dusty wrote
It seems to me as though this forum is ONLY TOLERATED. Yes, I know that it is being supported (paid for) by Shopsmith but there has never been a great deal of participation. Does Nick even know we exist here.
Not sure that he does...it seems like his main focus is selling more "marks". Annoys me every time he says that instead of saying an actual machine name because "Mark" is a prefix and is meaningless without a product identifier. IF sales increased on the Marks (Mark 7) in October, that is great and I am happy for them. I do wonder how much of their sales logged in October was for Mark 7 and how much was for part sales and how much was for accessory sales and how much was for SPT sales. Maybe there are so many used Marks out there and used accessories/SPT's that they don't really sell accessories/SPT's anymore, except to new Mark 7 customers? Is the core of their business today selling mostly Marks (Mark 7) and parts to owners of used Marks (Mark 7, Mark V, Mark VII, Mark 5, Mark 2)? Or do some owners of used Marks (Mark 7, Mark V, Mark VII, Mark 5, Mark 2), up and decide to purchase new accessories, SPT's, etc. from the mothership? Their communications thus far seem to indicate that 99% of their time/energy is focused on selling new Marks (Mark 7), so the assumption we make is this is where customer demand is, i.e. bulk of orders placed. It just seems counter-intuitive to me though, with so many used Marks (Mark 7, Mark V, Mark VII, Mark 5, Mark 2) out there and with some owners choosing to restore them, I would expect a reasonably healthy demand for used parts for these machines. IF that were true, then why are we treated like 2nd class citizens by the mothership? A good portion of their business has to be parts, SPT's and accessories to support owners of used Marks (Mark 7, Mark V, Mark VII, Mark 5, Mark 2) IMHO.
Fellow forum members, please don't follow my example above and start referring to Shopsmith equipment as "Marks" on the forum. I did it for effect up above and hopefully reading it was as painful for you as it was for me to write it in this manner, but I chose to do so to make a point.
