Grizzley Gold Trap is out of business

[GrizzlyGoldTrap]

Hi Folks, I appreciate everyones comments on the GGT sluices. The decision to stop production was a difficult one. From the start, our goal was to support the community of fluid bed sluice users and provide products for this group of prospectors. Over the past 18 months, we experienced increases in the cost of raw materials (ABS), two increases in fabrication (thermoforming), and a sizing adjustment to the number of thermoforming blanks that they could cut out of a 4'x8' sheet of ABS, which also increased costs. Then the need to replace the current mold used for the Explorer and Nugget at several thousands of dollars cost. Even without the mold issue (tried to repair but did not work), the cost of producing final products is no longer economical. Down the road, I may produce (not sure yet) a few MotherLode models. Will see... We did of course, ship all orders that were place and will be around to support existing customers, answer questions on setup and operating of sluices, and produce additional setup and operating videos on our sluices that customers have requested. I may also tinker around designing a completely new fluid bed system - for now, heavy pans to all. Hope to see some of you out on the rivers... Dennis - GGT

 

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[Asmbandits]

Just out of curiosity, what part of the sluice was formed in the mold?

 

[Goldwasher]

Just out of curiosity, what part of the sluice was formed in the mold?

The main tub

 

[Asmbandits]

I could build one without a mold, I think Todd was possibly doing so as well. I can see now looking at the tub and the change in angle would be the reasoning for a mold to achieve this, but wouldn't be needed but if the taper was the same from front to back as the original bazookas were. I could see making the whole thing out of sheet. More labor intense but possible.

 

[Goldwasher]

K.I.S.S Just templates and glue two guys cutting and building.

Paying other people to make them. will allow for Q.C. issues.

The new attributes did not make it that much better of a sluice. If at all.

 

[GrizzlyGoldTrap]

Just out of curiosity, what part of the sluice was formed in the mold?

The bottom and side walls are one part, the transport deck is another part.

 

[goldog]

Thanks grizzly. I did a griz/zook hybrid. While I liked the idea the execution was difficult to say the least.

 

[mofugly13]

The grizzly had a flat deck from one end to the other, right? And the material would drop through the grizzlies and then continue on to the fluid chamber? If that’s the case, I would like to hear if that feature was a plus or a minus or just a meh...

 

[striker]

I would happily buy the plans too

 

[Hard Prospector]

I've used the Grizzly & Bazooka and have to give the edge to the Grizzly, always thought you didn't charge enough for your sluices though. Your fluid bed sluices fill a void in the industry, sure hope you get back to production soon (even if just one or two models). Price them to make a good profit, miners will pay for a sure thing. Build it and they will come.

 

[GrizzlyGoldTrap]

We are looking at producing a limited production run of the MotherLode model each month. Will post updates on our site and Facebook page. Thanks for everyones comments and encouragement.

 

[SunshineMiner]

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!! Just in time for Christmas to myself!? :P

 

[Capt Nemo]

Email sent to the site. Wanted 2 explorers, but will settle for a motherlode that the both of us can shovel into.

 

[Golden_Crab]

I've used the Grizzly & Bazooka and have to give the edge to the Grizzly, always thought you didn't charge enough for your sluices though. Your fluid bed sluices fill a void in the industry, sure hope you get back to production soon (even if just one or two models). Price them to make a good profit, miners will pay for a sure thing. Build it and they will come.

He needs to diversify his product lines into less costly to produce items in addition to the sluices to stay in business long term. Raising prices would not fix this issue.

Like a clip on beer holder that keeps it in the cold water $2.99 (costs less than $0.50 to produce) just as an example. Shirts, stickers, other niche digging equipment, etc.

Message me if you need help Dennis.

 

[Goldwasher]

uh, your price for a produced sluice should cover cost to produce and make a profit.

Shirts, hats, stickers.. gimmicks don't take care of that.

Remember how putting a yellow sticker on the side was gonna sell more of these than anything else would?

Giving potential customers the option of buying the smallest version of your product, Or a hat that has the name of that product on it.

Is pointless if it doesn't actually move another unit. Especially if the net revenue doesn't generate a decent profit.

Seems to be a pretty simple concept....yet


Fixing the production costs should be focus #1 ( and quality control cause it is needed)

Two people making sluice boxes until a third is needed.. Hopefully the guy in charge is 50% or more of the labor force.

 

[Golden_Crab]

uh, your price for a produced sluice should cover cost to produce and make a profit.

Shirts, hats, stickers.. gimmicks don't take care of that.

Remember how putting a yellow sticker on the side was gonna sell more of these than anything else would?

Giving potential customers the option of buying the smallest version of your product, Or a hat that has the name of that product on it.

Is pointless if it doesn't actually move another unit. Especially if the net revenue doesn't generate a decent profit.

Seems to be a pretty simple concept....yet


Fixing the production costs should be focus #1 ( and quality control cause it is needed)

Two people making sluice boxes until a third is needed.. Hopefully the guy in charge is 50% or more of the labor force.

What about your customers who have already bought their sluices, are happy and would still like to support the company in ways that are relevant to their needs/wants? Especially when you run into production costs that halt your main revenue over pennies by comparison that could have been compensated for by frivolous sales & said items are produced offsite at no liability to you... Considering he already nearly lost his business completely following the strategy you just outlined, wouldn't be my path forward if production is back in business.

