Get your beer sabres Monday

[PromoTheRobot]

10 hours ago, LTS said:

Because the people who come up with this are also the same ones who recently floated the Tage Long HotDog.  They don't know what good ideas are and they grossly underestimated how popular a drinking device that is shaped like the team's name would be with a bunch of people who've had 15 years to develop a severe drinking problem in attempting to cope with this team.

Predictably they underestimated the importance and ran out. This was only slightly less obvious than the Olympic organizers failing to estimate the amount of condoms needed for the Olympic Village.  Although, there was a Tage Long HotDog in the village during the Olympics I feel confident they didn't need an appropriately sized condom for it.

Someone on Reddit said the tariffs screwed it up, as these are made overseas.

[Taro T]

16 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Someone on Reddit said the tariffs screwed it up, as these are made overseas.

That would be rather ridiculous as the molds could easily have been shipped stateside or new molds made up in the 4-5 months since the original batch of beer sabers ran out.  There are blow molding shops in the US that could easily have made them.

Charge $28 for them filled with a Blue or Blue Light instead of the $27 they were charging originally and you cover the extra production costs.

The handles appear to be injection molded and the sword portion are made on an EBM machine.  

[Eleven]

Artificial scarcity is a thing.

[PromoTheRobot]

4 minutes ago, Taro T said:

That would be rather ridiculous as the molds could easily have been shipped stateside or new molds made up in the 4-5 months since the original batch of beer sabers ran out.  There are blow molding shops in the US that could easily have made them.

Charge $28 for them filled with a Blue or Blue Light instead of the $27 they were charging originally and you cover the extra production costs.

The handles appear to be injection molded and the sword portion are made on an EBM machine.  

Not really. It's often cheaper to get things made overseas.

[Big Guava]

On 4/5/2026 at 3:49 PM, Wyldnwoody44 said:

Doesn't quite hit the same when we watch them squeak in and play like crap as it happened. 

Still pumped it's over, but woof, anti climactic is an understatement 

The team was in as soon as they hit 96+ points. Flames set the NHL record a year or two ago when they became the highest point team to miss the playoffs with 96. Looks like that is going to be around the mark again.

 

[Taro T]

35 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Not really. It's often cheaper to get things made overseas.

Really?  

Hadn't actually said in the post you quoted that there could be "extra production costs" moving that production stateside.  (Oh, wait.  Did say that.  😉 )

And IF the Sabres own the molds, and they very well could, then they additional production costs MIGHT be made up strictly by not having to cover tariffs and they don't even have to raise the price at all.

Tariffs could make the costs to the Sabres increase, but they shouldn't cause delays in the production nor delivery.  Face it.  The Sabres SEVERELY underestimated demand for these.  They thought they'd have enough to cover all the Friday and Saturday games this season, but they ran out after only 4-5 games.

They chose THIS game to sell them again, because it was the 1 game of the last 3 that they didn't have other limited giveaways planned to get people into the building early.

And they did not do a good job of letting people know they'd be sold around the arena; the line to get them at the Blue Zone near 119 stretched farther than it had at any of the other games they sold them at by a good 2 sections 50 minutes before game time.

[bg17]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Someone on Reddit said the tariffs screwed it up, as these are made overseas.

If someone on Reddit said it, it has to be true. Thanks for sharing. 

[LTS]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Someone on Reddit said the tariffs screwed it up, as these are made overseas.

I mean sure... maybe. I'm not quoting the rest of the conversations. It doesn't change the underestimation of demand.

This is the same city that went nuts over the Whammy Weenie.
 

[Dude]

3 hours ago, Taro T said:

Really?  

Hadn't actually said in the post you quoted that there could be "extra production costs" moving that production stateside.  (Oh, wait.  Did say that.  😉 )

And IF the Sabres own the molds, and they very well could, then they additional production costs MIGHT be made up strictly by not having to cover tariffs and they don't even have to raise the price at all.

