I used to donate them to. When they have those golfing deals where they bring in money for charitable needs and stuff. And I had people plugging me, wanting those things, and the feedback was always positive. I never had one negative feedback on it.
Michael: And what color are they?
Caller: They're black, so they go with any bag.
Michael: All right, send me one. Great.
Caller: And they fit any bag, too, because I designed it so that they would be. It's a universal item. And these other things that sell, they sell on the market. It's called Club Clip is the name of my product.
Michael: Club what?
Caller: Club Clip.
Michael: Club Clip. Okay.
Caller: And anything else in the market wasn't universal. It wouldn't fit any and all bags. And I've never found a bag yet that mine wouldn't fit.
Michael: Wow. Very good. And the mold, does it just pump them one at a time?
Caller: Oh, yeah. It pumps them out to beat a rat's butt. It goes like hell.
Michael: Okay, excellent. Send it to me.
Caller: I can't find the literature here. It's here. Some freaking place. But I'm sending you a sample of it in the package. Just like you would see it at the store if you were going to.
Michael: You got it.
Caller: And the flyer is in there with it, so you'll see how we did that. Flyer device.
Michael: Keep thinking, Boyd. You're going to come up with something else you forgot about.
Caller: I know there's all kinds of.
Michael: Well, call me back, okay?
Caller: Yeah. All right, bye. All right, this is going anyway today.
Michael: Thank you. Hi, this is Michael Senoff with HardtoFindSeminars.com. I hope you're enjoying these calls. I hope you're paying attention and listening real closely to all the different items that they use to manufacture and all this valuable tooling sitting there right in their shop, just waiting on someone with some good marketing skills to take over. This is the end of part one. Please continue for the rest of these recordings in part two.
Michael: Hi, Felix, this is Michael Senoff. I'm returning your call.
Caller: Yes
Michael: How are you doing?
Caller: I'm fine. I'd like to know something more about your company. And what is this letter about? You looking for any molds?
Michael: Well, not any. We're a marketing firm. Here's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for any molds or tooling that's sitting in your shop doing nothing, where maybe at one time you were running a lot of production on them, but maybe the company owed you money and they didn't pay their bill or the company went bankrupt. Whatever reason, the company stopped using the molds. And what we do is we have inroads into international and national distribution like Home Depot and Lowe's and some international distribution outlets already. And we're looking for products that we can fit into those distribution channels. And this is a practice I do every once in a while where I look for obsolete molding that we could put to use. Now, the way it would work, if we find something that you have that you could start running pieces for us, as long as you're competitive price wise, we could put it back into action right in your shop. So that's what I'm looking for. So I would ask, is there anything that you can think of that would fit that category that you want to describe to me? And then maybe we can do something with it.
Caller: So you are really looking for molds which are owned by somebody else. You would have to have the control on them. But you would say in your letter that you want to buy them.
Michael: Well, in some cases we could do that. If you're not interested in running them, obviously we would need to buy them and have someone else run them. Another injection molding company do it. Any mold or you have something. Well, not any mold. Like I said, I'm looking for consumer related products. I could give you a thousand answers. What do you have that is sitting there that may be a fit? Do you want to just talk about some of the stuff that you can think of that's sitting around that we could talk about?
Caller: But I would have to run them.
Michael: You don't have to if you want to. We'd pay you to run them if we could use them. Are you still in business?
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: You're in the business of running molds? I don't think you'd object to running them, would you?
Caller: Yeah, if I have space.
Michael: If you have space. Well, let's just say if you have space and we could run them, you could do it. But if you don't want to run them and we want them. We could buy them outright from you.
Caller: For example, would you be interested in dairy crate molds?
Michael: In what kind?
Caller: Dairy crate. Milk crate.
Michael: Milk crates. Let's talk about it. Have you been running milk crates.
Caller: in the past, yes.
Michael: How many have you run in the past?
Caller: Oh, a lot.
Michael: What's a lot?
Caller: How many molds or how many pieces?
Michael: How many pieces?
Caller: Hundreds of thousands.
Michael: And why are they not being run currently?
Caller: Well, because people do switch alliance, you know, they buy from somebody else.
Michael: How large were these milk crates? Were they doing different sizes or
Caller: One 16 quarts or 24 quarts? That's what it's called in the industry. 16 quarts means that it's four 1 gallon bottles and 24 is for 6.
Michael: How many different molds does it take to make one of those.
Caller: Two molds.
Michael: Okay. And can I ask you what material you use to make those? All right, that's interesting. I'll tell you one thing that doesn't interest me about it is the size. Because you obviously know those hundred thousand milk crates take up a lot of warehousing area.
Caller: Correct.
Michael: That's one of the things that would probably make me say no, but I don't want to say a definite no. It's interesting to know that you have it. Are the molds still in good shape or do they need reworking?
Caller: No, they're in good shape.
Michael: They're in good shape. Okay. How is it that you still have the molds on those?
Caller: Because I own them.
Michael: So you developed the mold yourself?
Caller: Yeah, we bought them, you know, but a long time ago. And is it a one cavity unit?
Michael: A one cavity unit?
Caller: Yes.
Michael: All right, very interesting. And who did you sell the milk crates to? Who was your market at that time?
Caller: A lot of companies. Dairies.
Michael: Dairies, I see. Do you think they just went to other fabricators?
Caller: Yes. Yeah.
Michael: Was there a good profit on it or. Not really.
Caller: Not really. It was very competitive.
Michael: All right, that's interesting. Let's keep talking. What else do you have?
Caller: I will have to check.
Michael: Was your milk crate one of the main things you've been.
Caller: No, no, no. My main thing is battery case.
Michael: Battery cases. Okay. Is this something that you've developed yourself?
Caller: Oh, yeah.
Michael: Tell me, what's a battery case for? Consumer batteries.
Caller: Yeah, but this is not for sale.
Michael: This isn't for sale. Okay, so you're doing battery cases. Is it going good? Is it a consumer product? Would I have one in my house?
Caller: I'm selling to battery maker.
Michael: You're selling to a battery maker?
Caller: Yes.
Michael: Do you have it patented or protected? Is it A unique product.
Caller: Very few. Very few. Okay.
Michael: All right. Battery cases. Anything else you can think of?
Caller: Like a car battery tank battery, you know, you have in your car?
Michael: Yeah, I see. All right. Anything else you can think of?
Caller: I have to check. We sold a lot of our molds a few years ago.
Michael: Any clients you can think of in the past that were just making tons of units and then all of a sudden they went bankrupt.
Caller: Let me check our callbacks. You're not interested about buying them all? Because I thought that maybe you're buying them all and selling them in the third world countries or something like that.
Michael: No, no. The only reason I would be wanting to buy it is to produce, to use it myself
Caller: I understand. To reintroduce again in the market.
Michael: Yeah, that's right. Since you brought that up. Is that something people do, sell them to third world countries?
Caller: Years ago, yes, they were doing, as a matter of fact, in the battery industry they were doing that.
Michael: They were buying molds and sending them to different third world countries.
Caller: Yes.
Michael: Oh really? Who was doing this?
Caller: Oh, I don't know. But alot went to Mexico, went to Korea, etc.
Michael: Oh, I see. That was not my intention, but I never thought of that. Now I would use it for my own use, to have control of, to put back into use and reintroduce the product maybe with a slight modification into the marketplace.
Caller: Are it a marketing group which.
Michael: Yes, we're marketing.
Caller: Remarket. The items were used before and suddenly for all different reasons.
Michael: Yeah, that's exactly right. Can I ask you a question?This milk crate, what's the dimension like, inches wise? How big is it?
