Club Card

[wizard.toys 0]

Hi

Good day yesterday, went to Plymouth city centre just looking for anything interesting, walked into our Modelzone shop only to find the Brat & Hotshot kits still on the shelves! I had heard that the Brat had been discontinued and everywhere I had tried on the net was waiting for Hotshots but here they were.

Now I hadn't intended to buy anything as I had these models on back order but got chatting with the very helpful guy in there and when I mentioned being a member of the Tamiya club he offered me a 10% discount. I bought the Hotshot, well at just over 112 with the discount this seemed like a great deal to me. I was told that if I bring in a club card I could get this discount all the time on my Tamiya purchases.

This is my question, I wondered what others might think of having a club card, I belong to several other clubs, many smaller than this, who all issue a club card and I have found that often shops are willing to offer discounts when you present the card. It wouldn't have to be "posh" often just a small printed card is enough i.e. not the plastic credit card type which I must admit are great from the likes of Hornby - Hornby Club & Scalextric Club, also Lionel in the USA who can obviously afford this kind of thing.

Secondly if a card was made available how would it be funded, would it be optional at extra cost, would we accept another 1 on the subscription, could it be something available on line that we could access through our membership area and print ourselves? Could have choice of favourite vehicle. Here's a quick idea but it might be good to see designs from those experts out there.

Would love to hear any other views.

[MonsterYeti 0]

Not an expert but seems a good idea to me

[tamiya monkey 243]

Yeh i agree, what a great idea, im used to fussionhobbies giving discounts to members but now i know modelzone does will be sure to mention it when i next go in, thanks.

[Lemming 48]

Hi all,

I did offer this some time ago: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=25311

If it had been a club card the price would have dropped dramtically (as economies of scale come into play - as low as 50p a card was possible)

Unfortunately I have become a house husband, but could still sort some sort of deal with my previous employers (I left on such a good note that the bosses gave me a WII and the staff gave me a DS Lite!)

Could be done as pic/text only, mag stripe, barcode etc...

Steve

[wizard.toys 0]

Hi

Thanks for the responses, obviously I would love to see the card made available, I can save the cost of the card with the first purchase. I'll have a look at the survey system here to see if we can try to get a clearer picture of what the majority of members would like.

Cheers

[twisty 8]

Sorry,but a shout against here.

It would be a logistical nightmare for someone to make club cards,there is a lot of work to produce these,then post them around the world.

I really don`t want to see the cost of TC membership increase unless it absolutely has to and certainly not for a club card i would probably not use.

[Lemming 48]

Sorry,but a shout against here.

It would be a logistical nightmare for someone to make club cards,there is a lot of work to produce these,then post them around the world.

I really don`t want to see the cost of TC membership increase unless it absolutely has to and certainly not for a club card i would probably not use.

Hi Twisty,

Production is no problem - the company I used to work for did card for RS Owners Club, McLaren Members Club, WRU Members Cards (as well as schools, colleges, councils, NHS trusts) etc. No major issues involved there at all other than a dump of data to the supplier (plus images if cards are to be individualised).

Each card can be individual (image and text) or based on the same thing with just text details changing (cheaper option).

The only issue would be sending them out to each member - we used to send to the company in question and get them to distribute. Basically it would require 1st class postage per member...

Anyway, no worries either way - when I originally asked (2006) I was going to purchase the equipement and produce them at home (not for profit) but now the work would be passed onto the company I used to work for. No commission or anything involved.

All the best

Steve

EDIT - Hadn't thought about postage to non-UK addresses. Can't imagine it would be too much cost though

Personally I would have seen these as an option, or included in current fees, rather than any increase in subscriber fees. Possible that the recent increase in membership might make it possible within existing fees but I doubt that...

[Gruntfuggly 562]

Most businesses will give you a discount just by asking - especially in the current economic climate.

I don't really see the point of a paper card - how would you prevent people just making copies? At the end of the day, just ask for a discount and say you'll give them a recommendation on here...

[Lemming 48]

Most businesses will give you a discount just by asking - especially in the current economic climate.

I don't really see the point of a paper card - how would you prevent people just making copies? At the end of the day, just ask for a discount and say you'll give them a recommendation on here...

Very true. TBH I originally offered it on here more as a "I'm a member of TamiyaClub" or "This is my pride and joy" sort of thing on platic card.

Just to clarify: I'm personally not bothered about a card, as I have plenty of them already (including pics of the wife and baby on plastic cards). The only TC discounts I use are from Fusion Hobbies, and that is a code used on-line. To me the card has no value apart from to show that I am a member of TC (membership card rather than anything else).

There are lots of ways of avoiding the cards being copied, but for the sake of a 10% discount I can't image anyone bothering if they were on plastic. Paper based ones would be completely pointless and easily duplicated...

If people decide to look into if further I'll happily provide details of the company I used to work for as it's probably not much advantage to me doing it. Can't even imagine they would give me a discount unless it was large quantities (break points were 1k, 5k and 10k from memory). I was the Technical Manager, so not 100% on prices/discounts as that was sales, which I avoided like the plague!

Anyway, will leave the thread alone now unless anyone wants contact details for them.

All the best

Steve

[Incredible_Serious 107]

Okay... so you have a card, for which you could present at the hobby shop offering the discount... now, how many actual TamiyaClub members are in walking distance / local to one of these hobby shops? Is there a place you can walk into in Sweden, show your TC card, and get a discount? How about the US? Germany? South Africa???? It seems to me, that the only people this would benefit would be those who can walk into a UK shop.

For me, I can't see any value in a card that has to be produced and sent all over the world, every year, that just shows you belong to a club. If I want to show I belong to TamiyaClub, I show my showroom, via my own personal showroom link http://incredible_serious.tamiyaclub.com/ .

Alex

[grizy 12]

Other model shops offer discounts to TC members. How do they check you are a TC member?

The fact that you go in the shop and say "I'm a TC member can I have a 10% discount" should be enough shouldn't it?

They'll still make a profit and they're getting free advertising.

Grizy

[wizard.toys 0]

Hi again

I did suggest the card could be optional, the issue was only that the Modelzone chain for one would not offer a 10% discount without a card proving membership, which did not seem unreasonable to me. If most people buy on line then a card is useless I just like to buy locally if I can, although modelzone have a web site this is no gaurantee that my local branch will stay in business.