GoodBuyGuys Blog

Yahoo recently did a very unscientific survey of the kind of cases people used for their iPods, and the results were pretty amazing. The number four choice was DUCT TAPE. That’s right, the duct tape wallet craze has moved on to iPods.

Somebody has actually started a business making iPod cases out of duct tape. These cases are colorful and durable and certainly make a fashion statement. At $16.00 each, this may be the most income ever derived from a single roll of duct tape.

Here’s how the Digital Music Weblog described these fashion accessories:

“The cases themselves are everything you’d expect from such a fun-loving company: bright colors, eye-catching, target-like designs, clear plastic windows to protect screens, the right holes for cords, and a touch wheel that works even through the case.”

They must have made a lot of these cases, because they had enough tape scraps to decorate a car:

As for that Yahoo survey, like I said, it wasn’t exactly scientific. They had a total of nine responses.

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.

I’m not really a motor sports fan, but I happened to find myself watching a Nascar race on television over the weekend. The Bud Shootout, Nascar’s first big race of the season, was on tv and I saw something pretty amazing.

It appears that these million dollar race cars use lowly duct tape to control the amount of air flow to the cooling system. How’s that for a low tech solution to a high tech problem!

Apparently, Jeff Gordon’s Chevrolet was having overheating problems and was not getting enough air to the radiator. These cars have sophisticated front bumpers designed to provide maximum down force, and thus holding power. The design of these bumpers restricts air flow to the engine area, as this sort of air deflection causes aerodynamic problems.

A close up of the front bumper during a pit stop showed that the crew had removed a piece of color-matched duct tape about the size of the palm of your hand from the bumper in order to improve air flow the the engine.

This minor change appeared to be all that was necessary to solve the cooling problem so that Gordon’s car could continue the race.

Pro Tapes offers a full line of racing tapes. I wonder if it was a Pro product on Jeff Gordon’s bumper?

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, and other products useful in motor sports.

Goodbuyguys.com is located in North Carolina. Its my home and a great place to live and work. It looks like we are going to be getting a new neighbor.

Google has announce their intention to build a server farm in Lenoir, NC, a town in the NC foothills, about 150 miles from here. There was a lot of excitement at first, with stories in all the local papers and coverage on newscasts. Google was promising an investment of as much as $600 million and at least a couple hundred jobs. This in an area of the state that has been really hard hit by job losses in the furniture and textile industries.

It wasn’t until the Governor’s office was ready to make the official announcement that the whole truth about the negotiations were made public. Google may pledge to “do no evil” but the taxpayers of North Carolina might not buy into their philosophy.

It appears that the game was “hardball” when Google executives came to the negotiating table. By the time the deal was sealed to build the server farm, the good people of NC had given up tax breaks and incentives to Google that could be worth $100 million over the next 30 years. This for 200 jobs.

Google will get abatements in propertya taxes, sales taxes, and infrastructure costs.

Most interesting is the level of secrecy this global information provider demanded during the negotiations. Google demanded that NC legislators never mention their name when discussing the deal that would give Google millions in incentives. They demanded to have a hand in writing the bill that would go before the legislature and threatened to pull out a number of times during the 13 month negotiation if they did not get their way.

Lets hope that Google’s move to North Carolina will improve the business climate that they found to be so appealing in the first place.

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.

We’ve been selling gaffers tape for a long time, and Permacel 665 has always been the first choice for most of our high end customers when they purchase utility-grade gaffers tape. Permacel has had a few stumbles over the years, but they are still recognized as the market leader in this segment of the adhesive-backed tape market. That may be about to change.

A couple of years ago, the division of Permacel that makes 665 gaffers tape was acquired by a North Carolina company, Shurtape. Shurtape already made a competitive gaffers tape, so it was a bit of a mystery as to what they would do with the new brand.

In a move counter to other gaffers tape makers, Shurtape announced a price increase on this product, effective at the end of January. This, at a time when oil prices were the lowest in 9 months and cotton prices were at the lowest point in a year and a half. Petroleum based adhesives and cotton cloth are the primary raw materials in gaffers tape, so this price increase just didn’t make sense.

