exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

As part of a major overhaul of my store, I’ve started marking a ton of items as "available until stock is exhausted." My aim is to cut the inventory from around 230 items down to a leaner 50 or less. Currently there's over 100 items in for the chop at the time of typing. It’s become painfully clear that lugging around such a wide variety of products just isn’t sustainable anymore.

The workload—sourcing supplies, keeping stock levels straight, and juggling daily operations—is brutal, and my repetitive strain injury (RSI) slams a hard cap on what I can physically manage. Life keeps hammering me with relentless challenges; I barely claw my way out of one mess before another lands in my lap. Nobody said life was easy, but my daily grind of tackling problems leaves next to no time for Atari stuff. Downsizing isn’t a preference—it’s the only lifeline I’ve got left.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been basically out of work since 2019, which has gutted the financial buffer I once had. Back then, I could pour cash into projects and keep a sprawling inventory afloat. That’s history now. Even if I had the money, my RSI limits my hands-on time to a fraction of what it used to be. I hardly have a spare minute to glance at forum posts, let alone respond to people.

Throw in the endless hassle of tweaking service details and updating the store—it’s a full-time job just to keep the wheels spinning, never mind designing new items. It’s a chaotic minefield of issues, all demanding attention I can’t spare. I turn 47 next month—no spring chicken here—and juggling a mountain of tasks isn’t something I can mentally or physically pull off anymore. This isn’t the me from decades ago who could crank out a new project every couple of weeks. I’ve been at this for nearly three decades, so it’s not like it hasn’t had a solid run—but that pace? It’s long gone.

And then there’s the sales collapse. As I’ve noted recently, they’ve nosedived—literally tenfold. I don’t think it’s just the loss of EU sales or competition eating my lunch. I’m not entirely sure what’s happened, but my best guess is the cost of living is choking what people can spend on non-essential gear like this. March is usually my peak season, yet this year’s been the quietest since I started keeping records. When you stack that up with every other problem, it’s like death by a thousand cuts. Even if I sold 500 ST2VGA adapters, it wouldn’t really move the needle—not with everything else crumbling around it.

Take a batch of 500 ST2VGA adapters as a case study. It’s a hefty upfront hit—far from cheap—and testing each one sucks up an absurd amount of time. Then there’s the logistics: 500 boxes to source and stash, 500 packages to pack, and 500 trips’ worth of stuff to drag to the post office. A few years back, they flew off the shelves, and it paid off. Now? It’s a pointless slog.

Over the past year, I’ve been ramping up production to keep things in stock, but it’s been the worst possible time. Chips are getting pricier, harder to find, and increasingly obsolete. I’ve managed to recover a lot of stock, but the costs have shot up—never mind the time it takes. Doing this while my European market’s been wiped out just compounds the madness. There are too many angles, too many moving parts, for me to keep up with and fix. It’s endless, exhausting, unrewarding work.

Producing something like a new batch of power supplies isn’t much better—it’s another monster task. The effort’s ballooned, especially after switching PCB suppliers yet again. I’ve shifted assembly to a UK company out of sheer necessity. China was cheaper for production, but with postage and import fees through the roof, it stopped making sense. UK assembly steadies the supply chain and cuts some headaches, but it drives up costs, which sometimes means higher prices for customers. It’s a compromise I couldn’t avoid.

The EU shipping ban has been a brutal blow, too. As most of you know, I can’t send anything there anymore, slashing a massive chunk of my customer base overnight. Add in the swarm of competitors copying my stuff—power supplies, ST2VGA adapters, the lot—and the Atari market’s too tiny to keep multiple sellers afloat. Items that used to shift 100 units a year have dwindled to almost nothing. Weigh every angle—sales tanking, competition, rising costs, chip shortages—and it’s a perfect storm. Even pushing production doesn’t solve it; it just digs the hole deeper.

