Doesn't anyone buy tickle videos?!

[mabus]

In a recent thread, tickler in black lamented the fact that a video costs $1,000 to make, and since they only sell about 20 copies, they make little to no profit. This sentiment has been stated before. I remember Jeff from Magic Touch lamenting that no one from the forum bought his videos either, and he was upset that people here critized his videos when they didn't even buy them. What the heck is going on here?!

Does no one like videos? There are over 4000 people who are members of this forum, and lets assume that people who don't know about the forum, or don't care, buy videos. From the forum alone, there should be a lot more sales, I mean, ....4000 people!

Lets assume all 20 or so were from the forum. That's 1 in every 200 people buys a video. Damn! I may have to go back and rewrite that whole Yaqi thread -though all the points were valid. It's just kind of null and void right now. If only 20 people bought videos, why should the models even CARE if they are "spotted" or "exposed?" The chances of winning the lottery are far greater than the chances you will run into someone in America that purchased a video you were in! This should be incentive to DO more tickling videos! "Hey, you want to make a lot of money in a short period of time, and I guarantee, NO ONE will ever see this thing?!"

I think it should be the other way around - "Hey, I did a tickle video, I did something fun and cool!" "Yeah, right, has anyone seen it? Prove it, show me one person who watched it!" That's not even 15 SECONDS of fame. It seems like if a girl WANTED to be seen, the tickle industry would NOT be the way!

This may also explain why people will present ideas for videos, and they never get done. I always ask for pantyhose in videos, but if that makes less customers...the girl may make more profit buy getting a free pair of pantyhose than the company will make producing the video!

Why doesn't anyone buy videos? I won't buy the ones that are too expensive, or where the model is faking the laughter, or is not ticklish, but STILL! Every company out there has videos that does have those winners.

What's up with all this!?

 

[TMF Jeff]

For the record, my latest video hasn't sold even 20 copies yet. People who think trading videos, posting content online without permission, etc etc, is harmless are in for a big surprise and in the not-too-distant future if this keeps up.

 

[ISUmark]

I buy videos that I like. If a femfeet video or an MTP video or a paradise visions video catches my eye..then I will buy it.

 

[harvey]

Buying videos...

Mabus,
You have asked some interesting questions here and brought up some interesting points (and assumptions).

On our membership and the small percentage of the 4000 who seem to be buying vids: Maybe our active membership is not as large as the numbers indicate. If one looks through the members list, it is notable that only a small percentage of those listed have actually posted. This leads to the question - how many people come here once or twice, register, and never return? However, even if we have only about 1000 'active' members (some of whom post and some of whom only read the posts), that's still a lot of potential buyers, so as you suggested, there must be another problem.

To your question, 'Does no one like videos?' I can only speak for myself. I do like videos and probably buy about five or six per year. Whether that makes me an 'active video customer' probably depends on others' perception. Needless to say, I don't buy everything that comes along, and like most other buyers, I have been 'burned' in the past more times than I care to count by the negatives that all too often creep into tickling vids.

There was another post along these lines back in early April '02, entitled 'what do you want to see in a video' or words to that effect. The thread initiator pointed out that many of the consensual plots have become a bit 'stale' and that he would like to see some video plots along the non-consensual lines. It would be great to see some plot variations along the lines he described, and, when you really get down to it, variations of that type are about all that's left in the realm of tickling vids that has not been fully explored. In a practical and realistic sense, there's only so much a consensual tickling video can offer, and with the market now so flush with possibilities, it gets really difficult to find something we have not seen some variation of already. So, to the question of 'what the heck is going on here?' I think we have to say, 'lots of sources and too few buyers'.

As far as the 'incentive to do more tickling videos', I believe we might substitute 'better' for 'more' and arrive at a more appealing state of affairs. I have said this over and over but here it is once more: I believe ticklees allow themselves to be tickled either because they enjoy it or they are being well paid to endure it for a finite period. This is just as true of models/actresses as it is with others. Anyone who has watched a few tickling videos, and has any sense of reality left, knows this by now. So, the question is, what keeps people buying tickling videos? I will speak for myself and invite others to do likewise:

I want to see both ticklers and ticklees who are competent enough in their acting ability to be believable. This applies especially to male ticklers. I have seen some videos where the victims were great but the lers spoiled the effect by either coming across as hams (Anthony Lawton in some of the CalStar vids is a prime example) or by demonstrating that they had never seriously tickled anyone or anything prior to that video. There has already been adequate verbiage within this forum addressing actress lees who were not really ticklish and did a poor job of faking it.

