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BJFE Blueberry, Comparisons?

#41
I wouldn't be surprised if they went for 400 USD these days since the dollar is worth next to nothing, but a few years ago they went for under $300.

I'd be down for a batch order (could always use a backup :D ), but only if the price is under $300. That may or may not be possible with today's Quickly Dying Dollar.
 
#42
I have talked to Bjorn through email many times.

He responds fairly quickly. I was talking to him and to a Canadian distributor here to get the blueberry in for me. For some reason the guy from the store never seemed to make contact with Bjorn. He would tell me that Bjorn doesn't answer his emails, (but Bjorn always answered mine) but then he would say ya I emailed Bjorn and we talked, then he would say things like BJF doesn't exist anymore because there were only MP pedals at NAMM, but Bjorn even told me he doesnt know what the heck that guy is saying!. So it was like a 2 month vicious cycle that got NOTHING accomplished at all. So I just stopped emailing Bjorn and calling that other dude on the phone. I still reallyyyy want one realllyyyyyy badly but it is almost friggin impossible, literally to get one.

Bjorn also told me that he makes them more frequently than people may think and usually makes 10 at a time.

I just stopped emailing him once I became so bloody fed up. I did not know who to believe, the distributor or Bjorn!

A massive batch that would lower the price would be SWEET. Lets see who wants to pool in on this, i would be down!

:bassist:
 
#43
Count me in on the batch! I really want one of these and im way too impatient to wait and find one used!!

As far as price goes, we should consider ourselves lucky! The two guitar players in my band just bought bjfe hunnybee's and they paid over 400 used for them. So if we could get these new for 400, that would be great. But cheaper would be even better! Definitely help my bank account out!
 
#45
Dave Hill said:
Let's do it. rumbler, do you have his email? maybe we should start a new thread we can link him to, so that he'll see the interest. We need a good contact.
Click to expand...


Yeah! This is awesome.

Just an idea, but since the pricing might determine our quantity it would be nice if we could get Bjorn to give us some price/quantity breakdowns to help us gauge interest here.

CM
 
#46
rumbler said:
I just stopped emailing him once I became so bloody fed up. I did not know who to believe, the distributor or Bjorn!

:bassist:
Click to expand...

hey Rumbler,

Just curious.....but I'll bet there's a minimum buy-in as a dealer, and it's possible the distributor just didn't want to pony up for just one pedal. It's pretty common with gear manufacturers - they don't want individuals buying gear at cost for themselves, so they make you buy a quantity to become a distributor/dealer.

If it's not possible to do the buy with our group here in TB, my bro might be able to help us out as he has a "custom shop" business here in the states that deals in vintage gear and a select group of eclectic pedals.

later
 
#47
As a retailer, I'd like to bring up a reality check about "quantity discounts". The idea behind quantity discounts is that the supplier will benefit from the volume deal enough to offset the discount. Either they benefit by getting a huge amount of money up front, which pays off older bills and allows them to buy all the parts with no out-of-pocket expense; or they benefit by saving on labor if production in a larger volume allows them to produce more efficiently.

In the case of effects pedals they won't even save on buying parts in larger quantities, because generally they will already have bought the components in batch quantities (a dozen or a hundred) anyway.

Since Bjorn is a one-man operation with no automation, there is not much room to improve his efficiency, so there can not really be any labor savings.

So all that remains is to hope that he will see a benefit from taking full payment for the group buy in advance. You all may not want to pay in advance, and he may not consider it a benefit anyway.

So maybe Bjorn will be generous of his own accord, but this talk of a "group buy" may not be much of an influence.
 
#50
Dave Hill said:
A discount may be possible from his retailer(?). Anyway, I'm not just looking to get a discount. I would like for this guy to make some pedals so we can buy them.
Click to expand...

In all reality, I doubt he will give a discount. He doesn't need to. He knows that if he makes them, people will buy them. And if people won't because he's not offering a discount, then 30 other people will.

I too am not looking for a discount. Just the opportunity to buy one.
 
#51
bongomania said:
As a retailer, I'd like to bring up a reality check about "quantity discounts". The idea behind quantity discounts is that the supplier will benefit from the volume deal enough to offset the discount. Either they benefit by getting a huge amount of money up front, which pays off older bills and allows them to buy all the parts with no out-of-pocket expense; or they benefit by saving on labor if production in a larger volume allows them to produce more efficiently.

In the case of effects pedals they won't even save on buying parts in larger quantities, because generally they will already have bought the components in batch quantities (a dozen or a hundred) anyway.

Since Bjorn is a one-man operation with no automation, there is not much room to improve his efficiency, so there can not really be any labor savings.

