GoodBuyGuys Blog

After working on it for almost a year, last summer we were finally able to get a dealership for MagLites. I have enjoyed using these flashlights for years (every stagehand has one) and I was confident that the would be a big seller. I assumed (obviously incorrectly) that lots of our customers would be familiar with this line of flashlights and if our prices were competitive and our selection was good, they would sell.

We registered the web site, buymaglite.com, built a good e-commerce and information site, linked to goodbuyguys.com and waited for the orders to roll in.

Nothing!

We can’t give them away. Our offer on flashlights is always “batteries included“, we were never “out of stock” (I wish!), and the other sites affiliated with goodbuyguys.com were generating lots of traffic and lots of sales.

The quality of a Maglite has never been in dispute and the company does lots of national advertising to support the brand. These flashlights are durable, bright, and have a great warranty.

After several months of working on the web site, it scores well with major search engines, so it seems that buymaglite.com should be easy to find if someone actually wanted to “buy a Maglite”.

We’ll keep working on the site, but this problem is a real mystery to me.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Look to us first to meet your flashlight and battery needs.

I’m not a chemist (don’t even play one on tv), but a phone call from a prospective customer yesterday had me thinking about how little attention I paid in high school chemistry.

The stage manager for a well known Chicago dance company was having a tape problem that I had never come across before. They were cleaning their vinyl dance floor with isoproply alcohol and had begun to have problems with gaffers tape adhesive delaminating from the tape backing. This had been their cleaning protocol for a long time but something in the adhesive’s interaction with the cleaning agent had changed. They had tried both Permacel 665 and Pro Gaffer and had encountered the same problem with both products.

Both of these popular cloth tapes use the same synthetic rubber adhesive, so I was not surprised that both tapes were having the same problem. What was a surprise was that this seemed to be a new problem. Perhaps something in the adhesive chemistry had changed.

Dance companies like squeaky clean floors and spend a lot of time and money to provide a surface that lets the dancers move seamlessly while still getting enough grip to maintiain balance. Having the cleaning solution that you have used successfully for years suddenly start leaving tape goo on the floor makes a lot of necessary work for stage techncians. Technicians who are too busy already.

The manufacturing process for making gaffers tape is complicated and there are lots of possibilities for unpredictable interactions between the tape adhesive, its release coat, and the surface to which it is applied. A roll of tape is not as simple as it looks.

I did’t have an answer or a solution for her, but we’ll dig a little deeper. Check back here to see what we come up with.

Meanwihile, if you have a tough tape adhesive removal problem, you might want to try M1 Adhesive Remover. It does a great job of removing adhesives.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, MagLite flashlights, Procell Batteries, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Entertainment 1 extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands , and, now, Hosatech microphone cables.

It may be the last day of April, but I just fell for a great April Fools Joke. It started when I googled “extension cord” to see how we were doing with that search engine. Much to my surprise, one of the page one search results took me to ThinkGeek for an ariticle about “wireless extension cords.” That’s right. WIRELESS EXTENSION CORDS!

When much of your business is based on cables and the tape that is used to temporarily affix them to the floor, then a concept like this is pretty scary.

I immediately sent a link to this article to one of our resident gadget geeks and asked him if he thought that this was possible. His analysis was “possible, yes” “safe, no.” He even referenced some work by Nikola Tesla from the late 19th century to support his opinion.

While it does appear that common household current could be turned into microwaves and transmitted wirelessly, it would create all sorts of electrical havoc, as well as more than a little risk for anyone who got in the signal’s path.

I couldn’t resist doing a little more research and found that lots of gadget oriented web sites like digg.com and the daily giz whiz had picked up on this article as well. Everyone had an opinion.

When I realized that the price for this potentially revolutionary consumer device was only $34.99, I couldn’t resist so I clicked on “Add To Cart”. Instead of a confirmation of my order, here’s what I got:

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands .

If you check by here periodically, you may remember that I wrote about a change in Permacel 665 back in February. The focus of my post was about how pricing on Permacel 665 gaffers tape was out of sync with the rest of the industry and how I anticipated that further changes were in the wind.

Were they ever!

Without any warning, a pallet of gaffers tape that hit our loading dock last week was in Shurtape boxes, even though we had ordered Permacel 665. The boxes were the familiar red and white and the product info said 665, but the name Permacel did not appear anywhere on the carton. The name that has been synonymous with gaffers tape since it was first brought to market had simply disappeared.

The next day brought a couple more surprises. When we received shipments of Permacel Professional Grade Gaffers Tape and Permacel 724 Paper Label Tape they were also in red & white Shurtape boxes with Shurtape cores. The “724″ and “Professional Grade” product designations survived, but, again, no sign of the name Permacel anywhere.

