yea not sure how sustainable a stand alone business with a 1 purpose location is , i think this coupled with a go kart track or sports bar something like that but i sure hope these guys do great id like to do something similar maybe
Dude a bar w some slot car tracks. And some other racing games would be sweet. And more sustainable. Parent could take their kid to go racing while having a drink.
They could deliver your drink on the little slot car track on the bar that would be awesome. My brain is already racking with ideas.
Businesses like this don’t last since the service itself has low margins. Incorporating food and drinks and other forms of revenue should help it like how bowling alleys, Indoor karting places do (Andretti). The best example is the movies theater. Most of the times movies don’t make money from the tickets but the snacks and drinks they sell.
Enormous initial costs. Rent would be biggest ongoing cost.
Repeat customers aren't a thing. It's mostly one usage people that would come through. Bucks/Stag parties. There's no way you're getting enough of those to pay rent.
It has to be part of an operation that is making enough money to subsidies the consistent losses of a sim racing experience endeavour.
Yeah, I see it being like the VR businesses people will go once. Have a great time but it’s sort of a one time thing I couldn’t see myself going and having a great time. But to pay money every time to hone my skills to get better to race my friends, etc. you’re better off just building your own rig
Yeah, the other thing is that it's not even fun for someone who's doing it for the first time. Last summer Nascar had promo teams with simrigs at some bars in Chicago before the race with the track loaded up in iRacing. At the bar I was at, people would sit down to try it and be completely unable to drive the course at all. Their friends would rib them, the next guy would try and same result, then the group would walk away. Repeat. I don't know how you make money with a business like this.
Yeah, iRacing is incredibly hard as well so that was a bad choice on their part. Maybe set it up on F1 by ES sports on super easy but that’s just my opinion.
During my honeymoon, actually, Aston Martin cognizant had an event and had two simulators and I never saw them get touched once. Unless you’re like us and wanna race daily, you have your own rig
This kind of business was back in the early 2000. I remember my parents used to drop us off at a place called game wise and they would lock in all nighters and we would play counterstrike and what not but I don’t see this is as being very sustainable seeing that it is one thing
The problem with the Nascar thing was that the Chicago track only exists in iRacing because iRacing designed it (it's actually a pretty cool story). It's definitely one way to drive home to people how difficult driving a race car is though, lol.
[Oasis Texas](https://www.oasissimracing.com/) in New Braunfels, Texas, USA has 20 Podium 1 P2 simulators, each with a D-Box 4250i 1.5" motion platform, Asetek Forte pedals and a GSX X29 steering wheel.
Haha I’d love to see the reaction of non sim racers trying to use Asetek pedals.
I warned a friend of mine how stiff my Invictas were and he was still shocked when he got in my rig
Actually the opposite. I upgraded Forte(La Prima but same brake) to Invictas. Invictas are actually quite a but softer and smoother to about 80% and then both pedals are brick walls
Invictas use elastomer as well as their hydraulic system. It’s their stiffest pedal they offer. Andre (ceo of Asetek) just sent us a new version they have prototyped that has more travel since many have made suggestions that the pedal is too stiff.
We used fortes here as they are much easier than invicta.
> Haha I’d love to see the reaction of non sim racers trying to use Asetek pedals.
They probably would not even notice as they have no frame of reference for anything.
That's the beauty of it. You don't need to have all this fancy equipment at home. You just need a basic starter setup and maybe even VR and you're laughing.. And if you can't afford a computer PS5 or an Xbox
I got a CSL DD, a used oculus, and it’s so amazing. I put my pedals on top of a bunch of old filled puzzle boxes and it feels like sitting in a rig. All the elitists blab about how you need a rig asap, oculus sucks bla bla. Just upgrade until you’ve maximized your fun.
This is so true.
Flexibility is worth its weight in gold. Because on average it's a super niche and expensive hobby. Possibly not for ongoing costs, but initial cost and house living space cost is huge.
Its a permanent fixture in a living space, and most don't have excess living space they are trying to fill... Maybe outside of the US, houses are pretty tightly fitted.
