[DCameronMauch]

Cruising some audio sites and saw this info.
Not sure if this is true or not. First I have heard of it.

 

[nkd]

People have been saying this for years. I doubt it's any more true than the last few of these exclusive articles

 

[aos]

Yeah, at prices that are WAAAAY higher than any other cap in existence (few hundred bucks per cap in some cases), it's REALLY not worth their time... I don't believe it for a second - they've got cornered a market that is willing to pay whatever price and a brand name recognition. And they would give it away for yet another organic cap factory, where they'd get wiped out in a year by cheap Chinese rip-offs. Sure.

Yeah, perhaps the volume of new factory is much higher and will make up for loss of per cap price. But then it'd be just another "mee too" factory in a competitor-rich market (Pananosic, Sanyo, AVG, Kemet, they all make the exact same thing), which means that they're just a few lost contracts away from bankruptcy. Probably nothing but pure greed. So maybe it's true then.

 

[Whit]

Who cares if Rubycon stops making the caps? Rubycon does not own the graphite technology used in them. The company that owns the patents is Jelmax. Rubycon is only the manufacturer. I'm certain that if rubycon where stupid enough to do this Jelmax would go to Elna, Panasonic, Sanyo, etc. and have them produce Black Gates.

 

[nkd]

Because if Rubycon stopped making them, they would have stopped because they weren't profitable. No company is going to take on a product that's going to lose them money, whoever owns the patent.

 

[Garbz]

well in business school i've learnt there's profitable and then theres greed.

A niche market is i'm sure not as profitable as mainstream market. It is quite plausable that manufacturing Black Gates doesn't make as much money as other capacitors would. But then again on the other hand if you look at the price it's possible they've clearly covered themselves with the markup.

 

[lan]

Are blackgate caps really expensive or is there just a huge markup from resellers?

 

[aos]

Quote:

Because if Rubycon stopped making them, they would have stopped because they weren't profitable.

Sorry, but at prices they sell for there's NO WAY IN HELL they're not profitable. Unless they're incredibly unproductive (unlikely being in Japan). Pure greed, that's what it is. More likely this is a ploy to get a large number of orders from desperate resellers, then in a month or two "decide that the public outcry changed their minds" and go back to business as usual, laughing all the way to the bank. This may actually end up good for us because the prices from resellers would drop as they'd suddenly have a large stock without increase in demand.

 

[nkd]

They're only profitable if enough people buy them. If not, then they don't get enough money to cover the manufacturing expenses. Running a factory is expensive enough that you'd have to sell a hell of a lot of units to break even, no matter how much you charge. Black Gate capacitors are for a niche market, and maybe that niche is just too small.

 

[aos]

Well, perhaps they need a smaller factory then. I mean if their capacity is 100000 a month and they only sell 10000 a month, then indeed they should retool, but that doesn't mean they need to stop making them (and besides this falls into the productivity category, I can't believe Japanese would be running a factory at a fraction of its capacity for so many years).

Besides, they're switching from a stable, cornered market to a highly competitive one. Why keep this bird in the hand when there's a bigger one up there on the branch? Well, let's see them try to catch it first, or rather wrangle it from hands of the likes of Sanyo and Panasonic.

I mean, you were able to buy Nichicon and Elna Cerafines and Black Gate only a few years back. Now you can pretty much buy only Black Gates (from specialty dealers, that is). Now the BG is gone? Dealers will sell no high end capacitors? Well, they will either be forced to start selling Elna Silmic and Cerafine line again, or go out of business.

 

[Garbz]

that's true a market will allways find a way.

As long as there's enough of us here on this forum i doubt that we'd have NO supply of capacitors. But again i doubt that after selling Black Gates for years that they suddenly aren't profitable.

 

[DCameronMauch]

I don't understand why so many are having such a difficult time believing this. It doesn't matter if they are profitable. If there is a MORE profitable solution, they will take it. They don't give a **** about their niche market or us or DIYing. Only $$$. There is also the "large company anti-logic" phenomenon. I have worked for some large companies. And watched them do large scale things that obviously made no technical or financial sense. These things must be driven by weird political forces. So if the company manufacturing these caps gets a new CFO or something, and his best budy wants to get him into organics... Crap like that happens all the time.

 

[aos]

The only problem is, once he bankrupts the new company, the CEO will just find another job in a 6-12 months somewhere else in the similar capacity. I've seen a smaller scale thing happen in (the big) company I work for. As for the other workers... good luck. I may not know much about business but I find something really perverse with the system we have today where companies doesn't care much about actually MAKING money, only about increasing the share price (which can be achieved in many ways that aren't profitable).

 

[dreamnid]

didn't really read the whole thread... but did the company make it official by releasing a PR or some other type of announcement?

 

[Edwood]

No press releases officially at least.

I hope they don't stop making them.

Last thing I want to see is "NOS Blackgates for sale!!!!"

-Ed