Deluxe materials is well known across the pond in Europe, but they're not nearly as well known in North America. Deluxe materials has so many great products. So let's get on a video call with Deluxe materials founder John Bristow and have him bring us North Americans up to speed about his company and their cool products. So John, for the benefit of those, I may not know, how did Deluxe materials start? We started in 1973 and we were born really out of a need. I was a modular and I got a degree in chemistry and engineering and we sort, we didn't make a real business plan as such and because we were modellers we saw the need for products and because we had the skills to, I think, develop those products with their chemical knowledge we got about and set about a journey to develop a wide range of products. There's over a hundred products in our range today really. So yeah that's how it all begin. No big strategic plan and just almost by accident. You're best known in Europe. Do you have any history in the North American market? The beginnings of the market actually in America which may interest modellers on your side in the US was quite interesting actually because we ended up trying to, we ended up with a product called Super Fatic Glue which actually solved the problems of fumes that come with cyanoacrylate. So this was really an alternative to cyanoacrylate that had no fumes. Some people will find themselves a little bit allergic to cyanoacrylate glues and here was an opportunity really in the air modding. That was the entry point. So what makes Deluxe Materials unique? We've heard this from a number of people actually our distributors in the US. I said you know John what makes you special is the way in which you demonstrate your products either in articles or techniques. One of that a good example actually is this little device. It's on the back of our catalogue which you can get from our and it's actually a glue chart that tells you what materials these are two materials. You select the material you want upon and then you will reference the product with the part number that it can glue. So that's one thing. So helping them choose but we also have some other devices. Here's an example of a wall chart actually again with a railway scene and the various products around the chart direct you to the possible uses for that product. Whether it's sticking ballast down, sticking grass on the fields or whatever you know. So again that's a quick reference chart. So it's something that guides you particularly where your brand is essentially or relatively unknown really in the US. Once you know what product to use then what? I mean you've got to once you've chosen it give the give the modeler a bit of help and in the catalogue again there are there's a story here one on how to use our various waters that we've got we've got a range of water products, solid water, aqua magic and we give you the storylines. So each of these pitches shows you the type of water in its application whether it's still water or maybe a water fall or something like that. We show you which one to use. Good. What are a few examples of some specific products? We've got an example here about card glue for instance. This is a product for bonding card models. I think they're very popular. You've got laser cut models. I think card is also there on the need to bond card stock. So these models can be put together quite cleanly and neatly. And again I think the labelling is the other thing is putting a clarity of what the product does on the front of the label for clean the instant card modeling you know tells you on the label really you haven't got to read it on the back or anything like that. So again making that journey. But I thought it might be quite interesting to show people how this particular product works. Here's a couple of pieces of card stock. One of the things you can do here is run a tiny piece of the glue and with this glue this card glue less is more so the less you use the better it works. So you can bring two pieces of card together like that and they stick instantly. Amazing. It means you can get on with your model. In fact this particular model that I just showed you we did some tests. We built seven of those models in the time it took with Rocket card glue this model. Seven of them you know and in the time it took to build one with PVA glue right we were able to build seven. Another clever product we've got is tacky wax. Wow what's that? Tacky wax. It's a sticky wax actually and people don't know what it does but it needs some understanding. There's a great one actually for holding on to screws. So you can actually grab your screws and you can put screws down where you want. So small pieces you might pop in the bottom you just pick them up. So it's one of those handy little things. I think everyone in America should have one of the tacky wax on their workbench. It's your hero product really. John that's amazing. Any specific products to model railroading? We decided that cleaning the track and we thought we needed to develop some special technology that would be proprietary and actually fun enough as you know Joe we actually developed a product with a 1.9 dielectric constant. We looked at the technology in that area and we came up with a product which not only clean the track but left an invisible conducting film on the surface right and in the kit that comes with this you have a cleaning swab, little brushes to get between the points and stuff like that and such was a demand we've actually had to launch a bigger bottle of that product here in the United States. It's a 250 mil bottle which is available from all good hobby shops really but I think well how does this work? The idea really was when we looked at the grime and the dirt that was coming off the underside combined with the dust that's falling onto the track you end up with quite a toxic concoction that's inhibiting the conduction of electrolytes and we looked at some chemical tools also that would stop the sparking or the micro sparking that interferes with the that you were talking about too. That same chemistry comes and is used in commercial aviation fuels and things like that but it is unique technology so we put all that together. The idea was that once you clean the track actually leave a conducting film that protects the track further so the idea of loosening the dirt and having something