"Want to make more money via automated online sales of items produced out of house?"

"no."



Branded clothing and accessories produces indirect sales via marketing from said "gimmick". You won't always be taking your sluice with you, but clothing and accessories? All the time. Bumper stickers? Oh yea. Quality specialty recovery tools with branding? No, but you should look into selling some of these alongside your other products or outsource the sales on your site at least.

 

[Goldwasher]

What about your customers who have already bought their sluices, are happy and would still like to support the company in ways that are relevant to their needs/wants? Especially when you run into production costs that halt your main revenue over pennies by comparison that could have been compensated for by frivolous sales & said items are produced offsite at no liability to you... Considering he already nearly lost his business completely following the strategy you just outlined, wouldn't be my path forward if production is back in business.

"Want to make more money via automated online sales of items produced out of house?"

"no."



Branded clothing and accessories produces indirect sales via marketing from said "gimmick". You won't always be taking your sluice with you, but clothing and accessories? All the time. Bumper stickers? Oh yea. Quality specialty recovery tools with branding? No, but you should look into selling some of these alongside your other products or outsource the sales on your site at least.

I understand that works for normal products that sale enough units. That would create a customer base . Where that would matter.

However we are talking about sluice boxes. Its still a market where the tool being peddled is priority one. Production cost is the only fish in the barrel from start to well into public acceptance.

Do you realize how long if EVER it would be before GGT sold a million units. For the math to kick in to make hats and t-shirts matter in the insane hope of getting to 1.1 million units sold. In the first three years.

A keystone product like the sluice box. Some hand tools available online. Pans, some books. Some hats and shirts stickers. Yep it all makes sense. But, your really there to sell sluice boxes so that needs to be pretty buttoned up.

How about spending the first year doing shows too. Cause this is still a market with a large percentage of people who could give a crap about the intraweb.
also it gives people the chance to smell your sweat on the box..see your passion for your product first hand. That matters to people too.

Having some in actual stores. But , if the profit margin is so slim that's prohibitive? That is called an indicator. There are only two choices. lower cost to produce or raise prices.

Well, everyone has ideas I guess. Again I think if they go with one box and firm up the brand. They'll have a reason to make 2k beer koozies.


Dennis is smart and a nice guy. I'm not being critical of him. Sorry if it has ever sounded like it. I'm sure he is chewing on all kinds of idea jerky. I really do hope he figures it out.

 

[KevinInColorado]

He is smart and more than nice. His sluices continued the fluidbed legacy and sold as fast as he could build them (himself). The rest of it is about the money and therefore not for public consumption.

 

[Asmbandits]

He is smart and more than nice. His sluices continued the fluidbed legacy and sold as fast as he could build them (himself). The rest of it is about the money and therefore not for public consumption.

It's very clear your in heavy support of him and have always been, though I find it bothersome that some of the products he put out were missing parts or otherwise in poor quality while some were not. It's hard being one of the people who have seen first hand this and know others that have experienced this as well yet this issue had been quick to be swept under the rug and attention/blame shifted which is understandable from his point of view but not for many here..

If the owner of the company truly was building these and sending them out in the condition I've experienced first hand, well that's a problem in itself.. If they had quality control issues and have since re bounded and adressed the issue and publicly made mention of this I'd feel a lot better about the product and company.

Basically it feels like everyone was patted on the back and on team grizzly until some recived inoperable or damaged products, yet people still want to praise and misslead..

 

[GrizzlyGoldTrap]

It's very clear your in heavy support of him and have always been, though I find it bothersome that some of the products he put out were missing parts or otherwise in poor quality while some were not. It's hard being one of the people who have seen first hand this and know others that have experienced this as well yet this issue had been quick to be swept under the rug and attention/blame shifted which is understandable from his point of view but not for many here..

If the owner of the company truly was building these and sending them out in the condition I've experienced first hand, well that's a problem in itself.. If they had quality control issues and have since re bounded and adressed the issue and publicly made mention of this I'd feel a lot better about the product and company.

Basically it feels like everyone was patted on the back and on team grizzly until some recived inoperable or damaged products, yet people still want to praise and misslead..

Folks, as we sort out the future, I want to verify that what Asmbandits says is true, we had at one point in production had an issue with parts from our 2nd fabrication company that had a bonding issue. We identified and corrected the problem and sent out emails to several people that they may or may not have a unit with this issue, and to let us know if they had problems with their units. We received back emails from four people over time thanking us for letting them know to watch for bonding issues - these four had issues and we immediately sent them replacement units with return address labels for the defective units (at no charges to them of course). We also sent out one unit that was missing the fluidizing tubes -rushing through production and missing visual QC on that unit. When this customer contacted us we also sent them a replacement unit with return address label for the defective unit. GGT has worked on designing and providing a good fluid bed sluice for our community of users, we have had our ups and downs in production and have done our best to deliver a good product, take care of any issues arising, and supporting (and continue to support) our customers. We have shipped every product ever ordered. We have had one to two people helping with production also. At this point, as we have explained, production costs are too high on the Nugget and Explorer models to produce and we working on starting up a limited, but ongoing production of the MotherLode units. I will also be researching design of a fairly different sluice utilizing fluidization to separate heavies - but that is down the road from now.