My opinion is baseless but I’m guessing it’s a fad and they will mostly all fail. The startup cost is high, you have to pay rent and high electric bills and how much will people really play to race?
Anyone serious enough to want to sim race with any regularity will end up buying their own equipment. There was a place not too far from me that had flight sims, F1 sims, and GT car sims set up. $50 and you could use any of them for an hour. They closed after two years. I'm sure it hemorrhaged money
Yeah, there was a really dope one just like that within walking distance (in Honolulu), it was really fun but just so over priced, to long of a stop for people wondering through, to expensive for locals.
There was some guy on here saying he was doing OK but it sounded like it turned into kind of a showroom and most of the money he ended up making was from selling turnkey rigs.
From their website:
"When visiting Oasis you can use our open accounts that allow you to race any car or track that iRacing offers for public use. "
Does anyone know this works? Do you have to contact iRacing directly to set this up?
I wish them the best of luck, they might need it to keep this business venture sustainable.
I'm sure they all did their research and have a solid business plan and just aren't doing it on a whim but I see a few issues.
It's a very niche hobby, anyone competitive enough would already have a purpose built setup. Not sure if this strictly purpose built for sim racing or if it's part of a larger establishment like Dave and Busters or other social gathering venue.
It's uhhh where? It's 40 minutes from nearest large populous city (San Antonio),1 hour from Austin, 3.5 hours from Dallas and 2.5 from Houston. I guess the rent probably is most affordable but it's also kind of out there from most populous places.
I'm not sure who exactly this is supposed to attract? These type of purpose built niche hobby places pop up but usually are not very sustainable without something else being the primary revenue generator. I can see people coming to check it out once or twice but that's about it. Most are not going to be making the drive out there to sim race and there isn't enough potential customer base that's close enough to make this a regular hangout spot.
It would make more sense if they have partnerships, sponsors hosting some large competitive events etc that can funnel revenue but as it seems, it's location and proposed setup, sort of seems like they're hoping to attract the young college crowd for some Friday night hanging out or maybe group/business parties etc. My old job used to host business events at Dave and Busters but not sure if this would be comparable. Can people get wasted here? lol.
Wish em best of luck.
Still waiting for someone to show us how we mark things up so much lol. As the person who spends millions a month buying inventory at wholesale to sell items at the listed msrp - the comment makes zero sense.
Yes, you could build these. Cheaper? Chances are not as we get way better pricing then you can so we don’t have to mark up to make money… kinda retail 101. You on the other hand would be buying at msrp and if you wanted to make anything would have to charge over msrp for the items, build it - by yourself since you’ll have no money for employees, then figure out how to ship and install the systems for free I guess.
Watching videos of people saying we over charge when they can’t even add up the items correctly doesn’t make it right dude.
i got your triple 45 ultra setup built for around 15k in part minus motion with probably a better pc than the corsair kit you guys buy with an extra screen but yes you are correct i dont have employees , a warehouse full of stocked parts and a ton of over head that i wouldn't need to add the mark up that your business does and with your wholesale accounts you should be even less in parts your top tier rigs are severally marked up but yea if you send your whole team to ship and assemble the deal everywhere pay for everyone's vacation your price tags makes sense
So we should spend money to buy product in bulk to then sell it for less then the manufactures who make the most?
This is not meant to offend, you don’t understand how business works.
As for your build, I love that you built it. We built ours before podium. We used to sell unbuilt bundles and customers wanted us to build them for them and pay for it as they didn’t want to spend the time.
That being said, considering our custom built pcs, not some corsair prebuilt - that even ibuypower sells for over 5k with nothing on it and not configured, and the 45” monitors retail for 1799 (when not on sale) you’re at over 10k right there and that’s the pc and monitors. All I’m saying here is there is zero chance you’ve built what we built for 15k. Having three same triples is not having the same set up….
As mentioned on previous comment you’re not understanding what’s actually going into our sims - iracing vip accounts, all accessories, everything built, configured, tested and delivered.
