Is anyone considering a group buy?

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glycerine

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I'm curious, why don't we all pitch in and create sort of a "continuous" group by. Basically an internal store for the members here. Just keep a rotating inventory of the more popular kits. Is that too much trouble, not enough interest, would take business away from some of the individuals here, etc.? I'd be willing to put in some money up front to help things get started.
 

ed4copies

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I'm curious, why don't we all pitch in and create sort of a "continuous" group by. Basically an internal store for the members here. Just keep a rotating inventory of the more popular kits. Is that too much trouble, not enough interest, would take business away from some of the individuals here, etc.? I'd be willing to put in some money up front to help things get started.


It's really NOT that easy. We have tried to do that on Exotics. I buy 100 at a time and sell at a very slim markup. Problem is, you buy 10 or 20 of each plating and then one plating sells out. You still have enough pens, but need to restock the one. A hundred pen order from CSUSA is over a thousand dollars. (Not a GREAT deal of money, but remember, you still HAVE the last hundred). Also, if you want to include ALL the styles your cost will be closer to five thousand.

Some day we hope to achieve this, but it will be a building process. And, we may decide instead to have our own pen bodies built. Stay tuned.

But this is NOT to stop you from trying, just give you a little idea of the business plan (I HAVE thought it through, it has NOT made an excel spreadsheet yet--too many better ideas to explore---for me.)
 

DennisM

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It's really NOT that easy. We have tried to do that on Exotics. I buy 100 at a time and sell at a very slim markup. Problem is, you buy 10 or 20 of each plating and then one plating sells out. You still have enough pens, but need to restock the one. A hundred pen order from CSUSA is over a thousand dollars. (Not a GREAT deal of money, but remember, you still HAVE the last hundred). Also, if you want to include ALL the styles your cost will be closer to five thousand.

Some day we hope to achieve this, but it will be a building process. And, we may decide instead to have our own pen bodies built. Stay tuned.

But this is NOT to stop you from trying, just give you a little idea of the business plan (I HAVE thought it through, it has NOT made an excel spreadsheet yet--too many better ideas to explore---for me.)


What about a large group buy of a one of a kind body? Come up with a new style, have made and market it as a IAP exclusive, sold through a couple of the preferred vendors? Same price points, but differnent demogaphics for shipping?
 

ed4copies

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What about a large group buy of a one of a kind body? Come up with a new style, have made and market it as a IAP exclusive, sold through a couple of the preferred vendors? Same price points, but differnent demogaphics for shipping?


I know Jeff has this in the very back of his mind!!! Keep rattling it, never know!!!!
 

ed4copies

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Dennis,

One other concern: I believe there is a saying: "A camel is a racehorse, created by a committee". IF you attempt to design a pen, with over a thousand active members, at least half won't like the final design. So, there will never BE a final design.

IF this were to work, Jeff would have to decide on the design and run with it. Then, whose money would be involved. IF you "offer memberships" to a new co-operative at, say $50 a piece, what happens when one of the members has a spat and wants to LEAVE? Who will reimburse his money for him??

Even a simple partnership with two people can degenerate, just think of the fun of having over a hundred involved (100 x $50=$5000 --- a bare minimum for this type of project).

Just some thoughts --- this idea has been "tossed around" a bit. It COULD work, maybe!!
 

Daniel

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The idea of having on going supply of products has been tackled by several members in several ways. The results have been both good and bad. Monty and the CA is a good example of good success in keeping stock in supply, the negatives with that is you can only get CA from that source. I set out to develop an ongoing group buy program a couple of years ago. I was actually making fairly decent progress when a lot of other issues simply made it to complicated. Basically you are looking at someone or someones being willing to work at something like it is a business and not make anything for it. I am willing to work pretty hard at it but I would not consider trying to be responsible for an entire product line.
As Ed points out, if the discount is for 100 kits then you are looking at getting 100 of any particular pen style/plating. this is necessary so that when that style runs out you are able to reorder at the discounted price for just that item. to complicate it even further you have to take into account defects, lost orders and the like.
If anything like this ever does get going it needs to be in Texas. We have a ton of Texas members, they can rotate the job of manning the store.
 

Daniel

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Ed, a little more thought on your last post. Here is the example I thought of.
Jr. statesman Co-Op: Min number of participants needed 100: Fee: $50
Revenue goal: $5,000
Benefits: Full TIme Access to any style of Jr Statesman pen at the highest discounted price offered by CSUSA.

Okay with the above idea Ed raises the question of who will refund the $50 if a member leaves. My answer Nobody, the fee is not refundable. it bought you a service and that service will be available any time you want to access it.

Another question is who decides what kit is affered for any given co-op> My answer, the person that is willing to run it.

Another problem with this idea is if enough people would need enough of a particular style of pen to make that $50 up front cost worthwhile.

Also the idea that the kits could be sold at the same price they are bought from CSUSA is not realistic but that is getting into details that really do not need to be considered at this point.

I will be the first to say that this little plan is far to simple to actually work. But I do seriously invite anyone to pick it apart. It might help sort out a trully workable idea.
 

glycerine

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Oh, I was thinking about going directly to the manufacturer, but I guess Dayacom's minimum batch orders are too much, huh?

Daniel:
"Another question is who decides what kit is affered for any given co-op> My answer, the person that is willing to run it."

I like this idea thinking that a different individual could be responsible for a different kit. If I need a jr. gent, I go to you, if I need a retro, I go to so-in-so. This way, the load isn't on any one person, which is exactly the point.

I do realize that this would take a lot of work and is a big responsibility for those involved. Ed, I wouldn't expect you or Dawn or some of the other "business owners" to be that involved because you have your own businesses to run, but it may be more resonable for those with more free time on their hands. You guys could definitely help with the logistics and "business processes".