Caller: Go to your supermarket and find one gallon milk.
Michael: How many does it hold?
Caller: Four
Michael: It holds four one gallon milk.
Caller: One gallon is four quarts. So when people say 16 quarts crate means for four one gallon.
Michael: Well, you know the lingo. I don't. So it holds four one gallon containers.
Caller: And 24 holds 6.
Michael: Got it. And you were making both. Were you making more of one or the other?
Caller: Yeah, I think 16 quarts
Michael: With one mold. What was your capacity? How many could you make up in a day?
Caller: You can make with one, ah let's see 1500 a day.
Michael: What could you sell them for?
Caller: Depends on the market. Right now the portfolio is so high that I don't.
Michael: There's no money in it now?
Caller: No, there is more money. Whenever material is higher, there is more money.
Michael: So the material is expensive right now?
Caller: Oh yeah.
Michael: You don't have to give me an exact. What would it cost?
Caller: I don't know because as I said, we didn't do this for a long time. I would say right now it's about $4.50.
Michael: To make it?
Caller: No, to sell it.
Michael: And could you make a couple bucks on each one?
Caller: I doubt.
Michael: You doubt. I mean, when you were doing it, were you making 50 cents a unit or.
Caller: Oh, yeah, 50 cents.
Michael: But not much more. Now, was it a better quality than other milk crates out there in the market?
Caller: No, let's face it, they're all the same. Different design, a little bit here and a little there, you know, but the quality. The main size makers have the same quality. Some cheap makers, you can go to Home Depot and find something for 80 cents.
Michael: So you are making a very good quality product.
Caller: Yeah, for there. You have to.
Michael: You have to, or they're going to break.
Caller: Automatic conveyors, they cannot work, they cannot bend.
Michael: Yeah. What material were you using?
Caller: High density polyeurothane.
Michael: Do you have any inventory of those?
Caller: Of what?
Michael: Of the crates. Are they all gone?
Caller: No
Michael: But would you have the capacity to run those again?
Caller: Everything depends on the cost.
Michael: I understand. I can find somebody who will make.
Caller: Who can make what?
Michael: Who can mold. You have a mold already, right?
Caller: Yeah, but I don't have capacity right now because all my presses are taken.
Michael: I understand. Okay, excellent. Well, please think about what we've talked about and call me back and I'll get back with you and we'll just talk about some more things.
Caller: Okay.
Michael: Thanks a lot.
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: Bye.
Michael: Hi, Gary. Hey, it's Michael Senoff here in San Diego. How are you?
Caller: Fine. How about you?
Michael: Good. You got my letter and I got your message from Sarah. I'm looking for any obsolete molding or tooling that you've run in the past that's just sitting there. Maybe you had a client that didn't pay you or something that could be related to the consumer market where we'd like to potentially find something that we could plug into some of our distribution channels. We're in some of the Home Depots and in Lowe's and some international distribution. We always have our eyes open for tooling that can manufacture something that we can plug in. And that's why I sent the letter.
Caller: It has to be a product that you can sell today.
Michael: Well, in most cases. But I don't want to limit you. So what I want to know, when you called, are you sitting on some things that stuck out in your mind that you can just review with me what you have? And we may have a need for it.
Caller: I wanted to have feedback from you. What was the letter all about? I have lots of molds that with our kind of industry. A lot of us have customers have left us for the Far East.
Michael: Are they more industrial?
Caller: Yeah, they have both houseware and industrial. But I wanted to know what you were looking for.
Michael: Any molds for plastic injection molding. Maybe one or two piece molds that produce a product for the consumer market or something you find in Home Depot, something unique. Can you think of any item that would fit in that category that you were running tens of thousands of units. But something happened to the company. It went bankrupt. They didn't pay their bills. There was a problem between the owners. You know what I'm saying?
Caller: Do you have any injection molding experience?
Michael: I don't have the factory. If we found something, what I would do is probably use you to get it back running again. We do the marketing and distribution angle of it. So it's stuff that we could possibly put back into use for you if we could find a fit.
Caller: I wanted to know what all about. I have lots of molds, but I have to go over them, see which applies to your. You're looking more like construction type or novelty or.
Michael: Yeah, a combination of both.
Caller: Okay,
Michael: Get back with me.
Michael: Hey there. This is Mike Senoff and I think you called yesterday for my letter about the obsolete mold. Oh, yeah, I took your name down. I don't have it in front of me. I'm sorry, what was your name?
Caller: Dick.
Michael: Hi, Dick, how are you?
Caller: Good, good.
Michael: I'm Michael. When you saw that letter, did you have anything specifically in your mind? I'll tell you real quick what I'm trying to do. I'm looking for obsolete molds that maybe are sitting there. That maybe situations such as bankruptcy or infight between a company or maybe companies didn't pay you. You're sitting on these molds at one time you were putting them to work and maybe producing a good amount of volume. And I'm specifically looking for patented products, consumer products. We have inroads into Home Depot and Home Expo and some of these large international and national distribution centers. And my hope is to find something that could be put back into run by you. As long as the pricing is competitive. And we're a marketing arm and can do all the marketing. And that's why I sent the letter.
Caller: Yeah, I doubt that we have any of the molds that you're probably looking for.
Michael: Is there anything off the top of your head that when you saw the letter that made you call that you possibly thinking about?
Caller: Well, all I have was just molds for plastic injection.
Michael: What kind of products were they producing?
Caller: All different, varied types and they haven't been used in years.
Michael: Anything that sticks out in your mind that you were really running a ton of them at one time?
Caller: No, we never really ran a ton of anything.
Michael: Anything consumer related or were they all industrial or what?
Caller: No, they're all different. Industrial, some private, a lot of things.
Michael: Well, I can't help you unless I have an idea of the market and what they're for, but that's fine.
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: Okay.
Michael: Bye.
Caller: Bye.
Michael: Michael Senoff here. I'm returning your call.
Caller: Yes, sir.
Michael: How are you doing?
Caller: Pretty good.
Michael: Good.
Caller: I got your letter that you guys are looking for molds and stuff like that?
Michael: Yeah. Are you in a tool shop?
Caller: Yeah, I got a few around.
Michael: Okay, well, let me explain. I'll give you an idea of what we do. We're a marketing company and we reintroduce products into the marketplace. We've got large distribution channels into Home Depot and some international outlets. We're looking for products that may fit a marketing angle. You know how business is. People go bankrupt, partners fight, and then you're sitting on tooling that maybe you used to run at one time, but just sitting there.
Caller: As a matter of fact, the stuff that I made in the tool went to Home Depot.
Michael: Oh, really? So let's talk about it. What's your shop called? You're the owner there?
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: Okay, well, tell me what you were thinking. What do you got?
Caller: Well, I got a mold that molds half inch and three quarter poly and PVC pipe nipples.
Michael: Okay.
Caller: Pipe nipples or they call them risers.
Michael: Oh, okay. I got you to connect the pipes.
Caller: Yeah. Sprinkler heads or stuff like that.
Michael: Okay. And what were the sizes again?
Caller: Half inch and three quarter.
Michael: Okay. How many cavity molds for that?
Caller: 12 cavities.
Michael: Two separate molds. 12 each?
Caller: Well, no, it's one mold you can run all these different parts in.
Michael: Okay, so you can run all the same size. You got one mold that'll run the three quarter and the half inch?
Caller: Yeah, you can swap inserts and run three quarter and half or combination of whatever you want.
Michael: Were you selling those to Home Depot?