I want to see full nudity, secure bondage, and the victim(s) being tickled in a variety of spots - not just feet, underarms, or ribs exclusively. If the victims are believable, I will watch them over and over, to absorb the nuances of their unique laughter, and their unique reactions to being tickled in a certain area. It's just something I never get completely tired of. So, what makes a female victim 'believable'? For me, she has to be a good laugher, she has to struggle as if she really wants to be 'out of there', and she has to have enough endurance to last for a while in any given scene.

As far as tickle vids needing more people buying them, that could be possible, but only if the supplieres produce something worth buying. We know it's not easy to come up with new ideas, guys, but come on - it's a buyers' market, and right now many buyers are just saturated with the same old, same old.

 

[mabus]

Models...?

Okay, I HAVE done some directing, but of course not tickle videos. I probably will never get the chance, because I'm here in the cose-minded Bible belt area, (Louisiana) so that's kind of out of the question....plus I'm the ONLY person I know who even has a tickle interest. You guys are literally the ONLY ones I can talk to about tickling, so I just have to say "I love you guys! (sniff, sniff...)" 🙄

So, ANYWAY, before I go into detail, do the models even care? I mean, are they even directable? Speaking from experience, some people are directable, some just aren't. You ask someone to simply open the door, and they look like they are acting. Or, they just refuse to open the door. Like, for the video companies, you may ask them to wear a certain outfit, or dress, well, do they ever just say "No?" Someone was talking about that in an earlier thread, how he didn't want to put up with models, or was frustrated with dealing with them. So, what's the deal?

 

[redway10]

I have bought many videos over the years...

I do buy a fairly large number of videos, but usually only 2 to 5 videos per company, unless the company produces many that I really like.

My taste is almost exclusively the extensive tickling of well-tied feet. This is more rare than you would think, so even though I have a good-paying job, I still don't buy tons of videos.

I am always looking for these types of videos, and my overall collection is fairly large.

Recently, I found a producer who has a large number of the kind of videos that I am looking for, and I have bought more than 10 videos from them. However, this still would not put a dent in the offerings of a larger producer.

The tickling video production business looks like a lot of fun, but I can't see how it can make much money without being very creative or finding a lucrative niche.

 

[Longbaugh]

It's a good thing the producers are into tickling(I'm assuming most are) and enjoy making the videos. If they weren't they would have cut their losses and stopped putting out material shortly after they started. That's what a bussiness man who has no interest other than profit would have down. I personaly like watching videos(own alot) and don't understand why more don't sell, like mabus stated above, with over 4000 members on the TMF sales should be better. I encorage people to buy some vids(there's alot to choose from).If you think about it $30-$45 dollars isn't alot for a speacialty item(I consider tickle videos speacialty items). Also trading does hurt the producers and people shouldn't do it. TIB said it best in another thread "bites the hand that feeds you".

 

[kurchatovium]

I buy lots of videos. Actually I probably buy too many but since I lack a significant other who shares my fetish, videos is all I have. If I had a girlfriend or wife that was into tickling my video consumption would probably go way down. Luckily for Magic Touch, Femfeet and others I seem to have a natural ability to repel single women.

Perhaps this may be part of the reason for sales not being as high as video companies would like. Maybe many members have little trouble in finding tickle partners in real life and so don't really desire videos. Thus most of the market is single unattached people. I still think this is a lot of people. I mean the regular adult industry plays mostly to this very same market I would think. The trick is to know your market and give them what they want. Personally I think the Magic touch, Femfeet, MTJpub, etc all do a very good job and if you love tickling you really should try some of their products. The previous statement was an unsolicited tickling endorsement from the Kurchatovium Love Network.

 

[Tickler2001]

Not enough numbers

Sales of any kind is a numbers game. Any good salesman will tell you you need to get X amount of no's before you get a yes. As stated above there are alot of in active members and I also think there is probably alot of members with multiple ID's. For arguments sake lets say there about 2000 members here. If you need 9 no's to get a yes, that leaves a maximum of about 40 people here who will buy any given video. Because not all video buyers buy every video they are having trouble selling 20 copies.

