Group buy.

Hmmm,

I was thinking, that on most "specialized boards/ discussion groups" there are things called "group buys", where say 10-20 people (more if applicable) get together and do a "mass buy" from one vendor for one particular product to save money.

I've seen it come up on a few different boards covering everything from Jeeps to Networking equipment.

I've never seen it happen here, but I would participate in such and endeavour. I'm about to buy some equipment, and I would think a vendor would lower their price below normal, assuming we had, say for instance, 15 people all looking at buying 28-70L's.

I've never headed up such a task, but is the idea feasible here? Would anyone else be interested in participating?--The Vilnius Schoolmaster

If someone wants to do this for the 16-35mm I'm interested!!!

Peter

The Vilnius Schoolmaster said:

Hmmm,

I was thinking, that on most "specialized boards/ discussion
groups" there are things called "group buys", where say 10-20
people (more if applicable) get together and do a "mass buy" from
one vendor for one particular product to save money.

I've seen it come up on a few different boards covering everything
from Jeeps to Networking equipment.

I've never seen it happen here, but I would participate in such and
endeavour. I'm about to buy some equipment, and I would think a
vendor would lower their price below normal, assuming we had, say
for instance, 15 people all looking at buying 28-70L's.

I've never headed up such a task, but is the idea feasible here?
Would anyone else be interested in participating?
--
The Vilnius Schoolmaster

Click to expand...

Well, B&H already has low margins and relies on huge volume, so you might as well just buy from them. I doubt they'd much care if 15 of us banded together - kind of like going to the supermarket with 15 people, they wouldn't care, vs. going to a car dealer, who would care very much.

Just my two cents, you never know until you try.

• Peter

The Vilnius Schoolmaster said:

Hmmm,

I was thinking, that on most "specialized boards/ discussion
groups" there are things called "group buys", where say 10-20
people (more if applicable) get together and do a "mass buy" from
one vendor for one particular product to save money.

I've seen it come up on a few different boards covering everything
from Jeeps to Networking equipment.

I've never seen it happen here, but I would participate in such and
endeavour. I'm about to buy some equipment, and I would think a
vendor would lower their price below normal, assuming we had, say
for instance, 15 people all looking at buying 28-70L's.

I've never headed up such a task, but is the idea feasible here?
Would anyone else be interested in participating?
--
The Vilnius Schoolmaster

Click to expand...

I know that in some cases the margins are slim, but especially with the market downturn, I think that there is some room, be it on margin, or shipping or whatever.

I was in Retail for quite a few years, and while margin is of the utmost concern, inventory turns is a very close second, due to mfg volume discounts, less product inventory and so on.

I don't know if I were a vendor that I'd be able to turn away a $15-20K sale in one shot because I made 3.5% gross margin on 20 sales, instead of my usual 5% on one.

Peter Bell said:

Well, B&H already has low margins and relies on huge volume, so you
might as well just buy from them. I doubt they'd much care if 15 of
us banded together - kind of like going to the supermarket with 15
people, they wouldn't care, vs. going to a car dealer, who would
care very much.

Just my two cents, you never know until you try.

• Peter

Click to expand...

Again, playing Devil's Advocate, exactly how would this work?

Let's pretend I'm at B&H, and you get me interested. "OK, I want one credit card, and one mailing address. What, 15 different people are going to call, with 15 different credit cards, and we're shipping it 15 different places? Well, forget it, why should I bother giving you a discount, I have to do all that work? I have to go tell all my operators about this special deal? It just screws me up anyway, everyone buying at once, now maybe I lose another sale because I run out of inventory, because I run a lean operation. Tell your friends to call two per week, and we'll give them our usual rock-bottom pricing."

Maybe you could beat B&H by going somewhere like Samy's here in L.A., offering cash&carry, and be willing to wait until they ordered the items, but you had better be one hell of a negotiator, and then there's still the issue of getting payment from everyone and shipping the items.

Not that it matters to me, I'd be happy for you to prove me wrong, but I'm guessing the potential leverage isn't worth the hassle. Buy from B&H and fuggeddaboudid - that was my conclusion several years ago when I was researching all this stuff.

Best,

• Peter

The Vilnius Schoolmaster said:

I was in Retail for quite a few years, and while margin is of the
utmost concern, inventory turns is a very close second, due to mfg
volume discounts, less product inventory and so on.

I don't know if I were a vendor that I'd be able to turn away a
$15-20K sale in one shot because I made 3.5% gross margin on 20
sales, instead of my usual 5% on one.

Peter Bell said:

Well, B&H already has low margins and relies on huge volume, so you
might as well just buy from them. I doubt they'd much care if 15 of
us banded together - kind of like going to the supermarket with 15
people, they wouldn't care, vs. going to a car dealer, who would
care very much.

Just my two cents, you never know until you try.

• Peter

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Buy

Peter Bell said:

from B&H and fuggeddaboudid - that was my conclusion several years
ago when I was researching all this stuff.

Click to expand...

Just my $00.02 - forget about saving a few dollars and buy from one of this site's advertisers & help support the site.

I can only speak for myself, but I learn a LOT here - mostly that I still have a lot to learn

Franko

Frank C. Brants said:

Frank C. Brants said:

from B&H and fuggeddaboudid - that was my conclusion several years
ago when I was researching all this stuff.

Click to expand...

Just my $00.02 - forget about saving a few dollars and buy from one
of this site's advertisers & help support the site.

I can only speak for myself, but I learn a LOT here - mostly that I
still have a lot to learn

Franko

Click to expand...

Well, Franko, nothing personal, but you might want to learn a little bit about economics as well. If you really want to help the site, buy from the vendor that offers the best value for the price, and send a check for the amount you save directly to Phil. Not that there are any SLR items available at State Street Direct anyway.

• Peter

I respectfully submit that, it's not as clear cut as that.

While, you might very well be right, as to it being a bit of a hassel, to organize, (on both ends, selling and buying.) I think the potential pros outweigh the potential cons.

For instance, Call B&H or whomever , I speak to an operator. Email the operator, or sales manager with a list of individuals who all want say the new 70-200L IS or whatever. The list contains their adresses and contact info, why is it so hard for that person to call and get 20 CC numbers for 20 guaranteed sales? I think most outfits would jump at it. It's not to say that all of these people would have gone to B&H regardless, some may have gone local or Grey or whatever.

Let's say it was a smaller outfit, that has to order the product in, even better, they don't have to tie up cash in inventory, in one door out the other. I don't know about you but if I could make a profit of say $25-50x 20 lenses for making a few phone calls, ordering 20 lenses, and passing them off as soon as I got them, I'd do it. (Obviously these numbers are theoretical, I don't know the actual profit margin on a 70-200L IS)

I might be over-simplifying this, but that's what I want to know. I've never done this type of thing before, but it seems to work elsewhere.

Thanks for your input.

VSM

Peter Bell said:

Again, playing Devil's Advocate, exactly how would this work?

Let's pretend I'm at B&H, and you get me interested. "OK, I want
one credit card, and one mailing address. What, 15 different people
are going to call, with 15 different credit cards, and we're
shipping it 15 different places? Well, forget it, why should I
bother giving you a discount, I have to do all that work? I have to
go tell all my operators about this special deal? It just screws me
up anyway, everyone buying at once, now maybe I lose another sale
because I run out of inventory, because I run a lean operation.
Tell your friends to call two per week, and we'll give them our
usual rock-bottom pricing."

Click to expand...