Caller: Yeah, my customer bought them. What happened was I was running 24 hours a day for a few months, running up the stock for them. So I got about a half a million fittings on my floor right now.
Michael: A half a million. And then what happened?
Caller: Calls me up one day and Friday after work, my home, hey, I need 25,000 of those half by close on Monday. Can I get them? Yeah, I got him. He's all good. Well, bring him Over. So I counted up 25,000.
Michael: And how many did you have on the floor at that time?
Caller: I don't know. Probably almost a half a million. So that's still running. So I had no problem filling the order. So I delivered them to him the next Monday morning, and then I invoiced them. And about a week went by and invoiced it. He finally called me and said, hey, we can't use these fittings. I said, why not? He said, well, they're too expensive. Really? The same price you've always gotten? Well, come to find out that they wanted the bulk discount for just a handful of pieces.
Michael: Why did you run so many?
Caller: Well, I've been doing business with this guy for over 10 years.
Michael: And he was moving that kind of volume.
Caller: Yeah, he runs about half a million of those every year. But threads, the bigger prizes, like if you go to Home Depot and you see the nipples in there that are, like, from, say, 6 inches or 12 inches, like 4ft that are threaded at both ends, that's what his main line of business is.
Michael: But did the mold put the threads in, or do you thread them after that?
Caller: Oh, yeah, they came out complete. Stripped off the runner, ready to go.
Michael: Do you think he now uses someone else for a better price?
Caller: He's got to get them from somewhere.
Michael: So he probably just retooled up.
Caller: No, they're too cheap to build tooling.
Michael: What do you think they did?
Caller: Well, they were getting them out of Utah, but I guess they couldn't get them when I was running them. And he had a quality issue with those guys and on goes the story.
Michael: All right, so you've got those molds and you've got a half a million pieces sitting there.
Caller: Yeah, more or less.
Michael: What were you charging and how much did those things sell for?
Caller: I was charging him $0.035.
Michael: Three and a half cents?
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: What did it cost to make them?
Caller: Maybe 2 cents. A little less in it.
Michael: What is Home depot selling for?
Caller: 33 cents, 35 cents. So there's a huge price difference there. What happened between me and them is they got bought out a couple years ago because you manage it, but my friends still work there. And the difference in price that they were complaining about totaled up to $90, and it was over 32/10 of one penny.
Michael: Well, it probably wasn't price. It was probably something else.
Caller: Oh, he said it was the price.
Michael: All right. You've got that tooling and you're sitting on all those pieces.
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: All right, that's interesting. Who else buys these things? Home Depot. They just have them inthose little bins where the fitting tab.
Caller: Every irrigation shop needs them.
Michael: Every irrigation shop doing sprinklers and stuff?
Caller: Yeah, My friend work in irrigation. They buy them from Bill for four cents, four and a half cents.
Michael: So you're only talking pennies, these things?
Caller: Yeah, but I get up in volume. It adds up.
Michael: Yeah. All right, that's interesting. Anything else that you can think of?
Caller: I've got a half inch polyethylene street elbow, a male thread and a female thread.
Michael: What are they used for?
Caller: Well, you screw two together. One end goes on the pipe that goes in the ground. The other end goes up through your sprinkler. Somebody steps on the sprinkler or whatever, the elbows pull apart rather than break. That mold needs a little bit of work on it, but it's not too bad. It also makes a 1/2 inch 90 by hose thread fittings. The same old.
Michael: A hose thread fitting?
Caller: Yeah. That fitting would screw on the end of your PVC pipe and then the hose would screw on the end of that.
Michael: Okay, got it. Who were you making those for? The same guy?
Caller: Same guy. Like I said, I've been dealing with them for over 10 years. It's been real good. Except for the first part of the season.
Michael: These irrigation companies, how much volume do these guys go through of these fittings, do you think?
Caller: Well, he told me at least a half a million of the half by close. And see, the mold runs half by close, twos and threes in both the half inch and three quarter. But the three quarter doesn't move as fast. The fastest one that sells is a half by close. That's like 80, 90% of the sales is that small one.
Michael: And how many of those do you have?
Caller: That's the one I got half a million of.
Michael: Okay, and how much inventory do you have of the other one?
Caller: None.
Michael: So you're saying an irrigation shop will go through that many of those?
Caller: Well, he distributes.
Michael: He's a distributor for it. He distributes to irrigation shops. But the end user. Do you have any clue how many of these things you do?
Caller: Well, my friends, they buy around 2,000, maybe 2,500 per month. Depends on how dry the season is.
Michael: So maybe 20, 25,000 a year.
Caller: Yeah. And that's just one store.
Michael: They sell supplies for irrigation.
Caller: They're kind of a retail store.
Michael: So this is a standard item anyone doing irrigation is going to need, right? Yep. Okay, if I went on Home Depot's website and I did a search for it to see what it would look like, I would just go what?
Caller: I think Home Depot calls them pipe risers. And I own all the tooling.
Michael: What it cost to put all that tooling together do you think?
Caller: It was kind of expensive?
Michael: I'm just curious. Ballpark.
Caller: Well, I bought the mold from a guy that went out of business about 10, 11 years ago, and it cost me about 20 grand.
Michael: Okay. You bought the mold from a guy, huh?
Caller: Yeah. And it wasn't complete. I made up all the other inserts for it.
Michael: Have you had to rework the molding or anything?
Caller: I made new inserts last year because we wanted to increase the diameter of the thread.
Michael: So this mold's just sitting there and you got all this inventory.
Caller: Yeah. Thinking about putting that in the trader and just dumping it out. Yeah.
Michael: What would you take for all the inventory?
Caller: I'd let it go for like 2 cents each. About 10 grand or so.
Michael: How many boxes is that?
Caller: I think Gilor boxes are like 4 foot square. I think each box is about 50,000. Some boxes may be 6 inches bigger than another, but they're roughly about 60,000. 50 to 60 per box.
Michael: What else can these things be used for besides irrigation? Do you know of any other known uses?
Caller: I don't know. I never really thought about it. Just connecting pipes and stuff like that.
Michael: Would you put me three or four in the mail? I don't mind paying for it. Put them in the envelope and ship them to me.
Caller: Sure.
Michael: Will you do that. Stick your card in there. You never know.
Caller: Okay. I can do that.
Michael: All right, do it. If you got my letter, my address is on there.
Caller: Okay.
Michael: Just put four or five of them in the mail to me. Let me look at these things and I'll use my creative ideas here. Maybe we can get rid of them. All right. Put your card in there. Just your letterhead. I've got your name and number here, too. But stick it in there just in case. Or your label or something. All right. What's a better one? What do you think?
Caller: Depends what you're doing.
Michael: What are they using them for? Irrigation?
Caller: Probably 80% are PVC. But then you get over into Arizona, they like the poly.
Michael: Why?
Caller: I don't know. And Florida is a huge, huge consumer of polyethylene pipe fittings.
Michael: And the poly's black?
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: And your inventory is all the gray pvc?
Caller: Yeah, I got some black. The mold, I filled it up where it'll run either material.
Michael: But the half a million, what are they in?
Caller: They're pvc.
Michael: They're all the gray. So Florida ain't going to go for it. Arizona likes to pvc.
Caller: Well, they both use them both, but those two states use a lot of poly. Everybody uses pvc. Some use more poly than pvc and some use more PVC than poly. So depends on your location.
Michael: Within in 24 hours, how many of these can you make?
Caller: Well, I make about close to three shots a minute with 12 cavities.
Michael: So 36 a minute?
Caller: Yeah, I think 30 a minute. That's 1800 parts an hour times 24 or whatever.