Plain and simple the video producers would have to peddle their product to a much larger potential clientel to make any significant money. The question is, how much would it cost to do this and is it worth the risk? I'm sure the producers already know this and have decided for now its not worth risking the money to go "mainstream" to a broader audience. Promoting their product at that level would be costly, the return might pay off, but then again it might not.

All this considered you would think this tight nit group would respect the producers and not trade videos. It would be a shame to not be able to get material like this if they all called it quits. I think there is a bigger market out there for tickling, but I don't believe the timing is right yet to give it a try. Obviously the producers feel the same way.

 

[kurchatovium]

Just out of curiousity redway who is the video producer you speak of that produces a lot of videos of well tied feet? This has always been my personal favorite as well.

 

[Zebra]

Jeff? Just a quick question...

Is it wrong to "trade" videos? You stated "People who think trading videos" are in for a big surprise...Trading a video doesn't infringe on copywrites...does it?

 

[Kycan]

If people do not want to buy videos at 30-45 bucks a pop, will they go for other forms of services?

It would be interesting to get feedback from RealTickling on how their 5 bucks for a clip is doing or from UncleSteve on how extremetickling is doing.

 

[TMF Jeff]

Re: Jeff? Just a quick question...

Is it wrong to "trade" videos? You stated "People who think trading videos" are in for a big surprise...Trading a video doesn't infringe on copywrites...does it?

Actually when I said that I was thinking more about people copying tapes and giving those away among themselves. Obviously people own what they buy.

Given that, though, as I said above, my video sales are scarily low on the average, and apparently TiB said something similar. Take the volume of video trading that's taking place and draw your own conclusions about it's effect on your community-supporting companies. Then I suppose everyone has to decide for themselves what the right thing to do is.

 

[SuperTickler]

Copying a tape for a friend is stealing intellectual property. That's why Napster went down. They facilitated distribution of pirated copyrighted material. The effect was the same as if someone went into a record store and stole a CD. The fact that the files were on the Internet didn't make it legal, and now Napster is gasping for life.

On the other hand, you own what you buy, and you have a right to sell what you own. Suppose Ford Motor Company tried to prohibit you from selling your used Ford Explorer because that would be one less sale of a new Ford Explorer for them. Sounds pretty stupid, right? Yet that's precisely what the video producers are saying when they ask you not to sell/trade your tapes.

On the other hand, this is a privately-owned Forum and the owners have the right to limit what is posted on it. It's a thin line, but ultimately they have to make the decision whether to allow selling/trading on this Forum, looking at it from the point of view of service to the community, or protection of the video producers.

I have a large collection of videos and will probably sell some of them in the not-too-distant future. I would prefer to sell on a Forum like this, where there is some anonymity, but I will go to eBay if I have to. You adapt to the situation life hands you.😎

 

[ticklemonster99]

I'm a loyal supporter

I can understand what the tickle video producers are saying. this is not only a passion for them, but also a business venture. And while i don't think any of their goals is to get rich from this, i'm sure a profit is the ultimate goal of any business. I, myself have bought videos from just about every major tickle company, (well, the one's that have captured my eye), and i mean as much as i can reasonably afford. i think i easily have about a dozen each of videos from Magic Touch, FemFeet, Footparidise, and some of ANA, FM Concepts, DF, Harmony and even one from Bellarisa, not to mention a few from other companies. i admit i buy more when i'm not involved in a relationship, but i try to buy them when i can because i want to support the community as much as i can. we are experiencing a high point in our common kinky interest...quality tickle vids are now commonplace in the market, even catering to such specifics as foot, armpit and rib tickling. there's F/F, F/M, M/F, and even M/M...something for every taste and it's pretty easy to find nowadays. Tickling is even in the mainstream media, involving popular stars. Lets keep this going...remember the not so good old days when we were happy to see a brief tickle scene or mention in a obscure bondage film or magazine. no websites, tickle companies or mags, no forums to meet and connect others...it was very bleak. If we lose (god forbid) the major players in our community, it will be a crippling blow to all of us. Imagine Kahuna Wong as our premier tickler...terrorfying isn't it? i don't think everyone buying a video once every 1 or 2 months will be a great burden, but just think of the alternative. If the major players are only selling 20 or less of a new title a month, and they start vanishing, we could all be in trouble! I hope not.

Alvin
😱

 

[ticklemonster99]

A Suggestion.