Since we got no advance warning about this branding change, we were not able to build up any significant inventory of these products with the Permacel brand. Anything you get from us from now on will be Shurtape, not Permacel.

We are beginning the task of chaning the info in hundreds of web pages to show this change. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any confusion you might encounter.

If you would like to know a little more about this branding change, here is a link.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful tape products.

You can file this device under “wish I’d thought of it first“. Monster Cable, the company known for its high end (and high priced) audio cable has released their “Outlets To Go Power Strip“, a stripped down, light weight version of the “found under every desk” AC power outlet strip. This device is designed for travelers who run out of outlets in their hotel room or airport boarding lounge, but don’t want to lug around a full sized outlet strip.

I came across this device while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Daily Giz Whiz from TWIT.TV. They review an interesting new tech gadget almost every day.

Monster has managed to use half the plastic and half the cable and sell the device for twice the price of the original. They tout their FlatProfile Plug and FlatWrap Cord (both trademarked names) as making this device the perfect tote-along for power hungry road warriors. That there is a need for this device is unquestioned. The $29.95 price (about 4 times what you’d pay for a standard 6 outlet strip at Wal Mart), is another matter entirely.

Monster has done an amazing job of using their branding strategy to convince people that a wire isn’t just a wire. There has been an ongoing debate for years in the audiophile community about whether Monster Cables, particulary their speaker cables, improves sound quality. Regardless of how you might feel about that argument, the Outlets To Go strategy has nothing to do with wire quality or audio signal flow improvement. It does, however, give them the power to charge almost $30.00 for their better mousetrap.

I usually agree with the opinions voice at The Daily Giz Whiz, but I’m afraid they are willing to pay too much for not enough.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other power distribution products..

We’ve been selling a product called tie line for a long time. It is used by lots of theatrical and special events production companies for tasks like drapery hanging, bundling and cable management. It is also known by the name “trick line” becuase its matte black color means that you can’t see it on a darkened stage or against a black backdrop. Its handy for all sorts of special effects.

There’s not really a lot that can be done to improve this braided cotton cord. Or that’s what I thought until we received our first shipment from a new supplier for this product. For years, the tie line we sold had been wrapped on cardboard spools. I have used this product a lot myself over the years, and it seemed like before the tie line was gone that the spool had ripped, collapsed, or completely disintegrated through rough handling and packing into road cases and tool boxes.

This new tie line supplier had spooled their product on a heavy-duty plastic spool and it works much, much better. The spool can stand up to rough handling, sweaty palms and a little rain on an outdoor event site. The product is the same but it is now offered in a much better package.

This new vendor is also supplying us with new smaller 300 foot spools, so now you can buy a spool that will fit in your tool box or under the seat of your truck. No need to lug around a lifetime supply if you only need a small amount.

If you need tie line, but aren’t sure whether to buy the glazed or unglazed version, here’s a little info that might help. If you intend to tie and untie the knots over and over againg (say, for cable ties) use unglazed. It does not hold a knot as tightly. If your use is for something more permanent (e.g. tying a drape onto a truss or batten) use glazed. Knots tied with glazed time line remain tightly bound over a long period of time.

I never cease to be amazed at how a simple change in packaging can dramatically change the way I look at a product.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful supplies for cable management.

When you have a domain like buyextensioncord.com and it includes a toll free telephone number, you get a lot of questions. Taking the time to research customer queries has been a great way to grow our business.

Today, we got a call from someone who needed extension cords to use in large walk-in freezers. The cables he was using were freezing and could no longer be coiled. It was easy to understand his problem, but not quite so easy to find the solution.

If you have ever taken the time to look closely at an extension cord, you’ll see that there is a lot of difficult-to-decipher information printed on or embossed into the cable. This information tells you what environments the cable is designed to be used in and the amount of current that it is safely rated to carry.

Putting this info directly on the cable is required if Underwriters Laboratory is going to give the item its blessing as something safe for consumers to use. Here’s a useful link to safety info from UL about extension cords and how they are rated.

In doing a little research for this customer I came across a very nice diagram of how extension cords are made and the characteristics that give each type of cable its unique rating. Here’s a link.

It turns out that the info our customer needed is included in a 3-5 digit code found on all extension cords. The code is assigned by the National Electrical Code and the data in question usually starts with the letter “S”.

If you want to know a little more, click here.

