Best Sellers

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Permalink Reply by Erik on July 5, 2008 at 10:21am

Hrm... without knowing what a "Best Seller" really looks like in terms of sales volume it's all speculation. But I'm gonna guess that as categories Traditionals outsell Teasers outsell Tricks. And that then within each category there is a log normal distribution aka long tail. That spikes with new additions coming on line.

Thus, within Teasers, I'm going to guess the ~4 $145 dollar puzzles are about tied for top place b/c of price entry point followed by some of the other long time puzzles.

Within Tricks, Champ has a good chance of being #1 because of its heavy promotion in articles.

Another question that I'd love the answer to, how many of each category (roughly, order of magnitude 100, 1000, 10000) of puzzles are sold each year?

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Permalink Reply by David Minton on July 8, 2008 at 4:18am

Very interesting question Tammy & Joe. Very interesting answer Erik. You sound just about spot on imho.

I know that, as a beginner who doesn't yet own a Stave, it would be a mistake for me to buy Champ right now, as it's a 4 lightning bolt trick. However, it's almost tempting to buy it just because it's such a famous puzzle, gets so much coverage, and seems like it should be in everyone's Stave collection.

I have noticed that Turtle Soup keeps popping up in peoples' profiles here as a favourate, and was one of the (many) puzzles featured in the CBS segment. It wouldn't surprise me if that was a pretty popular puzzle. Pull My Strings also seems to have been the subject of a lot of recommendations recently. I take your point about cheaper entry-level puzzles likely to sell in larger volumes though.

It raises the fact that it'd be interesting to know the introduction date for puzzles. Being very new to Stave, I have no idea when Turtle Soup or Pull My Strings (for example) were introduced. (I've managed to surmise that Champ has been around for a while). It'd be really interesting from a collector's point of view, but I suppose researching the year of introduction for each puzzle in the catalogue and then adding all those to the website pages would be a mammoth task!

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Permalink Reply by June Herold on July 8, 2008 at 9:09am

Hi folks. Been travelling and grinding my brains into mush with work. Surfacing for air now and finally catching up with discussions. Couple o'comments/thoughts about your musings here: David: Champ is not that intimidating. I solved it quickly and people who read what I wrote about it either in a discussion board or in my blogs (can't recall so if you search for "champ: in the search cell atop this page, you'll find more discussion about it) found it miraculous. 'Twas not! Here's the issue when confronted with an difficult puzzle to solve: all of the visual splendor of a puzzle can be a major distraction. By splendor I mean, visual beauty or visual complexity fo the pattern, as in the case of Champ. The temptation to get completely lost and distracted five ways to Sunday over these puzzles (because of how our brains work literally) is the issue. Take a deep breath and go beyond the visual and systematically think through what you are trying to solve and before you know it, you will get to the two solutions for Champ. Mental discipline....that's what it takes. When you become one with that ( ok no more Zen/Buddhist references, I promise), things will become clearer in the trick puzzles.-----Regarding best sellers and dates they were introduced: Seems to me that Stave has all this info and I'll ask Paula if we can get it. Maybe we'll put it into the Stave entry on Wikipedia, if Eric thinks that's a good place. If not, we could put it here on PuzzleNuts. I have a number of catalogs dating back to the late 1990s and I have looked to see when Turtle Soup was introduced. All I can tell you is that it's been around at least since year 2000. Champ is one of the oldest ones but I think Tropical Punch has been around for quite some time too. There are other puzzlenuts here who have catalogs going back even farther.

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Permalink Reply by Erik on July 8, 2008 at 9:31pm

I'm happy to put more data on Wikipedia or here. I think to really do the research I need to visit Stave HQ :-D

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Permalink Reply by David Minton on July 8, 2008 at 1:32pm

Hi June,

Good to hear from you. Champ is just one of many puzzles on my wish-list. I'll definitely bear in mind your comments next time I'm weighing up which puzzles to buy. It's always interesting and useful to hear what others think of various designs.

It'd be great to have a database of puzzles on this website, with their release dates (or year). Would there be any way that members could add comments to each entry saying how easy/difficult they found it, or what they liked/disliked about it? It's a bit beyond my IT skills I'm afraid, but I'd be happy to help out entering some of the data if needed. It could be a useful addition to an already-fabulous site!

All the best - David

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Permalink Reply by Paula on July 8, 2008 at 1:35pm

Hi PuzzleNuts -

Just wanted to let you all know that I am on vacation (sort of). I never really go on vacation from Stave. It's my home away from home, so I have to check in. I guess it's just in my blood. In any event, there are some really interesting conversations happening in this community right now that I would LOVE to give you all answers to, but......I'm out soaking up the sun right now.

So - keep up with the speculation and keep posting questions and I PROMISE that I will answer them all next week. Paula

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Permalink Reply by June Herold on July 8, 2008 at 3:18pm

Hi Paula.......I'm vitamin D deprived. Could you please send some of those rays over to moi in Viriginia and New York City? I'm staying the heck away from Phoenix and Tuscon right now because it's 118 degrees there. But no matter where I lay down, it's overcast or muggy..... I'm jealous. Looking forward to your return .....june

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