that releases the dirt was a key thing and there's a little demo we show people at the show I'll just show you what we've got here are two bottles one with a conventional track cleaner on the left here and one which is track magic which has got the 1.9 dielectric constant and this is the dirt that we found we synthesized that from our using our chemical capability so if you actually drop you can see the dirt doesn't really disperse whereas in the track magic dissolves the dirt away so the idea is to get hold of that loosen it absorb it and take it away and as the track magic evaporates it actually leaves a chemically bonded not an oily service a chemically bonded material on the surface of the track to protect the track going forward how do we know it's there well actually we took that track and we put it we basically put it in short water and we looked at the track after two weeks of totally immersion and these were the results actually so the row which was untreated right actually show heavy corrosion marks whereas the track magic track was almost corrosion free this is over salt water so highly aggressive test really you wouldn't want to normally subject your our way track to salt water but that was that proved the existence of a chemically bonded film that's what we wanted to really know that chemical that we put into the track magic was working at that service level really what about product safety as we'd always started a journey with some of the you know alternatives or making safer products with products like super fatty we we continued that thing and we have some very good examples here for instance plastic balloons we know these are volatile right these are liquid cement so we developed our own bottle we thought because the neck of the neck of the bottle I thought was quite important to stop evaporative emissions and we ended up with a product which had very very good solvency but it had one in breath one advantage you can evaporate anywhere near as quickly and we showed this we illustrate that really with some evaporative tests on that journey we discovered some really interesting chemicals being force in yourself to do something that's not easy was took us on a journey and we discovered another product another called the which we've launched now in the US called plastic magic 10 second cement this is packaged in a similar way but this is even even less evaporative if that is almost close to zero you know obviously it does evaporate eventually and it's been a real success in Asia and we decided to put it into North America this is actually non-glowable what we knew if we're coming into plastic modeling we needed a very very good putting and we again talking to modulus we knew that they're working with solvent based putters sticky shrank and I thought now we can do better than this and so we've made a formulation really it's a water-based part of this there is a touch of shrinkage but nowhere near as much as these solvents and of course you can put it on with your finger wet your finger and smooth it across and just paint it and it polishes up like a piano key John those products are just awesome lots of things in the pipeline you know we just launched a product here this year called looks like glass this we had the formulation ready just before Christmas and we put it through all the health and safety stuff and it came out harmful and I thought oh no we can't launch this and we were literally about six weeks before the Nuremberg toy fair so we sat down and took me about three days and we come up with a non- harmful formulation for that it's a fluid that you dip your small plastic pieces in and it makes them look like glass if they've been scratched or something like that another of your products that looks intriguing is called liquid gravity yeah it is actually I forgot to mention that earlier we we people are asking us for a waiting system right for both the scowl model aircraft people and the railroad people but there's a lot of railroad builders that want to add weight to their their local or whatever or their wagon and lead of course is the common way of doing that we weren't prepared to do that that's totally a case we will be that's outlawed as a retail product in the UK and we it needed to be poured into small cabbages so we've ended up with a product here that bottle actually weighs a quarter of a kilo you know so that's that's you know people say whoa what's this John this has been great one final question what about the future yeah so what we're doing in the future I think what's our plans and ask a strategic plan well I think I think we want to continue along the two things we want to continue along the environmental thing really and using you know constantly searching for new safer chemicals and improving our environmental impact but more importantly I think we eventually want to I think win the hearts of minds of the North American model really to be respected for what we do to be talked about where models meet in clubs and things like that and we we are quite proud of what we want to do but we want to take pride in helping people enjoy their hobby look out for us and buy our products from your local hobby shop and they're distributed by Horizon by Hobby Time and by Wolfers and please support your hobby shop and I'll say cheerio and thank you for listening in


Autolight and its 98,000 dealers bring you Mr. Ronald Reagan in tonight's presentation of Suspense Tonight Autolight presents the story of a man who wanted to apologize for threatening a stranger and when he got there the stranger was dead And the police were waiting. It's called Circumstantial Terror our star Mr. Ronald Reagan This is Harlow Wilcox with a $100,000 reminder that total will be given to recognized charities in cash through the Autolight family charity drawing and You may be one of 25 persons selected to name your own church hospital or any other local or national Recognized charity to share in this huge sum. There's no obligation except printing your name and address But your favorite recognized charity may share in thousands of dollars To tell you how important this is to his organization We are privileged to present general George Kenny President of the arthritis and rheumatism Foundation This generous Autolight offer will greatly aid the work of such groups as the arthritis and rheumatism Foundation If you are one of the 