Anyway, it turns out our customer is going to need a cable with a jacket specification of SJEOW. The “O” in this code means that the cable has a thermoplastic jacket (flexible at low temperatures) and the “W” means that it is rated for outdoor use. Extension cords with this rating will remain flexible down to -45 degrees F.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful supplies for temporary power distribution.

There’s an interesting feature on NPR these days, about once a week, called “This I Believe”. It’s a modern take on a broadcast feature from the 1950’s started by Edward R. Murrow. This weeks essay features Craig Newmark, the founder of Craig’s List. A couple of things really resonated with me regarding Mr. Newmark’s essay.

Craig Newmark has consistently refused to sell his website, even though it is estimated that it would fetch tens of millions of dollars. He enjoys the community he has built and he doesnt’ want to turn it over to someone else whose motives might be very different from his own. Instead of being the CEO directing a staff who manages a huge domain in cyberspace, he spends his days in customer service. It’s what he really enjoys.

As our business grows, I find that I am constantly being drawn away from what I enjoy most-talking to customers about solving their problems. I like to think that thirty-some years in the special events business has given me some unique insights into subjects like taping down cables and choosing the correct microphone stand. Answering the phone and responding to customers’ email inquiries is the only way to know if the knowledge that I have accumulated over the years is of any real value to anyone else. Using what we learn from our customers can then be incorporated into our websites and the information is available whenever anyone needs it.

The other observation in Craig Newmark’s “This I Believe” is his continuing affirmation that most people are honest and have good intentions. I have to make decisions every day regarding whether or not it is a good idea to extend credit to a new customer. Our experience with customers defaulting on their obligations is amazing. Everyone pays their bills. The default rate is less the 1/10 of 1% and this number has been consistent for years. Having our decisions about credit constantly reaffirmed makes us feel really good about the customers who want to work with us.

I doubt if I’ll ever get around to recording a “This I Believe” essay of my own, but it is good to know I share some beliefs with a cyberhero like Craig Newmark.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful supplies for entertainment production.

I spend several hours a day reading, and the bulk of my time is spent with technical journals. I never cease to be amazed at how willing publishers of magazines oriented towards the entertaiment production and audio visual industries are to underwrite the publication of dozens of really valuable journals. How can they do this? Advertisers like Duracell and Pro Tapes pay, not you!

Maybe this model is used in other industries, but this is the only one I am familiar with. These magazines are filled with dozens of really useful articles, and, many times, the advertising is filled with good info as well.

I use these journals regularly to find new products for our catalog. Its also really great to come across articles about our customers. I even saw one of our products in a photo accompanying a story about the NFL Playoffs.

Any student or hobbyist in sound, lighting or theatre tech can easily begin receving these journals by simply making up a business name. The magazines base their ad rates on the number of subscribers, so they are happy to add you to their subscriber list. They rarely do much to insure that you are a legitimate business with a large purchasing budget.

Journals like Pro Sound News, Sound & Video Contractor , Live Sound International, Church Production, and FOH Magazine are yours for the asking. They have great columns, handy “how to” articles, and honest equipment reveiws. The photo quality is first good and the editorial content, while advertiser driven, is still useful. Most of the writing is first rate.

Interested? You can sign up for regular subscriptions at any of the publication web sites in this article.

Goodbuyguys.com is a collection of web sites (including buytape.com, buybattery.com, buymicstand.com, buyextensioncord.com, buyaflashlight.com and buywireties.com) designed to deliver a great selection of production supplies.

It’s been a long time since I did any concert or special event lighting, but I still follow the industry pretty closely. I came across a really odd innovation yesterday and before I knew it my imagination got away from me.

Take a look at this. The dmx phone from Digital Light Solutions is a lighting controller interface that will let you use a common cordless telephone to remotely control a dmx enabled stage lighting system. The manufacturer promotes the device as a simple and effective remote focus tool, as, at least in theory, the telephone can also store multiple cues.

It’s a little hard to follow the logic of spending $500.00 so that you can then use a $29.99 cordless phone from Radio Shack to focus and control a lighting system without being tethered by a cable. Especially when simple DMX controllers can be purchased for a couple hundred bucks. I guess that the wireless capability would be nice, that is if you were willing to put up with the laughter of everyone else on the crew. “LD,  phone home!”

Here’s what really got me thinking about this package.

My cordless phone at home constantly scans for unused frequencies in the range allocated by the FCC for telephones. This is so I can have some privacy from neighbors whose phones might use the same frequency.

I have tickets for The Lion King this weekend. If they had the dmx phone interface in their lighting system, could I fire up my phone, scan to find the frequency their system was set to, and take over control of the show? Now that would be cool.

Got a cool idea to share? Let us know.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful production supplies