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Hi there. I looove the videos Blue Table Painting put up, love the product and watch them so much I'm basically stalking them via youtube.

But nevertheless I found this video a bit weird.

In the video (for those of you who don't want to watch it) Shaun says "I have these great transporters to go with your army" and then starts ranting about how great a product the Battle Foam cases are, and that they will custom fit the pluck-foam trays for you if you purchase them from BTP when you buy an army.

But to quote the video description:

video description wrote:These can be purchased through http://www.battlefoam.com less expensively, but un-fitted not-customized.

.

Well. That's not true. BF does a lot of customization. While it is true that they're cheaper, it sounds in this statement like you're getting a worse product by buying it from BF directly, and I don't think that's the case. In fact, I think BF will be able to make better trays, since they use their laser gizmo thing, instead of the pluck foam.

A couple of questions to end this rant.

1) Is it legal to just resell a product at an increased price without contacting the company that produces the product first?
2) Are there any cooperation going on between the two firms if it is in fact illegal to resell products?
3) What do you guys think? A rip-off that you pay 45$ more for foam that is somehow even more customized than Battle Foams?

Cheers

Gorlak

Im sure BF knows 100%

I think what he is doing is basically charging to set up your battlefoam. I dont blame him, it took me a couple hours to trace my army then I had to go fax it. It was fun and well worth it, but he is a businessman and needs to put food on the table.

I wouldnt worry about it.

GMMStudios wrote:Im sure BF knows 100%

Fair enough.

Just found it odd that BTP would make it sound like BF wasn't fitting their foam, since that's one of their specialitys (as far as I understand). But yeah... Of course they do make it to fit exactley the army you purchase from them and that's kinda neat.

I knew Shaun would never make a shady offer love that guy.

It isnt that they are trying to make you think BF doesnt do it. He is telling you that he does it himself, for you. He does all the work of measuring the models and stuff, and for what appears to be $40, a good deal.

A lot of people dont want anything to do with the hobby process at all and this is another step that they would rather pay than do. Good idea.

~

Its legal, to my understanding.

Gorlack wrote:1) Is it legal to just resell a product at an increased price without contacting the company that produces the product first?

Yes, of course it is. Once you've bought it, it's yours. If you want to resell it, the price you put on it is up to you.

The only way it would be an issue is if you had a contract with the company to sell at a certain price... (which would in itself potentially be illegal in some places) and charged differently to the contracted agreement. Or if it was a product that was purchased with a specific license governing reselling. (As with books being resold in different binding, or computer software with its associated rules)

3) What do you guys think? A rip-off that you pay 45$ more for foam that is somehow even more customized than Battle Foams?

It's only a rip-off of you're not getting what you think you're getting. A product is worth whatever the customer is prepared to pay for it.

GMMStudios wrote:It isnt that they are trying to make you think BF doesnt do it. He is telling you that he does it himself, for you.

Well. That's not quite true, and is actually the reason I made this post. The video description clearly states that Battle Foam makes "un-fitted not-customized." trays. That kinda sounds to me like they're telling me that Battle Foam doesn't do it...

Edit to avoid double post:

Great to hear it's probably legal.

insaniak wrote:It's only a rip-off of you're not getting what you think you're getting. A product is worth whatever the customer is prepared to pay for it.

True, but the presentation of the product doesn't really include information that the product Battle Foam sells you is at least equally as well, for 45$ less. It mentions (as mentioned above) that the trays won't be fitted then. So the product isn't actually as good in comparison to BFs as it says it is.

Battlefoam as far as I am away doesnt do it, unless Romeo happens to own the models you are wanting to transport. You have to trace the models or buy the standard uncustomized trays.

I think you are confusing "makes custom trays" with "makes your trays custom by doing all the tracing and measuring." As I said, BF does not do the latter as far as I am aware since Romeo does not own every model in existence.

GMMStudios wrote:I think you are confusing "makes custom trays" with "makes your trays custom by doing all the tracing and measuring."

Yeah you're probably right mate.

GMMStudios wrote:As I said, BF does not do the latter as far as I am aware since Romeo does not own every model in existence.

Technically he would "only" need to own a single copy of every model, not all the models

Gorlack wrote:

1) Is it legal to just resell a product at an increased price without contacting the company that produces the product first?

Thats what GW have been doing for decades with the hobby products.

LunaHound wrote:

Gorlack wrote:1) Is it legal to just resell a product at an increased price without contacting the company that produces the product first?

Thats what GW have been doing for decades with the hobby products.

No it's not.

GW buys hobby products and rebadges them. They would be buying them at a wholesale price, and would have a contract in place with the company making them.

What Gorlack was asking about was buying a product and then just reselling it.

1) Is it legal to just resell a product at an increased price without contacting the company that produces the product first?

In general when you sell a piece of property it becomes the property of the buyer and they can do what they want with it, including reselling it.

However you can also sell a piece of property and attach conditions, such as not reselling it, as part of the contract of sale.

Unless Battle Foam make a general condition that you are not allowed to resell their foams you would be free to do so.

It's possible a court might decide that such a condition might be unenforceable.

2) Are there any cooperation going on between the two firms if it is in fact illegal to resell products?

I don't know.

3) What do you guys think? A rip-off that you pay 45$ more for foam that is somehow even more customized than Battle Foams?

I can see a legitimate role for it.

If you have a heavily converted army painted by Blue Table, it would be a considerable saving in time and effort to have them supply the army back to you in customized foam, and also helps prevent damages in transit.

You can't call it a rip-off if the information is made clearly available. It isn't concealed that the foam comes from Battle Foam, so anyone can compare prices and make an informed decision.

If you find the Blue Table price too high, just buy the foam from Battle Foam instead.

The only time I could see an issue with re-selling an item at a higher price would be if the item is price marked or as said above has conditions attached to it.

If it were illegal for a company to re-sell a product for a higher price and there was some sort of agrement between the two for this to take place they certainly wouldn't want to admit to it. Most large companies will try to interpret the law in their favour but the penalties for getting caught actualy breaking the law make this unlikely to be worthwhile, both financialy and in terms of negative PR

Question 3 is purely subjective, an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If I put a new Leman Russ on Ebay for £500, and someone buys it, as long as it was correctly advertised, they have not been ripped off. They could have got the item cheaper elsewhere, but it was their choice to pay that amount.
If an advert is in some way misleading then I would say the customer has every right to complain and inform the relevant authorities.

Generally I think a lot of stuff like 'street dates' and 'manufacturer-mandated prices' is more along the lines of part of the agreements between the store and the manufacture. I.E. the store says they'll stick to MSRP in return for getting a better deal, possible agreements to buy back unsold stock, etc.

If a store breaks the agreement, they might lose the ability to order at the deep discounts that pretty much are the reason stores can ever make money.