25 persons chosen to name your favorite organization I hope you will remember the 10 million people who suffer the pain and the crippling of arthritis They will be most grateful for your help Good luck to you in this Autolight family charity drawing To enter this drawing just visit any of these Autolight family car showrooms and fill out a registration form DeSoto Hudson Plymouth Studebaker Dodge Willis Nash Packard Kaiser or Chrysler. It may mean thousands to your favorite recognized charity. So sign up tomorrow And now Autolight presents Circumstantial terror starring mr. Ronald Reagan hoping once again to keep you in suspense I wasn't the only one who was mad at him all the other guys fell just about like I did about curly weather that is You see if he hadn't let the pressure go too high would have all been in good shape right now As it was the boiler blew up and wrecked the cleaning plant where I worked The owner collected the insurance money and got out of the business which left us with no jobs After a few months of looking around for a job I was in a pretty bad way then I connected only trouble was it wouldn't start for three weeks by now I was broke irritable and mad at the world So I wasn't what you'd call a pleasant-type fellow when I walked into this liquor store for a package of smokes about 11 o'clock one night There I was with a gun my face and that phony salesman telling me I was gonna have to take what he gives me or get Nothing at all. What do you have to buy from him for his outfit has the distributor tied up 25% of what I make I make from his scotch and like a pack of cigarettes holds your horses. Mr. I got another customer So I check around town to see if maybe I can get the scotch somewhere else. How'd you make up go ahead?   I got a pretty good trade right now. So why don't you take your two-bit sale somewhere else?  All right, mister. All right take it easy Sam. Don't mean no harm That's just the way he talks and let him talk to somebody else like that. Why don't you give me cigarette Sam?  I don't want any kind. I just want you to remember something Next time you seem you'd better cross over to the other side of the street. It'll be healthier for you Remember that I went back to my room and poured myself a drink no doubt about it I'd acted like a fool that four months of being unemployed didn't exactly develop an even tamper It was a half hour before I realized I still hadn't got any cigarettes and another 15 minutes before I could talk myself And going back to the liquor store to apologize for losing my temper The street was dark and the only light on the whole block came from the glowing window with a liquor store I still wasn't sure what I was gonna say to Sam when I got there, but I knew I'd fix everything up All right I'd gotten within about a hundred feet of the store when I noticed a black or what seemed to be black coop parked in front of the store Just about the time I noticed it. I heard a shot Seemed to come from the direction of the store Stopped for a second and a guy rushed out of the store right in front of me jumped into the car And before I could do anything it roared down the darkened street out of sight I ran to the store and looked in nobody around and I look behind the counter The guy I'd argued with Sam was on the deck I could tell right away that it was a waste of time to check his pulse, but I did it anyway He was dead. All right, then I started with the door to call the cops Hey, what's going on? Oh, what'd I tell you I saw who did it? He ran out the door as I was coming up the street. Come on grab a move. He did it That's the guy I was telling you about come on buddy. Let go. I tell you I didn't do it I didn't do it. I saw the guy that did let go That's the guy Sam had to throw out of the store. He was casing the joint. That's what he was doing Let go of me. I'm good. I'm going for the cop. Don't worry. He ain't gone nowhere I Was getting up to go after the police these two guys rush in and hold me. I didn't do it I tell you he's lying officer.  Yeah, sure. I didn't put the cuffs on you for laughs. I Think you've had it, buddy It's only an opinion but what I can see here and I've gotten from these witnesses your nail buddy nail good And I was by the time it was presented to the grand jury the state had a real good case prepared against me The liquor store owner's gun only had his prints on it Which made it look as if I'd tried a phony hold up and jumped him when he drew it And it was money scattered all over the store Which made it look as if I'd been surprised before I had a chance to get away That guy Eddie who'd been in the store when I had my argument wouldn't let me up He pounded nails in my coffin every time he opened his mouth I had a job when all this happened that I had trouble giving me a motive and being broke and unemployed made it look that much worse As a result, I wasn't surprised when the grand jury came through with an indictment for first-degree murder As far as I was concerned it was all over with the hanging Frank Thompson right now. I wish I weren't but I am who are you I'm Ernest Gibbons I've been assigned as public defender in your case. You're wasting your time Why are you guilty? No, I'm not well, then I'm not wasting your time. Hey mind if I sit down go ahead Well, I think you got most of the facts straight in my mind now. I want you to tell me in your own words What happened? Did you read the transcript of the inquest? Yes, I did. That's all there is to it Well look Frank I'm here to help you if I can I don't make it tough for me I think we can beat this if you help me how first let's forget that story about running in after the storekeeper was shot And I nobody believes that and you believe it if I tell it to you again. Should I yes Because it's the truth Well, can you describe the man you saw running on more or less? What do you mean by more or less? Well, I got a pretty good look at his face. He had a mustache I couldn't tell you how tall he was or how much he weighed seemed to me to be just medium all around However, you said at the inquest that he got in a car and he drove on now can you describe the car? It's a black coupe. What do you don't know? How about the make couldn't tell it's too dark the license number all or any part of the license none of it All these lights were out in other words If you wanted to lie, this would be a pretty good