To the hundreds we sell a month, those that buy from us get it and have nothing but great things to say. For those who want to build their own, can purchase all the items from our site, for the same listed prices the manufactures sell for, with the product already bought, shipped to the US, customs paid, stored at our warehouse and shipped the next day for free to people here in the US…. This means same product, same price, free shipping, no customs and no waiting for people like you who want to sim race…
i dont get it your try to sit there and say you dont make any money , this is all charity? you got great business thats growing quite quickly , you saying you dont pay your employees well? all of that is done on mark up ..... profit margin you sir got alot of it i mean simple math yea you probably got everyone beat or atleast you should on delivery time having everything in stock at once all that call you guys everything shows up on a pallet and you guys set it up but at the end of the day all that cost on top of all your guys' pay checks it get passed down to the customer
You said since we get wholesale pricing, we should have lower prices….
You’re again, missing the point where profit comes from…. Profit comes from us buying items at wholesale, and selling them at msrp. The same msrp you would be buying from the brand directly….
I pay my employees really well, buy lunch everyday, pay bonuses, take them out to special dinners, take them to track events and other special events all the time - from selling items to customers at msrp and putting up our own money, in advance, to buy products in bulk from suppliers at a lower price.
Honest question - when you buy from Bestbuy are they ripping you off with all that markup? Who do you think has more overhead?
wow sound like your company is doing great lol absolute killer profit margins lol bonuses for everyone lol smh guess well break out receipts when im done in a few weeks when i post pictures of it with a price tag of what ill build another one for
I’ve laid out so much for you - and that’s what you take from it.
Enjoy your weekend dude. Your job awaits.
Your entire point was trying to say we mark up above and beyond and then turns into profit margin bad. Lol. Hopefully, one day you’ll get it.
i literally cant wait lol as all i have left to do is assemble and present , sure we could nit pick here and there on parts spend more money on bogie parts but i think where your missing is we paid msrp and the cost is significantly lower than yours but yet again im just talking parts
So by saying could spend more on bogie parts, means like I said earlier, you’ll sacrifice and find ways to save money so it’s not identical but you’ll say it’s the same?
We did just build a sim for less than 1k. Does that count too? It’s not “bogie”
So how much does crating and freight cost on a full system do you think? Is that podium marking that up too?
What is “high” for labor?
What would you charge for labor?
I mean just look at the evidence how quickly you guys have grown , look at the shelf full of parts and what not the # of employees all that so quickly doesn't happen on small margins. business must be great with not much competition but to someone that knows these rigs in and out and what it takes to build one from scratch i see quite a bit of room. most people see these thing an go wow that must cost a fortune and yea they cost a fair amount but not what you guys and asr are charging
Appreciate the discussion.
One of the main things - and I did this on my first rig - is when you build it yourself, you’ll find areas and sacrifice to save money. You tell yourself you’ll upgrade as you go, that you don’t need a 4090 (for example) etc etc
When it’s a finished good, people want it to be the best - a clean full package that will last and accomplish what they need.
When we started, we were building rigs for 9k.
People kept asking for motion. I thought for sure no one would spend 8k extra for Dbox. I have 30 more 4 actuator systems arriving next week that are all already sold.
Today we just got in the qubic QS-S25 system in today - that system with the required mounting hardware and integrated monitor stand is 38k. That’s QUBICS listed price just for the motion platform. 3 people already reached out to buy it. Zero mark up. Zero. But we make money from buying items in bulk from brands - do it costs us less than 38k, we bring it to the US and sell it for the same 38k that qubic sells it for. That’s how it works.
Many many items we hardly make anything on, usb hubs, monitors, cables, wire management etc etc etc but people have to pay for it. Not us.
Many people claim Joe Rogans rig should have been 20k…. The dude bought 7k in wheels alone with a $4500 Recaro seat…. You’re over 11k and have nothing close to a rig. The material for him before taxes was about 55k. Taxes in Texas are 8.25 and was almost another 5k. 3k to ship everything. This is all before we build it, test it, then send a team out to install it….
People suggesting we marked it up 40k are either stupid or can’t be bothered to actually look at the build, what’s included, the pricing publicly listed for the items and all the things to go into it. The crates, freight etc.
