Quality but value Mugs ..

[NikGrey]

Fair Enough, "If you Don't ask you Don't get" as Mother used to say.

We have quite a few regular members here and for all I knew there could have been a solution to the problems outlined above that I was unaware of, no I know there is not.

Seems a shame, with the buying power of a few of us we should be able to do something somewhere at some point I hope, if not with Mugs with another product

[pisquee]

Been thinking about it, the only real way of this happening, would be for Justin to effectively become a dealer/supplier, with him importing and reselling. DSF then becomes a supplier and not just a forum - but a supplier with an already captive audience, which could be quite lucrative. No doubt such a move would/could make DSF quite a big and successful supplier quite quickly, and turn DSF into a proper business making Justin a decent amount of money (which would be a good thing IMO!) and potentially lead to DSF being worth quite a lot too.
BUT, this would involve huge risk and investment from Justin, and he is the only one that can make that decision.
I suppose the other way is that one individual, or group of individuals decided to go into business together, as DSF Trading Ltd, and had a store on DSF, and paid Justin a commission on sales (or some other arrangement.) Equally, such a move by an existing supplier could work, although would be seen more as 'selling out' and an end to the independence of the forum.

(DISCLAIMER: This is me thinking aloud, after thinking through ways that this idea could become possible, and should in no way be seen as me saying it is a good or bad idea, or telling Justin (or anyone else for that matter!) what they should/shouldn't do - that of course is their own business and decision to make!)

[Andrew]

Every time I think about it then it just seems a minefield. Suppliers who support Justin wouldn't be keen on him competing and by the time additional costs are added to a blank to more than cover costs that might take into account storage and potential losses, then it's likely these prices will then be similar to other suppliers. I have been tempted personally to see if I can help as we can buy large volumes of mugs but I get frightened at the thought of supplying some of the members on here. Some would be a total pain in the arse going by some of the discussions I see........ and others would be a complete delight Being held to account for running out of stock or being a few days late getting something out (which I know we would do), just seems like grief waiting to be happen.

It's going to be a brave person who steps up to the plate to get the ball rolling. Good luck to whoever that might be.

[arko]

A very good argument Andrew!.

[purpledragon]

Every time I think about it then it just seems a minefield. Suppliers who support Justin wouldn't be keen on him competing and by the time additional costs are added to a blank to more than cover costs that might take into account storage and potential losses, then it's likely these prices will then be similar to other suppliers. I have been tempted personally to see if I can help as we can buy large volumes of mugs but I get frightened at the thought of supplying some of the members on here. Some would be a total pain in the arse going by some of the discussions I see........ and others would be a complete delight Being held to account for running out of stock or being a few days late getting something out (which I know we would do), just seems like grief waiting to be happen.

It's going to be a brave person who steps up to the plate to get the ball rolling. Good luck to whoever that might be.

Gotta agree with a lot of this , the main point behind a co operative buying scheme would be in theory to get stock cheaper. But as already pointed out someone would need to order and pay for these items in the first place, this takes time and money so who would do this for free ? Then you need to store items who is gonna pay the storage, then it all has to be administered the tax man will need apeasing customs and excise will need sorting postage paid then orders from the forum processed so someone would probably need to be employed to do thisin the end your saving would be minimal i doubt this would be viable

[pisquee]

I doubt in the long run it would offer a cheaper alternative for reasons stated, but could be a powerful new player in the suppliers field if closely tied to the forum, which would obviously upset other suppliers using this forum for advertising/promotion, and would likely lose their support/sponsorship, but funds lost due to that should easily be recouped on sales. But, I agree, it is a big risk, and someone would have to be very brave to do it (And have deep pockets for the initial investment to get it up and running properly.)
This is the only way I could see it happening, and so it wouldn't be a CoOp at all (which I don't think would work) and likely it would never happen.
I think a co-op could work if there were a few members in a similar geographic location, and they organise something between themselves (Which may already be happening) but something fully open to the whole forum which is spread throughout the UK (and further afield) won't work if it's aim is to offer a cheaper alternative to the proper dealers/suppliers.

[mrs maggot]

I am happy using my suppliers, it seems a little unfair to want to cut them out for the sake of saving a few pennies on a mug, what happens if the batch are faulty, what happens if one of the buyers goes bump - etc etc, too many pitfalls, i like my suppliers, i have cut down now to 3 that cover all my needs, and am at the moment trying mugs from one of them that i have not used for mugs before, as the 10% discount meant that their price was very comparable with what i have been paying.

[bms]

One way of this working is if DSF members agreed to buy, for arguments sake, 1008 mugs and negotiated a deal price for this. Then an order for 1008 mugs is placed with a supplier at the lower price and the supplier then sent these to the multiple buyers addresses. It would need a DSF member to (a) collate the order, (b) collect the funds and (c) place the order with a supplier with a single payment for multiple small orders to multiple addresses. You could get mugs down to a slightly lower price but I can see frustrations emerging whilst everyone waits for the tipping point to be reached and an order is placed.

[NikGrey]

My original idea was to start a 'Co-Op' for Premium Members, and only sell to Premium Members - not to become a 'Supplier' as such to the public.

DSF would need to keep the current 'Suppliers' happy in order to retain current 'Support' for the forum.

Andrew does have a valid point and I know what he is saying completely but this would just be an 'Exclusive' deal for the PM's only.

For example - we could harness the buying power of Martin, use his storage space and pay him a commission for his time. as the orders would ONLY come from certain members his usual Mug Customers would not be affected buy our little scheme ! This was just 'Food for Thought' really.

I am glad you are all at least thinking about this as we all need a regular supply of consistent Mugs. personally I am happy shopping around and testing other suppliers (whilst I am wealthy enough to take risks) but that situation won't last forever

[Andrew]

That's kind of what Justin already does in fairness. He has achieved various discounts for PM from numerous suppliers. Martin actually ran a good option with Justin for a while where PM got his top price rate which was giving members the bulk prices.

As mentioned earlier, I am not sure exactly what price people are expecting? There are some decent enough prices out there so don't think people are going to find miracles.