As a hobby we have been generally lucky in that price increases have been tolerable.

We all know that balsa prices have had some large increases.

Another area of major price increase has been paper tubes.
The supplier of paper tubes used in hobby rocketry for over sixty years was bought by another company (Paramount Tubing). Paramount has decided to consolidate operations/functions and has let go all of the folks who made sure that those beautiful paper tubes we have been using were made correctly. Like many manufacturing processes, there is knowledge that can only be gained by experience. The experienced staff is now gone.

As you can guess quality control has gone out the window and rocket kit manufacturers are now receiving paper tubes with up to 30% defect rate (It was darn near zero percent in the past). Paramount will not listen to any customer complaints and give credit for defective product. This cost is passed on to the consumer.

Oh, I forgot to mention Paramount increased tubing prices 300% on top of all this.

Our hobby is only going to get more expensive.

__________________
Bob
S.A.M. # 0014