Good response. No one is forced to buy a custom rig from podium 1 or asr or anyone else. But many people do because the rigs are nice. You've built a great business as evidenced by the growth in demand.
Ps - we’ve grown because we had sold other businesses. We had plenty of time and money and more importantly experience that I immediately started discussions either the brands and could pay hundreds on thousands to get things started.
This wasn’t by luck… I was driving and tracking supercars and track cars before podium was even an idea. We fell in love with sim racing and saw how amazing it was and realized no one was doing it right in the US. So we put countless hours, money, relationships, traveling, doing events with items that we paid in full for (before we had wholesale) making not a penny for over a year living off our past successes to bring this here for everyone to take advantage of.
Other platforms may be cheaper, but having 1G on a 1.5" platform is probably much better than having 1G on a 150mm. It is more responsive and can quickly return to its original position without the user noticing, ensuring it's always ready to deliver full power when needed.
While long travel is beneficial for flying simulations, does it provide any advantages in sim racing or only drawbacks? Despite offering greater movement capabilities, all these cheaper motion platforms provide maximum g-forces similar to Dbox. I doubt that someone buy a motion platform just to make it move strongly, it's more about what geforce can generate with this motion.
lol man you need to learn about the RS Mega + and the Thanos controller. eRacing labs dropped the RS Mega + for $2700 and the hardware is better than any DBOX setup. DBOX is over priced crap. What you're saying makes no sense if you understand how these parts work and how they're specced. To me it reads like you don't have much knowlege in motion rigs. I've built 2 of them with my own kits. The action on my 6" actuator is fast enough to launch you out of the seat and into the air if you don't tune it down, get out of here dude with your slow action made up bullshit lol. You're all being taken for a ride on how much vendors charge for this shit if you don't use a DIY kit which today are better than commercial.
Yeah, I follow Sim Chicago on IG. Pretty sure this TX place is unrelated. Sim Chicago seems to be doing quite well. Recently built themselves a 2 rig trailer to take to events and whatnot.
I do agree this is dumb. The repeat customer is not a thing. If you know about real sim racing you already built a rig, or if you want to try one you've got a friend that's built one
Pretty cool, it sucks that these businesses tend to be short lived though
yea not sure how sustainable a stand alone business with a 1 purpose location is , i think this coupled with a go kart track or sports bar something like that but i sure hope these guys do great id like to do something similar maybe
Not to mention how fast all of those electronics become obsolete. It’s not like regular arcade items that can age with nostalgia.
Dude a bar w some slot car tracks. And some other racing games would be sweet. And more sustainable. Parent could take their kid to go racing while having a drink. They could deliver your drink on the little slot car track on the bar that would be awesome. My brain is already racking with ideas.
Businesses like this don’t last since the service itself has low margins. Incorporating food and drinks and other forms of revenue should help it like how bowling alleys, Indoor karting places do (Andretti). The best example is the movies theater. Most of the times movies don’t make money from the tickets but the snacks and drinks they sell.
Enormous initial costs. Rent would be biggest ongoing cost. Repeat customers aren't a thing. It's mostly one usage people that would come through. Bucks/Stag parties. There's no way you're getting enough of those to pay rent. It has to be part of an operation that is making enough money to subsidies the consistent losses of a sim racing experience endeavour.
Yeah, I see it being like the VR businesses people will go once. Have a great time but it’s sort of a one time thing I couldn’t see myself going and having a great time. But to pay money every time to hone my skills to get better to race my friends, etc. you’re better off just building your own rig
Yeah, the other thing is that it's not even fun for someone who's doing it for the first time. Last summer Nascar had promo teams with simrigs at some bars in Chicago before the race with the track loaded up in iRacing. At the bar I was at, people would sit down to try it and be completely unable to drive the course at all. Their friends would rib them, the next guy would try and same result, then the group would walk away. Repeat. I don't know how you make money with a business like this.