Michael: That turns out to be 43,024 hours.
Caller: That's what I got.
Michael: Okay, that's great.
Caller: Okay. If you got anything that you need molded, you know, I got some open time.
Michael: That's fine. It's always good to know that I'm down here in La Jolla area, so you're not far away. Okay. Get me something in the mail.
Caller: I'll set about tomorrow.
Michael: All right. Thank you very much.
Caller: You bet. Bye.
Michael: Sandy?
Caller: Yeah
Michael: This is Michael Senoff. I'm the guy who sent the letter and I got your message about the tooling.
Caller: Oh, hi.
Michael: Okay, tell me what you got.
Caller: I have three tools that basically do one product.
Michael: What were you making with it?
Caller: We were making what we termed was a port of.
Michael: Is it online anywhere where I could see it finished? Did you have a website?
Caller: No, we have a website. I don't know whether it's up there or not, frankly.
Michael: Did anyone sell it for you at one time?
Caller: Oh, yeah, we have a complete distribution network. It was minimally sold. It was never marketed the way that it needed to be because it was like a poor step child. It was out of our main product line.
Michael: What did it do?
Caller: It basically holds a standard roll of paper towel and cleaning supplies around the edges. And then the top makes into a regular watertight bucket so that you can take the top off of the unit and have a water bucket there. And what it was specifically targeted to was the car enthusiasts who use their cars in different runs. And you go to a car run. Or something and you want to make your car all shiny and diffie and everything, but you don't want to carry a huge amount of items in order to do this. So this tidily set into an 8 inch square area. Patented trademark.
Michael: Carry your cleaning supplies. Paper towels says sold for $22.49. Were they made in black only?
Caller: They were first made in other colors, but we finally got that down to black.
Michael: And so what's the situation now?
Caller: We don't market them anymore.
Michael: You own the patent. Why aren't you marketing it anymore? I'm Just curious.
Caller: It's outside of our main product line. In our main product line, we try. To put all of our resources and energies to.
Michael: I understand. How many of them did you guys pump out?
Caller: Oh, gosh, I have no clue.
Michael: No idea at all?
Caller: No. I'd have to go back to our record.
Michael: Are there people still placing orders for them?
Caller: No. Occasionally we get somebody that wants one, but we just tell them that they're not available. We've been telling people that they're not available for three years now.
Michael: I see. Do you know if the patent is up to date still?
Caller: Yes, it is.
Michael: It is. And did you get the name actually trademarked?
Caller: I did.
Michael: Okay. Was it just a factor of time you have other things going and you couldn't put the energy into it, or was it the reception of the marketplace? They didn't like it. Anything you could help me out with? Because I'm looking at it from a marketing angle.
Caller: Okay. Well, just as I told you, it did not fit into our main product line. And we wanted to put our resources into our main product line to develop new products for that product line. It was easier to market our main product line within that very narrow niche that we have our other products within, opposed to trying to bring this fairly unique item into something that we have to explain. And these others were, like, sold themselves. They didn't need a lot of explanation. We're about as low tech as it goes. No brainers.
Michael: How many molds is it?
Caller: Three. One is a family tool, and it holds all of the components that connect and operate the top and the bottom. One is the top and one is the bottom.
Michael: What about the thing that holds the paper towel?
Caller: That's part of the family tool.
Michael: Okay, so how many different pieces are there total to the unit?
Caller: Well, there's a top and a bottom, and then the other mold is a family mold, and it makes five parts each. One of the five parts will do. One because there's the handle, there's the cam operation, there's where the O rings sit, there's the shaft, and there's the main handle.
Michael: And it can all be assembled by hand?
Caller: Oh, yeah.
Michael: You can't think back the success that you had with it or how many you ran on this for a couple of years.
Caller: We had, I would say, minimal success only because we didn't market it. This has never been marketed.
Michael: How many did you run on that mold? Any idea?
Caller: I have no clue.
Michael: Do you think it could have been under 100 or under 10? Okay, so you maybe ran 50,000, possibly 20,000 thousand. 5,000. In that range
Caller: Probably around 5,000 or so, if that.
Michael: Okay, so it's single cavity molds. You'll do one at a time.
Caller: Two of them are single cavities. The other is a 5 cavity.
Michael: Okay, I'm with you. What were you making it out of?
Caller: We were making it out of ABS because of the strength that we wanted it to have.
Michael: Did it have a nice, tight fit? When it was closed?
Caller: Very tight now, it was not watertight
Michael: Once it was closed. Was it just like a square box? Is there a handle that came up?
Caller: There was a handle at the top, and it had little feet at the bottom so that as it was sitting on the ground, if the ground was wet or dirty or muddier, it wouldn't float away. It was only on the little tiny feet.
Michael: Okay, so those feet. Is that where the handle was in the middle?
Caller: No, the feet were on the base of the unit.
Michael: Yeah, I'm looking at that. But when you close it, where is the handle? I'm looking at the picture. You got one section filled with water and a sponge that you can fill up. When it's open, you have a handle. I see the handle right there above the paper towel. But when it's closed, does that handle come through? Do you see what I'm saying? When it's closed up,
Caller: Two handles. There's a handle at the top when it's closed. That top handle operate the cam mechanism that locks the two pieces, the top and the bottom, together on the shaft. Then on the shaft, there's another small handle where you can hang the unit. If you have to.
Michael: I see. Would you be willing to send me one? I don't mind paying for it and the shipping and everything. If I give you a UPS account number.
Caller: I don't even think that we have one left.
Michael: No one's got anyone anywhere?
Caller: I don't believe so. These have been out of production for so long.
Michael: And are you still running mold for other things right now?
Caller: Oh, yeah. We have probably a good $2 million worth of tooling. Some of it is still running. Some of it we put aside and not running it anymore.
Michael: This is the stuff that interests me a lot. We're a marketing firm, so what we do is we look for things like this, things to put back into the marketplace. We have distribution through Home Depot and some international distribution. So we look for molding, tooling that's sitting there just like yours. For whatever reason, you guys weren't able to get it off the ground. It's doing nothing. And then we bring it back to life.
Caller: Is there a contract or a fee or whatever that you charge us to do this?
Michael: There's different things. If the molders are interested in running the molds again and you have the machines and everything, we could contract with you for the mold time. As long as we're competitive within the marketplace or if you guys weren't interested in doing it, we could buy the molds and the rights outright. You know, just buy everything from you. We can negotiate.
Caller: Okay, so then you're basically open.
Michael: Yeah, I'm open either way
Caller: Because it was a good idea. It was one of our very first products and it worked out real well when we were out there actually on the road selling these things. But when we started with our distribution network, the distributors didn't promote it.
Michael: Yeah, they've got hundreds of items
Caller: We didn't package it the way that it should have been packaged. So it was just as much our fault as what it was theirs. And then we got off onto the easier path to do things.
