[jhulla]

This is a great article about fidget spinners:

https://geeksdistrict.com/inside-the-fidget-spinner-gold-rus...

"Over the last month or so, the spinning toys have gone from an elementary-school fad to a nationwide obsession. Unlike many other toy crazes, fidget spinners offer a wild-wild west for global capitalists looking to cash in on the craze. For one, there are no patents or trademarks to worry about infringing, so any factory can spew them out by the thousands. They're cheap to make and buy, so there's little risk in investing in, say, 500 or 1,000 of them. And unlike hoverboards, the craze that Chinese factories were cranking out last year, they aren't going to explode or catch fire.

"I'm selling a couple thousand a week just walking around and asking stores if they them""

[hodgesrm]

This looks like a product where some investor will end up with a few dozen railway cars full of unsaleable fidget spinners when the excitement dies down.

Some VCs I know had a similar problem with garden gnomes a few years back. They used a few for office decorations and probably buried the rest.

[celticninja]

Yeah right now demand is outstripping supply, but I don't see that lasting very long.

[DanBC]

But unlike other fads the bearings have some minimal value, and fidget spinners are easy to breakdown into a pile of plastic and a pile of bearings.

[gm-conspiracy]

This is what I am waiting for - an abundant, inexpensive supply of bearings for projects.

[pbhjpbhj]

They're £3 (GBP) on eBay for a set of 4 scooter bearings. Which suggests they're pennies on AliBaba, perhaps cheaper without a (fake?) ABEC rating.

[gm-conspiracy]

I don't want to wait 4 weeks to receive them, though.

[callmeed]

Can confirm. I just received 100 I ordered from Alibaba at $1.60 each. My kids are selling them to friends and people in the neighborhood for $5-7 each. They're going quick.

Hadn't thought about wholesaling to gas stations. Maybe we'll try that.

[squarefoot]

That site forces to disable ad blocking, which gains it an honorable mention in my blacklist.

[legopelle]

Warning, the site tries to forcefully redirect to ads.