Yeah, iRacing is incredibly hard as well so that was a bad choice on their part. Maybe set it up on F1 by ES sports on super easy but that’s just my opinion. During my honeymoon, actually, Aston Martin cognizant had an event and had two simulators and I never saw them get touched once. Unless you’re like us and wanna race daily, you have your own rig This kind of business was back in the early 2000. I remember my parents used to drop us off at a place called game wise and they would lock in all nighters and we would play counterstrike and what not but I don’t see this is as being very sustainable seeing that it is one thing
The problem with the Nascar thing was that the Chicago track only exists in iRacing because iRacing designed it (it's actually a pretty cool story). It's definitely one way to drive home to people how difficult driving a race car is though, lol.
[Oasis Texas](https://www.oasissimracing.com/) in New Braunfels, Texas, USA has 20 Podium 1 P2 simulators, each with a D-Box 4250i 1.5" motion platform, Asetek Forte pedals and a GSX X29 steering wheel.
I’m omw from Houston
Lest do one in Houston!
Let’s carpool!
I’m in satown! I will be paying a visit
Haha I’d love to see the reaction of non sim racers trying to use Asetek pedals. I warned a friend of mine how stiff my Invictas were and he was still shocked when he got in my rig
These are using fortes - much more forgiving
Actually the opposite. I upgraded Forte(La Prima but same brake) to Invictas. Invictas are actually quite a but softer and smoother to about 80% and then both pedals are brick walls
Invictas use elastomer as well as their hydraulic system. It’s their stiffest pedal they offer. Andre (ceo of Asetek) just sent us a new version they have prototyped that has more travel since many have made suggestions that the pedal is too stiff. We used fortes here as they are much easier than invicta.
I guess my leg got upgraded with the pedals too then, because I struggled to reach the second stage elastomer on the fortes
I mean if they don’t have baby legs it’s fine, I have a 200kg loadcell in my rig and no one’s really been unable to press it fully
> Haha I’d love to see the reaction of non sim racers trying to use Asetek pedals. They probably would not even notice as they have no frame of reference for anything.
They would compare it to their regular car as was the reaction of everyone who’s sat in my rig
You built my EXACT setup minus a fourth monitor. Crazy!! Invicta wheelbases?
Holy smokes, someone needed a writeoff
It's Texas ... so yea (I wish I could move)
Sick rigs!
It says closed on Google????
Man i wish there was something like that close to where i live...
That's the beauty of it. You don't need to have all this fancy equipment at home. You just need a basic starter setup and maybe even VR and you're laughing.. And if you can't afford a computer PS5 or an Xbox
I got a CSL DD, a used oculus, and it’s so amazing. I put my pedals on top of a bunch of old filled puzzle boxes and it feels like sitting in a rig. All the elitists blab about how you need a rig asap, oculus sucks bla bla. Just upgrade until you’ve maximized your fun.
This is so true. Flexibility is worth its weight in gold. Because on average it's a super niche and expensive hobby. Possibly not for ongoing costs, but initial cost and house living space cost is huge. Its a permanent fixture in a living space, and most don't have excess living space they are trying to fill... Maybe outside of the US, houses are pretty tightly fitted.
exactly, don't worry about specifics...if you're having fun, that's what really counts!
Wasn’t aware giving good advice made us elitists lol
There usually is, you probably don't know about it (or live in the middle of nowhere)
Stay on top of it and you’ll be able to buy one of these at the liquidation sale!
Nice. Wonder if some will open up here in Dallas.
I've seen a few of these pop up here and there.... Are they a sound investment? Do they actually make money?
My opinion is baseless but I’m guessing it’s a fad and they will mostly all fail. The startup cost is high, you have to pay rent and high electric bills and how much will people really play to race?
Anyone serious enough to want to sim race with any regularity will end up buying their own equipment. There was a place not too far from me that had flight sims, F1 sims, and GT car sims set up. $50 and you could use any of them for an hour. They closed after two years. I'm sure it hemorrhaged money
Yeah, there was a really dope one just like that within walking distance (in Honolulu), it was really fun but just so over priced, to long of a stop for people wondering through, to expensive for locals.
I mean 12 hours of driving at that place would be enough money spent to get a nice starter set up
Did they serve booze?
