Restocks are changing
Hello! Welcome to the first blog post on 760 Creations. I wanted to start a blog on the website because I’d prefer to avoid putting the most important website information on Twitter exclusively. Having it on the website makes it accessible for everyone.
In the year plus that 760 Creations has existed, I’ve learned a lot of valuable information and skills. I think it’s important to note to those unaware that this whole operation is ran by a single person. I source the guitars, design/print the replacement parts, keep track of inventory and funds, handle shipping, answer emails, etc. I’ve learned CAD design, PCB design, 3D printer tuning and optimization, you name it.
The point of mentioning this is to remind people that a lot of behind the scenes work and research/development goes into this stuff; the demand is so extreme that it can be pretty overwhelming to keep up.
Let’s get to the real meat and potatoes though: restocks. Restocks on the website have been stressful for everyone since 760 Creations started. Having to keep up with a self set, strict deadline to get a certain amount of guitars done at a certain time was pretty tough. Depending on the model, a guitar can take between 2-5 hours to complete, even with board prep and such done beforehand. Some models require more wiring than others, some guitars are absolutely filthy, and sometimes a guitar just doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. I hold myself up to the highest standard possible, and always aim to make sure a guitar works exactly the way I intend it to before considering it finished.
The more important aspect of this, however, is the stress on the customer. The amount of traffic I typically received during a restock was several thousand people. This resulted in a ton of frustration for potential buyers. I would get emails from people stating that money was taken from their account, but they did not receive an order confirmation email (which means they did not succeed in purchasing a guitar). While I never receive that money and the payment processor gets it back to them pretty quickly, it’s jarring and demoralizing. I’ve also gotten some nasty emails from people personally attacking me due to the instant stock depletion that happens during restocks. I do my best to not let these get to me, as it’s simply human nature to be frustrated over these things. Some people say things they don’t mean and are driven by emotion.
The other thing I want to point out is the accusation of bots/scalpers crawling the website. In terms of bots, I do not believe there are any crawling the website, and I will explain why in a bit. For scalpers, let’s quickly go over what a scalper is: someone who buys in demand products at the usual prices and then sells them at much higher prices. This just isn’t happening here. I’ve made the effort to repeatedly scour third party selling sites such as eBay, Mercari, OfferUp, etc and validate this claim. I have never seen any of my products being sold on these platforms, let alone for a price significantly higher than what I charge. I have not seen a customer selling their guitar as used either (the customer is autonomous and they are allowed to do this).
When it comes to bots, there are two possible types: ones that crawl the website to constantly check for restocks, and bot scripts that automate the checkout process, making it as rapid as possible (scalpers use these methods). In order to test the crawling theory, I ran two completely silent, unannounced restocks on a random day of the week. Both times, the guitars took nearly 24 hours to sell out. Keep in mind that in both of these tests, I only had about a dozen or so available. So I feel that this confirms that the sales made are from real people browsing the website.
In terms of checkout automation scripts, is it possible these were used by some people for previous restocks? Absolutely. Unfortunately, I have no way of confirming this. I tried to see if I could implement a CAPTCHA system in checkout to deter this behavior, but so far I have not found a way. If anybody knows how to do this, please contact me via the email on the contact page! Otherwise, I hope SquareSpace implements this as a feature eventually.
Now, let’s come back to the silent restocks I mentioned before. If you sensed the foreshadowing, then yes, restocks will be silent and random from now on; no more set day/time. While this means that potential buyers will have to check the website more often, this change will eliminate the previously mentioned stress associated with restocks. Trust me when I say it never felt good to receive emails from so many frustrated people. The demand for good guitars seems to be growing every day as Clone Hero gains more and more players. As one person working in a basement office, I can only provide so much. I hope to expand in the future and be able to produce even more guitars at a time… so keep your eyes peeled.
Before concluding this blog, let me provide a tl;dr for the people who don’t want to read this whole page:
tl;dr: Restocks will now be completely silent and random with no set date/time, so just check the website more often!
I hope that this decision is able to relieve as much stress as I project. Maybe one day, things will be easier! Who knows? I do get a lot of emails from people wanting to commission a more customized guitar, or asking to reserve a store one. With the slow speed of this current operation, these things just aren’t feasible. If people made reservations, some people would be waiting 2+ years for their guitar. I would never feel comfortable holding on to someone’s money for that long.
Maybe the dream of providing a send-in service will happen in the near future. We’ll just have to wait and see :)
