Holidays over - back to business with a new Scalextric Track-Cleaner option pack

I've always found my various jobs I've done in my past carreer interesting, but Classic Toys & Models is definitely the only one that I could ever look forward to getting back to whilst still on holiday! I've been in the model trade before but this time I've got no shop to worry about getting burgled and a small range of products, mostly for Scalextric, that my customers like! So, if I get any constructive criticism, I work hard at fixing it, and try to further improve the product. Since the business has grown consistently each year so far, even in this economic climate, I must be doing something right! One new item that I did produce, just under a year ago, has certainly proved a success. I don't think I've mentioned my Hi-Spec track-cleaning rubbers for Scalextric in this blog before, so it's high time I did. I started off advertising a single, fine-grade abrasive rubber product, which I had previously just made for myself and friends, with a promotional bonus of four of my 27mm Hi-Spec braids included in the pack. Its' end was shaped to fit the slot in Scalextric track, designed to lightly polish carbon deposits off the steel rails of the track, but was soon inundated with requests for a more aggressive version. I was a little hesitant, worried that people would damage the coating on new track, but it soon became clear that the main market was for bringing what was sometimes very old track back to life. I'm in no position to criticise here; my own track is actually the remnants of some from the Italian Polistil brand (it was a bit wider than Scalextric, and they also sold outer borders with catch fencing) with which I built a four-lane track in a mezzanine level over my retail shop in 1979! The more aggressive option more than doubled sales, but I was keen to impress upon users that whilst the coarser grit one would make a rail look bright much more easily the rail would, in reality, it would be covered with fine scratches that would create a perfect anchorage for new carbon deposits to key into, and that they really should always have one of the fine grade rubbers to hand, ready to put a final polish back on the rails. A relatively quick job that would make future cleaning so much easier! My own 30-year-old track never needs anything more than an occasional quick rub with the fine grade. I decided the best way to get this accross was to offer a Dual-Pack, with one of each grade rubber, at slightly less than double the price and ten bonus braids included. You liked it. Thank you! I was, though, still getting requests for something more abraisve still. It would seem that carbon, when kept in certain conditions, starts react with the atmosphere and begins to demonstrate it's relationship to diamond and even my 120-grit rubber was wearing faster than it could break down the surface! I have always maintained that the best way to use these rubbers is to use them lightly and quickly. If you have to press so hard that the rubber wears quickly then that is when you do need to move up a grade. The Blue 60-grit is the coarsest grade that this material is made in. You can make visible scratches in a steel rail with it, yet I do still get some customers who say that their deposits are proving resistant and causing the rubber to crumble. My best advice, judging from the point of the worst cases I have had my hands on, is to use the coarse rubber to score the hard surface and then quickly switch back to the medium as its' finer particles make it little more dense, so less prone to crumbling. This works in most cases. If not, maybe it really is time for new track! A new Dual-Pack containing Medium and Coarse rubbers was the logical next option to complete the range. Until recently. Over the last month or two, I've been receiving mail from returning customers, who say they now have braids coming out of their ears, asking whether I might consider selling budget packs of track-cleaners without the 'free sample' braids. They correctly point out that the free braids cannot actually be free to me, so it must be possible to market a dual-pack at a lower price and still maintain a workable margin for myself. Point taken and understood. Whilst it costs me far less to pop a plain pack of braids in a pack of track-cleaners than it does to sell a single pack on eBay, it does still cost though I regard it as part of my advertising budget, but to keep advertising to someone who has more freebies than they can use, does suddenly start to look a bit dumb! Fine: 240-grit Medium: 120-grit Coarse: 60-grit Our new listing for three optional mono-grade 'Twin-Packs' of Fine, Medium or Coarse grade rubbers is now open to test the market at our online store, Classic Toys & Models at £5.28, our lowest ever price for two track-cleaners (I was hoping that I was going to be able to bring them onto the market here for less than £5, but the manufacturer of our abrasive material has just dropped a 10% price increase on us and, if I go any lower, then the sums just don't add up). I'm testing the market here. If the demand is apparrent, then I will also list them on eBay, where the price will be £5.75.