The contact link in my profile goes to a valid address. Thanks!
St Cago Polo Works is for sale!
I am going to make one last huge batch of heads and try to push out more brake levers for y'all this winter. After that, I would like to be done. Other concerns have taken priority. But I would like to see the little polo company I started live on. Ideally, the buyer should be an active player, mechanically able, and design savvy, such that you can keep up with demand for the already developed products and try to add to the catalog as new ideas develop while the game evolves.
You will get:
• Stock. All the caps, blanks, pipe, and loose parts I've got. (it's a lot)
•Tools. What I use to make caps and levers, plus the fusion rigs that will allow you to
make about 20 heads an hour (once you get the hang of it)
•Contacts. The names, costs, and functions of every person I've ever dealt with to make
this stuff. Pipe suppliers, machinists, water jets, stickers, etc.
•Customers. Email addresses going back to 2008 for every customer I've helped out or
pissed off.
•The Fixcraft distribution deal. If you want it, Sean it totally willing to work with you. If
you want to keep that commission and distribute yourself, no hard feelings.
•The brand. Rights to the name, logo, and all associated brand-y stuff. The company
will be yours, the history will be yours, the name recognition will be yours.
•Instruction. I will draw up and write out everything you'll need to know to make the
standard product, as well as answer any questions you have about how this method
was arrived at. Depending on your location and schedule, I may be able to bring
everything to you and run you through the process, or I may ask you to come to
Chicago and pick it up.
•Money! This is a profitable business. I have paid my rent more than a few times with
big orders, and am still the only person I know of who can go to a major tournament
out of town and not loose cash in food, booze, gas, and motels.
Serious inquiries only, please. This business can take up about 10-20 hours a week of your time, between answering emails and shipping orders (if you self-distribute) and actually making the stuff. If you work part time or are especially motivated, you will be rewarded. The price is based on buying the stock (a number that will change as I make and sell heads this spring), tooling (a fixed cost), and what I think the brand is worth, based on putting 4 years of my life into it.
Email me if you're interested,
Thanks for everything, poloverse.
-Lucky
OK, wow. Thanks for your interest, everybody! Here's an update:
There is an offer on the table. We've decided to handle it like buying a house, in that they've put a deposit down and are free to inspect my stock, finances, and practices for two weeks with no obligation. On March 1st, if we both still like the deal, the company will change hands and there will be a new (hopefully more interested, productive, and responsive) face behind the most versitile, thought-out, player-made, bike polo products out there.
If any other interested player(s) are able to offer more money, or some compelling reasons why I should sell St Cago to them and no one else, speak now or forever hold your piece.
Hopefully all goes well, and I can introduce you to your new mallet makers after the first of March!
It's a done deal! The new owners of St Cago Polo Works are Andrew and Eric of Miami Bike Polo.
They are enthusiastic polo players who were already making mallets for people with the same attitude I had about it, I.E. If you don't have the time/skills, or want a consistent product, use mine. If you want to make your own, jedi-knight-style, go for it. No hard feelings. A couple of modest, handy guys who want to contribute to the sport in the way they can. Look for them at tournaments all over. They've got plans!
So, at the end of March, they're coming up to Chicago to get the parts and tools and the run down on how the magic happens. After that, they're out of the nest and flying on their own. Look for lots of St Cago heads and brake levers to hit the market around tournament season this year. Hopefully, new products (or at least a quicker email response time) will follow.
Thanks to everyone who expressed an interest in buying St Cago, which was my life in polo for four years. So many great conversations with enthusiastic strangers-become-friends at tournaments and in emails over the years. I'll miss it.
Special thanks to Jason (now Sir Woadie from Portland), my first paying customer at NACCC's 2008. Riki from Tokyo and Gypsy from Sydney. You guys paid my rent with huge orders at a time when I needed every penny very badly. Thanks for justifying my gamble on polo supplies as opposed to quitting the biz and buying groceries. Machine Politics and Doug from NYC, the only riders I ever sponsored.
Everyone who ever played. From the grass days in Harrison Park to the Worlds in Seattle. You made it worth doing.
-Lucky
Chicago Bike Polo 2003-2008
St Louis Bike Polo 2008-2011
Chicago Bike Polo 2011.
Retired.
You walking away from the biz or walking away from polo? If the later, whyso?
Always a bummer to lose one from the fold.
Hey All. We can't tell you how excited we are! Thank you Lucky, we can't wait to carry on where you left off. You have been such an essential part of the bike polo scene and we promise to keep that going strong. We definitely have a lot of plans and ideas to offer great things to the bike polo community. It's been an amazing time for us, having just introduced Miami Bike Polo in early March last year.
We've been working hard since then to do everything we can for the scene here in Miami and every where else. Your offer could not have come at a better time. Andrew and I have been working on launching an online store to offer our hand made mallets and some other goodies in the works and we really were trying to get a respectable store together before we launched, so this really is the perfect scenario. It was meant to be!
So anyway, thanks again and we look forward to making you proud and strengthening the bike polo scene for everyone.
What was the selling price?
what's your current email?