I was just curious if the idea had been kicked around/discussed/tried and failed. It may be a reasonable operation, it may not.

I would definitely be interested in the next group by though, whenever that may be.
 

Harris

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This has probably been discussed before but with our buying power, won't a supplier offer a discount to folks on our forum? There are many suppliers who offer discounts to clubs. Also, I'll have to look up who it is but there is one supplier who gives next column prices for pen kits from Penn State.

Harris
 

Monty

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If anyone has been thinking about doing a CSUSA buy but has bees hesitant because of the number of pens etc and the hassle of a spread sheet for keeping orders straight, I may have a solution.
Curtis and I were talking a few weeks ago and he said he could set up a Virtuemart shopping cart with all the items in it. This could be set up permanently (maybe hosted here on IAP if Jeff agrees to or on Curtis' site or even mine) and anytime someone would volunteer to run one, the PayPal address could be changed to the person running the buy and all orders and payments would go to them.
If anyone is interested in being the Beta testor for this, PM me and we'll see about getting this set up.
 

glycerine

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If anyone has been thinking about doing a CSUSA buy but has bees hesitant because of the number of pens etc and the hassle of a spread sheet for keeping orders straight, I may have a solution.
Curtis and I were talking a few weeks ago and he said he could set up a Virtuemart shopping cart with all the items in it. This could be set up permanently (maybe hosted here on IAP if Jeff agrees to or on Curtis' site or even mine) and anytime someone would volunteer to run one, the PayPal address could be changed to the person running the buy and all orders and payments would go to them.
If anyone is interested in being the Beta testor for this, PM me and we'll see about getting this set up.

Sounds like a good idea.
 

sbell111

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If anyone has been thinking about doing a CSUSA buy but has bees hesitant because of the number of pens etc and the hassle of a spread sheet for keeping orders straight, I may have a solution.
Curtis and I were talking a few weeks ago and he said he could set up a Virtuemart shopping cart with all the items in it. This could be set up permanently (maybe hosted here on IAP if Jeff agrees to or on Curtis' site or even mine) and anytime someone would volunteer to run one, the PayPal address could be changed to the person running the buy and all orders and payments would go to them.
If anyone is interested in being the Beta testor for this, PM me and we'll see about getting this set up.
My fear is that this would further blur the line between 'group buying' and 'sales'.

The day that I feel the need to report group buy activities to the IRS is the day that I stop running group buys.
 

Paul Downes

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It seems that one issue is how different people run inventory control. In other words, if I know that I generally sell 25 X brand pens every 3 months then I would attempt to keep a certain inventory on hand. Knowing those numbers would cause me to order pen types before I need them. If we had a running tally kept at the forum for each pen style that any member could add his purchase request to, then we would begin to see trends and plan our purchases in advance. The the target tally reaches a certain buy number then the pens would be bought and shipped.

It would be nice if some of the suppliers would work with us on this so that pens could be shipped to each requester from the supplier. I would think that they would see the benefit of our forum in advancing their sales numbers. This also would keep the money from changing too many hands and keep the IRS happy.

Is this basically how the shopping cart/ paypal idea would work?
 

ed4copies

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If CSUSA has to drop ship to each participant, why would they allow the "group price"? They have to do the same amount of work they would do with 50 individual orders, which they will get, in the absence of a group buy, since they are the ONLY source of those pen types.
 

Texatdurango

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Need to buy some pen kits and wanted to know if anyone was considering a group buy?

Regards, Steve
After reading
all the posts above I'd like to add my two cents......

I believe the reason you don't see many group buys anymore is that they have all gone private and there are several reasons, here are two examples:

If I want to get the 25% discount from ordering 100+ kits from Craft Supply I simply email a few friends, get their input which is usually 10 of this and 10 of that, place the order, usually within a few days and have the goodies within a week of inception!

If I were doing a group buy on the forum, aside from the hassle of sifting through all the rules and regulations and getting spreadsheets approved I would expect a month or more filled with every hassle imaginable with dozens of people jumping in with "I want one of these, three of those and two of these and my total should be $27.58 but I don't like paypal so could I send you a check after I get paid next friday?" Then 10 days later the same guy jumps back in with "I'd like to cancel the one kit I ordered and change the two quantity to chrome plating instead and I want 3 more of the gold plated kits, you remember, the ones I changed from rhodium to gold last time"

Think this is far fetched.... do a group buy and see! :biggrin:

That is why there are fewer and fewer group buys these days... in my opinion.
 

glycerine

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Need to buy some pen kits and wanted to know if anyone was considering a group buy?

Regards, Steve

Steve, I must apologize for getting off topic. I'm fairly new here and don't know exactly how the group buys work, which is why I posed the question about an ongoing operation.
What kit(s) are you interested in? I would be interested in participating in a group buy depending on what's being purchased.
You may also want to post this in the "Group Purchases" forum and see if anyone responds. Or check with your local chapter and see if there's enough interest...
 
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sbell111

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Steve, I must apologize for getting off topic. I'm fairly new here and don't know exactly how the group buys work, which is why I posed the question about an ongoing operation.
What kit(s) are you interested in? I would be interested in participating in a group buy depending on what's being purchased.
You may also want to post this in the "Group Purchases" forum and see if anyone responds. Or check with your local chapter and see if ther's enough interest...
I think that you hit on why this thread went sideways. No one really knows what kind of pens kits that the OP wants. Otherwise, someone would almost certainly mention that two CSUSA group buys have been held recently, so it's probably going to be a bit before another is held or that there are some suppliers with whom there is never a group buy because there is little financial incentive to do one.
 
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