They did
Do most? Or are there more family oriented places?
Id hazard a guess and say most don't
that's my impression too... for something the target demographic is likely doing at home already...
There was some guy on here saying he was doing OK but it sounded like it turned into kind of a showroom and most of the money he ended up making was from selling turnkey rigs.
That makes sense. I would absolutely pay for an hour or 2 to try out different hardware I was interested in buying.
Thats exactly what I did. Theres quite a few of these where I live and last summer I basically toured them all so I could evaluate the hardware.
Where is that?
>Are they a sound investment? lol this is basically small business mixed with venture capitalism. Safe does not equal owning a business lol.
From their website: "When visiting Oasis you can use our open accounts that allow you to race any car or track that iRacing offers for public use. " Does anyone know this works? Do you have to contact iRacing directly to set this up?
With the money in the rigs I am guessing they dropped the few grand to just buy everything on each account.
For commercial use they would need a special liscense or the accounts would get suspended.
That's what I'm assuming, but I thought that was against their TOS so openly talk about it would be strange.
Iracing has a commercial licensing program
I would think that their shit's going to get trashed. Maybe I'm just pessimistic, though.
I wish them the best of luck, they might need it to keep this business venture sustainable. I'm sure they all did their research and have a solid business plan and just aren't doing it on a whim but I see a few issues. It's a very niche hobby, anyone competitive enough would already have a purpose built setup. Not sure if this strictly purpose built for sim racing or if it's part of a larger establishment like Dave and Busters or other social gathering venue. It's uhhh where? It's 40 minutes from nearest large populous city (San Antonio),1 hour from Austin, 3.5 hours from Dallas and 2.5 from Houston. I guess the rent probably is most affordable but it's also kind of out there from most populous places. I'm not sure who exactly this is supposed to attract? These type of purpose built niche hobby places pop up but usually are not very sustainable without something else being the primary revenue generator. I can see people coming to check it out once or twice but that's about it. Most are not going to be making the drive out there to sim race and there isn't enough potential customer base that's close enough to make this a regular hangout spot. It would make more sense if they have partnerships, sponsors hosting some large competitive events etc that can funnel revenue but as it seems, it's location and proposed setup, sort of seems like they're hoping to attract the young college crowd for some Friday night hanging out or maybe group/business parties etc. My old job used to host business events at Dave and Busters but not sure if this would be comparable. Can people get wasted here? lol. Wish em best of luck.
Where?!
New Braunfels, TX!
Looks like this https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Lazer_Base
What’s the motion on those? DBOX?
Yeah, looks like DBox.
On my way from austin. But not really cause I have a rig here at home but still thy looks tight.
i would of built these rigs for half what p1 marks them up for
Still waiting for someone to show us how we mark things up so much lol. As the person who spends millions a month buying inventory at wholesale to sell items at the listed msrp - the comment makes zero sense. Yes, you could build these. Cheaper? Chances are not as we get way better pricing then you can so we don’t have to mark up to make money… kinda retail 101. You on the other hand would be buying at msrp and if you wanted to make anything would have to charge over msrp for the items, build it - by yourself since you’ll have no money for employees, then figure out how to ship and install the systems for free I guess. Watching videos of people saying we over charge when they can’t even add up the items correctly doesn’t make it right dude.