Michael: I understand that's realistic. Hi, this is Michael Senoff with HardtoFindSeminars.com. I hope you're as blown away as I have been talking to these people. I mean, really, I had no idea it would be this easy. And I've never done this before. This is the first time I've ever actually talked to owners of mold and tooling die shops. But what I found was these people are eager to put their products into production and they're eager to talk with you if you know how to handle it. And I hope this has been an eye opening experience and a learning experience experience to show you that you too can find hidden tools and dies in shops right in your local town and area. It's just a matter of getting them to call you back and to be able to have them open up to you about what they have. Now in the next series of audio recordings, we're going to show you how to pick the right product and we're going to show you how to negotiate the rights for that tooling where you ultimately have the control of the tooling. Stay tuned and thanks for listening. Here is another bonus I want you to know about. Extremely valuable. If you go to another site of mine called Executive Audio Institute, that's executiveaudioinstitute.com all together, no slashes. You will see a site with nothing but all my audio recordings, all in downloadable MP3 form. Now these are the same recordings that I have on hardtofindseminars.com in the audio clip section. Except I will offer you the reprint rights to all of these audio recordings. In other words, I'm going to hand them to you on a silver platter. If you have a website and you need something that generates traffic, I will set up a custom site for you and you can send your visitors to my collection of audio recordings. As a bonus, you have here thousands of dollars worth of audio content on some of the best interviews on the Internet. You have hundreds of transcripts that you can print out and share with your customers. I'm not going to charge you a dime for it. I'll even build you a custom site. All you have to do is put a small deposit down, but it's refundable once you introduce it to your list. Go on over to executiveaudioinstitute.com and read the first part. You'll see a link if you want the reprint rights to these audios. It will explain everything there. I think you're going to find this extremely valuable. It has taken me years and years to build up this collection, to get them all edited to put the transcript. I've invested tens of thousands of dollars in this collection and I want you to have it. Go check it out. Executiveaudioinstitute.com.
Michael: Hi, it's Michael Sendoff with hardtofindseminars.com. Here's another 25 minute recording with a gentleman who was a mold manufacturer. And it's a specifically interesting call because this guy had so many different molds and tooling that could eventually be turned into products, exclusive products that could be sold national or even worldwide. I just want you to get an idea of the absolute immense potential sitting in these mold shops. All you got to do is know how to get them to call you back, have the exact direct mail sales letter that I use to get all this response and be able to just model what I've been doing here and take action. I hope this is helpful.
Caller: Tell me a little bit about what you do.
Michael: Well, we're a marketing company. I'm looking for molds that maybe you had in use that you were running and are no longer running. Maybe they're obsolete, but the molds are still in good shape. And if you've got tooling already built and you have control over it and it's a consumer type product, we've got distribution into some large chains like Home Depot and others internationally. Do you have anything that may fit that category?
Caller: We have a bunch of toy molds I was thinking about, but that doesn't sound like.
Michael: Well, I'm open to toy molds. What do you got?
Caller: We did a bunch of toys for Mr. T. You know the A team. Command team.
Michael: Yeah, the A team. And what kind of toys were they?
Caller: Dollhouse. Bunch of plastic parts, ladders and cranes.
Michael: So it was mainly a dollhouse?
Caller: Yeah, mainly a dollhouse. And it had the pillars which held the floors of. That's a mold you'd like to get rid of because it's actually three molds and they're monster molds.
Michael: They are, yeah. What kind of press do you need to run those?
Caller: It takes a 700.
Michael: So there's all kinds of cavities in that thing?
Caller: Yeah, it's kind of a headache mold.
Michael: How many did y'all run on that thing?
Caller: I don't remember what we ran on them. We were shipping a truckload a day on those things. One truckload would go to them up in South San Francisco. One would go to London.
Michael: Was this back in the 80s? Yeah, this was in 85. Who owned that?
Caller: Well, they never paid us on it.
Michael: Who was a company? They were a marketing company. Okay. They had the licensing for some Mr. T stuff.
Caller: Licensing through Paramount. We did a bunch of stuff with them. The Fright Castle? No, that was Mattel. We have a bunch of Mattel molds. Too that are obsolete molds. We did another one. Black Star. A big castle. It's a vacuum formed mold. And the kids hide behind it and got a trapdoor and a playmat and they shoot dart guns at each other. Rubber suction cups.
Michael: What else? Those are some pretty big items.
Caller: These are big. And then we had a big water blaster. Water gun.
Michael: A Super Soaker.
Caller: Yeah, Super Soaker water gun.
Michael: Was it a Super Soaker brand?
Caller: No, it was sports.
Michael: How old was that?
Caller: That was in the 80s also. Then we have another one that we built also for sports, which is a wet banana for the water slide.
Michael: What is a wet banana?
Caller: It's just a sprinkler, actually. It lays down a strip of water in a nice straight line. It's like slip and slide.
Michael: Okay. So the mold was to make the sprinkler part.
Caller: The mold was to make the sprinkler. And the advantage with the slip n slide, you had to put the water into the tubes on the side of the roller. And this one, you just hook it up like a sprinkler.
Michael: Did y'all move a lot of those?
Caller: We was number one in the Toy Hit Parade for about 10 weeks. The first year we did them, we sold 600,000 of them.
Michael: Really? How many cavity molds is that?
Caller: It's just a two cavity mold.
Michael: What kind of press do you need to run that?
Caller: It runs on a small press. Now the problem is that bought the mold and then they wanted to move the mold to Mexico. We had the ultrasonic horns and all this kind of stuff. And so we showed them how to set it up and offered to sell them all of our test. You know we pressure test it with water and most of it. But they never could run the thing in Mexico. So then they brought it back to us and then we ran it for another two years.
Michael: Why couldn't they run it in Mexico?
Caller: It's kind of a complex mold. It's got unscrewing actions in it. And it's got a lot of scroll type core pins that move out and had hydraulic unscrewing motors in it there. It is kind of tricky to adjust. But they couldn't run it and weld the parts and make them come out right. So they brought it back to us. And then one year we ran about 200,000 for them. And then they took it back to Mexico. And then they didn't like it again down in Mexico. They brought it back to us and we ran about 100,000. Then we ran about 50,000 on the following year. Wham-O was trying to kill the product all the time because it competed with the Slip n Slide. But the store people kept wanting it and so now they've just kind of abandoned that mold. We've had it sitting here idle for 12 years.
Michael: Are you still in the business?
Caller: Yeah, but we're not doing any toys right now.
Michael: But would that be a big deal to start running that thing again?
Caller: No.
Michael: Okay, that's interesting. How big is that wet banana thing?
Caller: It's not a real big mold. It ran 100 ton press.
Michael: So for the complete product, you had the banana part?
Caller: Yeah, you had the mold. It's got these hydraulics on it. And then you had the ultrasonic horn.That was the one that was kind of tricky. But we had three of the horns and they said, well, we can make our own down there. But I told them the problem that Tim had when they were going to make it, they spent $10,000 and gave up on it. But we had a guy named Santa Ana who made the first ones. Worked fine and we had three other ones made. We were trimming out a lot of parts on that one.
Michael: Was a product called the Wet Banana.
Caller: It's called the Wet Banana.
Michael: Yeah, the Wet Banana. Here in the 80s toys of the 80s, the wet banana, Just like the slip inside, only the water came out of a yellow sprinkler.
Caller: You screw in the hose in the end of it. Just like the sprinkler. The way it works is the holes in the alignment and everything is such one. It's about six, seven feet away from the strip. The water falls just in a straight line. If you're close to it, it's like a fan, but you're a little bit further away. It falls just in a straight line on this strip. And that's what really saves all that hassle. It's a lot easier to set up for everybody.
Michael: Okay. All right. What other things can you think of?
Caller: Another one that we do a lot of is the magnetic razor sharpener.
Michael: I've heard of that thing. Were you doing those for that multi level company?
Caller: Yeah, we were doing it for Sharper Image and then they tried to knock it off. I don't know if they ever did much on it, but they advertised it and they ran it for a little bit. And then we ran it for a company in New Jersey. They did about 50,000 of them, I think.
Michael: How many of those did you run total?
Caller: At least a quarter of a million of them. We shipped a bunch of them to Home Shopping Club too.
