Reminicing on my early days - Where did all the companiesgo?

[Nifty]

A few weeks ago it was time to do some major paperwork purging. I had folders and folders of old paperwork with information that could be found online or was just totally out of date.

Well, in all these folders was my "refilling" folder. In it were all the invoices, documents, instructions, etc. from my very early days of refilling, back in 2000 and 2001. I recycled a TON of old paperwork and printouts that I just didn't need anymore. I was about to trash all the invoices too, but decided to try something...

One by one I entered in the websites of all the companies I had purchased misc. supplies from. These were the companies that supplied everything I needed at the time: cartridges, Ink, clips, tape, etc. etc. etc. I wanted to see what they were up to.

To my total surprise and horror about 90% of the companies' websites either didn't resolve (404) or had an ad-filled generic domain squatting page. I couldn't believe it!!! What happened to them all? I mean, 8 years is a long time, especially with anything internet related, but 90% dead!?!?! Come on! Some of them were companies I thought would be around forever, for example: http://www.alotofthings.com/ I was in shock!

So, what happened? Was this just the nature of small business and the often-quoted die rate of companies after the first 1, 3, and 5 years?

On a much happier note: One of the papers I found was a printed letter from someone I had done some kind of transaction with in Canada from early 2001 (years before I started this forum). The email was extremely helpful and friendly. I couldn't for the life of me remember the context of the transaction, but it was obvious I had asked some super newbie printer questions . No website or email address on the letter. After about 30 minutes of Googling I found the person and an email address and sent a note and we re-connected! Turns out he's "still doing the refilling thing" and best of all he said, "Funny enough, I also find myself reading your forum once in a while." Small world!

 

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...I was about to trash all the invoices too, but decided to try something...

One by one I entered in the websites of all the companies I had purchased misc. supplies from. These were the companies that supplied everything I needed at the time: cartridges, Ink, clips, tape, etc. etc. etc. I wanted to see what they were up to.

To my total surprise and horror about 90% of the companies' websites either didn't resolve (404) or had an ad-filled generic domain squatting page. I couldn't believe it!!! What happened to them all? I mean, 8 years is a long time, especially with anything internet related, but 90% dead!?!?! Come on! Some of them were companies I thought would be around forever, for example: http://www.alotofthings.com/ I was in shock!

So, what happened? Was this just the nature of small business and the often-quoted die rate of companies after the first 1, 3, and 5 years?

Very good question... I know that the market has changed a lot since I started as a novice (yes, I too was a n00b - or is that one 0? )... If I'm honest I don't see the current inkjet market lasting much past 5 years, if that... There's so many things going on with environmental issues, landfill, the quality of the printers themselves and of course the nuclear arsenal style encryption and counter measures side of things... It's all changing.

For my part I was talking to someone about the MIS rise and decline... They were the defacto, go to folks when it came to CIS's and gave a quality service whilst charging a premium for the ink to cover their development costs. Unfortunately two things hit them and hit hard.. The first was the increase in Clone kit CIS's which undercut the MIS kits by such a massive amount that most folks were buying cheaper (and often twice). Chances are MIS would have come back from it if they hadn't then stepped into the Canon stable while simultaneously declaring that they were selling off the Epson stock due to the legal action that was underway.

The phrase "blow off your own foot" springs to mind... For 6+ months, regular customers (as I was back then) were convinced that MIS was essentially dialling back and had already located alternative suppliers when MIS realised their mistake and started trying to claw back the market only to discover it was too late.

Beyond that of course, someone discovered that Image Specialists listed them as a reseller on their site and the "MIS inks are excellent quality" became "Image Specialists inks are excellent..." etc... They lost their edge..

If nothing else I'm very mindful of the business model that was employed there and their insistence that hand made was the way forward while the obviously inferior chinese kits were failing left, right and center with naff all support but still selling like hot cakes. When it comes to waste ink kits I'm aware there's similar issues but at least in this regard people have already been bitten with CIS's and the like so the general populace may be a bit smarter ... (yeah, I know!! )

Doubtless we'll see other "guru's" grace our halls and I must admit it would be nice to see you around a bit more too Rob but then you might be hotter at moderating my posts so perhaps not

On a much happier note: One of the papers I found was a printed letter from someone I had done some kind of transaction with in Canada from early 2001 (years before I started this forum). The email was extremely helpful and friendly. I couldn't for the life of me remember the context of the transaction, but it was obvious I had asked some super newbie printer questions . No website or email address on the letter. After about 30 minutes of Googling I found the person and an email address and sent a note and we re-connected! Turns out he's "still doing the refilling thing" and best of all he said, "Funny enough, I also find myself reading your forum once in a while." Small world!

Sounds good... I have to say the community support on here is really good and that was born out the other day when Jimbo offered to help me with a couple of bits I wasn't sure about on refilling. It's really hard when I'm headed towards a more commercial relationship to let this side of things go. Hopefully I'll find a happy balance but either way I'm glad I'm here