Bear F.A.Q.

Want to know a little bit about me or my store? Here are some questions I've received or anticipate. 

I’m a weirdly sentient bear who likes nerf stuff. I don’t really consider myself a business owner and I am not conducting this store as a “serious business” in a lot of ways. I take everything I do seriously, but my shop is just a way to justify being a part of as much nerf stuff as possible. I really enjoy the luxury of being able to participate in any project I want if I know that I can recoup my costs. This allows me to be readily available to the designers of the nerf community. 

I mean that I am really leaning in to the “just a guy” approach to this store. There are a lot of pros and cons to working with a random guy that you find on discord or you hear about from someone. I plan to fully embrace those pros and cons. Yes, I intend to make a profit. But everything surrounding how I go about that will be a little different.  

-You will be supporting my efforts to work directly with small designers who might otherwise not have a merchandiser to work with. 

-You can chat with me as a person and I have flexibility that a major store will not be able to match. I also get to speak like a person instead of a business. 

-My prices should generally be competitive. 

-My entire “business” model relies on my reputation. You can join the nerf discord and just flat out ask for a vibe check on my products. 

-You can ask me exactly where a part comes from to know where I cut costs and where I didn’t, or how to source your own. 

-The first and most significant is that my products are subject to the limitations of this being a hobby for me. I currently have 1 printer and try to keep my supply stock limited. I can’t really estimate some timing issues because I have no idea how many orders I might have on any given day. Each product should have my best guess on lead times listed. Feel free to reach out to discuss the processing time for a current or potential order. If I haven’t started it yet, or the order can be repurposed, then I have no issues refunding something that has taken too long for your preferences. 

-My products might have some rougher edges or less than perfect finishes. I have gotten great feedback on my products, but to set expectations my quality goal is “quite good but not perfect”. 

Yes! But actually no. For many of my products I will have been an active participant of the design process from alpha or beta stage. My entire intention is to be a part of nerf projects, the store is just a way to justify those expenses for me. Many stores will not be able to claim the level of interaction with a project that I can. 

100% never will. I fully believe that people deserve compensation for their labor. I won’t even carry an open source product if the designer wont let me pay them. If you buy from my store you can know for certain that the designer knows and approves of their product being sold by Bear. Even as a smaller store I match the industry standard for designer compensation. Every time. 

Listen, you can’t just ask someone that. I’ll say that right now I’m happy playing with my Khopesh, Cynthia, Yeethammer, and Freerunner. In the future I will have a link to my honest opinions on each blaster I build including cost, performance, build difficulty, guide quality, and more. 

Hello! Am Bear. Work hard. Pay designers. Might be a little slow sometimes. Doing my best. Not a furry despite the motif. @Bearith on discord.