On a more positive note, i have an idea. I got this idea from watching pro wrestling and while i know it's not a truly new idea i thought it might be worth thinking about. When the WWF buoght WCW, it forced all the talent to consolidate, thus providing dream matchups for the fans. Booker T/Stone Cold, DDP/Undertaker, now HHH & The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan. Sure it's gimmicky but it captures the interest of the public. Well, imagine something like this in the tickle videos. Imagine letting TiB/Priscilla loose on the Magic Touch girls. Or Jeff/Sabrina working over some of FootParadise's beauties. And seeing Gia get her hands on Priscilla or Sara from FemFeet would be a dream! Include as many tickling companies as possible in these "crossovers"...ANA, Silvercherry , Laugher...everyone join in and maybe this might spur interest in purchasing EVERYONES product. It's just a thought, my little 2 cents...what do you all think?

🙂 😀 😎 😛

 

[mabus]

Larger audience....!

Tickler 2001 wrote:
Plain and simple the video producers would have to peddle their product to a much larger potential clientel to make any significant money. The question is, how much would it cost to do this and is it worth the risk?

OKAY, okay, I hear complaints about sales, how they're low, etc. etc. They're so low, in fact, that the producers are getting nervous when people trade them, rather than keep buying them. Trading videos probably means they're tired of them, or don't like them at all are trying to get rid of them.

Now, about advertizing. I mentioned this before, and I guess no one was interested, but I'll try again. You advertise here. Fine, but that's "ONLY" 4,000 people.

Why not use, as I've mentioned earlier, the egroups? That's thousands of NEW people, thousands MORE people!? Huh!?

I haven't seen any advertisements there for any tickling videos. Look, the advertisements that ARE there SUCK! Wait, they SUCK! Wait, let me say again...They SUCK! 99% are of the not so attractive model with her ass or crotch stuck up in the air in some godawful unnatural position, or about "Teen sluts," or "Teen whatever..." or some other vulgarity or whathave you. The pictures are not good quality, poorly lit, and have NO originality.

I just saw a request from the tanpantyhose egroup about someone asking for tickling pics. Then there was another one from ANylonNightToRemember about wedding reception tickling pics in pantyhose. I'm sure there are more requests on the barefoot egroups also. Those requests, unfortunatly, fall on deaf ears, because the pics that are on there are of that damn woman with her crotch stuck up in the air. Or, the "real" legs that are far away, dark, grainy, etc. You go there, post the pictures of the videos that you have everytime the videos come out, and you will see your profits grow. And it's free publicity! That's just the egroups. There's the newsgroups, the MSN communities, ezboards, etc.

These people are BEGGING for new stuff. I was going to make a list of some of these groups, but low and behold, TicklingDuo already did it for me, but included ALL of them! Way to go!! Now, you have, in one place, a comprehensive list. Go to ALL of them. Even/Especially the ones that don't have much posted on there. They will eat it up.

Okay, there, that's that.....

Now, another idea I threw out is that you should include more fetish ideas in your videos. Like, put foot tickling, sole tickling, rib tickling, neck tickling, ANd armpit tickling ALL in the same video. That way, you won't loose people who only want to see armpit tickling everytime you do a foot tickling video.

"Well, huh, well, huh, well, uhhh, huh! I don't like foot tickling! Well, uhh, I don't like rib tickling! .....HUH!"

To all those that leveled those complaints, I said it before, so I'll illustrate:

Take your remote control in your right hand. Study it. You will notice that to the RIGHT of the "PLAY" button, there is a button that has "FF" on it. OR, it may have Two arrows that are close together on the same button. (The "Buttons" are those little pieces that are seperate from the main body of the remote, and can be pushed down, and when pushed down, they come right back up...pretty cool!) OKAY, that button can make the tape go forward quickly, so, lets say there is a gory scene or a commercial, you can zip through it and not be annoyed or disgusted. OKAY, whenever you buy a video, and you notice a scene where there is that annoying "foot tickling," or "neck tickling," "story," or "setup and anticipation," or "what have you" push the "FF" button DOWN. Not across, or forward, or sideways, push it down, like you are testing a can of pizza sauce to see if anyone opened it and stole any.... You will notice the image moves forward real fast, and the people look like they just ate some Popeye's spinach, and are, like, superfast. When you notice they are tickling the part of the body you like REAL FAST, hit "PLAY" and it will slow down. Now, you can fully enjoy ANY video any company produces from now on. I give you permission to print these instructions out if necessary....

