I think it is our X-Mart society. If a genuine good craft item is selling for a fair price of $50, the big box store will have a crappy knock off for $5 made in China and people will grab it, use it for a week and toss it out.
Too many people with poor taste.
I'm listening to this 'discussion', in the background.
While I've been 'stung' before, I'm still foolish enough to remain open minded.
Where is 'MetroEast' located ?
What particular products are you expecting, and what 'protection' does the 'crafter' have for a particular 'style' or unique design / product ?
Regards, Ron Magen Backyard Boatshop
MetroEast the St. Louis area East of the Mississippi River (about a 30 mile radius) in Illinois (about 4.5 hours South of Chicago). Unfortunately, that includes East St. Louis which is a wasteland. However, once you get about
10 miles East of the river you are back in very nice civilization...an area that is growing very rapidly. Nice neighborhoods, great schools, a growing but stable economy, high technology yet a very reasonable cost of living. If only it weren't so damned humid during the summer months! One of the best things about the Internet is that it really doesn't matter where I am. By the way, there are a LOT of craftspersons in this area.I'm not sure I understand your question about "protection" for a particular design/product. Can you elaborate? Are you talking about copyrights and such? I guess I can see where that might be a concern. We could certainly structure the relationship legally so that I can't "steal" or otherwise leverage your ideas. Then again, anyone who buys one of your crafts can decide to try to duplicate it. That's inevitable. It is not, however, part of my interest here. I have no desire to try to sell ideas or to try to produce the crafts or hire someone to produce them. I want the real deal from the source.
As for having been stung...anyone who has ever been willing to trust and take a risk has been stung. I've been stung quite badly a few times, but I'm getting smarter! :-) I've learned to build trust through constructive interaction (communication) and by taking only small calculated risks at first.
As far as products go, so far I have quite an array of interesting crafts put together. Pottery, blown glass, quilts, jewelry.... I'm interested in almost any quality hand-crafted items. I'm sure it will take some experience to learn what sells best (and what doesn't sell at all)...and the best way to sell things. Like I've expressed before, I'm not looking to get rich quick here (or even to get rich off of this one venture). I'm already doing quite well but I'm looking for other fun and interesting ways to profit from my knowledge and experience.
I'm finding that there are a lot of crafts that people just crank out and sell or give away as gifts as the opportunities arise. I'm also finding that there are a lot of crafts that aren't even really started until someone has an order, either because they are extremely custom or just too expensive to do in hopes someone might want it someday. I'm interested in everything in between and finding ways to make it all work as well as it can.
Perhaps I'm dead wrong, but I've chosen to believe that there are people like myself as well as my friends and family who actually have good taste and value quality craftsmanship and especially truly unique crafts. Unfortunately I think that people like me are few and far between so if you must depend on geography to get them to you, you're in trouble. That's why I think the Internet is the perfect medium for this. If it is done correctly, the products are available to lovers of quality all over the nation, not just whoever happens to walk by your booth at the mall or craft fair.
--Kevin
Just hang up your continued verbiage. I, for one, am tired of it. Enough is enough from you. IMHO, you are speaking to a deaf house. Go elsewhere to find some who may be more sympathetic to your spiel - God help them.
Hoyt W.
Just hang up your continued verbiage. I, for one, am tired of it. Enough is enough from you. IMHO, you are speaking to a deaf house. Go elsewhere to find some who may be more sympathetic to your spiel - God help them.
Jeez. If you're going to read enough of the thread to get anoyed and post a 'directive' to someone to go away because no one is interested, at least read enough of the thread to see there apparently are some who are interested.
This thread isn't offensive, vulgar, or baiting, and now you obviously know what it's about, so if you don't want to read it, ignore it.
People who think they control usenet with arbitrary rules and who think they know what other people are looking for while ignoring the posted response indicating exactly the contrary are as bad as the trolls who do post offending, vulgar, or baiting threads.
You're just like the 'locals' who've been living here for 10 years or less who complain about the sound of firearms on Saturday morning, or about the dust when the farmers plough their fields, then who turn around and complain about the 'outsiders' who move here and want to change things.
Get a life and get over it!
Tillman
Did someone piss in your grits this morning?
I thought they tasted funny... :-)
--Kevin
Actually selling on line would probably push my work week beyond 40 hours. So far, work of mouth keeps me as busy as I want to be.
Snip
And again I'll say, I don't need a middleman. Thank you
People want to purchase from a very
Some may like that. So far none of my customers have required for me to have a web site to buy from me.
