- User Level99 or "Travis Reynolds" selling RAM Controls parts

[Bondavi]

I did receive my FF harness and parts (which were ordered way before any of this came up) and am super pleased with the quality and transaction. YMMV

 

[joeycuda]

I guess my confusion there is just... he does still have to work, a lot, for it? He's managed to get all the materials and equipment he needs to be the only one capable of making tons of super rare and desirable proprietary parts, and he always makes a bunch of them as it is. Seems like he's already put the work in and just can't resist a layer of scam on top of it. I feel like if he'd just be legit and make/sell parts nobody else can possibly make, he'd make more than he does by making a few and then running another vanishing salesman scam. I don't understand how it isn't less work to just make use of the priceless work setup he has and sell them legit rather than to keep making aliases and fake names and addresses and always coming up with a new product to produce a few of before fooling people by lying about making more and skipping town. It's bizarre.

Assuming the Harnesses are like how he made the stuff in the past, he didn't put in that much work and his business model wouldn't be profitable. It was determined that in past scams, he would get some quantity of a repro so perfect it's hard to tell from the original from a Chinese manufacturer as a 'sample'. The scam is that he didn't pay for the samples, as they give the samples expecting to win a contract for more work. He stiffs the manufacturer, so they're basically stolen to begin with.

 

[nerdygrrl]

With all of the stuff being repro'd now and the tech in printing, I am surprised folks haven't filled the void. I would think any decent machine shop could do the housings and I can't imagine the plastic bits being that difficult to repro these days.

I feel like the best way to take this guy down is to be him at his own game so to speak.

 

[drewscruis]

With all of the stuff being repro'd now and the tech in printing, I am surprised folks haven't filled the void. I would think any decent machine shop could do the housings and I can't imagine the plastic bits being that difficult to repro these days.

I feel like the best way to take this guy down is to be him at his own game so to speak.

You have no clue how things are made in manufacturing. If its so easy than you do it.

 

[nerdygrrl]

You have no clue how things are made in manufacturing. If its so easy than you do it.

Firstly, I don't appreciate your snark or tone. Not sure what I stated that got your panties in a bunch, but maybe dial it back a bit.

The company I work for produces a fair number of things "from scratch". We are hands on from original sketch to finished product. I am not saying it is "easy" I am stating that since the RAM debacle tech has advanced a fair bit as well as the knowledge of folks in the hobby and options for production. Look at the repro CP's, etc being made by Takeman and others.

I have a local machine shop here that a former client used that could repro a fair bit of mechanical parts. My client would send him gears, etc from their machines to replicate and he knocked them out in a decent amount of time.

 

[vegas12]

Firstly, I don't appreciate your snark or tone. Not sure what I stated that got your panties in a bunch, but maybe dial it back a bit.

The company I work for produces a fair number of things "from scratch". We are hands on from original sketch to finished product. I am not saying it is "easy" I am stating that since the RAM debacle tech has advanced a fair bit as well as the knowledge of folks in the hobby and options for production. Look at the repro CP's, etc being made by Takeman and others.

I have a local machine shop here that a former client used that could repro a fair bit of mechanical parts. My client would send him gears, etc from their machines to replicate and he knocked them out in a decent amount of time.

I have received plenty of your snark... It is safe to say that snark or snark "dialed to 11" is fair game. Don't dish if you can't take it.

I do repro panels with a pretty sophisticated shop and have tested the water for reproducing controls like paperboy - especially since I repro the paperboy panel. It can be done, but the challenge is making it for a tiny niche market at a price people are willing to pay. Big shops don't have time to make stuff at the tolerances required in small runs of 25/50. I hold my breath every time I point out a defect in fear my shop says "sorry dude, it's just not worth the trouble.

In addition, for control panels you just need a sheet metal shop - whereas controls require a machine shop. My opinion is that machine shops don't want to tool up a production run for the small runs of interest KLOV generates... klov'ers that do have stuff made are generally somewhat strategic in only doing stuff that can generate volume and simple enough to keep costs reasonable... That's why you don't see the RAM type stuff very often. You either need to have a connection to rapid prototyping shops in China or access to a local shop and a very specific skill set in design and fabrication. Ideally that would be a machinist or engineer who has access to a shop. That said, I think most machinists wouldn't find it profitable to produce such small quantities - they make way more on high volume jobs or making stuff in a market that pays high margins like aerospace, or the like... At least that's my theory after selling a few different repro controls panels and talking with electrical engineers and mechanics at my work. There are plenty more items I can have made, but the margins are so small when I'm not actually the one making them that it's just not worth all the the effort to keep track of all the shipping and receiving and collecting...