To shift gears, I’ve tweaked prices store-wide. Some items are up to match rising costs, others are cut to clear them out fast. For things like chips or components, I’ve got more stashed in tubes and boxes than what’s listed—extra stock not fully tallied online. If someone wants to buy out a whole line, I’d need to rummage through everything here and count it up, which might show more than what’s in the store.

I’ve always aimed to run a one-stop shop for Atari fans, a place with everything you might need. But as a solo act, that dream—however well-intentioned—has hit a wall. I’m one person, and managing 230 items has turned into an impossible burden under my current financial, physical, and time constraints. The grind of updates, tweaks, and firefighting leaves me too stretched to keep up, let alone innovate. It’s a model that’s had its day but can’t hold together anymore.

I won’t list every discontinued item—it’s too many to spell out. Just head to the store at https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/, type “exhausted” into the search bar, and you’ll see what’s phasing out as stock runs dry. This downsizing is about survival—focusing on what’s workable and shedding the rest.

I hope customers understand why this has to happen—it’s the only way I can keep going amid this relentless barrage of challenges.

Well, I hate to see it but I understand. I know it's unlikely in the foreseeable future but I hope things will turn around.

Thanks for being there for the Atari community Chris - we appreciate you! :cheers:

It's a sad reflection of the times, @exxos, but it sounds like it's the right thing to do.

I know it's not its meaning, but it's somewhat poetic the search term to find the items in draw-down is 'exhausted'!

EDIT: ...and not even 47 yet!? Practically a teenager!

BW (who's currently 47...)

I will be 47 in July.

Completely understand @exxos's sitation. For me work has gone mad. I'm in the office 5 days a week, i'm effectively a manager now, sales of TF stuff have dropped significantly... partly due to PiStorm but i suspect also due to the general financial situation. Its increasingly unlikely the TF2040 will see the light of day.

This is a sad situation Chris. :(

You know, Ive always wondered - with small retro ecosystems like the ST - how far you can go selling a worthwhile item before 'market saturation' becomes an issue.

I imagine thats also part of the story.

IMHO, things in general got a fair bit worse at the beginning of 2020 (big white elephant in the room there)...and the decline has continued ever since.

mrbombermillzy wrote: 08 Apr 2025 15:44 IMHO, things in general got a fair bit worse at the beginning of 2020 (big white elephant in the room there)...and the decline has continued ever since.

Is not strictly true as such though, because Covid complicated everything..

Around 2018-2019ish, I wanted to take a extended break from things as I was worn out. I made a final push to increase stocks and should have theoretically lasted one or two years easily based on previous sales data. However, during lockdown sales skyrocketed and wiped out the stock in just a few weeks. Good in that respect I suppose. ..

However, then I had enormous work in trying to find parts to ramp up production during lockdown and parts shortages which was a phenomenal amount of work, and indeed some projects such as flashy clock and Trudie still have not been finished even though they have been fully assembled during lockdown..

Production on other items started to increase again more recently because parts were returning to some semi-sane prices. So as I started ramping up production again. The bombshell was lack of EU sales and the slow rise of competition in the background all counteracting the point of ramping up production. I also panic bought way too much stuff during lockdown which did not really help matters in some cases. A lot of parts never really returned to 2018 prices and remained high regardless.

So while there is a natural progression after the "lockdown boom", its slightly tainted expected sales volumes. That has dropped to basically pre-covid levels now. But the problem is, sales tanked way beyond what they were even in 2018. While that was a factor, it still doesn't add up to such a huge drop.

It is certainly true that the Atari market does seem to be somewhat saturated now. Almost nobody was selling stuff when I was doing all my stuff, but people started copying what I was doing and started selling stuff as well. Its a lot of little things adding up.

But even so, the sales volume is somewhat secondary now because I simply cannot keep up with things because of my RSI. I'm just getting too old and tired to be juggling between a hundred different things every week. Theres like 50k of stock in my store currently. Nevermind the "unfinished overspill". I need to start clawing that money back to pay for my bills etc.