Michael: It's funny I used to own one of those things. Yeah, that was a cool little product.
Caller: It worked.
Michael: Is that just a one cavity mold?
Caller: It's a one cavity mold.
Michael: Was there a magnet inside it?
Caller: Yeah, there's two magnets in it.
Michael: Do you know where to get the magnets and everything?
Caller: Yeah, we still have the mold and we still mold them.
Michael: What do those things cost to put out?
Caller: When he gets down to the final level, I think he gets about 10 bucks for them. They sell for $29.95 or something like that.
Michael: All right. But to make them, we charge him.
Caller: I think it's $2.65 or something like that.
Michael: So do you own the mold on that?
Caller: No, he owns the mold.
Michael: What's his name?
Caller: It's John.
Michael: Was he the inventor?
Caller: Yeah, he's the inventor.
Michael: Did he ever patent it?
Caller: Yeah, it was patented.
Michael: So it's got a patent?
Caller: It has a patent number on the mold. His daughter is handling it. We've made some other products for him too, but he's just really slacked off on the thing.
Michael: Well, I'd be willing to talk to him about that. Can I get a contact number for him?
Caller: I don't know. He's talking, but Daughter is the one we've been dealing with. We've been making this product for him for, I would say maybe 15 years.
Michael: 15 years, wow.
Caller: It's one of those things that just always goes.
Michael: No, I understand, but nothing's been happening lately.
Caller: No, his daughter's doing a little bit of stuff.
Michael: But the daughter isn't real into it.
Caller: No, she's not caring for it very much. About 400 units on hand here. He'd usually buy 2,500 at a time. And then we'd ship them to him as he needed them or ship them to some of his other locations. I think we owe him a couple hundred.
Michael: You didn't do any of the packaging on it. You just shipped them bulk.
Caller: When we did them for Home Shopping Club, we did the packaging.
Michael: So Home Shopping Club knocked it off or were they buying his?
Caller: No, they were buying his. Yeah, we shipped by the pallet.
Michael: What was the packaging like in a box?
Caller: Yeah, it was in a box.
Michael: Do you still have all that stuff?
Caller: I probably have something on it. They had their own number on it that they wanted to put on the label that we put.
Michael: Right. How many did Sharper Image order?
Caller: Sharper Image didn't order very many I don't think.
Michael: They didn't move that many.
Caller: No. Maybe 1000, 1500, something like that.
Michael: That's it, huh?
Caller: Quest in New Jersey. They were the first one we did them for.
Michael: Is that the multi level?
Caller: Yeah, they were multi level. Then he had a catalog place, but everybody kept ripping him off. We shipped 50 some thousand of them and they would say, Oh, you know, we ship 5,000 or something like that. He'd always call us for the actual number. He tried it with about three people and everybody kept trying to cheat him. So he said, I'm just going to sell them myself.
Michael: Well, how would they try and cheat him?
Caller: We would ship to whoever was handling it. They'd tell them how many they had and they pay them the commission on those. And we'd tell them that we shipped 7,000 to the catalog company.
Michael: But they'd tell them that they only bought 4,000.
Caller: Yeah, they'd say a smaller.
Michael: He wouldn't even confirm that you guys shipped that many. He didn't handle any of the paperwork or anything.
Caller: He said, well, I'm just going to do it myself. And he got that home shopping deal himself and he was doing pretty well. He had a website, but then he got divorced, he had a hard time with it.
Michael: Yeah, I see. I'm at his website right now. It's that little white thing. Does it snap together or does it have to glue?
Caller: No, we cast it full of urethane to give it the weight to make it to be substantial.
Michael: So it's a solid piece. How many can you pump out? Can you run them pretty quickly?
Caller: Yeah, we can run them pretty quickly.
Michael: And did you only do them in that color?
Caller: Yeah, we just did them in that one color.
Michael: And how do you mount the magnet in there?
Caller: Well, it's got another little part that's in the same mold. It's a little clip that you put the magnets in. Because the two magnets have to oppose each other. They'll jump apart. And so you put them in this way, and then when you assemble them, you have a little jack fixture. You pass your hand over this magnet to make sure they're oriented right.
Michael: So did you see anyone try and knock them off and build tooling for it?
Caller: Sharper Image was trying to knock it off. And then we had another customer that we were making for these magnetic mileage minders things.
Michael: What's that?
Caller: You know, you strap to your fuel lines or heater lines. We've got all that tooling for that stuff too. And that man died.
Michael: Were you making a lot of those?
Caller: We were doing a lot of those.
Michael: Now what is that thing?
Caller: It's called a mileage minder.
Michael: Did it really work, do you think.
Caller: It worked for a while. That's what we found. I got them on my fuel lines in the car and it's actually working for a couple of months or three months. I think it loses its effectiveness. But there's a lot of people that make them. But this man, Dr. Chant that we did this for, he actually went to the same labs that do the testing for General Motors and so on the automotive people. We had them do these tests on it to actually have them certified. We had a big stink about this a few years back. A bunch of people were claiming to save you all kinds of fuel. They thought they were all bunch of scheisters, but he actually had the data.
Michael: So he died?
Caller: Yeah, then he died.
Michael: Where was he out of?
Caller: Santa Ana.
Michael: Does anyone have anything on it? I mean, who'd it go to?
Caller: He bought a company that makes a bunch of weird stuff, thigh cream and every other thing. But his daughter is running that. And then he's got another guy in there that can handle stuff. We also did another part for him, this P trap that snaps open.
Michael: It's called a P trap?
Caller: Yeah, it's a clear plastic polycarbonate strap that goes underneath your sink with a snap open bottom. Got a little ring catch in it. And we did the same thing of that. We sold all kinds of them. But he's the kind of a guy that would get interested in a product and they'd go like mad and then he'd get into another thing and he'd just completely drop it.
Michael: So you got the tooling for the P trap too?
Caller: Yeah, we got the tooling for that.
Michael: Like if I looked on the Internet for one, what was it?
Capital P?
Caller: Yeah, just a capital P. And Trap. Supply still holds them on them. Last time I was in there, I saw a couple of them on the shelves too.
Michael: That's just P space. T R A P. So the benefit of this thing is.
Caller: It's great for dentists and hairdressers, people that might have a ring drop in there. The only problem that you have with it, the truth behind it, is that you put one in your house and there's so much scum builds up inside there, it looks black in no time.
Michael: What if you made it black?
Caller: We made them black, white and clear. And we sold a bunch of them in Canada and they only wanted them in black. The idea of making it clear so you can see if there's something in there. But the thing, you got to be cleaning it out all the time because there's always something in there. We've got them in both of our sinks here at work.
Michael: All right, so how many cavity mold is that?
Caller: That's just one.
Michael: You can pump those things up pretty quick.
Caller: That pumps them up. Correct.
Michael: Does he have a patent on that thing?
Caller: I'm not sure if he's patented or not.
Michael: So is this the same guy as with the fuel thing?
Caller: Yeah, with the fuel miler.
Michael: What other stuff? And we can go through that later.
Caller: We build all the cooling bales. We've got probably four different molds on those, different sizes on the p trap, on the magnetic fuel thing. We were selling an awful lot of them. We had a guy in pennsylvania that was selling them like crazy. We were selling them to a big drug store chain. They've got a big distribution center in Arizona and some other states. And we were shipping them by the pallets to these people. Never had a return. But when we started shipping them to Supply, we had nothing but returns. Well, this guy handled both the P Traps and the Mileage Minders, and he was really doing well. Then something happened to him, and all of a sudden, nothing.
Michael: Did he get sick or something?
