Rocketry Planet

I DON'T KNOW if we are just in the right place at the right time, but as a hobby we enjoy one of the highest proliferations of fellow hobbyists on the Internet. As such, that allows us to do some pretty phenomenal things that would otherwise deplete even the most dedicated savings accounts.

The Internet has revolutionized the ability for people to enter this hobby as manufacturers or vendors while maintaining some modicum of a profit margin. Traditional companies who must compete in the outside world face huge costs related to advertising and marketing, yet the Internet marketeers eliminate that obstacle right up front and take advantage of the current state of the art in communications.

I have been involved in telecom as a hobby since the early Eighties. After watching the movie War Games, starring Matthew Broderick, it became most intriguing that people could communicate from home computers to other computers with a phone line and a modem interface. I began to gather as much information as I could find and in the end, converted my Commodore 64 from a game machine into a workhorse, serving as my first electronic bulletin board system.

Those were the glory days of BBS'ing, as it was known. My first BBS consisted of that lowly C=64 and six floppy drives, with a 300 baud modem. It was so intriguing that people would actually call in to interact with others. Later, I upgraded to 1200 baud — wooooo! FOUR times as fast! — then 2400 baud, and it eventually became the largest-storage capacity Commodore 64 BBS in the country at that time, with the addition of a 40 meg hard drive. You may or may not know that Commodore home computers never came with hard drives, so that was massive overkill — and one that only cost a cool $2045, too!

Over time, the C=64 gave way to a C=128 which gave way to a PC clone. Modem speeds went all the way to 14,400 baud before a trickle of users left to join this new thing called the Internet. When the trickle became a major hemorrhage, I decided to investigate. The rest is history.

All day, every day, I make my living in the Internet industry, serving as a mercenary for large corporate clients who have more money than they have talent on staff. I see a lot of things come and go. But the interesting things I see are what happens in the fringes of the Internet, such as what goes on in this hobby, when individuals leverage the power of the Internet to level the playing field with other industries. It gives them the ability to play right along side the big boys at a fraction of the cost. Revenge of the nerds? Maybe so.

When you look at the marketplace in hobby rocketry, there are some large names that have been around a while — companies with somewhat of an established user base. Along side of them are companies that are just starting and are able to delivery quality products as efficiently as the major providers — they just didn't have to spend the thousands and thousands of dollars getting to their company's station in life that the long-term companies had to spend.

For example, consider the number of online vendors who have made successful businesses with only a Web presence. For the most part, companies like C&T Hobbies and Discount Rocketry have proven that you can run a successful business based primarily on Internet traffic without the need to run around the country attending major launches for survival.

Another new arrival, Jim Amos' Missile Works, delivers some of the most innovative new electronics products available today, in addition to a large fleet of cool rocket kits, primarily through the Web. I met Jim for the first time face-to-face at LDRS17, although our initial meeting was via the Internet. I am confident that Jim's leveraging of the Web will allow him to quickly establish a large user base, effectively leaping past other electronics manufacturers who choose not to utilize the Internet. Bully for Jim!

I think you will continue to see the utilization of the Internet to increase profit margins among the savvy businesspeople in this hobby. While most industries are undergoing consolidation across the board, ours is still experiencing new company formation. The latest trend to emerge, and I knew it would happen soon enough, was old-line companies drawing in the dealership/distributorship arrangements in exchange for direct distribution via the Web. A recent announcement from Impulse Aerospace confirms that this distribution model, while very unproductive for normal vendor distribution channels, is very attractive for manufacturers who need to move product while improving profit margins.

Traditional vendors have always provided the vast array of selections at the launch site, and will probably continue to do so, but the hobby shops that used to provide that vast array locally will gradually be replaced by the Internet as the provider of hobby products. Why drive across town in your car when you can venture across the country from your computer screen? Truly it's revenge of the nerds.

It'll be interesting to see where this all shakes out, but the bottom line in all of this is that the end user benefits greatly, something I think we all can agree is a good thing.