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PostPosted: 29 Mar 2016, 12:40 
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Interesting. I just got an email from Tabletennis11, telling me "Starting from the 1st of April 2016 we will stop selling Butterfly products in your country. This is due to changes in the Butterfly distribution policy. Products from other well-known brands will continue to be available at great prices and with free shipping to your country. If you were planning to buy any Butterfly products from tabletennis11.com, please place your order by the 31st of March." Anyhow.. I remember, last year, looking on tabletennis11.com for Butterfly stuff.. and there wasn't any! I assumed it was because they weren't allowed to sell Butterfly stuff (not being a dealer) or Butterfly had asked them (like they've asked everyone else) to not sell Butterfly stuff across borders.

Anyhow.. when I go to Tabletennis11.com, there's a "shop by brand" link. Click on that, there IS a "Butterfly" link (I don't think it was there last time I looked). I click on that and... 404 error.

Ah well, wasn't necessarily in the market for anything but I was curious to see what I could get a sheet of Tenergy 05 for. And maybe some of those new Wiener Balls as well. As they mentioned in their email, they're running a promotion right now where DHL shipping is free (I think there's a minimum purchase).

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PostPosted: 29 Mar 2016, 14:36 
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From memory they have a lot of apparel.

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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 06:57 
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While the main "Shop By Brand" filter may not work for Butterfly, their products are for now available under the various category headings (balls, blades, apparel, robots, bags & bat covers, etc), with the notable exception of T̶e̶n̶e̶r̶g̶y̶ rubbers.

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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 09:45 
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Thanks for reading our newsletter! :)

We had rights to sell Butterfly clothes, shoes, rackets, balls etc but not rubbers or blades in many countries (if you received the newsletter then your country was one of it), but from 1st of April we can only sell Butterfly on our home markets - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.

If you have any additional questions then message me [email protected] .

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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 11:59 
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Yet more reasons to dislike and avoid BTY.

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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 12:53 
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Japsican wrote:
Yet more reasons to dislike and avoid BTY.


I understand why you might think so, but it says something about the strength of the Butterfly brand – which is based on quality and demand, among other things – that they can still enforce these kinds of distributor territories and command price premiums.

Is it tenable in the long run? Maybe not, but a brand that avoids becoming a mere commodity, and controls its channels, is in a much stronger position than one whose pricing and market position is dictated by its dealers.

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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 12:58 
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This isn't to say that I wouldn't like Tenergy to be forty bucks. But most table tennis manufacturers would love to have the market power to be in the same position as Butterfly.

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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 16:35 
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Ah interesting. I see the Butterfly balls among the rest. Looks like a LOT of companies are now selling seamless AND seamed balls - Tibhar, Joola, Xiom and Yinhe. Why, one wonders! Maybe to cover all bases.

Here are some price comparisons:
Price per each
B EZ 49.92 120 0.42
B Master 41.58 72 0.58
B 3 star 19.08 12 1.59
B G40 3 star 19.08 12 1.59
XSF 1 star 58.25 120 0.49
Tibhar 3 star (both) 91.58 72 1.27
Kingnik 3 star 5.42 6 0.90
Neoplast 62.5 144 0.43

Prices in EUR of course.

The Butterfly EZ ball is the cheapest practice ball. Not sure what or who is "Neoplast" (there is no 3 star). Butterfly has two 3 star balls, same price. Tibhar sells both 3 star balls for the same price as well. The XIOM balls are bloody expensive! :lol:

I wonder if the XSF 1 stars are still as bad as earlier reports say they are. The EZ balls are still cheaper.

Iskandar


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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 17:37 
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Butterfly makes some good products but their despicable business practices hurt consumers. Price gouging aside, if they're so big on giving distributors monopolies, they should at least require them to carry the full line. For example, Tackiness Chop 1.1mm is a great rubber that you can't get from Butterfly's NA distributor, and Butterfly does all they can to stop players from getting it elsewhere. I don't think any other table tennis company engenders more ill will than Butterfly. :n: :n: :n:

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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 18:25 
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hangdog wrote:
Japsican wrote:
Yet more reasons to dislike and avoid BTY.


I understand why you might think so, but it says something about the strength of the Butterfly brand – which is based on quality and demand, among other things – that they can still enforce these kinds of distributor territories and command price premiums.


Yes, it does show the strength of the brand - they couldn't get away with it otherwise. It also shows the mentality of the Butterfly board which is to use (abuse?) that position of strength to strong arm the market and rig prices.

I used to celebrate Butterfly's success, until they threw it in the face of the average consumer. Luckily we have several excellent alternatives to most of Butterfly's product range these days at around 50% (or less) of the rigged price.

If they don't support (or trust?) the open market then I won't support (or trust) Butterfly.


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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 20:03 
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Hey, I know it's controversial and it comes down to the old way vs the new way of doing things. It could be seen as perhaps an old-school company, with longstanding distributor relationships and networks, fighting a rearguard action to preserve an established business model. I've seen this play out from inside the bicycle industry, where a handful of strong overseas players more or less nuke domestic resellers, and I can understand why Butterfly are doing things the other way and why customers don't like it. The market inexorably moves towards a streamlining of channels – it just hasn't happened yet in this case, because it's risky and painful to disrupt a comfortable existence.

My guess is that they are critically dependent on existing middlemen financially, and the safest bet right now is to maintain that model, because of the lack of transitional income between ditching those middlemen and going to a model which is more direct or relies on fewer resellers who have more power over Butterfly Tamasu.

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PostPosted: 30 Mar 2016, 20:53 
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hangdog wrote:
Hey, I know it's controversial and it comes down to the old way vs the new way of doing things. It could be seen as perhaps an old-school company, with longstanding distributor relationships and networks, fighting a rearguard action to preserve an established business model. I've seen this play out from inside the bicycle industry, where a handful of strong overseas players more or less nuke domestic resellers, and I can understand why Butterfly are doing things the other way and why customers don't like it. The market inexorably moves towards a streamlining of channels – it just hasn't happened yet in this case, because it's risky and painful to disrupt a comfortable existence.

My guess is that they are critically dependent on existing middlemen financially, and the safest bet right now is to maintain that model, because of the lack of transitional income between ditching those middlemen and going to a model which is more direct or relies on fewer resellers who have more power over Butterfly Tamasu.


I think you could well be correct. And I'm sure only the minority of players are actually bothered about this kind of thing - many people I know just buy Butterfly as a reflex, and have an irrational notion that their stuff is automatically better because of past history or because it is more expensive (amazingly). So they could well stay in their protectionist niche for a long time.

What they do doesn't bother me though - I take my custom elsewhere these days, and encourage my clubmates to do the same.


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PostPosted: 31 Mar 2016, 22:21 
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On the topic of Tabletennis11 rather than Butterfly I've used them twice recently and taken advantage of the free shipping over 70 Euros offer.

The first order was received the day after placing and the second order arrived this afternoon, having been placed online on the afternoon of 29th March.

This is to the UK so I'm not sure what they would be like for the rest of the world but given the very competitive prices I have to say I'm quite pleased with them. :-)


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PostPosted: 01 Apr 2016, 00:34 
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The one time I ordered from them was a year ago, and I took advantage of their free delivery for orders over EUR70 also. Can't remember how long it took but it was way less than a week! I'm used to three weeks from Eacheng, so I was quite pleased. I'll probably only end up ordering from them if they have an item I can't get here or if there's a large discount over local prices (there are local retailers/e-tailers for most of the European and Japanese brands - which I rarely buy in any case, prices are generally pretty good).

Iskandar


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