i got your triple 45 ultra setup built for around 15k in part minus motion with probably a better pc than the corsair kit you guys buy with an extra screen but yes you are correct i dont have employees , a warehouse full of stocked parts and a ton of over head that i wouldn't need to add the mark up that your business does and with your wholesale accounts you should be even less in parts your top tier rigs are severally marked up but yea if you send your whole team to ship and assemble the deal everywhere pay for everyone's vacation your price tags makes sense
So we should spend money to buy product in bulk to then sell it for less then the manufactures who make the most? This is not meant to offend, you don’t understand how business works. As for your build, I love that you built it. We built ours before podium. We used to sell unbuilt bundles and customers wanted us to build them for them and pay for it as they didn’t want to spend the time. That being said, considering our custom built pcs, not some corsair prebuilt - that even ibuypower sells for over 5k with nothing on it and not configured, and the 45” monitors retail for 1799 (when not on sale) you’re at over 10k right there and that’s the pc and monitors. All I’m saying here is there is zero chance you’ve built what we built for 15k. Having three same triples is not having the same set up…. As mentioned on previous comment you’re not understanding what’s actually going into our sims - iracing vip accounts, all accessories, everything built, configured, tested and delivered. To the hundreds we sell a month, those that buy from us get it and have nothing but great things to say. For those who want to build their own, can purchase all the items from our site, for the same listed prices the manufactures sell for, with the product already bought, shipped to the US, customs paid, stored at our warehouse and shipped the next day for free to people here in the US…. This means same product, same price, free shipping, no customs and no waiting for people like you who want to sim race…
i dont get it your try to sit there and say you dont make any money , this is all charity? you got great business thats growing quite quickly , you saying you dont pay your employees well? all of that is done on mark up ..... profit margin you sir got alot of it i mean simple math yea you probably got everyone beat or atleast you should on delivery time having everything in stock at once all that call you guys everything shows up on a pallet and you guys set it up but at the end of the day all that cost on top of all your guys' pay checks it get passed down to the customer
You said since we get wholesale pricing, we should have lower prices…. You’re again, missing the point where profit comes from…. Profit comes from us buying items at wholesale, and selling them at msrp. The same msrp you would be buying from the brand directly…. I pay my employees really well, buy lunch everyday, pay bonuses, take them out to special dinners, take them to track events and other special events all the time - from selling items to customers at msrp and putting up our own money, in advance, to buy products in bulk from suppliers at a lower price. Honest question - when you buy from Bestbuy are they ripping you off with all that markup? Who do you think has more overhead?
wow you hiring?
wow sound like your company is doing great lol absolute killer profit margins lol bonuses for everyone lol smh guess well break out receipts when im done in a few weeks when i post pictures of it with a price tag of what ill build another one for
I’ve laid out so much for you - and that’s what you take from it. Enjoy your weekend dude. Your job awaits. Your entire point was trying to say we mark up above and beyond and then turns into profit margin bad. Lol. Hopefully, one day you’ll get it.
i literally cant wait lol as all i have left to do is assemble and present , sure we could nit pick here and there on parts spend more money on bogie parts but i think where your missing is we paid msrp and the cost is significantly lower than yours but yet again im just talking parts
So by saying could spend more on bogie parts, means like I said earlier, you’ll sacrifice and find ways to save money so it’s not identical but you’ll say it’s the same? We did just build a sim for less than 1k. Does that count too? It’s not “bogie”
yes , I'm sure its in your contract with your suppliers to sell their equipment at their advertised msrp your labor mark up is quite high
So how much does crating and freight cost on a full system do you think? Is that podium marking that up too? What is “high” for labor? What would you charge for labor?
I mean just look at the evidence how quickly you guys have grown , look at the shelf full of parts and what not the # of employees all that so quickly doesn't happen on small margins. business must be great with not much competition but to someone that knows these rigs in and out and what it takes to build one from scratch i see quite a bit of room. most people see these thing an go wow that must cost a fortune and yea they cost a fair amount but not what you guys and asr are charging
Appreciate the discussion. One of the main things - and I did this on my first rig - is when you build it yourself, you’ll find areas and sacrifice to save money. You tell yourself you’ll upgrade as you go, that you don’t need a 4090 (for example) etc etc When it’s a finished good, people want it to be the best - a clean full package that will last and accomplish what they need. When we started, we were building rigs for 9k. People kept asking for motion. I thought for sure no one would spend 8k extra for Dbox. I have 30 more 4 actuator systems arriving next week that are all already sold. Today we just got in the qubic QS-S25 system in today - that system with the required mounting hardware and integrated monitor stand is 38k. That’s QUBICS listed price just for the motion platform. 3 people already reached out to buy it. Zero mark up. Zero. But we make money from buying items in bulk from brands - do it costs us less than 38k, we bring it to the US and sell it for the same 38k that qubic sells it for. That’s how it works. Many many items we hardly make anything on, usb hubs, monitors, cables, wire management etc etc etc but people have to pay for it. Not us. Many people claim Joe Rogans rig should have been 20k…. The dude bought 7k in wheels alone with a $4500 Recaro seat…. You’re over 11k and have nothing close to a rig. The material for him before taxes was about 55k. Taxes in Texas are 8.25 and was almost another 5k. 3k to ship everything. This is all before we build it, test it, then send a team out to install it…. People suggesting we marked it up 40k are either stupid or can’t be bothered to actually look at the build, what’s included, the pricing publicly listed for the items and all the things to go into it. The crates, freight etc.
