If you were hoping to snag any of the new Ryobi 30th anniversary blackout tools at Home Depot, I’ve got some bad news for you.
You’re tool late, they’re already gone from many stores.
See Also: New Limited Edition Ryobi Blackout Tools
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From the looks of it, all of the stores in my area had at most 3 of the new color drill in stores, and there were only 100 or so available for online purchase yesterday when the listing went live.
My closest store went from 3 in stock to “limited availability, check your store,” which in my experience means they’re all gone. The situation looks to be the same for other stores in my area.
I’m sure that scalpers scooped up a lot of the inventory, seeing as how there were already listings on ebay and Amazon prior to yesterday’s official launch time.
A reader said that there would be more tools later this year, something Ryobi has not yet confirmed. Hopefully they release further tools in greater quantities.
Checking around a wider shopping radius, I can see there’s still inventory at one store near me with online ordering disabled. If you were hoping to get your hands on one, good luck – you’d better get moving.
Well, they did say this would be a “limited edition.”
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Ryobi wasn’t able to comment about the new tools or situation.
ebt
I put one in my cart yesterday as a gift to a friend. Then last night, I was asking if he still wanted to replace his old Ryobi drill and he made a face. “I have Makita, not Ryobi…why?”
Phew…
Cart is empty without my help!
blocky
For DIY cred, Rusto is still stocked at most locations:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Stops-Rust-12-oz-Protective-Enamel-Flat-Black-Spray-Paint-7776830/100670370
or you could chase that OG look previously discussed in the comments:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Stops-Rust-12-oz-Custom-Spray-5-in-1-Gloss-Navy-Spray-Paint-376904/323255148
Scott F
Do the economics make sense for this to be “it”? Let’s be gracious and say there is one distribution center per store for sake of this math.
2000 home Depot stores * 3 units = 6,000 store sale units
2000 distribution centers * 100 units = 200,000 delivery units
That means ~206k sales per product before sellout, assuming consistency between Stuart’s location and the rest of the US. While that is a big number, it doesn’t feel very big in the corporate America sense (not sure the size of Ryobi’s client base).
Do we really think this is all we will see of these tools – or is this a trial to gauge interest/refine inventory projections for a larger release downstream? Seems like a lot of effort for a relatively small amount of sales .
206k units * $100 = ~$21M revenue –> feels low. I’m sure there’s not a lot of investment to change color scheme and setup a new packaging run, but then all of the logistics and other considerations.
I think these will be back….
MM
I think you’re right. I think many of these brands are starting to learn that the “limited edition” angle can be used to sell, and I’ve seen more and more products like that lately, even in specialty niches like automotive spray guns. Most seem at least moderately successful, like the various “blacked out” hand tools. Some are clearly popular like Leatherman’s various limited editions that sell out in minutes and then get scalped for much higher prices on Ebay, etc. I haven’t seen many limited edition tools in the cordless space though. I recall that Dewalt once made McLaren edition cordless drills & impact drivers, and Makita made at least some of their tools in odd colors, but that’s all that I can recall. We’ll probably see more of this in the future though.
HmmmDusty
Major Japanese cordless brands (Makita, Hikoki (Hitachi), Panasonic – all currently and historically released their impacts and some other tools in multiple colors – some as limited edition, some as just options. This goes back at least 15 years, to NiCad models before Lion. Makita did recently release some 25th anniversary LXT tools, which are definitely meant to be limited though.
Luis
Really? I thought LXT was launched in 2005…
Robert
Cameras too. Many Japanese camera manufacturers release special edition cameras , usually in a unique color scheme. (Sometimes the alteration is more substantial, like taking pictures only in black & white.) The cost to the manufacturers to make these cosmetic changes must not be high, because the production runs are small, and yet the practice is common.
Champs
Perhaps they shipped them with the Ryobi keychains that may or may not be flying off shelves. It’ll be fine.
Stuart
No; from what I’ve seen over the holiday seasons repeatedly, online fulfillment is only counted separately where it draws from in-store allocations.
Meaning, it would have been store inventory plus 100-ish units, not 100 per warehouse or region. The only exception I’ve seen is for where the online inventory is store-to-home fulfillment t.
I would estimate that there were at most 10,000 units sold to Home Depot, and that many were scooped up by scalpers.