FC Group Buys

Wondering if members of FC ever considered having group buys of vaporizers within the community?

The returns of such group buys would make such an endeavor a viable one. Not only can the community have affordable access to popular vaporphernalia, these buys can also help to maintain FC.

Or is it just another pipe dream?

Like a FC MassDrop?

Yes. Except we drop the middleman.

I don't know if that would even be feasible. Who would be in charge of contacting and negotiating with companies? Handling the money and sending out orders? Seems like too many complications.

We leave that to the big kahunas within FC to step up, to man ( or woman ) the business of organization.

Ideally, a two, or three person nexus.

NinjaMindTriks said:

I don't know if that would even be feasible. Who would be in charge of contacting and negotiating with companies? Handling the money and sending out orders? Seems like too many complications.

Click to expand...

Usually forum group-buys work like this:

1) Someone contacts the manufacturer and strikes a deal.
2) The manufacturer creates a coupon code or separate order page for the group-buy and people pay them directly.
3) After the payments are collected you wait for the manufacturer to ship you your item.

Easy-peasy if you are willing to wait.

Thank you, Jack! Le Mans squeezy. Easy as ice cream & pie (speaking as an observer).

With almost 19k member, FC Group Buys, FCGBs, would be a strong raving, vapeing success.

Come to think of it, Jack's alternative, strike deal, group buy coupon code, direct to manufacturer is a possibility. Except that in taking this route, there is no margin to plow back into FC. But, less administrative paddling.

( As for me, I am in/from the peanut gallery; no organizational clout; very limited attn span; mathematically chellanged. Bad speller. )

i can offer a possible Lot - $23 instead $101 and $36 instead $112 if buy 25 pieces

http://www.dhgate.com/product/glass...joint-glass/212203813.html#s1-24-1c|130815864
http://www.dhgate.com/product/ice-c...pipe-hitman/212161608.html#s1-29-1c|130815864

WHA!

Wait. You got the general idea.

Of course if you sub "group" buy instead of "wholesale" buy, you gets the gist of it.

The more ppl buy, the lower the individual cost PER item. You know what I am saying.

Boy, the difficulties of Anglespeak....

stark1 said:

Yes. Except we drop the middleman.

Click to expand...

Then who would you go to if you have a problem? We usually have some sort of protection when buying direct, from a retailer, or even Massdrop. The only way I see something like this working is if a vender or manufacturer is willing to organize it... that's a long shot.

I highly doubt the owner of this forum would want anything to do with a forum run group buy, too many headaches and liabilities... besides the time it would require to manage. Even if a member were to organize something, I foresee extra headaches for the moderators... I doubt they want that.

It doesn't have to be anywhere near that difficult. One only needs to be able to work a deal with the vendor. If the sale generates this many orders: this price. This many orders: this price. You are only offering the vendor a specific volume (or better) to get a better price. He (the vendor) handles everything as they would for any other online order, just giving a better price based on a guaranteed volume.

It may not be as good a discount as we might get if we were doing the mailing for them, but there is no reason not to be able to get a better price.

Use Aldo (Jyarz) as your example. He already offers a discount on volume. It obviously works for him, I have no reason to think it wouldn't work for other vendors, especially when the order volume would be double or triple digits...

And BTW, if FC isn't really doing anything other than providing the place to talk about it, and doesn't take a piece of the action, that profit that MassDrop makes to do this reduces the price of the items some more. That, of course, would be up to FC. But there is NO cost on our side...

Kief said:

I highly doubt the owner of this forum would want anything to do with a forum run group buy, too many headaches and liabilities... besides the time it would require to manage. Even if a member were to organize something, I foresee extra headaches for the moderators... I doubt they want that.

Click to expand...

I can change "highly doubt" to an absolute 'no'. The only way to guarantee a purchase block of 10, 100, etc. is to actually collect the money from buyers. People can pledge to buy but that's no guarantee for the manufacturer/seller. vtac is not interested in taking a cut for doing Massdrop type deals, and the headaches are definitely not worth it unless you're running it as a business. Massdrop works because they started with capital and were willing to take a risk.

Does that include organizing it in here but letting the vendor do all the work as described above?

And we would need to consider international users too.

Surely there are senior members who have retired with experience in entrepreneur ventures, and lots of time on their hands. Some who see this as a challenge, and a service to those members who would otherwise have to depend on pen vapes for their meds. & for other members, of course.

We could be a significant factor in the developing growth of happy vapers.

Everyone loves a good deal. & new toys!

Vape we'll, my friends! On an epic scale.

You ever tried to herd cats? that is what it is like trying to get consensus from people. Have you ever run a pool or a raffle? Life is too short.

It's pretty much a moot issue. The answer has already been given and it's no. The forum (and by that I mean the forum owner vtac) has no interest in the forum being used for something like this.

So, based on that there's no reason to keep the thread alive.