Gday guys, I live in Australia and i struggle to find an online store with everything you need to DIY an Esk8 (now that enertion conveniently decided to stop their diy market). So i was wondering what people would think of an Australian site and where i could source wholesale quality product. Need some help and insights here guys. Cheers, Matt
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not sure there is a big enough market to make it sustainable. Unless you can buy parts cheap in bulk very cheap and store them for free
I know one big hurdle when Enertion was in the DIY scene was shipping costs to the us and eu. I hated paying those
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I guess thats what makes an australian store attractive is because we always have to pay those costs to get stuff here. You would need enough margin to cover the cost of getting parts here to make prices competitive with overseas stores.
Again, the Australian market is not big enough to make it worthwhile IMO.
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yeah valid points, that’d be the biggest issue, getting the product over here and sold with a profit…
Something I’ve thought of, there does seem to be a bit of a void here. If you were going to do it I’d probably just focus on the local market, however small it is. Shipping is the issue; both cost and time.
Just thinking out aloud… Instead of being a complete offering it’d be great to have somewhere that you could get the little stuff from. CAN bus cables, 2mm jst connectors, belts, pulleys, bluetooth modules, etc. I don’t mind shipping the big stuff from OS, but waiting 2-5 weeks for a cable from China sucks. It’d also mean you wouldn’t need thousands of dollars worth of stock lying round. Of course the flip-side is there’s not a lot of money to be made on these items.
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And not enough volume to make it worthwhile. Your time to receive, inventory, handle stock, admin processes etc etc to ship a $6 cable and make $1 on would not be feasible.
Now if you had various parts in stock to build a board it might be a go.
Battery packs, motors and mounts, esc’s, decks, risers, cables and connectors, trucks, wheels etc then it might work?
Yeah thats what i was thinking, only issue is sourcing parts. How and where can I find quality parts cor wholesale parts? Especially since they’re such specific parts its difficult to find them. So that’s the question, where on earth do i start?
Pulleys, mounts etc
Get them cnc’d
That’s our strategy, to make convenient and affordable, we are going to develop products over time and have a few now. To be honest starting small you have to get what you can and sell it. Exposure is one thing. No one buys if they don’t know your there. Social media, and word of mouth, face to face. You have to think about what problems you had when building and make those your strategy. Example , offer all the small hard to find stuff at quantities people want. It will take some investment on your part. It’s not an overnight thing. Just don’t quit
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This is our platform for central USA www.hyperionsystems.org
It will be a one stop shop once we are done adding products, but in essence what your talking about.
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I think there would be real opportunity for a vendor to make 3p or 4p welded cells available so people can make their own battery packs. Its gets past shipping company’s reluctance to import lithium, and the requirement to have a spot welder.
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@baxter what do you mean? Supplying pre welded 3p or 4p cells so people just buy 10 4p packs and then make their own packs?
Yes,
or 10s1p packs (actually 10s1p flat packs would be great).
If people want to buy a spotwelder and make their own pack that’s great. But I would argue there is a group in the market who don’t want that additional expense, or would not be confident welding cells. They may be reluctant to spend a significant sum money on a huge battery, with more range than they need, but which is not air travel friendly.
@baxter so if they don’t have a spotwelder, how would they create the packs once they have their 10 3p cell groups? Would the just solder them or would they still need a spotwelder? 
Is there really a market for batteries? I have the feeling peeps just buy the less powerful packs from overseas rather than spending some $$$ on a decent pack. Also, isn’t there a person in Melbourne who already does batt packs? I like the idea but with all the competition from Hobbyking and DIYeboard it’s just not gonna work. Unless, you offer specialized parts such as motor mounts for mountainboards, extended hangers, or a nice custom trigger style remote with screen (such as the R2 but more reliable).
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Part of the issue is customer knowledge combined with exploitive marketing.
The customer should be aware what they are getting when buying a more expensive pack. They don’t most of the time. I consider it part of our duty to inform newcomers of cheap part pitfalls.
Good point, people forget that quality comes with a price. However some prices are just far too much. So if i could find that sweet spot between quality, quantity and price, i rekon it’d be a decent start…?
If you are running a small shop and don’t calculate your own Labour, you might be able to. Issue is…good Li-Ion cells are expensive. Not much you can do there.
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@telnoi unfortunately that’s the case, any idea where i can get GOOD cells for a good wholesale price?