More importantly, Shurtape has now discontinued all colors for this product except black, white and grey. This will have a big impact on how brand sensitive buyers make their purchasing decisions. Those who have never tried another brand of tape because they could get every color they needed in the 665 line, will now have to turn to another manufacturer for colored tape. If they like what they find in the avialable market for colors, then they will probably give the competing brand a try for their black, white and grey as well. I think they will probably like what they find.

We will, of course, continue to offer Permacel 665 for those customers who are willing to pay a premium, but this may be the beginning of the end game for this venerable 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 production supplies.

Sometimes its hard to get excited about selling the sorts of rather mundane products we offer. We got involved in expendable sales after years of being involved in a really interesting industry-concert and special event production. Tape sales certainly don’t generate the type of buzz you get from producing a Dolly Parton concert!

We got an order this morning that reminded us how interesting it can be to work with customers who occupy the national spotlight. The Chicago Bears are playing in the NFL playoffs and just ordered a several cases of assorted colors of gaffers tape for color coding displays in their stadium. We’ll get the rush order out today and you can be sure I will be watching their playoff game to see if we can spot some of the tape they’ve purchased.

In fact, we’ve been able to supply several high profile events recently. We shipped gaffers tape to video production company for the year’s Rose Bowl and supplied the same company for Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve broadcast from Times Square.

We also recently provided tape for NBC as they continue to prepare for the 2008 Bejing Olympics. Maybe I’ll have a high definition television to look for our tape by then.

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.

If you follow this blog, you know that I’m no fan of rechargeable batteries. The majority of our battery customers use batteries in wireless microphones, and the performance of rechargeables in this application has real problems.

Still, we do support the concept of reuse in the products we sell whenever possible. One good example is Velcro’s One Wrap Straps. They’re handy and can used many, many times without creating any waste

Reusable tape? Now there’s an idea!

Thanks to Geico Insurance, everybody knows what a gecko is. Real geckos can’t talk, but they do have a very special characteristic that makes them amazing characters. They can walk upside down as easily as they walk right side up. Wall climbing? No problem!

What’s that got to do with tape? Stick with me for a minute.

The geckos’ trick, according to National Geographic, involves millions of microscopic hairs on the pads of their feet. Each hair, or seta, provides a miniscule adhesive force called van der Waals, which operate over very small distances but bond to just about anything. Robert Full, a biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, believes that adhesives can be developed that are as strong (and infinitely reusable) as what geckos have on their feet.

I doubt that this technology will work its way down to the point of having reusable gaffers tape anytime soon, but it could happen someday.

Meanwhile, imagine yourself hanging upside down from the ceiling. That would be cool.

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.

I usually end a blog posting with an invitation for your to send us an interesting use for something we sell. I got a really good followup from a customer who buys gaffers tape from us.

This company uses the neon colored gaffers tape to label equipment cases in their stage equipment rental business.

A different color is used for each type of instrument case (e.g. neon green for drum cases, neon orange for keyboard cases, etc.) This allows for quick preparation of customers’ rental orders (they have hundreds of cases in their warehouse) and cuts the check in time when an order comes back to the shop for unpacking.

Colored Pro Gaffer gaffers tape can be written on with a Sharpie Marker, so additional information can be added to the label (e.g. exactly what is in the case, associated cases, etc.). Even further “quick identify” info can be added by using multiple stripes of one or more colors.

Gaffers tape is extremely durable and long lasting and can be removed cleanly from a case without leaving adhesive residue.

These guys keep the color red in reserve to mark incoming cases that might need to be repaired or put on the bench to be checked out for possible problems.

The colors are really handy on an event site as well, as no one else on a site that might involve a dozen or more vendors is likely to have labeling like theirs. Its quick and easy to instruct a stagehand to put all the cases with neon green and electric blue labels together. Best of all, a 60 yard roll of tape will make hundreds of labels.

