Let’s talk money. This was originally intended as kind of a response to another blog post, but ended up becoming its own thing.

Many veterans in the community know that yoyos aren’t *that* expensive to make for things made in China. And they only get cheaper as production numbers go up. Even in a small run of ~60 6061 yoyos, it’s only $30 or so per unit at the shop we use, including packaging and accessories. Maybe $35 or $40 if you have some fancy boxes.

“So what gives? Why do companies charge $50 or more for yoyos?”

Well, for one… shipping a production run costs like $100 or more. International shipping hurts for everyone. 🙁

It’s also about work spent, but you’ve probably heard this already from other people.

At each step of the way, all the people who help bring the product to life deserve compensation for what they do, machining time is expensive too…

And so on. We’ve heard that in some way or another from multiple people.

Prototyping, taxes and simple website maintenance eat up money/time quickly as well, and that’s something I haven’t seen as much.

Tax returns are due in mid-April! Income taxes don’t matter if you document that you’ve made no profit, haha… all of the money’s going toward further production runs right now. For our California residents, we thank you for paying taxes and making sure the Board of Equalization doesn’t come knocking on our door.

A website costs about a hundred dollars a year if you’re willing to put in the work to build it. Prototypes are a few hundred a run. All that adds into a decent investment for a hobbyist, and slim margins until a brand gets established well enough to do bigger production runs. At the same time, there’s limits to how much cost should be passed onto the consumer, and as an engineer I’ve tried my best to minimize costs by making some damn good protos the first time around.

ThrowCafe was built from the idea of cutting out the fluff and trying out some novel ideas, offering unprecedented value to the community for such a small brand. We’ve been in our own little corner of the community instead of reaching out, and I like it that way. Cozy, small. Like the old days.

We’re going to bring back that old-fashioned feel again, at one of the lowest prices seen from any small brand. The Boba will launch at $45 for an organic, full-sized yoyo with a modern weight distribution and old-school design influences. We’ll be posting more information soon.