Now, I ALWAYS bought the videos in, like the early, middle days of Femfeet. They had excellent stories ie: Naughty Nurse, Student's Body, Ticklish Merchandise, (I never got that one, but I hear it is great, so I might buy it.) People are getting tired of the non-consensual tickling, well, these all had it, AND a story for those who like it, AND, pantyhose AND barefeet, AND foot tickling and armpit tickling and rib tickling...are you getting the point yet? Stories lend themelves well to all the different tickling situations, ALL IN ONE TAPE.

I have not bought tapes that had ONLY barefoot tickling, or ONLY armpit tickling. I like pantyhose, but I know only a few of us would buy a tape with ONLY pantyhose. Student's Body had pantyhose AND barfeet, and I didn't mind at all. (I only wish the teacher would have started off with pantyhose too, but oh well...)

And you can't complain that you can't do stories because of sets or whathave you, because I've seen the locations where these videos were shot at. You can create a hundred different situations that take place in a house, a living room. You throw a desk in there, you can have an office (I've seen offices that look like a house!) you can have a living room, an office at home, a sofa, a tv, etc. Girl tickled in office, at home, coming home from work, going home to retrieve some secret document, etc.

Everyone always raved about Harmony Concepts "Ticklish Interrogation." That thing was done in someone's house! It was a great video, I agree, but all you nede to do one like it or BETTER, is a living room and a chair and stool! Or recliner, or sofa.

And this complaining about acting! Just simple directions: I need you to get out of the car, close the door, and walk toward the house. Okay, I need you to open the door and go inside. Okay, I need you to do it again, but this tiem the camera will be inside. Okay, I need you to walk over to the sofa and kick your shoes off like you just came home from a long days work. Okay, lets do it again so can get a close up. Okay, his girl will tie your feet together on top of this chair, or stool, or whatever. Okay, she's going to take your shoes off. Okay, take them off again so I can get a close up. Okay, ask her where the disk is, and when she says no, say you asked for it, and tickle her feet. And I mean really tickle them, don't play around, this isn't FM Concepts now... But when you tickle her, don't say anything, just tickle and let her laugh. Okay you, just let it out and laugh. You're getting paid to laugh, boy are you lucky! Just watch a DVD "Making of" section, like Fight Club, or Army of Darkness - those are good ones. See how directors work.

Simple! When I said the models could be proud of there work, this way, they really can be. Okay, I have to go eat my pizza, I'll come back later with more ideas. Discuss amongst youselves...or throw comments, praise, ...

 

[Oddjob0226]

Well, I have bought videos from Femfeet, MTP, FM, Paradise vision, etc.... and will continue to do so. BUT, if every video company puts out just one tickling video per month, at anywhere from $20 to $45 ea., well, if I bought half the videos out there from these companies that I wanted, just to support the cause, I'd be buying 10-15 videos per month!

There are things I'd like to see for FemFeet, MTP, FM, Paradise Vision, AND Yaqi, Ebony Ticklers, The Laugher, Silver Cherry, DP Productions, CalStar, ANA, The Brazilian Site, The French Site, The German Site, My Little Redhead, TickleJapan, Marco in Italy, K.J.'s Renfaire tapes, a possible new Bella Risa tape is coming out...... plus whoever I left out..... see, these are the tapes I WANT. What I can AFFORD is very different. Just bought a car last year, am still paying off a student loan, and I'm trying to save this year for travel to various gatherings next year. Add to that, I've met NO ONE in Dallas who wants to pursue any kind of tickle-themed relation- ship, so in moments of sheer desperation I have to go to a "pay-to-play" type place which can get pricy...........

That's why I don't buy much....... not that I don't want to.....

 

[Deleted member 2452]

buying videos

i think it would help to lower the price.
it has been mentioned already that we can't afford to buy all the tapes we'd like too. well, thats cause they cost too much! by-and-large, i buy from fem feet, and used to from paradise vision. there are now 4 i want from silver cherry, so i'll buy them on their special. when fem feet first came out, i bought all of their videos, but then the prices went up, so i slacked off. same thing with p.v..
i believe you'll sell more videos at $29.95, then $39.95 and higher! more of us could afford them. i bet you'll sell enough to make up the difference.
steve

 

[Myriads]

Why you won't see lower video costs:

Let's say the average video cost's $40 even.

