Becoming an Excalibur dealer?

Pydpiper · Post by **Pydpiper** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:05 pm

Dropped in to a shop today to check out some bows and gear, noticed one single phoenix on the wall. I asked the guy if was an Excalibur dealer and he said he has had several messages in to Excalibur about buying stock but they wont give him an answer.
It is a nice little shop that has a lot of fishing stuff too, and just happens to be walking distance from ingolds archery, a Middelton dealer. I don't get why he would be kept in limbo over getting dealer status, considering no body else in town sells excaliber.
He told me Peter told him he was central to 4 other dealers (none are within 45 minutes of drive time), but sits about two blocks from a Middelton dealer.
I liked the shop, and enjoyed the guys attitude, he needs fall inventory and is teetering on the edge of putting Fiddleton bows on the shelf just so he has a product to supply his customers. He also told me that on his opening he had 10K worth of an order for Excal to stock his shelves and still has not got an answer..
Seems like an honest fellow to me, an hour away from the Excalibur plant and has already made his mark in Woodstock..
I don't get it? Isn't the reason that clown Dan from Simcoe upset enough to drop the Excaliburs and pick up the Middelton bows because of a smaller shop opening to close to him dealing in Excals? A garage shop too if I recall.
Is there a criteria I am missing? The guy sold 45 cheap bows last year and with the competition nipping at the ankles it would only seem reasonable to me to get more product out there.
There is a shop in Paris who is an Excal dealer, doesn't have a single bow for display??

bait pile willie · Post by **bait pile willie** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 7:00 pm

the question is can a small dealer stock a large quantity of bows to compete pricewise with the larger bow shops.I know one shop outside Alymer which is an crossboe only shopand he verifies my opening statment.He does sell excaliburs but cannot compete pricewise.His main sellers are Hortons.his claim to fame is his service.you buy a bow from him and it is a tack driver before it leaves the shop.

wheelie · Post by **wheelie** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 7:00 pm

Had a similar experiance at a little shop and they were told they could only carry certain models of excals. So he make a choice to carry none. Now he is a Ten Point dealer. I am sure ecalipur knows what they are doing.

Fork Horn · Post by **Fork Horn** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:41 pm

This is very common in wholesale. Using exculsive dealers helps control the price and supply into the market. There is nothing wrong with it. Why flood an area with dealers and make them compete on price and downgrade your product?

Pydpiper · Post by **Pydpiper** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:51 am

Fork Horn wrote:This is very common in wholesale. Using exclusive dealers helps control the price and supply into the market. There is nothing wrong with it. Why flood an area with dealers and make them compete on price and downgrade your product?

I guess that was part of my point, there are authorized dealers who have no stock, not even a brochure and another guy who wants lots of stock and can't get it.
Again, there are 0 Excalibur dealers in this town.

Stash · Post by **Stash** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:17 am

I am sure that there are many valid reasons for any issues between a supplier and its dealers or "potential" dealers.

I am NOT making any assumptions here about any one dealer, but financial concerns, which are not public knowledge, are always at the forefront.

Sometimes a dealer may want to place an order but can't pay, or establish a credit line to the satisfaction of the supplier. Sometimes a dealer has a past history, either financial or otherwise, that makes a supplier reluctant to open, or re-open, a business relationship.

Suppliers and manufacturers are out to make money, and they don't generally turn down business without a legitimate reason. Speculating on specific instances without any factual information is, I think, not productive.

lscha · Post by **lscha** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:31 am

When I was looking for a crossbow I contacted many bow shops. I asked all of them if they carried Excalibur. Most said yes but they only had one or two in stock, and those were the higher poundage. They ALL said "I can order one for you". They ALL said "I wish I had more, the company is great to deal with". I got the impression Excalibur was just not giving the shops the number or variety that the other companies (TenPoint and Parker) were. I have since been in some shops for one thing or another and always check out the xbow supply. I watch the salesmen and listen. Customers tend to gravitate to the rack that has the most bows. TenPoint and Parker have display racks and banners in most stores along with many of their models.

I love Excalibur but their marketing in Michigan has cost them sales. Why would someone buy a bow they can't shoot first?

If I was king

I'd be passing these out like candy to the dealers. Once someone buys one they usually don't give it up.

Why would a company want to control supply to the market? The price of ones product means nothing if someone doesn't buy it.

Just my opinion, I want everyone to have an Excalibur!!

dutchhunter · Post by **dutchhunter** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 10:52 am

i spoke to this guy as well and he told me that xcal just did not want to many dealers in a given area .he has sold a lot of bows in the last year and is a great guy to deal with .he just got his lic to sell ammo .and his bisness is growing i would like to see him get an xcal dealershipp DUTCH

wdmullins · Post by **wdmullins** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 10:54 am

lscha wrote:When I was looking for a crossbow I contacted many bow shops. I asked all of them if they carried Excalibur. Most said yes but they only had one or two in stock, and those were the higher poundage. They ALL said "I can order one for you".

I have been running into the same issue in West Michigan. On the distributors list on the Excal website, there are 4-5 dealers on this side of the state. None of them have more than 2-3 models in stock; mostly higher poundage. One doesn't even have 09 modles in yet. All are willing to order whatever I want. Even Cabela's only had 3 models in stock.