Maybe you’ve got another useful labeling idea? Share it with us!

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.

I took my family to see The Lion King last night at Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh, NC. What a terrific show! Memorial Auditorium has been a great customer of ours for a long time and they are having terrific success with their Broadway Series.

We have been a supplier for both touring companies of The Lion King for a number of years and we enjoy working with their great crews. I had been to the show in New York a couple of years ago and was anxious to see how it would adapt to a road production. Since the music, props, puppets and costumes translate well into touring halls, the bulk of the show travels well. Some of the large set pieces have been reduced in size, but that really doesn’t reduce the impact of this huge production.

Our friends Mark Colvin and Chris McKay, Lion King property masters, use gaffers tape, friction tape and other products they get from us to keep the puppets and props in the show in working order. They really have their hands full and do a great job. This show is stunning in its beauty and its complexity.

While I’m on the subject of Broadway touring shows, what’s up with the way they price tickets these days. The face value of the tickets were a reasonable (when you consider the cost of a production like this) $65.00 each, but by the time the got into my hands, they cost $76.00 each. Why so many additional added on service charges, handling fees, mystery charges, etc.? I can’t think of any other industry that prices their product this way. How about just charging an honest price and simplifying this ridiculous surcharge system!

Got an opinion about the cost of seeing a good show? Let us know about it.

I wouldn’t be one to say that “any publicity is good publicity” but publicity like this is great.

We were mentioned in a recent print addtion of “Better Homes and Gardens-Wood ,a magazine about woodworking as a source for gaffers tape. I don’t really know if may of our customers use this great product in woodworking, but it is a great solution for all kinds of shop problems. Our companion site, thetapeworks.com was actually the site the magazine referenced in its Pick the Best Tape for Every Job article. The article is on page 30 of the summer print issue.

We enjoy hearing from customers outside our core group of audio visual and entertainment production technicians who use our products for lots of applications that are new to us. It is a great way to expand our customer base and it often leads to new products that we add to our catalog.

Got a suggestion for a new use for our products. Let us know and we’ll start a “tips” page at GoodBuyGuys.com.

Here’s what Better Homes and Gardens has to say about gaffers tape. They call it “Heavy Duty Duct Tape” and recommend that “when standard duct tape won’t hold, use its big brother“. “Heavier fabaric and twice the adhesive create a firm grip on rough surfaces. Use it to: reinforce tool handles and hold together metal pipe sections and fittings for a dust collection system.”

“Thank you”, Better Homes and Gardens. It’s great to get noticed by such an important publication.

I spend a lot of my time on the phone with new customers. Having a great crew to take care of shipping orders, purchasing from vendors, managing web sites and taking care of administrative duties means that I get to talk with people who use our products. It is the best part of my job. Today we have posted a number of spec sheets about gaffers tape. Prospective customers want to know about the differences in the gaffers tapes we sell and these spec sheets hopefully will provide some of the information they are seeking. Until you have used a number of different products, it is hard to understand how something as seemingly insignificant as one mil (1/1000 of an inch) in tape thickness can make a difference. You’d be amazed at how much easier it is to handle a 12 mil tape than a 10 mil tape. Often prospective customers want to know why the gaffers tape we sell is more expensive than some others that they have heard of. The specs tell the tale.

When comparing tapes, here are the three most important specs to check out:

1.Thickness-Gaffers tape is offered in thickness as thin as 10 mils. Choose a tape of at least 11.5 mils (12 mils is better). It won’t c-u-r-l back and stick to itself, is stronger and tears more cleanly.

2.Adhesion-“Adhesion to steel” is the quantifiable spec for determining how sticky a tape is. Look for an adhesion number of at least 60 oz. per inch to insure that the tape will hold properly.

3.Adhesive composition-The best gaffers tape uses a synthetic rubber adhesive. Less expensive products use an acrylic adhesive which is not as strong and which will not stand up to tough environments. Our comparison page includes both products we sell and others that are offered by our competitors. Hope you find it useful.