 

[MasterFygar]

Assuming the Harnesses are like how he made the stuff in the past, he didn't put in that much work and his business model wouldn't be profitable. It was determined that in past scams, he would get some quantity of a repro so perfect it's hard to tell from the original from a Chinese manufacturer as a 'sample'. The scam is that he didn't pay for the samples, as they give the samples expecting to win a contract for more work. He stiffs the manufacturer, so they're basically stolen to begin with.

Ah, damn. That's super shitty. I forgot that about the first time around.

 

[nerdygrrl]

I have received plenty of your snark... It is safe to say that snark or snark "dialed to 11" is fair game. Don't dish if you can't take it.

You got snark because your were a d*ck to me and started with the snark. I'm a pretty easy going person. That being said, I don't have a lot of patience for RAM apologists. Travis is just a good guy right? Innocent until proven guilty?

Nothing I stated above warranted the response I got. If you want to start back at it with the petty 5 y/o petty BS like in the MH thread so be it. You don't intimidate me, you're kind of a joke with your wannabe Spaeth persona.

 

[BHRuler]

Firstly, I don't appreciate your snark or tone. Not sure what I stated that got your panties in a bunch, but maybe dial it back a bit.

The company I work for produces a fair number of things "from scratch". We are hands on from original sketch to finished product. I am not saying it is "easy" I am stating that since the RAM debacle tech has advanced a fair bit as well as the knowledge of folks in the hobby and options for production. Look at the repro CP's, etc being made by Takeman and others.

I have a local machine shop here that a former client used that could repro a fair bit of mechanical parts. My client would send him gears, etc from their machines to replicate and he knocked them out in a decent amount of time.

Oh snap ......

 

[vegas12]

You got snark because your were a d*ck to me and started with the snark. I'm a pretty easy going person. That being said, I don't have a lot of patience for RAM apologists. Travis is just a good guy right? Innocent until proven guilty?

Nothing I stated above warranted the response I got. If you want to start back at it with the petty 5 y/o petty BS like in the MH thread so be it. You don't intimidate me, you're kind of a joke with your wannabe Spaeth persona.

At the time of my earlier posts you were making statements based on assumptions and patterns rather than statements based on facts. Hindsight is not wisdom, and I still stand by what I said. You don't make aspersions when you don't have the facts. And disagreeing with you is not disrespect and does not make anyone a dick. When I asked you questions you would pivot to some other point you wanted to make. Even Mclemore and tombo initially banned Level99 (prior to the white book info) not because they said he was Ram, but because sold Ram parts and then he failed to verify his identity.

And how is posting in a forum ever intimidating? You just didn't like what I had to say. The same you got upset when Drew said you didn't know what you were talking about... Tell him why he was mistaken rather than telling him his panties are twisted - which is a passive way of calling a guy the p-word... And to "dial it down" when you just dialed it up.

 

[joeycuda]

Firstly, I don't appreciate your snark or tone. Not sure what I stated that got your panties in a bunch, but maybe dial it back a bit.

The company I work for produces a fair number of things "from scratch". We are hands on from original sketch to finished product. I am not saying it is "easy" I am stating that since the RAM debacle tech has advanced a fair bit as well as the knowledge of folks in the hobby and options for production. Look at the repro CP's, etc being made by Takeman and others.

I have a local machine shop here that a former client used that could repro a fair bit of mechanical parts. My client would send him gears, etc from their machines to replicate and he knocked them out in a decent amount of time.

Much of the RAM/Adam Judd stuff was wanted enough for peo0le to go apeshit in small numbers, but I doubt would sell enough to be profitable in whatever amount would need to be ran in a legit situation. If Takeman would have to sell some part at $100 for it to make sense, Judd could sell them for $50 with free overnight shipping as he didn't pay his supplier and used stolen Fed Ex accounts.

 

[rod90]

The parallels between this and the Billy Mitchell situation are interesting.

In both cases, the people have legit talent. The public genuinely admires them. And if they could just straighten up and fly right they would both be ok. But they are their own worst enemies.

Such is history.

It is Billy Mitchell Deja-vu. Where does he not show up?

 

[nerdygrrl]

At the time of my earlier posts you were making statements based on assumptions and patterns rather than statements based on facts. Hindsight is not wisdom, and I still stand by what I said. You don't make aspersions when you don't have the facts. And disagreeing with you is not disrespect and does not make anyone a dick. When I asked you questions you would pivot to some other point you wanted to make. Even Mclemore and tombo initially banned Level99 (prior to the white book info) not because they said he was Ram, but because sold Ram parts and then he failed to verify his identity.