way of blaming someone the police couldn't possibly track down I guess so, but I'm not lying All right, let's see the state has set the trial for a week from today You know hurry, aren't they? I guess they figured that they'd got you sewed up the Papers have public opinion running pretty high against you You know the man left a wife and three little kids That's tough real tough There's a couple of days later that Ernie came to me and said they were selecting the jurors who'd hear the case This was a part of the law. I didn't know a thing about so When he said I had a right to sit in the selection I went along only to get out of the cell for a few hours Well to put it simply it's more of an interviewer than anything else It also gives us a chance to get jurors We think might be more easily swayed through our way of thinking Under the point where I don't care much one way or another. I just wanted to get out of the cell for a little while Maybe I'd be better off I just played guilty and get it over with haha now you're talking foolish boy There's a lot that can happen the next couple of weeks. Yeah It's all gonna happen to me some of it might be good, you know, don't hold your breath Over here Frank I'm gonna try to get as many women as I can on the jury You're a pretty good-looking boy It helps sometimes what about the prosecution don't they have anything to say about it Well, I doubt if they challenge more than once or twice now They think they have such a strong case. It doesn't matter much to them Who's on the jury? They're right too, aren't they that remains to be seen? Here they come Yeah, right now I'd trade places with any given one of them. I don't think you'd get any takers Not as many women as I'd like to have seen Ernie Ernie, what's up a guy with the gray suit well over there next to the dame with a fur coat Well, yeah, well, what about him don't challenge him what don't challenge him That's the guy what guy that's the guy that killed the shopkeeper That's the guy. I saw running out of the store that night. Get him on the jury.  Ronald Reagan in Circumstantial terror tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills suspense Hey Charlie, what Nash model is this? Well, this is the new Nash statesman Harlow You know this year Nash offers the widest range of models and prices and history and you can get such optional features as power Steering power brakes and even power lift windows and of course Harlow Nash has auto light equipment, too And auto light is proud of its long association with Nash and Nash dealers everywhere That's why we're privileged to salute Nash as a distinguished member of our auto light family Distinguished is the word for the new Nash Harlow and advanced to the 1954 Nash gives you greater safety with exclusive unitized Nash air flight construction Greater economy on regular gasoline greater comfort with a new exclusive Nash all-weather eye air conditioning system that heats Ventilates and cools at your command and Harlow next week Nash introduces a completely new kind of car watch for Okay, Charlie and thanks for the ride always a pleasure Harlow especially in a new Nash And now auto light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage Mr. Ronald Reagan in Elliot Lewis's production of Circumstantial terror a tale well-calculated to keep you in suspense It was tough sitting through the selection of the jury Especially when I knew that the prosecution could for no apparent reason disqualify the man I'd pointed out to Ernie if he was the man I'd seen run out of the liquor store the night of the shooting then he had to be where we could keep tabs on him Ernie sacrificed a couple of his limited number of pre-emptory challenges just to make sure the guy came up for selection When he did there was no objection on either side and we had him Later that afternoon when Ernie came to my cell we tried to figure out what we were going to do with him Well now that we've got him I what I'm gonna do it's your job to figure out Ernie You're the lawyer no better off now than we're at the beginning We haven't got a shrewd of evidence to substantiate your claim. I saw him. Isn't that enough? Well, you're on trial Not him Well, supposing I get up in court and say he's the man what would happen probably declare to mistrial and discharge the jury And go to work on another trial, but you'd stay in jail Wouldn't they question him? Maybe it was pretty obvious. He'd say you were off your rocker.  Who'd believe it? Would you? Couldn't you do it? Couldn't you tell someone proof Frank proof? What can I possibly do but quote you what am I gonna do just what we're doing go through with this trial Then I'll appeal no matter what the verdict is and see if we can rope our friend into making a mistake But he'll duck as soon as the trial is over probably but at least he'll be around while the trial is on now If you cause a mistrial he'll be gone a lot faster. It isn't fair I know he's a court of law the burden of proof is on the accuser What real proven they got against me They don't have to catch a man in the act of murder to convict him of a circumstance of evidence can be strong enough and In your case it seems to be That's driving me nuts to think that this guy's got to help send me away for a murder. He committed. I haven't sent stew yet Boy, let's see what happens and if it does happen. Maybe we'll have something I can use to ask for a new trial If we get into trouble Where's the trial going to be? Well judge Thurston will preside. I think let me see that'll put it in the city hall Annex, where's that in the annex? That's a small building on the north side of the city hall. That's next to the parking lot Why just asking that so Frank yeah, don't try any grandstand plays any tangle with the jury might result in a mistrial and I Don't think that's a good idea Okay, I won't mess with them. That's good Yeah, I gotta get going going home. I guess so Tell me something Ernie. Sure. Well What do you want to know? What are my chances Ernie and don't kid me? I wouldn't get you Frank. I don't know right now, but I should be lying if I said they were good Thanks, that's what I wanted to know That's what I liked about Ernie. We asked for the truth. He gave it to you After he left I lay back in my cotton thought about the whole mess Everything had happened so fast. I really hadn't had time to take stock of my position Now I did what I came up with made me want to beat my brains out against the steel bars out of sheer frustration Wasn't anybody's fault if you discounted the guy that actually did the killing I didn't have any beef with the law the people who were carrying out the law It was just that they didn't know they were going to convict an innocent man For hours, I guess I lay there thinking about ways to clear myself Most of the ways were more daydreaming than anything else I finally came up with the conclusion that anything I did was going to have to really go from the time I started There wouldn't be time for talk or reason The morning I got dressed and ready for the first day of the trial when I got to the courtroom I was seated beside Ernie Then came the time when papers were being shuffled and everyone was getting set for the opening arguments Now then you take it easy Frank. We're gonna fight real hard.   