Caller: I don't know what happened to him at all.
Michael: So all you have is the daughter's information?
Caller: I don't know if she would have it or not, but this guy that works with her, he would know something about it.
Michael: Okay, but you have someone that I could get in touch with. What other things? These are really interesting. Any of them could be potential great products to get that going.
Caller: Woody owns clock. He was going to buy that.
Michael: The P Trap invention.
Caller: Not the P Trap, but the razor made things. Who's going to buy that?
Michael: Who is he going to buy from? The daughter.
Caller: He was going to buy it from John, and John wanted some ridiculous price for it. And so then woody was going to have me just build a mold, which Dr. Chun had me build a mold, too.
Michael: So you have your own mold already?
Caller: We have another mold for it, but it's not the same contour or anything.
Michael: He has a design patent on it.
Caller: I don't know. But the patent is expired anyway.
Michael: Oh, it's an expired item.
Caller: Because, as I say, we've been doing it for all this time.
Michael: All right, so the patent's over with. So you could start making them right now if you wanted to. All right, that could be a good possibility. Anything else you can think of?
Caller: We made a giant wristwatch for Woody. He makes the clock with the eyes and forth.
Michael: Oh, yeah.
Caller: So we used to run those for him for a long time. We have his hot stamp machine here. We have some of his equipment that he's just left here. We know him real well. We made a job for him, a giant wristwatch, which we sold a lot of them for him and vacuum for him. Put in a kit room or something.
Michael: Yeah, I don't think I'm interested in that. Anything else that you can think of? Any stuff in Home Depot, painting related products?
Caller: We made some printer legs that we sold through car.
Michael: Printer legs?
Caller: Yeah, they just screwed to the different height and say you have a printer with two different levels, you have a credenza or something and you step down and so you could screw the legs to adjust. One leg's longer than the other.
Michael: Yeah, all right, not interested in that. I wonder if there's other people. There's a couple websites here.
Michael: I'm calling about. And is this the only product you guys sell?
Caller: I mean, for that particular company or just period?
Michael: Are you an answering service?
Caller: No, we're marketing firm.
Michael: I'm looking at the razor. I'm at therazor.net. are you guys the owners of it?
Caller: No. Did you want to order one? Is that what you say?
Michael: Yeah, I just wanted to see. Do you only sell in retail?
Caller: What's your name?
Michael: Michael Senoff. S, E, N, O, F, F, like and Frank.
Caller: Okay, one moment.
Michael: Thanks
Michael. Yes, ma'am.
Caller: Okay, if you want to order a razor, I can go ahead and take the information.
Michael: I wanted to possibly see about selling these. Ordering quantities of them.
Caller: Okay, and about how many are you selling?
Michael: Well, I'm not sure. I mean, I need to know who you are and do you have the rights to sell them or what's the deal?
Caller: Okay, hold on just a moment. This is Jim. May I help you.
Michael: Hey, Jim, how are you?
Caller: Pretty good. Who's this?
Michael: My name is Michael Senoff. I'm a marketing company out in San Diego and I found your razor and I wanted to just get an idea. Are you guys the inventors here?
Caller: Oh, goodness, no. No, no. One of my clients. For about nine and a half years was the inventor and we had it here and there and Sharper Image tried to knock it off and he fought them. And we're not the inventors, but we've been marketing him for quite a while.
Michael: Okay, and how do y'all mainly sell them just through the website?
Caller: Oh, no, we have reps and distributors. We do a lot with the African American population because they have problems with their beard coming back in or I'm not sure the exact nature of it. Sell a lot to APs, the Air Force, Army Exchange, the military. We do have Reps and distributors, other countries and things like that.
Michael: Okay. Do you all have the exclusive distributorship on it?
Caller: Oh, sure. Everything goes through us.
Michael: Everything goes through you and the Sharper Image, were they ever able to knock it off?
Caller: No. You know those guys, they all say products invented here, you know what I mean? And they just go out to China. And do different design patents.
Michael: Did they come out with one?
Caller: No, they couldn't do it.
Michael: Okay. The reason I was looking around, I had heard about the inventor, John.
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: I had got a call from company who does all his molding. Do you know those guys?
Caller: Yeah.
Michael: And he called me about it and we had sent out a letter. We looked for obsolete mold and we were just talking. He was telling me about John and his daughter supposedly handling everything. I was interested in possibly getting some kind of rights to market this. When I saw this, I assumed it was his website or the daughter was running it.
Caller: Yes, she is.
Michael: So the daughter's involved with you?
Caller: Yes.
Michael: Okay, so you're handling it for her?
Caller: Yes.
Michael: I asked him if you guys were doing much with it and he said you guys aren't doing too much with it.
Caller: No, the problem is they just don't seem to jump back out now.
Michael: No, I understand. The daughter's probably got other things. What's funny, I used to have one of these eight years ago. I was involved in the multi level and I got one through one of those multi level marketing companies. And when the guy told me, I go, I know what this is. I used to have one. It was a great little product.
Caller: We have guys calling back years later reordering them because some people are idiots. Who keep them in their shower and they get rusty. But women love it for their legs. Me personally, I rotary shave and then I take my blade bit and I just do the trimming up stuff. I've had the same friggin little 10 cent yellow and white thing for months.
Michael: What other uses have you found for these things? Anything.
Caller: Women's legs, men's beard, Trying to get it into the medical profession, but they use a fresh one every time. A lot with the military. With this product, it keeps it nice and clean because the eraser actually doesn't get dull, it's bent. And he was a NASA scientist, rocket engineer.
Michael: He's not doing anything with this?
Caller: No, but I'll give everybody a holler and tell him you're looking to buy them out.
Michael: I'm just going to be realistic. He's expecting some big payout for this. That ain't going to happen. But we're more of a marketing company, but we can pay royalty based on our performance. But now, between you and I, you got the site up and you get calls every once in a while. I mean, are you moving any of these things? Barely.
Caller: Oh, yeah, we run some out. A lot of them right now. I don't know how they're getting our information. Probably just over the Internet. I run press releases out to the newspapers and consumer magazines, from Playboy to Popular Mechanics. And we're a direct response marketer. The past 16 years, we make commercials, airtime, newspapers, magazines, shopping channels.
Michael: Do you help Tim in his business?
Caller: Exactly.
Michael: You do direct marketing?
Caller: No, we're a production house. The two minutes, the one minute, the 30 second and 15 seconds.
Michael: Did you do stuff on the razor?
Caller: Oh, finish, yeah.
Michael: But you got video and all that stuff?
Caller: Yeah, eight and a half years ago. I'm sure we probably still do somewhere in the archives.
Michael: Do you have all the original press releases?
Caller: Oh, goodness yes.
Michael: So if I approached him and said I want a worldwide exclusive on marketing this based on my performance, would he be open to.
Caller: I don't know if he would do worldwide because he had some guys already in, like, New Zealand that we've given rights to New Zealand to.
Michael: Are they doing anything with it?
Caller: They order a couple hundred a month.
Michael: And who else did he give rights to?
Caller: I have a whole list
Michael: All over the world.
Caller: You know, just little people. I mean, you know, a guy in Australia, a guy in New Zealand, a guy in Germany. But, I mean, it's not like exclusive rights.
Michael: What do you wholesale them out to these guys for?
Caller: I think somewhere around seven or eight bucks.
Michael: And they just resell them?
Caller: Yeah, they resell them for 15. They double the money. And some guys even sell them some more.
Michael: And have you ever seen a knockoff of this?
