exxos store downsizing - discontinuing multiple items

[exxos]

. I can bring down some Gameboys with Pokemon Red or something, if it will clinch the deal? :lol:

Not really up to me, it's if @JezC goes.

Dawn did say it been better if there's WiFi as she could play games on her tablet... Even though there's a bunch of retro machines she could play on :roll:

Somehow drifted way off topic here :lol:

[mrbombermillzy]

Somehow drifted way off topic here :lol:

Yeah right. I will open some CL4 threads at some point, so all this sort of stuff can go there.

SIx months tomorrow! :lol: :hide:

[exxos]

I asked Grok to write a overview.. It did pretty well as I didn't give it any links or where to find info etc..


Reasons for Exxos Downsizing Atari Store

Exxos, the operator of the Atari-focused retro hardware store, is downsizing due to several challenges:

• Low Profit Margins: Managing ~230 items, many low-value (e.g., resistor packs, connectors) with profits often <£1/order. Packing, labeling, and shipping, plus a 2-mile post office trip, result in earnings as low as 50p–70p/hour for these orders.
• Loss of EU Market: EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) requirements have halted shipments to Europe, a key market. Only two orders from Germany were received in 2025.
• Health Constraints: As a solo operator, Exxos’ repetitive strain injury (RSI) limits their ability to manage inventory and operations.
• Market Saturation: Atari market sales have dropped tenfold, beyond EU losses, due to competition and alternatives like floppy emulators reducing demand for hardware upgrades.
• Operational Overload: Managing 230 items, sourcing supplies, and troubleshooting is overwhelming for one person, leaving little time for innovation.

Exxos is cutting ~90 items, focusing on higher-value products, with low-value orders facing a 2026 handling charge to ensure sustainability while supporting the Atari community.

[alexh]

Not that it matters but I have seen many sites make some low margin items "add on items" that is they can only be bought with a more expensive (profitable) item. Just an idea.

[dml]

Not that it matters but I have seen many sites make some low margin items "add on items" that is they can only be bought with a more expensive (profitable) item. Just an idea.

Good point. I was lucky to pick up some hard-to-find parts on the store for various repairs etc. so it would be sad to see all that disappear but I can understand a minimum order would make a lot of sense there. Really impractical to be shipping out low cost items one at a time.

[exxos]

Not that it matters but I have seen many sites make some low margin items "add on items" that is they can only be bought with a more expensive (profitable) item. Just an idea.

Certainly something to think about yes...

[exxos]

Good point. I was lucky to pick up some hard-to-find parts on the store for various repairs etc. so it would be sad to see all that disappear but I can understand a minimum order would make a lot of sense there. Really impractical to be shipping out low cost items one at a time.

A lot of orders are just "bits and bobs", yes I would agree the the sad and annoying not to have that.. But not many companies really deal with low value orders any more.. There is always handling charges for the most part anyway.

A lot of hard to find parts are becoming even harder to find and more expensive. Things like the STE simm sockets I can't buy anymore of. So once they gone, that's it. It just becomes very problematical from a lot of different angles. Discontinuing lines of stock is just a unfortunate and inevitable conclusion when dealing with such old parts.

Mostly it's the logistics of everything which is the problem. As I said at the beginning somewhere, I generally have been buying like 1,000 boxes to keep the cost on the boxes down.. but that's like 3+ years of boxes to store.. and that's just ONE size of box.. The smallest most common size boxes we use literally take up half of the shed alone.. A lot of other boxes I just buy like 100 of them.. like motherboard boxes, PSU boxes, other shipping boxes etc etc.. I already outed some rolls of bubblewrap to the loft :lol: :roll:

Its all a bit of a huge complex problem.. I mean I would pretty much lose a lot of the "bits and bobs" sales to evilbay or something no doubt. It is just going to be unavoidable collateral damage in the end. There will be like a £5 and handling charge for low value orders next year. Low value things like the SIMM sockets etc which are just going out of stock anyway, so not really sure what low value items will be ultimately left in the end anyway..

Mostly I just want to concentrate on the Phoenix platform and higher value items such as motherboards, boosters and that sort of thing. Sales will be rather low of such things , but that's also half the point..

