glass sales off 20% overall

That's fishy in itself, but I also just don't understand it when I can buy finished goods for less than the cost of materials. One example is seeing lampwork beads at shows, purportedly (and to my eye, legitimately) made with Bullseye glass but selling for less than Bullseye rods sell for per pound, wholesale.

Mysterious.

Reply to
Kalera
Loading thread data ...

There are many levels of wholesale. If you qualify to by wholesale from a distributor or eve direct from BE and you order say 20 lbs of rods and you pay X. Then there's the guy in China (and he doesn't have to be from China) who orders 20 tons of BE...do you think he's paying X? Not likely. As smart as the Chinese are, it wouldn't take them long to make rods that look just like BE and have the same COE. Heck, they're making Armstrong glass and you couldn't tell the difference from whether it was made here or there. As for the cost of materials like the shovel, with the number of handles you could get out of a long you could safely assume that the handle cost maybe 10 cents. The blade, which is nothing more than recycled steel is poured into molds and they probably poor

1000 at a time. So, you end up with maybe 20 cents in the blade. Labor could be something like 25 cents or less per shovel. Now were backe to where the shovel costs about 50 cents to make. Look at a 2 x4...stud grade maybe costing $1.50 - $3 depending on where you buy it. Kinda makes you wonder how they can make it for that but they do and they make a profit. And...I'm not even going to get into the rakes.
Reply to
royaltd97

I'm pretty familiar with Bullseye's wholesale schedule...

I can certainly imagine the Chinese making a reasonable facsimile of some Bullseye glass colors, (others are so tricky that even Uroboros hasn't figured them out) but they seem to have a *really* hard time getting the COE consistent. That's one of the reasons, as I understand it, that most of the Chinese bead factories use Kinari glass from Japan.

The steel in the shovel is stamped rather than cast, so I may grant you that... I'm a wee bit skeptical.

Reply to
Kalera

Hi, Scratch.

In another life, back in the last century, I owned a professional photo finishing lab. I bought Kodak color paper at the published pro lab catalog price. My competitors allegedly bought the paper at the same price. Kodak swore up and down that there was one price, every one paid the same price, no quantity discounts were available. As I recall, I was paying about $0.43 per square foot, meaning an 8x10 cost me about 24 cents for the paper. I availed myself of an opportunity to get out of that entrepreneural rat-race after about 20 years, and after a few months off, decided to do some quality control consulting at one of the nation's largest school picture labs, in Eastern Tenn. It didn't take me long to find out that the lab where I was now consulting had been buying paper from Kodak for years for about 18-20 cents per square foot. ( Less than 1/2 of the published prices.) And on top of that, I learned that Kodak had a well-hidden financial interest in that lab, to the tune of about $9-11MM. Most of the production people there had NO idea.

At the same time I owned the color lab, I also had a retail camera store. The K-Mart acrosss the street was selling Canon AE-1's for $30 less than what I was paying dealer wholesale for the same product. The Canon rep swore up and down that they weren't selling to K-Mart for any less than what I was paying, that it was a loss leader.

Yeah, right.

Then, after more complaints about give-away pricing by K-Mart, the Canon rep told me the K-Mart merchandise was "grey market", meaning that they didn't have a US warranty. I started going to K-Mart a couple of times a week, buying 2 and 3 cameras at a time, taking them back across the street to my retail store, selling them at my regular price and increasing my profit. The Canon rep got pissed because I wasn't buying cameras from him in my usual 18-24 units a month. They threatened to cancel my dealership because I was selling "grey market", until I showed him the USA warranty cards in the boxes from across the street. I suggested strongly that if they were to cancel my dealership, I was going to sue them for price fixing and restraint of trade. A week or so later, I "magically" got a 5 figure "rebate" check from Canon, USA. It seems, somehow, that they had "forgotten" that my annual volume of purchases had entitled me to some non-published mega-dealer discount. Ummmhuh.