I don't know the in's and out's of manufacturere/dealer relationships. There may be alot of reasons why the supply is limited. All I do know is that although I have decided to go with Excal when I buy my xbow, I won't make the purchase until I have had the opportunity to shoot it more than just the 3 shots allowed at Cabela's. If I am spending $500-$1000 for the xbow and accessories, I'm gonna know without a doubt that this is the one for me. Not having a dealer in my area with a complete inventory, while not loosing me as a customer, is delaying my purchase considerably.

Don

lscha · Post by **lscha** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 11:12 am

I had the same experience with Cabela's on our way to Illinois. I was very surprised.

Jay's in Clare is my candy shop. Even tho it is 2 hours away. I frequent the place enough to feel comfortable telling them they should carry more Excalibur bows. I did, and they did. Of course it wasn't because of me but they now have almost all of the Excaliburs and you can shoot all of them. In fact one of the salesmen has one and feels it is the best of all the bows they carry. That is saying something when you consider they have all of the brands, practically. You can get them online for less money but if you live close enough to a shop that doesn't charge too much more for them they usually offer great support after the sale.

Thu Jun 25, 2009 11:17 am

The marketing of our product gets a tad complex but frankly we would like to have every shop stock hundreds of our crossbows!

Ontario is saturated with dealers so we really can not set every Tom, Dick and Harry up as a dealer since it screws up the market and in many cases there are other underlying reasons why a dealer is not setup. If you can't find one of our crossbows in Southern Ontario you sure are not looking very hard.

In places like Michigan, PA and Texas most dealers are new to crossbows and really don't know what makes to stock, they all think the compound crossbows sell better so stock up on those. What we really need is help from you guys by asking the dealers why they don't carry Excalibur or why they only have one or two. We put no restrictions on how many they can buy. The market is driven by only one source, the end user...you guys are king! If you bug a dealer to have product guess what, they will stock it. They don't listen to us because we are just sales guys.

Peter

wdmullins · Post by **wdmullins** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:05 pm

Excalibur Marketing Dude wrote:In places like Michigan, PA and Texas most dealers are new to crossbows and really don't know what makes to stock, they all think the compound crossbows sell better so stock up on those. What we really need is help from you guys by asking the dealers why they don't carry Excalibur or why they only have one or two. We put no restrictions on how many they can buy. The market is driven by only one source, the end user...you guys are king! If you bug a dealer to have product guess what, they will stock it. They don't listen to us because we are just sales guys.
Peter

Thanks for the information and suggestion. Al & Bob's and Goldstar Outdoors are both within 20 minutes of me. Al's has 2 models in stock and Goldstar has 1. I will be contacting both today.

Cossack · Post by **Cossack** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:43 pm

My shop carries bows as an afterthought. Lots of vert, 3 crossbows; 2 of which are 2008 models. He ordered 3 Excals, (2 were prior year models) I bought two, and sold the other to a friend. Says Excals don't sell, now takes order only, save for one TP.
Know vertually nothing about crossbow. Has no strings on hand. Don't do CB serving. Not my way of doing business, from now on I'll buy them on line, after doing the research. Make my own arrow and string, as well as press.

Popacap · Post by **Popacap** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 4:19 am

I went to our HUGE outdoor shop and they had at least one of every brand on the wall. Only one Excalibur the Phoenix. I went in wanting an Excalibur and the salesman was trying to get me to go with Parker and Ten Point saying Ten Point was the Best but if I wanted something cheaper get the Parker He was telling me this because of the lifetime warranty on them. He was also telling me the Excalibur only had a 30 day warranty. I loved the simplicity of Excalibur. So I went home without a bow that day. A week later with new info on the so called lifetime warranty basically it was the stock and anything else was 5 years. Went back to bring home a new Excalibur Phoenix. I talk with a different salesman this time and he tells me I should get the Ten Point because of the Accu-draw feature. I said yes but the Excalibur has the Crankaroo you can buy. Then he says ya but we don't sell them here. I said you sell all this stuff and you don't sell a Crankaroo? He said nope haven't had one since I started here. So I left without a bow again pretty upset I wasn't going to go site it in. Keep in mind both times I ask to try the bow in their range and they acted like it was going to be to big of an undertaking to do. I went home and jumped on Excalibur's site to see if I could find anything about their warranty and couldn't so I saw forums and clicked on it. Thats how I found all the information I needed. Everyone on this site have been so helpful. Without your posts I might have been a Ten point owner. I found out about Excals warranty, their reliability and the fanatic and true loyal following they have. I said Excal is the way to go and without shooting it; I bought the Vortex from an online authorized dealer and man am I glad I did!!! This bow is soooo sweet and I was so worried about being able to pull it back. It is a peice of cake with rope aid. Thanks guys for the welcome and all the help. It goes to show not all dealers even the big ones are helping sell bows. It really is you guys who shoot them; and now me.

HAPPY SHOOTING!!!!

Doe Master · Post by **Doe Master** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:56 am

I found the same thing 20 years ago when I went to buy my first crossbow ( Wolverine) . The shop I went to wanted to sell me a used old barnett commando .

I had said I wanted a new bow and they would try very hard to persuade me to go used . I ended up going over to Forum sports in Guelph to buy what I wanted in the first place .

I liked that bow so much . Well I just had to get more .