Modalt Mask Rentals

[Steve the Squid]

Introducing a new potential renting service from Modalt Masks!

Reasoning:
People have expressed that the biggest downside of our painted masks is that you buy them once, for what can be arguably described as a good chunk of money, and only use it once for a character. That's all fine and dandy for people who like to keep their characters together, but for people who are more active moccers, this is not ideal. So we came up with the idea of renting masks.

 

The upside of this is that it doesn't affect my sales at brickfair much (only the sales to online peeps, which is less than 25% of sales), and our online sales are just about nothing right now, so I think that this will only help us.

 

How it will work:
There are 3 types of fees associated with this.

 

Deposit: I need to be sure that people can't just steal/damage my masks and hurt my business. This is potentially a very big kind of problem with small businesses like mine. With this in mind, the amount of money you pay will be rounded up to the cost of the three masks, plus shipping. For example, if you pay $12 to rent 3 masks, you would have to pay $23 up front (the cost of buying and shipping 3 masks), and I would refund the $11 when the renting period is over.

-If you want to keep a mask, you can! Just tell me you want to keep it, and I just won't refund the deposit. The deposit will always be the same cost as buying a mask.

-If you accidentally damage a mask while you rent it, I will give a partial refund of the deposit, depending on the severity of the damage. If you just chip the paint on a corner, that's so minimal that I may not even charge for that. But if you chip a bunch of paint off a part that has a design, or the specific color of paint needs to be mixed again, that will warrant a fee. But that shouldn't happen too often, and I will always be reasonable with the repair fees.

-Hopefully people will be understanding with the deposit fee. Not only is it insurance, it makes a lot of other things easier for me!

 

Shipping: The buyer will of course have to pay for shipping both ways. The shipping TO the customer will be $2; I will help the customer to get the cheapest shipping possible, so it should be $2 back as well.

Subscription: The previous two fees cover necessities for my business that make sure that I'm not losing money. Here's the part where I make money, but this is also the part that is variable right now. I want to hear feedback from BZP users as to what they think is reasonable.

 

The way I see it, this service obviously needs to be cheaper than just buying a mask, and by a lot. If a person only rents one mask, that already drives their fees up to $4 from shipping, and $2 is just not enough money to split between me and my partner for this service. Therefore, obviously, I would have to have a minimum of at least 2 masks rented at a time for me to be operating at enough of a profit. Shipping doesn't go up until you get up to a number of masks that is entirely unreasonable also.

 

I think the best course of action would be to say that a person can rent 3 masks, for a subscription fee of $8. With both shipping fees factored in, that makes it almost half the cost of BUYING the three masks ($12 versus $23).

 

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TLDR:

You rent 3 masks for 3 months, pay me $23 up front, and then I refund you $11 when the 3 months are over. It's almost half the cost of buying the masks, and if you decide you want to keep the masks, all you have to do is tell me, and I just don't refund anything! Easy peasy! I do all the math for you.

 

 

I need your feedback!

This is still in the idea stage. If I ever go legit with this, I will definitely need a small website to run this (my college will provide web space), but in the initial stages of the project, I can try this out manually, without a website. I want you guys, BZP members, to tell me what you think of this idea! Is the cost still too high for you to make up your mind on buying from Modalt? Do you think the renting period is too short, or too long? Would you rather rent less, or more, masks? Are you worried about this service because of the deposit?

I am a well-respected buyer/trader in the bionicle/bzp community, bricklink, and ebay. Hopefully people will find this service interesting/helpful!

Edited August 17, 2014 by Steve the Squid

[Chro]

I think this is an excellent idea which I will certainly consider.