What are you going for? You light another fire downwind let it give you a big burn spot to stand in while a main fire goes fast You explain it to me later Frank the judge will be here in a minute or two and I want to get my paper straight in here He doesn't like to see an unprepared attorney Listen to me Ernie. I'm in the path of a real big fire right now. I know you're a boy I know but so I got to try a backfire a guy can get killed in a backfire But at least you got to take a chance. What are you trying to tell me when I'll say it fast because you'll hear from me Stick with me Ernie. I'm a pretty good guy, but I'm in real bad trouble and I'm the only guy that can get me out of it But what are you gonna do this? Get out of my place It was the only thing I could do I couldn't sit by while 12 people tried to make up their minds whether I was Died for a murder I didn't commit as I went out the window I folded my arms in front of my face to keep them being cut to ribbons with a broken glass I Let feet first in the parking lot and started running I didn't know where I was going all I knew was I had to get away fast By the time everyone got organized. I'd pretty well lost myself in the alleys of the city I got to a place where they were putting up an office building and ducked into the sub basement crawled into a corner and stayed there Somewhere around midnight. I slid out and started to the only guy in town I knew wouldn't turn me in as soon as he saw me Ernie Gibbons And I got there his place had a light out in the kitchen, so I went around the back Let me in well come on here If they find out about this, I'll be disbarred. I won't stay long wait till I turn the light off Sit right there Frank Don't move around too much. Tell me why you did it. I told you this morning in court This is my backfire.  I'm gonna get the guy that did oh, then they'll really have you and they'll have me for something I did not something I didn't why'd you come here? I need an address an address. You mean the guy with the mustache Yeah, got anything on him. He isn't around Frank. How do you know by the time I got through with the mess You left behind and it was pretty late in the day. What are you talking about just this? We knew he'd duck out as soon as the trial was over, but during the trial We might have been able to work something. That's why I warned you about causing a mist trial Well this afternoon I went over to the address he'd given and he moved out a few hours after your break any forwarding I don't be so naive the man is a murderer. I don't think he knows you saw him running out of the store But he isn't taking any chances. He's lost Frank and you're in a bigger jam than before No, I do now.  You're on your own now What's your position in this?  Yeah, I'm sure Ernie do something for me will you I might what is it? I'm a pretty hungry man. Could you rustle me up some food? Sure, I'll fix you some food Ernie. Yes, what about that witness that claims he saw me casing the place that Eddie character Yeah, well, what about him? He's the state's number one witness, isn't he? Well, I guess what's he got against me? Why is he trying so hard to get me? Well, I think that for the first time in his life. He's somebody and he's going all out to prove it I'm gonna see you know you're not you're in enough trouble. They offer him give me his address Ernie Well, you're out of your mind. Give me his address. I want to talk to him Oh, but Frank I know you've got it. You've got the addresses of all the witnesses get it. It's here in my briefcase What? Well, that's funny. I never noticed this before noticed what what are you mumbling about the witness against you? He lives right over the liquor store where the guy was shot Ernie Yeah, just a thought but he's the fellow that accused me of casing the shop Suppose it was the other way around Suppose he was casing it for our friend with the mustache Well, you'd have to prove a connection between the two men, but So how are you gonna do that? I don't know Figure that out when I get there. I can't let you do that friend. Don't try to stop Well, you could get picked up on the way there. I'll be there in a few minutes three or four miles from here You're lending me your car I am yeah, give me the keys Okay here So long Ernie, I wish I could stop you don't try it. I wouldn't want to hurt you. Oh, thank you So mighty Wilson come on open up. I Don't know any but you know me Eddie Thompson, that's right Frank Thompson fall guy. What do you want from me? I want to know why you're so anxious to see me burn you tried to hold Sam up and kill them That's why you know better than that I do What are the reason what I have? Hold it down to a roar Eddie. I gotta get some sleep. Come on in mister you with the mustache Thompson yeah, that's what Eddie said when he saw me. All right Eddie. What's this guy doing here? He's uh He's my brother, but they don't mean cozy. Yeah one guy in a witness box and one guy in a jury You really got it made yeah What are you gonna do about it make you tell the truth? What are you talking about? Why'd you kill it?  That's right You're wasting your time. Am I?   No, mister.    