And how is posting in a forum ever intimidating? You just didn't like what I had to say. The same you got upset when Drew said you didn't know what you were talking about... Tell him why he was mistaken rather than telling him his panties are twisted - which is a passive way of calling a guy the p-word... And to "dial it down" when you just dialed it up.

Facts are you threw out a legal term while ignoring the terms of service, etc. As per Travis being banned, he wasn't banned before they had all of the info, they flagged him, and they had far more info than you or I were privy to. I don't get your obsession with this. The guy sold parts that were in violation, we as users knew only a fraction of what the mods knew. You are seriously on the wrong side here. Let it go. Why hang out here defending a known POS and attacking members and mods here that are in good standing. It's not a good look.

And re-read, I did not escalate, I met with equal force both in the MH thread and here. I did respond why he was mistaken, sorry it wasn't to your liking. I have clients that run machinery from the 20's and 50's when stuff brakes they don't run to amazon for a replacement part. They have it fabbed.

Much of the RAM/Adam Judd stuff was wanted enough for people to go apeshit in small numbers, but I doubt would sell enough to be profitable in whatever amount would need to be ran in a legit situation. If Takeman would have to sell some part at $100 for it to make sense, Judd could sell them for $50 with free overnight shipping as he didn't pay his supplier and used stolen Fed Ex accounts.

Costs would definitely be a bit different, it's hard to compete wth someone without overhead costs, but considering Paperboy CP's are now hitting $600, there has to be some middle ground. I would think the plastic bits would be a bit easier. Again, not sure if you could hit a minimum for HK productions, but might be able to.

 

[joeycuda]

Fact are you threw out a legal term while ignoring the terms of service, etc. As per Travis being banned, he wasn't banned before they had all of the info, they flagged him, and they had far more info than you or I were privy to. I don't get you obsession with this. The guy sold parts that were in violation, we as users knew only a fraction of what the mods knew. You are seriously on the wrong side here. Let it go. Why hang out here defending a known POS and attacking members and mods here that are in good standing. It's not a god look.

And re-read, I did not escalate, I met with equal force both in the MH thread and here. I did respond why he was mistaken, sorry it wasn't to your liking. I have clients that run machinery from the 20's and 50's when stuff brakes they don't run to amazon for a replacement part. They have it fabbed.





Costs would definitely be a bit different, it's hard to compete wth someone without overhead costs, but considering Paperboy CP's are now hitting $600, there has to be some middle ground. I would think the plastic bits would be a bit easier. Again, not sure if you could hit a minimum for HK productions, but might be able to.

I started an interest thread for Takenan to have Paperboy controller parts made. Not a single person responded.

 

[nerdygrrl]

I started an interest thread for Takenan to have Paperboy controller parts made. Not a single person responded.

Wow, that is crazy.

 

[vegas12]

Fact are you threw out a legal term while ignoring the terms of service, etc. As per Travis being banned, he wasn't banned before they had all of the info, they flagged him, and they had far more info than you or I were privy to. I don't get you obsession with this. The guy sold parts that were in violation, we as users knew only a fraction of what the mods knew. You are seriously on the wrong side here. Let it go. Why hang out here defending a known POS and attacking members and mods here that are in good standing. It's not a god look.

And re-read, I did not escalate, I met with equal force both in the MH thread and here. I did respond why he was mistaken, sorry it wasn't to your liking. I have clients that run machinery from the 20's and 50's when stuff brakes they don't run to amazon for a replacement part. They have it fabbed.

My only obsession I guess, is for mods (or members) to not accuse members of being Ram Controls or banning them because they "think" someone is Ram Controls. I have no issue banning a member who refuses to verify their identity. However, when Tombo posted an assumed address of Level99, that does cause me some concern, especially if it results in someone getting hurt. I also guess its a soft spot for me because when a mod asserted that another member (still here on KLOV) was Ram, I told the mod the same thing and I was threatened with a ban for bringing it up in a private message. I was told this site is a dictatorship (and yes I know that's how things work) and if I didn't drop it I would be gone. At no time did I "stump" for user Level99, but I did share my concern for flagging/banning without facts... - and that was another thread that YOU brought up, not me. Have I made any complaints that Level99 was banned? But to be clear - he was banned for selling suspected Ram parts and refusing to verify his identity - the address connection came AFTER the ban. A possible solution going forward would be for mods to quickly ask for verification when someone is suspected and then post the facts at the same time as the ban...The mods made it very clear you can be asked to verify at anytime so that should be a quick turnaround...

As for parts and reproducing controllers, especially Atari who made them complicated, I also don't think you know what you are talking about. Its not a question of if the parts can be fabbed - yes absolutely. The issue is fabbing them where they look right and work right at price people are willing to pay... Something that everyone seems to agree is not possible unless you don't pay for those parts or the shipping...

