Regarding the future of the MK-II-GTX as well as

[CharlieDaTuna]

the other products that were available in the past including the HDD, SuperSears, 13/22xx sears, 7-8-953 sears, DP-392 couplers and the BMD's.

I am making this announcement publicly so there is no misunderstanding in the future and that I have made an attempt to come up with a solution. I feel that the airgunning community should have access to all of the items that were available in the past if a solution is possible and reasonable and fair.

There is a possible solution in the air proposed by a third party which, if comes to fruition, will benefit everybody in the AG community. It is possible that Steve-in-NC could take over all of the HDD, SuperSears, 13/22xx sears, 7-8-953 sears, DP-392 couplers and the BMD's market. I would retain the GTX sales only. There is actually very little inventory other than the HDD's and inventory has always been held to a minimum. Steve is well aware of this.  That was the initial proposal.

In addition, I am offer the following.

I would liquidate (sell off) any of my share of the remaining inventory of the other products after the division of the remaining inventory after 7-1-06. . Once I have sold off my share of the inventory, I would agree to no longer sell any of the products with the exception of the GTX trigger. If Steve would like, he can buy out my half of the inventory at 1/2 the market value.

I am absolutely not interested in and will not even consider marketing any of the other products. That is not a subject of consideration.

I would reinstall all of the information on the CharlieDaTuna website including informational, instructions and testimonials to assist Steve in the marketing of his side of the products. This would include all articles that were in place prior to 6/18/06.This would be for an undetermined period of time.

 None of Steves parts will be listed on the order page.   The only items that will be on the order page will be any items that pertain to my marketing interests. There will be no ordering of Steve’s products directly from the website. I will however, on his different product pages, put a link to an address that Steve selects for ordering that the potential customer can clickon  to access ordering.


Although I would endorse and assist in promoting his products, I would take no responsibility for products he would market including any product issues, replacement, or delivery of the products that is posted on my website. All inquries regarding his products should be directed to Steve and all inquiries recieved through the website will be forwarded directly to him.


I have not discussed any of this with Steve as of yet but I would agree to it. It is an agreement that as I said would benefit the airgun community as a whole. According to this third party, Steve has contacted him and has tentatively agreed to the initial part and I feel I have made it more beneficial to him. So far I have not heard from Steve and there is no doubt in my mind that Steve will be aware of this post in a matter of hours, if not minutes.

I feel that I am being more than fair in my proposal.  From here on it’s up to Steve to contact me if he wishes to agree. If Steve elects not to agree then I would guess everything will come to a halt on 7/1/06.

I was emailed Steve in NC's repsonce to this on the off-topic by a fellow concerned airgunner. Here is the email I recieved....
==============================================================================
About a week ago, Bob Werner announced that he was getting out...
June 26 2006 at 12:33 PM
Steve in NC   (Login pneuguy)
from IP address 70.144.178.234
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
...of the airgun biz because it wasn't enough "fun." Today it seems that Bob has suddenly thought of a way to make it fun again. How nice.

http://www.gatewaytoairguns.com/airguns/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=217&mid=941#M941

It seems that Bob has decided that all he needs to put the "fun" back in the airgunning business for Bob, would be for me to give him exclusive rights to the most lucrative of the products I have designed - the one that has put already put - and continues to put - more cash into his pocket than all the others combined.

Yup. I think I can see how that would provide just oodles of "fun." For Mr. Bob.

Can't you?

Steve

PS: And note that it would all be for the good of the "airgun community as a whole." What a selfless altruist!
 
================================================================================
Just thought you should know about this Bob...

[D Miller]

one of my buddies over on the yellow emailed me saying Bob is keeping the most lucrative product. I see it as keeping the only product that doesn't conflict with the others. Am I wrong? Please tell me if I'm missing something here. I don't think steve is looking out for the airgun community as much as he's looking at the dollars. Kinda hypocritical but I may be missing something too!

With one small stipulation.

As you know, when we first introduced my GTX, the costs of production (in both money and effort) were high.  But over the two intervening two years, costs have dropped precipitously, but our price didn't.  Currently, each piece costs only $3 or $4, all tooling has been paid for, and they come finished and ready to drop into the poly bag and mail.  That makes the current net markup on the most recent $35 price about 800%!

Therefore, since you gave as the reason for your retirement last week not having enough fun, and since you say that you have the benefit of the airgun community at heart, I'm sure you can have no objection to dropping your markup on the GTX to a more reasonable retail number: say 50%?

So, as soon as you've made a public announcement of intending to reintroduce and sell the GTX for the new (and still generously remunerative) price of 1.5 x $4 = $6, please get back to me.  I think we can do business!

Unless, of course, that wouldn't be enough "fun."

Sincerely,
Steve

Forget about shipping costs, paper, ink, instructions, maintaing a website for instructions and ordering, allen wrench incuded,  labor cost involved in packaging, etc..and the fact that Charlie had to re-work your junk to get it to work right in the first place.

The only "fun" you have in airgunning is putting down others...