My philosophy for my store has always been that while items may only sell once a month, if I had 100 different items, then it adds up.. The problem is, it's a phenomenal workload to keep those items in stock, finding suppliers, best prices for parts, alternative parts it all takes time and effort. High-volume sales with little reward and high effort just makes no sense any more. Never mind the problems of the amount of boxes and room everything takes up.

I have generally made everything myself not just copy what everyone else is doing to make a quick buck. Research and development takes a phenomenal amount of time and effort as well, i'm not just regurgitating designs of the net tweaking them and selling them and job done.. Again my overheads are a lot higher..

Take again the example of the ST2VGA adapters.. Someone on evilbay who could manually makes them himself, overheads are low, he can actually easily undercut me. High sales volumes for me, means I have two get things made in bulk, in part to keep prices down, very large initial outlay, I don't have time to assemble them myself, 3rd parties involved, and shipping and taxes etc. so costs rise significantly making it difficult to compete with low volume sellers.

I did try adding a lot of stuff in my store, general items like solder and solder suckers etc but unfortunately sales of them is near non-existent. It was an effort to try and keep some cash flow coming in. I still have some other items which are still have not made it into the store yet.. Ironically new items which will be immediately discontinued as soon as they enter the store now.. I basically ran out of ideas, and funds to keep trying things to keep the cash flowing... The cash mostly flows out.. buying 100 solder suckers, cutters etc.. now I wish I hadn't.

Reducing my stock and just starting to phase out low-cost items to reduce my workload and expenditure is the only way to go now. Saddens me a lot, but I just cannot do the physical work any more. I battled it as long as I can already. The only things that will likely be in my store are things that nobody else can actually sell, such as the Phoenix motherboards for example and related items like that. High value items, low volume sales, maybe one motherboard month will sell at best. But it certainly beats shipping out 100s of low volume items for little reward and huge amount of time.

It all gets phenomenally complicated and time-consuming....

Hmmm.

Im trying to think of what you can do.

With what you are saying regarding RSI, you are pretty much coming to the 'end of the runway' with the current setup and may need to pivot into a similar role that doesnt involve soldering for hours.

When (if?) the numbers get bigger at Cyber Legends, we can re-think bringing stock down to sell at the show. (In fact, one of my original goals for the CL shows was to build up a strong 'vintage swap meet', or vintage computer buy/sell trading presence; I still would like to work on that, as I hate giving Ebay/the bank/[enter your own parasitic company here] any money for literally no work on their behalf; and lets also not get started on the 'postal lottery' which is an additional part of that same infernal system).

In the mean-time, perhaps an idea may be to slowly start to transition from (high market saturated?) ST parts/add-ons, to something that is getting progressively more in demand....maybe Atari repairs and to supplement perhaps tricky upgrade services for the former? :shrug: Although still soldering (and diagnostics), its a far higher markup at least.

I see you are cutting down the range, which is a good step, in this situation.

I dont know. Its a tough call really.

mrbombermillzy wrote: 08 Apr 2025 18:09 With what you are saying regarding RSI, you are pretty much coming to the 'end of the runway' with the current setup and may need to pivot into a similar role that doesnt involve soldering for hours.

Indeed, I pretty much cannot solder anything at all any more, it is difficult to even use a PC, even visiting the forum is end of the line now because the extra activity, on the forum even limited, still pushes my hands over the edge into constant pain. I kept off the forum for a few weeks not too long ago, my hand pain disappeared for the best part.

When (if?) the numbers get bigger at Cyber Legends, we can re-think bringing stock down to sell at the show. (In fact, one of my original goals for the CL shows was to build up a strong 'vintage swap meet', or vintage computer buy/sell trading presence; I still would like to work on that, as I hate giving Ebay/the bank/[enter your own parasitic company here] any money for literally no work on their behalf; and lets also not get started on the 'postal lottery' which is an additional part of that same infernal system).