Personally, I think that many have gone down the road and quickly realize that the margins just don't pencil out - Atari could make it happen because they were making thousands of them. There are very few economies of scale to be found in this hobby - its the reason Rich and Darin seem to never cross their product offerings - the market is just too small to compete, and experience has also shown that market disruption - cheap versions of the same product - have really bad impacts for those doing it the right way - just ask Rich about what he is going through with Escape Pod... if could be done legit with any kind of margin it would be done by now - because everyone, or just about everyone wants a Paperboy.

 

[BHRuler]

At the time of my earlier posts you were making statements based on assumptions and patterns rather than statements based on facts. Hindsight is not wisdom, and I still stand by what I said. You don't make aspersions when you don't have the facts. And disagreeing with you is not disrespect and does not make anyone a dick. When I asked you questions you would pivot to some other point you wanted to make. Even Mclemore and tombo initially banned Level99 (prior to the white book info) not because they said he was Ram, but because sold Ram parts and then he failed to verify his identity.

And how is posting in a forum ever intimidating? You just didn't like what I had to say. The same you got upset when Drew said you didn't know what you were talking about... Tell him why he was mistaken rather than telling him his panties are twisted - which is a passive way of calling a guy the p-word... And to "dial it down" when you just dialed it up.

Im pretty sure she did tell him why he was mistaken , see here

Firstly, I don't appreciate your snark or tone. Not sure what I stated that got your panties in a bunch, but maybe dial it back a bit.

The company I work for produces a fair number of things "from scratch". We are hands on from original sketch to finished product. I am not saying it is "easy" I am stating that since the RAM debacle tech has advanced a fair bit as well as the knowledge of folks in the hobby and options for production. Look at the repro CP's, etc being made by Takeman and others.

I have a local machine shop here that a former client used that could repro a fair bit of mechanical parts. My client would send him gears, etc from their machines to replicate and he knocked them out in a decent amount of time.

If you need me to explain it or read it to you Id be more than happy

 

[tron guy]

My only obsession I guess, is for mods (or members) to not accuse members of being Ram Controls or banning them because they "think" someone is Ram Controls. I have no issue banning a member who refuses to verify their identity. However, when Tombo posted an assumed address of Level99, that does cause me some concern, especially if it results in someone getting hurt. I also guess its a soft spot for me because when a mod asserted that another member (still here on KLOV) was Ram, I told the mod the same thing and I was threatened with a ban for bringing it up in a private message. I was told this site is a dictatorship (and yes I know that's how things work) and if I didn't drop it I would be gone. At no time did I "stump" for user Level99, but I did share my concern for flagging/banning without facts... - and that was another thread that YOU brought up, not me. Have I made any complaints that Level99 was banned? But to be clear - he was banned for selling suspected Ram parts and refusing to verify his identity - the address connection came AFTER the ban. A possible solution going forward would be for mods to quickly ask for verification when someone is suspected and then post the facts at the same time as the ban...The mods made it very clear you can be asked to verify at anytime so that should be a quick turnaround...

As for parts and reproducing controllers, especially Atari who made them complicated, I also don't think you know what you are talking about. Its not a question of if the parts can be fabbed - yes absolutely. The issue is fabbing them where they look right and work right at price people are willing to pay... Something that everyone seems to agree is not possible unless you don't pay for those parts or the shipping...

Personally, I think that many have gone down the road and quickly realize that the margins just don't pencil out - Atari could make it happen because they were making thousands of them. There are very few economies of scale to be found in this hobby - its the reason Rich and Darin seem to never cross their product offerings - the market is just too small to compete, and experience has also shown that market disruption - cheap versions of the same product - have really bad impacts for those doing it the right way - just ask Rich about what he is going through with Escape Pod... if could be done legit with any kind of margin it would be done by now - because everyone, or just about everyone wants a Paperboy.

Some info was made public on the forum after he was banned, but generally you have no idea of the sequence,the facts acquired, or the conversations had behind the scenes.

 

[vegas12]

Some info was made public on the forum after he was banned, but generally you have no idea of the sequence,the facts acquired, or the conversations had behind the scenes.

Agreed, I'm just going by what was posted by mclemore and Tombo, to the best of my ability to understand it.

 

[vegas12]

Im pretty sure she did tell him why he was mistaken , see here




If you need me to explain it or read it to you Id be more than happy

Yes, it was the panty twisting comment and "you need to tone it down" that I had issue with... and no real issue with those comments - just don't dish it out if you can't take it.... or tell someone to put the fire out while fanning the flames.