Tariffs could make the costs to the Sabres increase, but they shouldn't cause delays in the production nor delivery.  Face it.  The Sabres SEVERELY underestimated demand for these.  They thought they'd have enough to cover all the Friday and Saturday games this season, but they ran out after only 4-5 games.

They chose THIS game to sell them again, because it was the 1 game of the last 3 that they didn't have other limited giveaways planned to get people into the building early.

And they did not do a good job of letting people know they'd be sold around the arena; the line to get them at the Blue Zone near 119 stretched farther than it had at any of the other games they sold them at by a good 2 sections 50 minutes before game time.

I can see them not realizing the tariffs possibly affecting the supply.  But going forward they should be brining production back to the US.  The difference in cost can easily be made up by volume.  They lost a lot of revenue by not having enough last night.

As for not letting people know where to buy them, were they available at every beer dispenser?

[Taro T]

Just now, Dude said:

I can see them not realizing the tariffs possibly affecting the supply.  But going forward they should be brining production back to the US.  The difference in cost can easily be made up by volume.  They lost a lot of revenue by not having enough last night.

As for not letting people know where to buy them, were they available at every beer dispenser?

No.  Per a post on the 1st page, there were a handful of other locations besides the Blue Zone behind 119 that had them.  Had no idea of that until today.  The line to the Blue Zone was VERY long.

[LGR4GM]

5 minutes ago, Dude said:

I can see them not realizing the tariffs possibly affecting the supply.  But going forward they should be brining production back to the US.  The difference in cost can easily be made up by volume.  They lost a lot of revenue by not having enough last night.

As for not letting people know where to buy them, were they available at every beer dispenser?

Things that will never happen for 1,000 please Alex. 

[Weave]

Im wondering hoW many in this conversation have any background in injection molding, tooling, and cost of manufacturing LOL.

The volumes of that sabre are dirt small for injection molding.  The tooling cost is way higher than I think most of you realize, and don’t assume the Sabres own the tool.  

[PASabreFan]

15 minutes ago, Weave said:

Im wondering hoW many in this conversation have any background in injection molding, tooling, and cost of manufacturing LOL.

The volumes of that sabre are dirt small for injection molding.  The tooling cost is way higher than I think most of you realize, and don’t assume the Sabres own the tool.  

Easy, now.

[PromoTheRobot]

4 hours ago, Taro T said:

Really?  

Hadn't actually said in the post you quoted that there could be "extra production costs" moving that production stateside.  (Oh, wait.  Did say that.  😉 )

And IF the Sabres own the molds, and they very well could, then they additional production costs MIGHT be made up strictly by not having to cover tariffs and they don't even have to raise the price at all.

Tariffs could make the costs to the Sabres increase, but they shouldn't cause delays in the production nor delivery.  Face it.  The Sabres SEVERELY underestimated demand for these.  They thought they'd have enough to cover all the Friday and Saturday games this season, but they ran out after only 4-5 games.

They chose THIS game to sell them again, because it was the 1 game of the last 3 that they didn't have other limited giveaways planned to get people into the building early.

And they did not do a good job of letting people know they'd be sold around the arena; the line to get them at the Blue Zone near 119 stretched farther than it had at any of the other games they sold them at by a good 2 sections 50 minutes before game time.

I'm not sure what that means. Do they own the molds? Maybe. Do they possess the molds? Probably not. And if they did, what would they do with them? Give them to another company to fill them? It might not be transferable. 

Edited April 7 by PromoTheRobot

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, LTS said:

I mean sure... maybe. I'm not quoting the rest of the conversations. It doesn't change the underestimation of demand.

This is the same city that went nuts over the Whammy Weenie.
 

I knew the Whammy Weenie. I owned a Whammy Weenie. The Whammy Weenie was no Beer Sabre

[Eleven]

7 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I knew the Whammy Weenie. I owned a Whammy Weenie. The Whammy Weenie was no Beer Sabre

Because everyone who went into a Bells market could have one.  My family of four had ... four.

