Oggz – The Product That Helped Pay My Tuition
20 Jan 7 Comments
Oggz are egg-shaped lights that slowly change color. That’s it.
This surprisingly simple invention is now selling in Wal-Mart which means its been proven at every level of retail up to the highest.
Since I own an online rave store that focuses on light-up stuff, I was one of the early people to start carrying this obscure product several years ago. It was manufactured by Can You Imagine, and the single Oggz unit retailed at $19.99 and the 3-Pack retailed at $49.99. Till this day the price is pretty much the same. The kicker is now you can buy the triple pack Wal-Mart for $28.00 (a full $22.00 cheaper than standard retail price). Wal-Mart’s retail price is even lower than my wholesale price!! Definitely shows the massive purchasing power Wal-Mart has!
I don’t usually see most of the products I sell online since everything is dropshipped, so I was always flabbergasted by the volume at which these Oggz sold at. This product was definitely a large staple for HouseOfRave and most definitely a large income earner. Another plus was people never complained about the product breaking, malfunctioning or not working. Customers loved them. I loved them too because they sold well, had a high margin and no one ever returned them.
I was in college when Oggz came out, so the extra income from this single product was greatly appreciated.
I eventually ordered some Oggz to see why so many people of different backgrounds kept ordering this product, and then I finally saw why people like them….they’re just neat. They slowly morph into different colors as you watch them. They don’t JUMP to different colors…they gently move through the spectrum of light creating a mesmerizing or soothing effect. They’re quite a nice nightlight, play toy or decoration. Lots of spa’s and masseuses would order Oggz to create a nice ambiance around their offices. They have a sleek looking and compact charging base, and when you remove them from the base they stay lit for 24 hours or more without charging.
I ended up liking the product a lot, but noticed the standard manufacturer photos of the Oggz didn’t really fully describe the product effect:
This inspired me to do my very first set of product photos on the Oggz:
I also did my very first product video with a triple pack of Oggz and a bottle of flammable Everclear. You can check it out, but be prepared to laugh!
Keep in mind it was my first product video. I’m not sure what I was thinking with the Journey song in the background or the overly dramatic intro with the fire, but it was fun at the time, and you have to start somewhere! I’m still too embarrassed to watch it the whole way through! I ended up taking this product video down from the Oggz description page because of the extremely high cheesy-ness level, but it still resides on YouTube.
The Oggz seem relatively easy to manufacture. The Ogg itself is simply a white, slightly-bendable poly-urethane case shaped like an egg:
Inside the casing resides a simple yet sturdy mechanism with an on/off swith and three led lights that sequentially change color to create a full-spectrum light show that blends together:
This is now a pretty common effect, you can see many products on HouseOfRave that use this same lighting effect.
Anyways, I’ve always been curious how this obscure and relatively useless product went from mom & pop sales to the big time. Reading a lot about product licensing from Stephen Key also fueled my curiosity of how the Oggz got started.
I decided to call the always helpful folks at Can You Imagine, Inc. to get the full story:
- An inventor in Europe first made them, but they were a very, very expensive item.
- The inventor licensed the Oggz to Can You Imagine.
- Can You Imagine re-engineered them to make them cheaper and easier to manufacture.
- Started production of Oggz and sold to small distributors to test the product.
- Oggz sold well and started selling to larger distributors.
- Oggz sold really well and eventually got into Wal-Mart.
So whenever a set of Oggz is sold, the original inventor gets a cut of the sale. Considering these things sell so well PLUS they’re sold in the largest store on the planet…I’d say this guy is sitting pretty! Cool thing is the original inventor hardly does a thing now. Shows the possible money making power of licensing a product!
While I’ll never make as much as the inventor off these, the Oggz still made enough money to help me pay my tuition!
Is Wal-Mart buying Oggz units from Can You Imagine, or are they buying similar products from another manufacturer?
Either way, thank you very much for highlighting the profitability of licensing!
Great post, Nev!
The video wasn’t that bad, although the music was cheesy. It might work better with some instrumental background music.
Are you still selling many of that product now that you’re forced to compete with Wal-Mart?
Ahhhhh… Journey. Nice. Do they play a lot of Journey at raves, these days?
Regardless, the beauty of the Oggz is that they gave you some insurance of a consistent seller over time, which is ultimately what any businessman like yourself can appreciate.
I was wondering the same thing as Slim – are you still selling them as much now that Wal-Mart has undercut the competition with their bare-bottom marketing strategy?
Jerry
http://www.leads4insurance.com
This sort of thing always makes me wish that I’d thought of it! And don’t be embarrassed about the video… I say “yay for Everclear”!;-)
You need to get a good tripod. And actually, you might want to loose the zooming / panning althogether.
Clean cuts or fades would work well.
For house of rave, take slow/easy trance or chillout for the background, nothing with vocals.
The fire is actually OK, if a bit cheezy.
Your article and viedo was completely awesome. I have been using OGGZ since before they were released to the public and have done performances for the staff at Can you Imagine. One of my nicknames is WIZARD OF OGGZ. I also sell thousands of these bright and fun toys. I place them in my singing crystal bowls and they change colors magically, then, at the end of my performance I pass them out to my audiences where they place them over their eyes and on their bodies for a color healing experience. Ive been touring America doing this for 3-4 years. My performance is called The Song of The Healing Crystal Bowls, http://www.healingcrystalbowls.com. Check out my you tube video Atlantean Sunrise