Okay Give me a pen. I hope you understand why I sent for the cops Frank. I didn't want you getting any more trouble. Oh sure That's all right Well, how's it feel mighty good? It's pretty time when you don't have to look at it from behind steel bars. Yeah What are you gonna do now? It looks like I'll be able to make that job I told you about only a few more days to wait where to be staying. I don't know you got any money enough You got any money? No, then it's settled. It'll stay with us until you get on your feet. All right. You heard me Okay, lend me a quarter What for how to buy a pack of cigarettes from a machine? Suspense Presented by auto light tonight star mr. Ronald Reagan Congratulations on an excellent performance Ronald. Well, thanks, Harlow say what about this hundred thousand dollar auto light family charity drawing? Am I eligible? Well, if you're over 18 you are I'm eligible Well, all you do is visit any auto light family car dealer showroom Print your name and address on a registration form and have the dealer sign it And if you're one of the 25 people selected you can name your favorite church hospital or any other local or national recognized charity To share in one hundred thousand dollars and all I do is fill out a form You mean there are no puzzles to solve or anything like that. That's right Ronald Nothing to solve buy or try and where do I register at any of the following showrooms the soto Hudson Plymouth stuta Baker Dodge Willis Nash Packard Kaiser or Chrysler sounds like a wonderful opportunity, Harlow Thank You Ronald Reagan friends You can help your favorite recognized charity share in one hundred thousand dollars just by signing your name and address So why not sign up tomorrow? Next week the story of a cross-country train trip during which a police officer finds himself torn between his assignment and His personal feelings for the girl in car 32 our star. Mr. Victor mature. That's next week on Suspense Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with music composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by Ludblom skin Circumstantial terror was written for suspense by Ross Murray in tonight's story Howard McNeer was heard as Ernie Pigeon in the cast with big perm Clayton post Charles Calvert hell Gerard and Kurt Martell Ronald Reagan is currently starred with Steve Forrest and Dewey Martin in the MGM production prisoner of war and remember next week Mr. Victor mature in Thomas Walsh's story the girl in car 32 This is the CBS radio network


So in this video I wanted to give you a true insight into actually what it's like to be a full-time dropshipper and I think it's easy nowadays to go onto YouTube, go into Facebook and see dropshipping as this like really quick and easy and kind of like a shortcut way into making money really quickly when that just really isn't the case or at least it hasn't been for me for the past four years. So I wanted to do this video to kind of paint a true picture of actually what it's like day to day living and breathing dropshipping and basically just go through the good, the bad and the ugly really. I'm going to start with the bad and then finish on the good because last thing I want to do is give people a sour taste or have people leave in this video with a sour taste in their mouth thinking or I don't want to stop anybody from starting a dropshipping business because ultimately it's still a great business model and the potential it offers people with low budgets pretty much anybody to get started. It's still a really amazing dropshipping business model and given all the heartache and stress and pressure I've been through over the past four years if I had a time machine to go back and I had the option to do all again then I still would ten times over so by all means I don't want to put people off I just want to paint that true picture of what it's actually like so people know what they're getting into because when things are going good they're going really good but then the flip side of that is when things go bad they go really bad too and I mean proper bad like there's been times where I've been lying in bed between kind of like midnight and four a.m. just like literally sick to the stomach because I'm so stressed and so worried about something that's happened whether it's increasing the budget of an ad set to say five hundred pounds for the first time and not knowing whether it's going to work or not is it going to flop if it is going to flop then how am I going to pay myself this month then how am I going to pay my bills etc. I mean that kind of come down to money management which is another video but still it's something that you need to consider and keep in mind so to get started with the bad then it's not something you hear a lot of people talking about but it's important that you hear this and the first thing I want to cover is the reliability so when it comes to running a dropship in business then not everything is within your control so for example then PayPal even to this day I think it's I can't remember I think it's about 70% of my orders still come through PayPal being a third party company if for whatever reason they choose to shut me down then essentially I could lose up to 70% of all my orders in fact I'll put a screenshot up somewhere so you can just see so that's something you have to keep in mind is that not everything is within your control the same thing with Facebook ads as well if they turn around tomorrow and say hey we're banning your ad account then essentially that'll be pretty much 80% of my revenue just gone the other 20% coming from other things like Google ads and just organic traffic basically and then the third thing is suppliers whether you're dropshipping or ordering in bulk again with it not being the same company something being completely out of your control if they for well to give you an example then I ordered this product with a certain supplier for it must have been at least 18 months and I tend to place orders every couple of months so we're talking about nine different orders and then all of a sudden they start sending me these products made out of a different material a cheaper less high quality material it was a poorer material basically so basically they tried to pull a fast one on me to reduce their costs even though I was paying the same amount so we're talking probably about 2000 units that were completely gone to waste and yet they were sitting in my house in the UK and this supplier was five six thousand miles away so that was an issue I had to sort out something completely out of my control so just be prepared for things like that or for people to let you down basically number two is customer complaints when you get to the