[exxos]

Prices across a number of items are unfortunately having to increase, and it's the result of several factors converging at once. Back in 2019, pricing was in a much healthier place — but since then, parts have either become obsolete or doubled in cost, and shipping tariffs have added further pressure that's been difficult to absorb.

Bulk buying was previously a reliable way to keep prices down by taking advantage of price breaks, but with demand having dropped significantly over the past couple of years, ordering in bulk no longer makes financial sense. That means those savings are gone, and the cost per unit is simply higher as a result. Even everyday overheads like buying boxes in bulk to reduce packaging costs are no longer justifiable at current volumes.

For items that are effectively end-of-line — whether due to lack of demand, limited storage space, or the time involved in maintaining such projects — prices need to reflect a realistic return. Some items have seen increases specifically to make it worthwhile continuing to stock and support them at all, accounting for both current and previous time and costs invested.

I'm fully aware that people's finances are under strain globally due to the cost of living and wider economic pressures, and the timing couldn't be worse. But the reality is that reducing the number of stocked items, cutting overheads, and adjusting prices is the only viable path forward. If demand for certain items falls away entirely, once existing stock is gone it won't be replenished. The retro community, much as I value it, is at a particularly difficult point right now, and unfortunately these changes are not a choice so much as a necessity.

Having supported the community for 30 years, it's certainly seen its rises and falls, and I've been raising concerns about the direction of things for a number of years now. Looking at the current sales analysis, some items are still selling relatively well and consistently — but I don't think that will last. A lot of items are seeing roughly a 50% reduction in sales year on year, and the honest prediction is that within two years, many of them simply won't sell at all. Increasing prices may accelerate that to some degree, but things have to make sense in order to be worth continuing.

Part of the problem, I think, is that the machines themselves have become expensive. Years ago you could pick one up cheaply — now you're looking at £100–£200 for something that might not even work. That alone is likely putting off new people from entering the hobby, and without new people coming in, new sales just aren't appearing the way they once did. There's also competition to consider, but I don't think any single thing is to blame. As I've said before, it's more like a "death of a thousand cuts." The loss of EU sales wiped out roughly half the business overnight. Even continuing to sell into Germany — our biggest EU market — while paying all the associated fees, German sales have been so low it's no longer worth it. And with UK shipping costs continuously rising, people simply aren't going to pay postage that costs more than the item itself.

The whole picture is incredibly complex to analyse, and it wasn't helped by the lockdown surge in sales, which skewed things considerably. I tried to keep up with demand during that period but parts prices were rising, things were going wrong, and it became something of a mess. Most new customers, from what I can tell, tend to be people discovering the hobby fresh — and if machines are pricing people out before they even start, that pipeline dries up quickly.

What makes it all harder is that the time and cost involved in running things keeps increasing while sales keep falling, and at some point those two lines cross and there's simply no way to continue. My RSI is already significantly limiting what I can get done each day, which has a huge knock-on effect across everything. I'm not going to produce a run of 100 boards for £2 profit each and hope they sell over the next decade — that just doesn't make sense anymore. Even a run of 10 might not sell in 10 years. Smaller runs mean higher unit costs, which increases prices, which will likely suppress sales further — and that's the rock and the hard place I find myself stuck between.

It's genuinely disheartening after 30 years, and the writing has been on the wall for some time now. I'm trying not to give up entirely, but there is only so much time, money, and energy that can be pushed into something when the numbers keep moving in the wrong direction. At some point, calling it quits stops being a choice and becomes the only realistic option left.

The bottom line is this: reducing stock, stopping bulk buying, and managing things at a smaller scale reduces both financial strain and risk. Items that continue to sell, even slowly, may well be worth keeping around. Those that don't will simply vanish — there's no point stocking things that no longer move.

None of this comes from a lack of trying — far from it. At the end of the day, this has always been one person, in a bedroom, with a soldering iron, doing their best to keep something they care about alive for as long as possible. That's not nothing. Whatever happens, the effort has been genuine and the support of the community over 30 years has meant a great deal. There are still items selling, still projects worth seeing through, and still some fight left in the tank. The day I hang up the iron for good will be an incredibly sad one — but we are not there yet. For as long as it remains possible to keep things ticking over in some form, that's exactly what I intend to do.