Again, it's artificial scarcity.  The Beer Sabre was available on Friday nights only originally, and this was for a reason.  It returned yesterday, and that's great.  But a collector's item is only a collector's item if it is relatively rare.  This drove Friday night attendance when the team sucked, and it was nice of the team to re-release a batch yesterday.

Edited April 7 by Eleven

[JP51]

On 4/5/2026 at 3:49 PM, Wyldnwoody44 said:

Doesn't quite hit the same when we watch them squeak in and play like crap as it happened. 

Still pumped it's over, but woof, anti climactic is an understatement 

Still time to turn it... Big win against TB... win out or go 5 or your last 6... make a run at the division...  still think this team will struggle with the attrition of the playoffs... but one step at a time... 

[That Aud Smell]

5 hours ago, Eleven said:

Artificial scarcity is a thing.

For real.

Remember when Disney would "vault" their movies? Brilliant, that.

[Taro T]

41 minutes ago, Weave said:

Im wondering hoW many in this conversation have any background in injection molding, tooling, and cost of manufacturing LOL.

The volumes of that sabre are dirt small for injection molding.  The tooling cost is way higher than I think most of you realize, and don’t assume the Sabres own the tool.  

No data.  But have a lot of experience with blow molding and decorating.  And only tangentially related to this but from a very past life am also very familiar with the actual manufacture of LDPE and several specialty variants of it.  And would be mildly surprised if the Sabres didn't at a minimum have the option to own the molds & related tooling.  (Though wouldn't be shocked if that were not the case.  But for something like this could see where they might want to own them.)  We always owned our own molds whether we manufactured our own or contracted them out, but our business was significantly different.

3 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I'm not sure what that means. Do they own the molds? Maybe. Do they possess the molds? Probably not. And if they did, what would they do with them? Give them to another company to fill them? It might not be transferable. 

The manufacturer could own the tooling (molds, inserts, cutters, change parts, etc) or the customer could.  The contract could also call for the customer to have an option to purchase the tooling.  And yes, the tooling could very readily and easily be transferred to another contract manufacturer.  It's blow molding and injection molding; very easily transferrable to other locations at the sort of quanties we're realistically discussing.  Happens often.

 

[Mr. MVP]

Just saw some fool trying to sell one of these online for $200.  

[Eleven]

2 hours ago, Mr. MVP said:

Just saw some fool trying to sell one of these online for $200.  

Oh, that's not the fool.  The person who buys it is.

[msw2112]

7 hours ago, LTS said:

I mean sure... maybe. I'm not quoting the rest of the conversations. It doesn't change the underestimation of demand.

This is the same city that went nuts over the Whammy Weenie.
 

I had one of these, but it was such a long time ago that I can't remember if the nuts were over the Weenie or under it.  (Upon further reflection, I think the nuts were INSIDE of it, as I recall that it was hollow, but had some objects inside of it that would make noise when you shook it.)

I do remember that it was green and not being able to figure out why.  None of the Buffalo sports teams wear green and I don't recall any Martians living in Buffalo at the time.

Some may argue that the Beer Sabre is more functional than the Whammy Weenie.  Others may argue otherwise.

Edited April 7 by msw2112

[quill]

3 hours ago, Eleven said:

Oh, that's not the fool.  The person who buys it is.

Ain't that the truth. To some people, the more they pay, the more it's worth, and the more they can brag to their friends at their next party how much they paid for "such a rare piece of memorabilia."

[LTS]

16 hours ago, msw2112 said:

I had one of these, but it was such a long time ago that I can't remember if the nuts were over the Weenie or under it.  (Upon further reflection, I think the nuts were INSIDE of it, as I recall that it was hollow, but had some objects inside of it that would make noise when you shook it.)

I do remember that it was green and not being able to figure out why.  None of the Buffalo sports teams wear green and I don't recall any Martians living in Buffalo at the time.

Some may argue that the Beer Sabre is more functional than the Whammy Weenie.  Others may argue otherwise.

Indeed...

 

[Doohickie]