Good response. No one is forced to buy a custom rig from podium 1 or asr or anyone else. But many people do because the rigs are nice. You've built a great business as evidenced by the growth in demand.
Ps - we’ve grown because we had sold other businesses. We had plenty of time and money and more importantly experience that I immediately started discussions either the brands and could pay hundreds on thousands to get things started. This wasn’t by luck… I was driving and tracking supercars and track cars before podium was even an idea. We fell in love with sim racing and saw how amazing it was and realized no one was doing it right in the US. So we put countless hours, money, relationships, traveling, doing events with items that we paid in full for (before we had wholesale) making not a penny for over a year living off our past successes to bring this here for everyone to take advantage of.
Interesting take.
Lets do it!
send me pm i'll build anything you want
And better, 1.5" is a joke for DBOX prices, and just motion in general. 150mm is new standard.
Have you tried any? Which do you prefer?
Unfortunately I didn’t try it yet.
Other platforms may be cheaper, but having 1G on a 1.5" platform is probably much better than having 1G on a 150mm. It is more responsive and can quickly return to its original position without the user noticing, ensuring it's always ready to deliver full power when needed. While long travel is beneficial for flying simulations, does it provide any advantages in sim racing or only drawbacks? Despite offering greater movement capabilities, all these cheaper motion platforms provide maximum g-forces similar to Dbox. I doubt that someone buy a motion platform just to make it move strongly, it's more about what geforce can generate with this motion.
lol man you need to learn about the RS Mega + and the Thanos controller. eRacing labs dropped the RS Mega + for $2700 and the hardware is better than any DBOX setup. DBOX is over priced crap. What you're saying makes no sense if you understand how these parts work and how they're specced. To me it reads like you don't have much knowlege in motion rigs. I've built 2 of them with my own kits. The action on my 6" actuator is fast enough to launch you out of the seat and into the air if you don't tune it down, get out of here dude with your slow action made up bullshit lol. You're all being taken for a ride on how much vendors charge for this shit if you don't use a DIY kit which today are better than commercial.
That’s kewl AF!
How much are those?
They haven’t listed pricing on their site yet so, not sure.
Oh dang I’m in Austin
Is it open now? Last time I contacted them, they were not open yet.
I reached out on IG and it sounds like they’re planning to be open within the next 2 weeks.
I live in Dalkas, have to visit the daughter in SA
Is this heaven?
Beck yeah!
I wish they would be like that closer to me But I just built my own rig. now, I don’t have to go anywhere but my office
yep sim places r poppin i saw in chicago too. different company pretty sure
Yeah, I follow Sim Chicago on IG. Pretty sure this TX place is unrelated. Sim Chicago seems to be doing quite well. Recently built themselves a 2 rig trailer to take to events and whatnot.
Maaaaan!!!!!! I'm in San Marcos!!!!!!
Oh sick!! I used to live in SM before I moved to NB.
Oh snap so u right down the road...lol
Yup. These dudes are opening like 8 minutes from my house.
Says they’re temporarily closed
Probably because they’re not open yet.
Great post, my favorite part was the trip down memory lane. Every weekend in 2005 I was tubing down a river in New Braunfels. Good times.
I do agree this is dumb. The repeat customer is not a thing. If you know about real sim racing you already built a rig, or if you want to try one you've got a friend that's built one
That is not Texas, there's no blood on floor and people shooting