Everyone thinks bringing new products to market is easy. That could not be any farther from the truth!
We developed our own exclusive product, the SilverBack Chess Clock. A revolutionary new clock that is not only easy to use and program, it had more functions that all other chess clocks on the market.
As with most chess clocks, they are made in China. Unless you have been living under a rock, you should know of the trade war the USA is in with China right now. I tried to get my next batch in for the National Open and I was informed by my manufacturer that my clock is now subject to a 145% tariff. That's just CRAZY! Makes it impossible to make a profit on the clock without doubling the price of the clock. We highly doubt any chess players out there want to pay $230 for a clock that retails at $114.95!
So, the question is...WHAT DO WE DO?!?!? Import them and try to pass the tariff increase to the customer? Eat the extra cost and make no money on the product? Or just wait till calmer heads prevail?
Our decision for now is to just wait and see what happens. Does it suck? Of course! But the other options are just worse.
The factory sent us the replacement boards and displays so we can get the clocks we have in stock to the quality control standards for our customers. One engineer not updating his schematics caused this problem. We just needed a memory chip with twice the memory to solve the problem...ugh!
It will be interesting to see how these clocks sell at the National Open. Having time to show people the ease of use and added functions should ease the buying process.
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