Caller: Well, it wasn't the magnetic thing. It was a solution stuff where you put your product in a solution because they were touting that your razor doesn't get dull because of whatever gets saline or salt deposits on it, and their solution cleans off, which is not quite right. I mean, we've seen this thing under a microscope and gets bent just not the salt.
Michael: Okay, so the numbers on here, like on the press releases, did everything come through you so you were handling everything?
Caller: We had one in Playboy where they actually drew a picture of it.
Michael: Yeah, I'm looking at the Playboy ad right here. What happened when you were in Playboy?
Caller: Oh, he sold a bunch.
Michael: What's a bunch?
Caller: I don't remember.
Michael: Just onesie twosies.
Caller: Oh, no, no.
Michael: And it was like seven or 800 of them. From that one thing in Playboy. Okay, and what are some other good memories, like, press stuff?
Caller: Oh, we had them placed in little podunk newspapers.
Michael: Tennessee. Yeah, I see one. It Happened One Morning. Did you guys write all that? And how'd that do?
Caller: Very good. We even did him on a freebie thing. These things don't cost, what, a buck or two to make sure? I mean, he had them like, things. You never knew existed or something. Freebie things where all you pay is. like $4.95 shipping and handling, and then he sends it to you and he still makes a buck or two.
Michael: Okay, he did stuff like that. Getting a better edge. So from your experience, all these press releases did pretty good.
Caller: Well, press releases, first of all, are freebies. You got to send the editor a sample, of course. And nice little 300dpi photo, hopefully they use. We write up into a couple nice little paragraphs.
Michael: What happened with the Wall Street Journal in 1996.
Caller: He did pretty good with that one, too.
Michael: Did y'all write that or did they write it?
Caller: No, we wrote it. But see, we haven't done a ton of stuff with him.
Michael: And you can't work for free.
Caller: I'm afraid no.
Michael: He's not a marketer.
Caller: And he ran out of money.
Michael: Does he owe you money?
Caller: Of course. And, you know, I'm still waiting for some brochures. You know, they don't even have money for brochures. Well, I'm sure they do.
Michael: What do you mean you're still waiting on brochures?
Caller: He's supposed to be sending me brochures. And mail out to all the different Starcrest Finger Hut, Harry Potter, William Vernon, Dr. Leonard.
Michael: You have supply access, right? Do you have a negotiated price with that supplier? All right, so you're doing it direct with him. All right, well, what if you turned everything over to me? If I could produce.
Caller: No problem, I'd be willing to help you.
Michael: You've got all the press release, all the main work's done. I've got a direct marketing background myself.
Caller: Good, good.
Michael: Do you have a contract with them that you're able to do all this? What's the nature of your agreement?
Caller: What are you looking to do?
Michael: Let's say if you let me do some marketing, would I have the rights to use all the press releases and stuff? And no problem.
Caller: I know her, and I know she thinks she still has something going, but I just tell her, hey, if you can make a buck a deal or $1.74 for everyone he sells. Would you be happy with that? She'd probably say, yeah. No, very good. She'd probably do pretty well.
Michael: The guy gave me her number, but I got a disconnected number and I got another number and I left a message. Is he with her? And what's the daughter like?
Caller: You know, I hate to be that way because I've never met her in person, but she's one of these types that my father created it, you know what I mean, thinks that the bigger asset than what it is.
Michael: Right. She's in love with it.
Caller: Well, yeah, she's in love with the idea of being a businesswoman.
Michael: Do you have a number for her?
Caller: Sure.
Michael: How much do they owe you? Do you mind me saying?
Caller: I'd have to check. I've been doing a lot of products for a long time and he said when he ever came across some cash.
Michael: Did he pay you up?
Caller: First one? Yeah, I started with him about eight years. Beyond that. Yeah, it's been a long time.
Michael: Very interesting. All right, well, I will get back with you.
Caller: Hey, let me do a favor. Let me talk to her first.
Michael: Talk to her first.
Caller: And then call me back tomorrow. Because if I sweeten it for you guys, you and I both know that this thing has legs.
Michael: Yeah, it's got legs.
Caller: It's not one of these six months, two year projects I usually deal with that die after that.
Michael: Yeah, but realistically, if we did something with this and we invested all our capital and all our marketing efforts, she ain't gonna be getting a $1.74 a unit.
Caller: I know. She pooh poohed that idea with Sharper Image. I couldn't believe, you know, let them do it. Make a $1.74.
Michael: What you do is you tell her we'll move a million a year and you tell her she'll make 35 cents on each one. So she can do the math. That's $350,000 a year. So you can do it like that. And then she doesn't have to give us exclusive worldwide rights unless we are able to produce. And I've got an agreement set up we can do. And she doesn't have to give up any of her existing customers.
Caller: So that might work, you know, just like anything else. They'd rather make a nickel than nothing.
Michael: It's all the effort. No one's doing anything with it.
Caller: So you do this for a living. You go around and find mold makers and you call them up and say, hey, do they have dust on them?
Michael: Yeah, it's wild.
Caller: That is cool. I never thought of doing that sourcing overseas if I had to.
Michael: Yeah, you could bring in something overseas cheaper than the material it costs to make the thing.
Caller: Oh, it's ridiculous. But you can have these things made overseas, I'm sure for a quarter each.
Michael: But they own the mold and there's problems with that too.
Caller: With mold?
Michael: Well, a lot of people think it's so easy. I know you can make them and bring them in overseas, but 7,500 bucks for a mold overseas? Have you looked into making these overseas?
Caller: I do that for almost all my clients. I have clients that are idiots.
Michael: Is this thing made overseas?
Caller: No. He spent ridiculous amounts of money to have it made in the 90s. Some guys just don't understand that you don't need something that's going to last several million in the very beginning. Just get, you know, fantastic enough to start out. But he wasn't thinking.
Michael: So he spent tons of money having the mold made.
Caller: Oh yeah.
Michael: Well, how many molds did he have made?
Caller: I don't know? He spent more than I would do.
Michael: Yeah. All right. Hey, do you have a website I could peek at? Yeah, I sure do. Go to hardtofindseminars.com.
Caller: So you also do seminars, Michael?
Michael: Years ago I started buying and reselling marketing seminars.
Caller: Oh wow, that's lit.
Michael: I sell through audio. I create and develop information products and then product development and marketing. If you're a direct marketer, you'll love this site. I've got great interviews with world class people.
Caller: Great. I used to be a trainer back in the late 80s. Long time ago.
Michael: I do marketing consulting. I sell high end consulting packages, all kinds of stuff. Go to the website, just look around.
Caller: Have a good one.
Michael: Thanks.
Caller: Bye.
Michael: That's the end of this recording. On the third session of the molding secrets calls. If you have any questions or would like the actual direct mail sales letter that I use to get a flood of calls from mold makers and to be able to model what I've been doing so you can find yourself an opportunity or a product that you could have an exclusive worldwide rights. Something to control and something to sell. Please call me at 858-274-7851 or email me at michael@hardtofindseminars.com. You may not know what barter is or what the trade industry is, but it's a tremendous a multi billion dollar industry and I've come up with a loophole on how to take advantage of this industry and literally put thousands and thousands of dollars worth of savings into your pocket. You can hear me do it for real in this 15 minute recording. I will show you how I saved for personal expenses almost $10,000 with only about 15 minutes of telephone calls. I promise you, you've never heard anything like this. And instead of me telling you how to do it, I show you how. You can listen to me do it for real. So head on over to the product section at HardToFindSeminars.com in the light blue column on the left, click on the link that says Barter Secrets and you can hear it all in action. I think you're going to find this fascinating.