[CharlieDaTuna]

As most of you know, I keep most of my criticism to myself....however
 
Just as with many other things Steve has said in the past, he again has stated some inaccuracies in an attempt to discredit me. The production costs that he has stated are far from accurate  and not only that, the production costs will go up even more if there is another production run. I’m not sure if I ever knew the original production costs and I didn't set the pricing. Steve set the pricing.  And further more it might be noted  regarding the statement about  the costs and profits were fine were fine with Steve until now and as long as those profits were going into his pockets. Now all of a sudden it absolutely outrageous.  That should in itself tell you something. Never has he ever mentioned a price drop until now when he see's it not going into his pocket.

That cost figures that he claims might be what he paid for his MK1-GTX design and production for the original junk that he had ordered and were made off shore in India or where ever they were made, but that’s certainly not what the cost of the MK-II-GTX to be made here in the US is. The manufacturing that I have done now is made with far superior quality material, far superior machining and tolerances, far better anodizing, and the two later designs are far superior to the original designs of Steve’s and no thanks to Steve.  He had absolutely no part in the latest two designs of the GTX trigger.  

Steve of course designed the original GTX but it was such a mess that for all intent and purposes was a failure that wouldn't even install properly and were in a way even dangerous because the safety would not work. I had to hand rework every single one of them that he sent to me in order to be able to market them even without the safety. Even then, I had to either replace or refund a bunch of them.  The second ones that he designed wasn't not much better and still had the safety issue and they too had to be reworked and pivot holes had to be resized and finished to even get the pins in. They didn't even have a hole drilled for a first stage. I had to make a jig, drill them as well as tap them, one at a time.

Later I finally after months of searching, I finally found a machinist that would work with me and we spent many nights changing a good part of the geometry and making and testing several prototypes until it's what it is today. It’s what I would call nearly perfect and Steve deserves absolutely no credit for the GTX-II and what it is today. Much of it is completely different than his design. However, I never said a word about it until just now and let Steve have all the credit.
 
The same thing with the SuperSear. After he had them produced, they were a failure because they were not hard enough. I had to replace many of them also. I then had to hand heat-treat every one of them and then refinish and resurface them to be able to make them acceptable and put them on the market.

In the past I've worked my butt off remaking the junk parts that he ordered and either sent to me or drop shipped to me from e-Machine because they were so bad. The 13/22's were a tragedy a joke and breaking apart. Nothing but a bunch of rusty junk and a good part of them still are. I remake/refinish and test them only as needed. Even the DBG's that Steve designed were designed improperly and would not work after being manufactured until I modified them.

The parts that I have been producing today are a far cry from what Steve sent to me to pass on to our airgun community regardless of what he might say. I  made the MK-II-GTX  into something that is a good reliable  product that now performs and functions as it should  that I can be proud of.
 
The only thing he ever got right the first time was the HDD's and they would never have happened except that my machinist friend agreed to make them for us. I could go on and on about all of this.

 Then Steve had the guts to tell me that he thought he should get 60% of the business and I get 40%. If people only knew and/or could see the truth and know Steve. I will say that without his initial ideas, it would have never happened although most was doomed to failure. All Steve has done is set back and let me resolve and fix all of his mistakes, clean up his junk, redesign it and take the checks that I sent him for all of the work that I put into it. Steve never had to lift one finger. I have been told I was a fool. Well I was nothing more than his stooge and the sad thing is that I and a few other people knew it but I didn't do anything about it and that makes it my fault.

Now regarding my retirement… what I decide in the end about my retirement and just what I will do is my decision and I have the right to change my mind at anytime as well as pursue any interest that I wish. I have had dozens of e-mails asking me to reconsider and that’s just what I’m doing. I have yet to make a final decision about what or how much I will do but what ever that decision is won't be influenced by accusations and intimidations.

Now you know the real and whole story.

txairgunner - 2006-06-26  4:25 PM

Forget about shipping costs, paper, ink, instructions, maintaing a website for instructions and ordering, allen wrench incuded,  labor cost involved in packaging, etc..and the fact that Charlie had to re-work your junk to get it to work right in the first place.

The only "fun" you have in airgunning is putting down others...

Pleeeeeeease!!!! To actually think that STEVE knows what he's talking about!!!??? Its obvious the guy knows nothing about labor costs.

Side note:
 I know lots of guys that are book smart, but have no practical experience to support their absurd rantings! Just because the BOOK, says its true, don't make it so. Considering Steve is a devout atheist, I would expect he would understand that! But no, all this guy does is quote the BOOK.

DB

[CharlieDaTuna]

I have absolutly no interest in the Co2 pistols or pumper pistols or pumper rifles or the modification parts for them. My only real interest in the past has been in the springers and the guns that the GTX applied to.  I marketed the other parts for Steve's benefit  because it provided him a way to market his mods and at the same time,  provide me with some additional income. I don't see anything wrong with that other than the fact that until I re-worked them, for the most part, they didn't work well. I really wasn't interested in them then and I'm surly not interested in them now.