Club Tool Buy?

[Duff Bement]

Last night at our annual election for or local turning club and I got elected as the TOOL ZAR. Which basically means I have to organize a club tool buy twice a year and keep track of the club owned equipment? Here are some questions.
(1) I know Craft Supplies has a set up for doing club buys but do any of the major have the same kind of program like Rockler, Packard or Woodcraft?
(2) Has anyone of you organized one of these in the past? What do I need to know and what mistakes do I need to watch out for?
(3) What about some of the specialty tool makers that make their own tools, do any of them give a deal to a club if you can get say 5 to 10 people to order specialty tools from them?
PS: I wouldn’t have taken this job except for the really cool title (THE TOOL ZAR)

[Scott Lux]

I can't help you on the tool buys, but may I suggest a slight modification to the title?

T3 (The Tool Tsar)

[john taliaferro]

wood turners of sw mo . we use packard , great people,also hiland hardware gives club good discount.john t

[Philip Morris]

Duff,
I am a former member of the Bayou Woodturners (New Orleans). They have the arrangement you mentioned with Craft Supplies. However, instead of twice a year, an order is placed everytime the amount reaches $1000.

I am not aware of other discounts by the other big mail order outlets or specialty makers.

The only insight I could share is make sure you get the money up front, particularly if you use your own credit card to secure the order.

[Ron Ainge]

Hi Duff

Well it sounds like you just got a new jobs also. I was made the V.P. of our club and I can tell you that we have an order going to Craft Supply about 4 times a year and we have had great results with them. As I remember they require a order of over $1000 to qualify for the discounts, but the discounts average about 13% on every order we have placed. I do not know of any other dealer that has this type of deal for club purchases.

[Frank Kobilsek]

Hartfield tools runs a program that as your members buy they get a group discount and the club gets a little promo rebate from them. I haven't participated but several in our club do.
Frank

[Gordon Seto]

Hartville Tool (http://www.hartvilletool.com/index.php)
It was 20% for each and every member who opts in. This program saves all the administrative work. Each member places their own order and receive shipment directly. Free shipping for orders over $75 currently. As officer of the club, all you have to do is to provide a list of members who want to take part in this group buy program. After the first year, the Club gets some kickbacks.
Hartville is local to us, we can place an order and pick them up if we wish. They promise they will not share the members list. They don't even send us emails about their sales.:confused:

They are very supportive of our Club. We had our meetings at their facility for years until we outgrew it. We couldn't ask for a better host.