Limited Edition Christmas Candy Pro Mini
Announcing the Christmas Candy Pro Mini Giveaway - taking place on Dec. 18th.
A week from today (that's December 18th, 2013), we are giving away delicious Christmas candy. Well, our version of Christmas candy (and it might not be delicious - in fact, we don't recommend eating it).
Behold, the Limited Edition Christmas Candy Arduino Pro Mini:
The details are pretty simple - on December 18th only, starting at 9 a.m Mountain Time, we'll be putting one of our Limited Edition 5V Pro Minis in the first 700 orders over $50 (not including shipping/tax) for free!
ReplaceMeOpen
ReplaceMeClose
We'll be putting the Pro Minis in qualifying orders until we run out - that could be a few hours, it could be a few minutes, it could last the whole day. So join us on December 18th and get one while supplies last!
I recently bought several pro minis from Amazon, and they worked well. However, the third one I received was not an Arduino, but a cheap copy. From now on I am going to buy these from Sparkfun. I don't understand why people usually use an Arduino Uno instead of a Nano or Mini. they are less expensive and are smaller.
Plus you can't really beat $10 for a pro mini. It's about the cheapest Arduino around, even from China.
What if Sparkfun came out with Nano or Mini shields???
Unos (or Redboards) are great for prototyping and quick projects, but for embedded projects I usually recommend the Pro Mini almost every time unless you need shields.
Uhh... Sweet! :). Finally candy that won't add to my waistline!
I'm such a sucker for free - I got mine! Thanks for the fun promotion!
Got my free candy! While waiting for 9am MT, I managed to keep adding more and more into my cart. (I guess that's the point) :-) Thanks Sparkfun!
Thank you for your order! Your order number is xxxx86. This order was placed at 9:00:39 am Order date : Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Can we not purchase these things?
My boss always says, "we'll never sell more by dropping the price". Given our market, he's probably right.
Given the different Cyber Monday, this etc promotions, I'm curious if the reduction in price or cost of freebees causes a sufficient increase in sales to give a net increase in profits. I understand part of that value may be hidden, such as here in CA, you have to pay taxes on inventory you hold year to year, so promotions such as these may enable inventory reduction crossing into 2014.
In this case, with an expected cost of manufacture of around $3 to $5 per board, even at the high end of $3500 total cost, I'm sure with a $50 minimum order, the cost of sales will result in a net increase in profits.
Just curious how these numbers play out though. I certainly ordered on cyber Monday when I normally wouldn't have, and given how long it took to ship, I'm sure many other people did too !
I know nothing about taxes, but we actually had to build stock for Cyber Monday and yes we were very busy that day. But I would guess our stock will be about the same on Nov 1st and Jan 1st. As for these guys, well we just like our customers (and won't complain if it ends up with higher profits).
and that's also why my boss is better than your boss :)
We design and make medical products. They get bought due to need, and normally due to some other capital equipment purchase that was $1M+. The closest we've come to a sale is doing deals, buy 5 get 6th free, which is over $60K worth or equipment, and the only people who ever cashed in on at the deal were distributors that could place most of them almost immediately. And we would run those around this time, just to get some product off the shelves for year, both for profit and taxes.
To be honest it's some guess work as well as some forward planning. We can never predict exactly what will happen but try to set up a system where, in the most likely scenario, everyone wins (customers get good stuff and we don't lose our shirt).
Liquidating stock / inventory reduction has never really entered the conversation. For Cyber Monday in particular we made sure to increase our stock on key items so we wouldn't sell out in a heartbeat.
The $50 minimum for the Christmas Candy giveaway is there primarily because we don't want folks ordering a single resistor to get their Pro Mini. We would definitely lose out on the day if that were the case. $50 is in roughly in the ball park of our median order value, so it's a way of ensuring the people getting these freebies are the ones who fit in the fat part of our bell curve - the core customers - arguably the people who most deserve a little extra something special. =D
Well, then it's time to move a few things from Wish List to Cart. :-)
700? Why not 1000? Or 1024? But seriously, I think I'll hold off my standing order...
Well, 700 is 2020 in base 7. Also, all numbers are interesting.
Nerds!
-not an insult
Required link for Nerds! exclamation