Yes, SOME may like that. Any why wouldn't you want your crafts to be available to them? Do you really think one of your current customers would ever say, "Gee, Leon, I really like your stuff, but you don't have a web site, so I'm not going to buy anything!" Of course not. The people who want to buy from a web site have absolutely no idea who you are and probably never will.
And again I'll say, if you're perfectly happy with how things are for you now and have no desire to sell more of your crafts, then I can't imagine why you would even bother to respond to me here.
I want to BUY from you so that I can SELL to people that you are not reaching now and will probably never reach (unless you are willing to do all that I am willing to do to reach them). It's a win-win any way you look at it... Unless increasing your sales by reaching a new segment of the market will make you unhappy for some reason.
--Kevin
If that were really true I would have thought your original post would have read something like:
"Hi, I'm interested in purchasing hand crafted products to sell on my web site..."
but it didn't.
-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)
I thought it would be smart to give more details. I'm not willing to sell any old stuff. It has to be great stuff. I have to see pictures of it. I have to get to know the person who makes it and feel that they have gotten to know and understand me. Where did my original post throw you off?
--Kev>
Since you asked...for me, it was the slicky-boy sales pitch that did it.
Wed, Jun 16, 2004, 3:07pm (EDT-1) Crafts Direct at MetroEast dot Net (Kevin=A0Sawyer,=A0General=A0Manager) claims: I don't expect for one moment that people will get excited and jump at the chance based on one simple posting to a newsgroup.
That statement could be mis-construed a bit. It wasn't "a" newsgroup, the posting was repeated on at least one other newsgroup.
I was hoping to start constructive discussions about my ideas and earn the trust and respect of the community with my candid responses.
Didn't see any candid responses to this. Apparently your e-mail doesn't work.
JOAT Use your brain - it's the small things that count.
- Bazooka Joe
For the last 20 years I've been selling and repairing computers as a side line.
I also have to evaluate products before offering them to my customers. I have to purchase these products I want to evaluate. I also have to maintain an inventory, pay shipping expenses and deal with the "losses" incurred with shipping damage, market fluctuations, etc. I'd love to be able to drop ship as it would put all the risk and the majority of the expenses on the suppliers.
Fortunate your original post didn't throw me off at all.
-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)
Well, that's why I'm still reading your posts, I suppose. If you had kept coming across like the guy selling knives at State Fair or something, it'd be different, y'know?
There are several big distributors who will drop-ship to your clients. They'll even put your logo/name on the shipping label and ticket and most of them will give you free or discounted shipping. Names that come to mind are Tech Data, Ingram Micro, Synnex, D&H Distributing...
One of my companies is a Microsoft Certified Partner, Microsoft OEM Systems Builder, and Intel Product Dealer (among other things). Like you we have to evaluate our new components and suppliers and take some losses. But, we have found that focusing on quality and value-added services puts us way ahead of just trying to keep it "cheap" for everyone. It also means that we only evaluate and use name-brand components (no Korean white-box stuff). There are little mom and pop computer shops all over the place that sell dirt cheap computer systems. We repair and replace them all the time. :) By the way, I'm Microsoft Certified (officially on 2000 and SQL) and can still be seen getting my hands dirty ripping the guts out of a system from time to time.
So what woodworking do you do most? What product would you be most likely to reproduce to sell?
--Kev>
So you don't wanna buy my knives at the state fair this weekend then? Damn... Actually, they're made by a guy in KY and he'll drop-ship them directly to you.
:-D Just kidd> > Hmm... OK. I was just trying to be professional. I think I've been pretty
Kevin,
Just to set the archives straight and to avoid any misunderstandings, my response was directed at Hoyt, not yourself.
Good luck on your endeavours in life.
Ingram Micro has one of their distribution centers in Williamsville, NY, a suburb of Buffalo. Years ago I looked into using them as a supplier. At that time they wanted a guaranteed $20 K yearly order volume from anyone wishing to do business with them. I was not about to agree to $20 K not knowing how they were to do business with. Their terms seemed to me to be a one way street, but I do believe they would be willing to drop ship.
Would this be "Applied Personal Computing, Inc."? A "Google" search shows this company associated with the name Kevin Sawyer and other phrases such as "Make Money Fast" and "mail-bomb attempts".
I prefer to make larger items such as case work, dining and kitchen tables, etc.
To date all of my woodworking has been "one off" originals designed to meet my clients requirements. I hate production work.
-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)
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