So all that remains is to hope that he will see a benefit from taking full payment for the group buy in advance. You all may not want to pay in advance, and he may not consider it a benefit anyway.

So maybe Bjorn will be generous of his own accord, but this talk of a "group buy" may not be much of an influence.
Click to expand...

+1. I don't want to be the downer here, but I'd say the best that could be hoped for was hurrying up a batch with a group order, and even that could be a long shot. I'm sort of under the impression that Bjorn just kinda does what he does, and that people will either wait or pay way too much for it.
 
#52
rumbler said:
I have talked to Bjorn through email many times.

He responds fairly quickly. I was talking to him and to a Canadian distributor here to get the blueberry in for me. For some reason the guy from the store never seemed to make contact with Bjorn. He would tell me that Bjorn doesn't answer his emails, (but Bjorn always answered mine) but then he would say ya I emailed Bjorn and we talked, then he would say things like BJF doesn't exist anymore because there were only MP pedals at NAMM, but Bjorn even told me he doesnt know what the heck that guy is saying!. So it was like a 2 month vicious cycle that got NOTHING accomplished at all. So I just stopped emailing Bjorn and calling that other dude on the phone. I still reallyyyy want one realllyyyyyy badly but it is almost friggin impossible, literally to get one.

Bjorn also told me that he makes them more frequently than people may think and usually makes 10 at a time.

I just stopped emailing him once I became so bloody fed up. I did not know who to believe, the distributor or Bjorn!

A massive batch that would lower the price would be SWEET. Lets see who wants to pool in on this, i would be down!

:bassist:
Click to expand...

+1 I have contact Bjorn in the past too. I also found it a bit hard to get straight information on the availability of effects.

I just wrote to him again to see if he at least says they are still in production and told him a few TBers are quite interested. At this stage, I didn't go down the discount path. Im just trying to work out if he is doing them and the best way for people to get hold of one.
 
#53
....someone peed in my wheaties this morning -- not even the blueberries could cover the taste. :eyebrow:

Damn all of you and your posts "based in reality" -- this is the internet, dammit! We will dream and type it as if it's for real all we like! Yeeeeaarrrrgggh! <insert viking call here>

Look, you naysayers, everybody (well most) with an interest here knows that even if we convince BJF to build some run of blueberrys we ain't getting much of a quantity discount. But let's leave the pricing to the Bjorn.

Similar to the Cream Pie thread, we are talking about a guy who is building plenty of effects - BJF has at least 15 different models. He's just doesn't seem to building quantities of the one that we all want, and there doesn't seem to be many local distributors. This of course increases our local demand in small circles which inflates the unit price.

So it seems that banding together is our best shot at showing enough demand for the Blueberry to convince him to build some for us. Squeaky wheel gets the grease, and all that. Further, while he may not be willing to offer much of a discount on labor or materials etc, it's definately wayy cheaper to put 20 effects in a box and ship it than it is to ship them one at a time. So it's possible that some meager discount could be had there.

So let's keep this thing rolling and see what might happen.

grassya$$,

Monk
 
#55
Ok dudes,

I couldnt give a flying doodoo for a discount (sure it would be cool, but this cat knows his pedals are fly and he knows expensive or not we are still gonna buy!)

I just want to let him know that theres a bunch of us who want one! the thing is you guys are all in the states, I am in Canada. And he has already told me he does not sell direct

So you guys got any feedback from him yet?
 
#57
Email reply from Bjorn: (I sent him a link to this thread)

"Hi Dave,

I can try, but I cannot do directsales. That's a very unexpected interest in the Blueberry.

There is as I know not so many orders ahead on this model as there are on most other models, but even this I do not know for sure how many as distribution takes care of that.

There are only something like 70 units made of this model, but by all means I shall try to make a larger batch of those"

At your service
Björn Juhl
BJF Electronics
Sweden
 
#60
Dave Hill said:
That's what I got out of it. The only one I know of is custom sounds.
Click to expand...

His reply seems kinda cryptic without the context, but here's my take....

He says he can't do direct sales, that implies that he has an exlusive agreement with a distrubutor (such as Godlyke). You can't blame him -- If he's one man operation he'd be on the phone all the time and wouldn't get any work done. So likely the distributor tells him what to build, how many, and then takes care of shipping them to dealers....typical that the available pedals are mostly guitar-centric models.

His comment about unexpected demand reinforces that he may not be aware that our local dealers just aren't placing orders for the blueberry?

If this is the case, we can either try to place a mass order with a local dealer (which might help to fast track it) or as I mentioned before, I may be able to get my brother to contact Bjorn as a prospective dealer and we could place the order thru him. He has a local custom mod shop in Detroit metro area and carries some fx lines.. He would likely do it if there is enough interest to cover the distributors "buy-in".

Monk
 

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