You'd like to see a price point of $30.

Ok, that's 75% of current costs.... seems to sound reasonable. Let's do some math and see if it is.

At $40 each, it would take 25 videos to make $1000 for the producer.

At $30 each it would take 34 videos to make the same $1000

That's 9 more sales needed. 9 divided by 25 is 0.36.

So to make the same money there has to be a 36% increase in people who buy.

History has shown that this 36% does not pop up when the price is dropped. In fact less show up. So the producer has now sold more videos then he would have at full cost, and not even made the same amount he would have. More work, less money.

Not good.

Only companies that have vast scale in their sales can play the discount game. Because only they CAN pull in the exponential numbers of new folks needed to offset the lost profit, and even pull ahead into making more. The economics kills the discount model.

Myriads

 

[P.H. Tickler]

Marketing is only half the battle

Rock-man.com just released 2 new vids... they also put 2mb mpg clips on their website. Never underestimate the selling power of a branded sample or a branded pic. The major problem with tickle vids (I gather from the clips I have seen and the promo sites) is lack of production value. Sure, it's a tickling video, but storylines and establishing scenes would make a more interesting viewing. With the number of low-cost computer-based post-production tools available, decent quality doesn't need to be prohibitively expensive anymore. Maybe hire an up-and-coming directing student from a film school, they would probably work very cheap and under an assumed name (in case they make it big)... go to a local university student film festival, it's amazing what the new breed of digital directors can produce on a shoestring budget.

 

[mabus]

I can handle that....

I was going to offer this, but since PH Tickler just brought it up,

I can direct a video! Now, I can't fly over there and do it, because flying isn't a great idea these days... But I can do storyboards, offer directing points, lay out a shot list, give the costume details, etc. Boy, I've been wanting to do this! I will basically send a bunch of directing instructions, and let any of the companies do it. That way, I can put my money where my mouth is, stop critiqueing and start doing.... I'll lay it out to satisfy a lot of people, pantyhose, barefoot, foot, armpit ticklers, rib ticklers, people who want story, people who want a lot of tickling, etc.

Production values are not a problem, you can take a simple house, simple outfits, and put it together right, and have GREAT production values.

Well, there's my offer.......

[email protected]

 

[Deleted member 2452]

thanks for the economics leson

sorry myriads, but i don't buy it (no pun intended).
if the margin is so slim, then why do it?
fem feet used to sell their videos at $29.95. i can't believe costs went up so high, that they had to make a 33% increase over night! actually,as i recall, they came out with a special video, that required a higher price. they said it was a one time thing. but the price never came back down. i think thats because people bought the high priced video in big numbers.
but now times are different, at least with me! the economy is not as healthy. so, if you want higher sales numbers, lower the price!
steve

 

[Shem the Penman]

I'm skeptical that better "plot" and production values are what will get people flocking to buy more tickle videos, given what's happened in the past.

Cal Star videos, for instance, were known for fairly elaborate sets, costumes, and premises -- "elaborate" by porn standards, but certainly a lot fancier than most video producers try these days. And no one ever gave a crap about that stuff. In fact, one of the most common complaints about them was that too much time was wasted on setup rather than tickling.

 

[Oblesklk]

Re: thanks for the economics leson

so, if you want higher sales numbers, lower the price!

You're definitely right there, but unfortunately that's not that point.

The vid producers could theoretically sell their video for 1 American dollar apiece. You would get quite a few sales. But the number of sales isn't important, it's the total revenue that is brought in (quantity of sales times sales price per unit).

So if you believe in a capitalist system, then you must understand that the video producers are selling their tapes at that level for a reason. They must have found that when you sell at $30 apiece, yes you do get more sales, but you have LESS total revenue. That's bad. And when you raise the price to $40 apiece, you get less sales, but more total revenue. That's good.

That would seem to indicate to me that the demand for tickling tapes is fairly inelastic...that the same people are pretty much going to buy the tapes no matter the price (within reason). And that lowering the tapes does NOT get you a large increase in sales, because the same people that wouldn't buy them at $40 probably wouldn't buy them at $30. And that's our fault (the consumer). The producers are just adapting to our purchasing trends.

For someone starting out in the biz, I imagine the price setting is kind of random, based on what they think it's worth. For folks like Magic Touch and TC, who have been in the business for several years, I have to believe they know what they're doing to keep their business alive, in terms of setting the best prices for their product.