It's certainly good idea, I think the "car boot vibe" needs to come back. Though from a business point of view, I wouldn't likely make the money back from even diesel down there and back. Problem is I'm either lacking in sleep, or drugged up, but I cannot concentrate either way. It is a difficult for me to drive anywhere any more. Plus my van is 22 years old, and is still on the original tyres! I haven't got power steering either, so I simply can't go far anymore.

In the mean-time, perhaps an idea may be to slowly start to transition from (high market saturated?) ST parts/add-ons, to something that is getting progressively more in demand....maybe Atari repairs and to supplement perhaps tricky upgrade services for the former? :shrug: Although still soldering (and diagnostics), its a far higher markup at least.

Ironically..
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1182

TL;DR I abandoned repairs and upgrades back around 2019. In part due to lack of time. But people always wanted things, but then when you price up all the kits they wanted, plus even a low rate of cost for the time, pretty much nobody ever wanted the work doing in the end. But I really don't want to spend endless hours soldering, I simply can't anyway. Debugging machines, no thanks. Trying to figure out what people broke, trace faults, I think done enough work on troubleshooting these machines over the years. I was debugging various equipment 20 years ago in my day job, it is becomes incredibly repetitive and boring just doing the same fault finding blurb all the time.

I see you are cutting down the range, which is a good step, in this situation.
I dont know. Its a tough call really.

Yep. It's like trying to go about your daily life while wearing boxing gloves. Or your crippled to a wheelchair for example. Everything should be relatively easy simple and quick, but takes a phenomenal amount of time.. That is basically where I'm at. Its just turning into a daily frustration. By the time I've replied to multiple emails, dealt with all the daily chaos which often involves a lot of computer time, I have literally no time for anything else anyway. The only way I can keep doing even that is because my hands are in constant pain all the time. I just don't want any of this any more.

My passion has always been to design and innovate and create cool stuff. Though it seems the more time goes on, the less time I actually have to do any of that. I actually have my other business to run as well with soaks up a lot of time and takes its toll on my hands as well. I've been trying to pack up some motherboards for the past four days, but things keep taking priority and pushing that packaging jumped back..

I would have liked to continue doing everything for several more years, I certainly won't quit entirely, but when your health fails you, what else can you really do. I'm still battling 16 hour days believe it or not, and just simply worn out. That time needs to half so things are going to take even longer.

I just don't see any other option, I mean all this has been discussed before anyway. My aim was to get the store items down to probably 50 things but I think even realistically that's going to be way too many. Its difficult to know how much time things will take until the day actually comes.. The store will just have to be reduced until I feel comfortable in that I can actually keep up with things.

Thats rough. :(

If I can help at all, I will. Maybe this might just a little bit:

I was thinking of introducing a 'CL show only' sales thread on the forum, where anyone attending the show can post their for sale items.

Basically, I need to have another big spring clean (looks like @PhilC is having the same idea currently), so was looking to post items on the forum, at a reasonable price, but ONLY available for collection from Cyber Legends.

This is much better than Ebay, as it avoids fees+postage+wait time and you can even test/feel/sniff :lol: on the day. Whats not to like? :)

If you cant make it down this time, perhaps ask someone close to you who was coming to the event who you could trust to pick up/bring and you could do some 'show prices' to shift some gear...that might help.(?)

I'm reading all of this with a lot of mixed emotions - concern for your health @exxos plus sadness at the potential loss to the whole forum as a result.

I'd offer to help as much as I can (and for once it's looking like I might even have a bit more free time for at least a few months as well) but being 2+ hours away from Derby (and nearer 3 from Uttoxeter) I think it would likely involve a lot of posting...unless we can end up with more than the on CL event per year ;)

For the next CL, I'm trying to plan so I can actually make it (and no clashes for dates so far) so I could possibly ferry Chris from the M1 near Derby to the venue & back if that is an option?

Anyway, not trying to add any pressure, just hoping to add a few options to the mix!