point where you're doing 100 200 orders per day then you're probably going to be looking at half a dozen to a dozen complaints every single day from customers chasing their orders saying they want refunds I've had it many times people threatening to take me to trading standards because they think I'm ripping them off when that just isn't the case and when you're dealing with that level of criticism on a daily basis it can be really difficult to keep going and it can make you doubt the business it can make you doubt yourself and I would be lying if I said that I'd never considered giving up drop shipping for that reason so again just keep that in mind you do have to have quite thick skin if you're going to be running a drop shipping business that does any kind of sort of decent volume the next is the profit margins the profit margins aren't great anybody who says they are is is lying the reason being is because when you're buying one unit of something at a time versus 2000 units of something at a time then there's going to be a huge cost saving there so drop shipping in itself the profit margins aren't great or at least they're not for me there may be people out there that'll be able to make 40 50 drop shipping but I would highly doubt it to be honest unless you're bulk ordering something in in bulk then you're not going to be making that profit to give you an example then I thought the cost saving there's a few products that are important bulk but to give you an example then this one product that I used to drop ship cost about five pounds per unit to drop ship so that's delivered to the customer and important in bulk is cost me 70p so that's an extra four pound 30 just off the cost of the product so that kind of illustrates that was for 1200 units as well so that just kind of illustrates how much for cost saving there is to be had the final point I want to finish the bad reasons on is the fact that is lonely being an online business you could run your business from you could sit on the toilet for 24 hours a day and it wouldn't impact how you run your business at all because it can purely be done from a computer so you don't need to talk to anyone you don't need to mix with anyone and one of the things that I found difficult was when I quit my job then in terms of mixing with people it almost went down to zero because I was so focused on my business working from home now if I didn't go to the gym then there would literally be weeks on end in which I just didn't leave the house because I didn't need to you can get food delivered but I used to leave the house for the gym and I'll be mixing with people that way but another thing that happened as well is when I went drop shipping full time I lost a lot of friends because people I guess it's kind of pessimistic to say but some people don't want you to do well so when you do start doing well they kind of remove they stop talking to you or they treat you in a different way so that happened to me another thing to consider as well is that I'm still to this day but I don't think I've met anyone in fact that truly knows what drop shipping is or knows how the business model works so when it comes to looking for for somebody to ask advice from or to get feedback from it's really difficult to do because nobody understands the business model that way they can't really give a proper opinion or proper advice because you need to understand the business model before you can give somebody advice like you wouldn't give somebody advice on the gym if you've never been in the gym before if you've never been on a treadmill before if you've never lifted weights before it just doesn't work like that so for that reason then it can be quite a lonely business to run with that being said then like I said I don't want to paint a too bad a picture on drop shipping that are many good points number one thing being the freedom in my eyes this is probably one of the most beneficial things about it is the freedom that it offers you is just second to none like I said you can sit on the toilet all day long if you want and run your drop shipping business I'm sure you won't end up doing that but if you really wanted to you could you could be anywhere in the world you could be in any room in your house you could use any computer you can wake up at three in the morning 10 in the morning um two o'clock there's been times when I've woken up and it's been dark because I've just haven't needed to get out of bed or I've been up the day before or any social events I ever want to go to I can do those I don't have the book time off work I can go on holiday whenever I want but one of the biggest things um if I had to say something was the fact that I don't as stupid as it sounds when I used to work a nine to five um living in Northampton it's quite a kind of industrial town um pretty much everybody had a nine to five so traffic was absolutely horrendous and that is the number one thing that I love the fact that I don't have to ever sit on traffic I can pick and choose when I travel and I tend to kind of um go out in and between rush hour time so what the main thing or the best thing for drop shipping for me then is the freedom that it offers you can do anything you want whenever you want um because you can always run your business no matter where you are as long as you've got a computer and an internet connection it doesn't matter number two then is the scalability drop shipping because there's no kind of financial commitment up front there's no kind of limitations into how many products you can sell unless your supplier runs out of stock but even then you can just find another supplier and carry on as you are so you can scale things really quickly I've done loads and loads of videos on it in the past so I won't bore you now but in the first four months I was making someone like triple what I was working in nine to five um it just went crazy well in the first few months because I could scale it that quickly with most businesses it might take them two three years to get to the point where they're bringing in um decent money for multiple different reasons whereas with drop shipping there is kind of like no limitations you can really just when something's going right you can just double down on it and the only limiting factor for you is going to be pretty much how kind of resilient to risk you out because obviously the more you spend