Stephen Beckham
11-07-2008, 9:34 PM
Rant on... :mad:
Well, I verbally committed to buying 1000 boxes from a supplier (only needed 900). Nice box, nice price (so I thought). But only needed the first 500 immediately and he only had 400 on hand. He sent 400 that he had in stock and 100 drop shipped from his supplier. And placed an order to replenish his stock plus another 500 for me...
Quandry... Do I research the import guy (knowing without a doubt it will be cheaper) or finish order with the guy I committed to. Well, being the good Christian and poor business I man I seem to be, I went ahead and placed the second order to complete the 1000....
THEN.... I researched the importer and found that the price difference was .96 each - or about $480 too much I spent not switching to the importer (a total of $960 too much total order). I know it's just business to mark items up, but it seems silly to mark an item up $1 each when you don't even touch them or open the case. If I was buying 1, 2, 5, or 10, yea, but 1000 - no bulk discount... 8 of the cases still had the tape on them from China...
To make it worse - I had to commit to 500 at a time. Talking to the importer today, she made it clear that they come 96 to a case (which is true - I got four full cases and a box of 16) and if they break a case... tada - higher price. Oh - they sell them in batches of 12. So I guess my real gripe is that I've got 100 extra now that I paid too much for - because my supplier told me it was required by his supplier. Why would he say that if he had something drop shipped right to me with the possibility that I could find out the truth...
Well, took my lemons - added some water and now seem to have sold 30 today and another sell of 50 with a follow on order possible for another 250 of them...
Moral of the story - I wasted too much time griping already - I've found the box for a $1 cheaper, I raised the sell price $1 each (still way below market price because that includes acrylic and engraving) and have possibly sold a couple hundred more.... All because I felt like the supplier was greedy and I googled the part...
Rant done....
Well, I verbally committed to buying 1000 boxes from a supplier (only needed 900). Nice box, nice price (so I thought). But only needed the first 500 immediately and he only had 400 on hand. He sent 400 that he had in stock and 100 drop shipped from his supplier. And placed an order to replenish his stock plus another 500 for me...
Quandry... Do I research the import guy (knowing without a doubt it will be cheaper) or finish order with the guy I committed to. Well, being the good Christian and poor business I man I seem to be, I went ahead and placed the second order to complete the 1000....
THEN.... I researched the importer and found that the price difference was .96 each - or about $480 too much I spent not switching to the importer (a total of $960 too much total order). I know it's just business to mark items up, but it seems silly to mark an item up $1 each when you don't even touch them or open the case. If I was buying 1, 2, 5, or 10, yea, but 1000 - no bulk discount... 8 of the cases still had the tape on them from China...
To make it worse - I had to commit to 500 at a time. Talking to the importer today, she made it clear that they come 96 to a case (which is true - I got four full cases and a box of 16) and if they break a case... tada - higher price. Oh - they sell them in batches of 12. So I guess my real gripe is that I've got 100 extra now that I paid too much for - because my supplier told me it was required by his supplier. Why would he say that if he had something drop shipped right to me with the possibility that I could find out the truth...
Well, took my lemons - added some water and now seem to have sold 30 today and another sell of 50 with a follow on order possible for another 250 of them...
Moral of the story - I wasted too much time griping already - I've found the box for a $1 cheaper, I raised the sell price $1 each (still way below market price because that includes acrylic and engraving) and have possibly sold a couple hundred more.... All because I felt like the supplier was greedy and I googled the part...
Rant done....