S3D Status of View-Master Personal Reels

[Tom Martin <tlmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

*This message is being sent to both the Photo-3D List and the Sell-3D
List.

Well, a few people at the NSA convention were aware that the first order
VM Personal reels from the last production run arrived on my door step
about a month earlier than expected. Apparently the people at Portland
decided to do us a favor and ran the 3000+ reels that we had ordered, at
the end of June right before the plant closed for a 2 week
reorganization, instead of on July 26th as planned. I thought "Great, I
can deliver some at the convention".

However, upon a close inspection of the reels I discovered that a number
of the reels (about 92%) not only had tight pocket syndrome, they also
had most (or all) of their pocket openings sealed shut! I contacted
Debra Borer at Fisher-Price who is in charge of Personal reel sales, and
explained the situation. She then acted as a liaison between the
Portland plant and myself. The plant's guess was that a metal thickness
gauge that regulated the amount of pressure that the reels received in
the sealing process was worn or damaged, and that they would try to
replace it before the July 26th start-up date.

Long story short, when I finally got through to Debra today, the fix did
not work. VM has decided to continue production of the faulty reels
until the rest of the equipment gives out. According to Debra, several
of the dealers are now hiring people to manually open the pockets, and
upping the sales price a few dollars to cover those costs.

Since this is all second hand through Debra, I can not say if this is
the most accurate description of the status of the equipment and of reel
quality, however, she is the official spokesperson for View-Master, and
I and several dealers have seen the reels first hand, so this is about
as good as it gets.

So, what about the reels that I received? As I stated, about 8% of the
reels in the order were fine. A quick run though with the Spee-D pocket
expander and they are ready to go. The rest ranged from 3 or 4 pockets
that were closed, to the entire reel being sealed shut (about half are
like this)! Some careful prying with an xacto knife and the pockets can
be opened (it takes me about 20 minutes to open a 6 reel pack). Not the
end of the world, but a major pain in the behind if you have a lot of
reels. Fortunately for me, I was able to teach my young teenage daughter
to do this for me (for a buck a packet, of course!). She gets some extra
spending money, and I get to enjoy some of my summer.

So for the people that ordered reels through me, there are 3 options.

1. If you no longer want the reels, let me know and I will refund your
money.
2. If you still want the reels, I will send them out and you can open
the pockets at your leisure (or hire someone else to do it for you).
3. My daughter, the entrepreneur , will open the pockets for her going
rate and I will send them out when she is finished.

Please let me know what your desires are (in this matter, of course :).

For those who have not ordered, but wish to do so before production
ceases, I will be sending in the last order shortly (this is the second
order for those waiting!) and I will add you to the order if you let me
know. Please contact me before Friday the 30th of July if you want to
order some of the last production run of View-Master Personal reels.

Please let me know off List if you have any questions, or if your would
like to place an order for the last production run of View-Master
Personal reels.

Tom Martin
mailto:tlmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


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