on marketing if it doesn't if it's not profitable then can you afford to lose that money so in terms of scalability it's really good the third point um it's not really a true point but I wanted to put this in here because this is based on my opinion at the end of the day um and to me drop shipping is a cool business to run like it's pretty cool like I mentioned earlier if you really wanted to you could sit on the toilet and run your business and it's really easy to get detached from what you're doing but if you actually think about it like you could be anywhere in the world buying products from China which at this point is like five six thousand miles away and then getting it delivered to your customers which could be down the road from you so anybody who follows me on Instagram you'll know that I've moved into Lincolnshire area um and probably once every fortnight I drive past a place called RAF Scampton and I've sold maybe half a dozen different products into RAF Scampton and driving past there it's kind of I know I know it's stupid to say but it's weird that that place exists and there's actually people in there who have bought products off of me um because it is quite easy to get detached from essentially what you're doing but if you ask me I think it's pretty cool that you can work from a laptop buy things from thousands of miles away and then get it delivered to somebody next door to you and yet they're none to the wiser the next as well is the testing speed this is a really good part about drop shipping for a typical e-commerce business or any business if they want to test a new product or whatever it is they might have to commit say 10 grand up front for a bulk order they might have to take that risk on a new machine or whatever it could be whereas with drop shipping like within the space of 24 hours you can easily have a completely random products that you've literally just discovered that minute put it on your store and start running Facebook ads for it so you can test things really quickly and make a lot of money really fast um so for example fidget spinners um being a drop shipping business like I said within space of 24 hours when they kicked off and they started exploding you could get them on your store straight away and start capitalizing on that money same things with things like the masks recently because of coronavirus and hand sanitizer and soap things like that toilet roll know there's like a meme going around because nowhere is sending toilet roll at the moment so with drop shipping it allows you to capitalize on those trends because you can adapt really quickly the next thing as well is obviously low budget to start so with a drop shipping business to kind of give it a proper go um I'd say three four hundred pounds maybe a bit more depending on how aggressive you are how fast you want to do things but if you look at any other business whatsoever um it's going to cost you a considerable amount more than that probably like a hundred times more than that some businesses require thousands and thousands just to open just to get started before you've even had a customer come through the door whereas with drop shipping you can get your first customer onto your store for probably 50 pounds maybe even less and then the final good thing that I want to finish on a really important one as well many people forget about this is that by running the drop shipping business you're going to be developing universal and highly relevant skills so things like web development and web design are really important skills if you ask me pretty much every business in the world down needs a website or at least a facebook page or social media page which are skills that you will develop naturally the most important thing though is marketing marketing is a super relevant skill it's universal it applies to any single business if you get really good at facebook ads at social media marketing ads google ads whatever it is you will have a job for life and you'll be able to make a boatload of money too because if you can prove to somebody that you can make them money more money than what it will cost to pay you and run that ads you'll have a business you'll have a job sorry for anyone in the world you'll be able to walk into any business in the world and as long as you can prove those things they will pay you as much money as you want to be paid you could tell them any sort of figure and as long as you can make them more money than what they're paying you they'll pay you that all day long so the super relevant and universal skills plus they're not going anywhere anytime soon there's many kind of jobs in the past that require certain skills that are redundant now because they've been replaced by machines or cheaper labor whereas marketing is a skill that's been around for decades it will continue to be around for decades so to have that skill today puts you in a really good position for being able to make money and for a very long time and with that being said then guys that is all the bad and good points i wanted to go through in this video like i said i really hope i haven't put anybody off dropshipping because it's a really good business model it's provided so many opportunities for me despite all the heartache all the stress all the money i've lost at times if i had the opportunity to go back and do it all again i would 10 times over so try not to focus on all the bad points but just keep them in mind know that when you see a screenshot or a video on youtube or somebody who's made a hundred thousand pounds in their first month even with that success it's going to come a turn of heartache because they'll need the cash to fulfill those orders then there'll be all the customer complaints that come from that then there'll be the profit margins how much of that is actually profit so keep that in mind i hope you enjoyed the video if you're going to be starting a dropshipping business then make sure you let me know leave a comment down below and i'll help you any way i can i read every single comment too so if there's a question or a video suggestion you want to put forward just pop it down below please make sure you hit that like button too it does help with the organic growth of the channel and finally please do make sure you subscribe for regular content and with that being said then thanks again for watching and i'll see you in the next one