It wouldn't surprise me a bit to learn that BE has a financial interest in an offshore bead manufacturing facility. What better way to have a consistent, constant demand for raw products? What better way to smooth out the glass production problems and inventory imbalances than to have a guaranteed customer that will take whatever you send them color and quality-wise?

And, of course, if they were to somehow step on the toes of some nitwit, no-talent beadmaker in the USA, oh, well. BFD, there's another one to take her place. And, Brady will be spitting out more "artisans" from his circle-jerk festival in a few weeks. There's always somebody to take advantage of, some how, some way.

Now, I'm NOT accusing BE of anything. I don't know anything about them, and have no particular interest in anything they make. I'm just relating what happened to me dealing with two companies in another entirely different industry.

The point is, not every supplier has their customer's interests at heart.

Reply to
Moonraker

Reply to
royaltd97

It certainly does matter if you're paying the production costs. Shovels are stamped.

Reply to
nJb

There is something hell of funky going on with Chinese economics. I just bought a $6 shovel. The hardware store probably paid about $3.00, and they most likely bought it from a distributor rather than directly, so

the distributor probably paid $1.50. I am having a hard time understanding how that shovel got here from China for less than that.

My latest amazing "how do they do it" story is these .99 cent stores opening up all over the place. They take over 2 or 3 strip mall stores and stock thousands of everyday items all for the same .99 cents. Hardware, cleaning supplies, tools, canned food, sundries, electrical, soap, shampoo, computer cables, you name it. Most are name brands and the parts are all carded and shrink wrapped. Sure the quality is low end, but basically the stuff all works fine. How much are they paying for each, how much is the disty paying? Who owns all these places? I see Asians & Indians mostly. It's incredible how busy they are all day and night. You can't walk out without filling up a bag of stuff. They underprice Radio Shack, Supermarkets, Costco,Wallmart, even the flea markets by at least 50%.

Reply to
glassman

Here are two observations I've made about these places;

  1. A lot of the stuff is "surplus" so the distributor sold it at no profit or even at a loss just to get it the hell out of their warehouse.
  2. A lot of the other stuff is either reasonably priced or overpriced for what it is.
Reply to
Kalera

I worked for Bullseye. When I say I'm familiar with their wholesale schedules, I mean I'm intimately familiar with their wholesale schedules.

Stamped is cheaper, actually, which is why I was conceding that one.

I know. But the economics of it are still sketchy, to say the least. Personally, I suspect government subsidies as part of a long-term national economic plan which aims to corner the world market on manufactured consumer goods.

If I'm right, prices on Chinese goods will increase dramatically in a few years.

Reply to
Kalera

some imaginary nonsense in which he had a job

Reply to
Kalera

Oooh ten more points!

I hope I can trade these in for a toaster oven.

Reply to
Kalera

------------------ I don't think that working for BE from 99 - 02 in the samples dept and QC would really give you much "inside' info as to who pays what for how much.

Reply to
neoglassic

I always thought beadmaking was akin to roasting marshmallows. It takes no particular skill or intelligence to impale something on a skewer and twirl it around in the flame. And whatever comes out is either allegedly edible or "art".

You wouldn't be competent to operate a toaster oven, even if you had one. Nitwit, no-talent beadmaker.

Reply to
Moonraker

I'm surprised that somebody hasn't slapped you so hard that your sister's menstrual cycle shifted about a week.

I've got a Cocker Spaniel laying at my feet that has more talent than you do. Could I send you one of Wheeler's designer turds? A little glittery spray paint here and there and it'd look just like one of your beads.

Clueless nitwit, no-talent beadmaker that you are.

Reply to
Moonraker

We were actually required to know the wholesale schedules, don't ask me why.

Reply to
Kalera

Somehow I'm not surprised that you fantasize about violence, given your typical mindless misogyny.

Is that your other hobby besides repairing glue-chip windows?

Sweet, I'm glad you're maintaining your ability to repeat this endlessly, it's so original it'd be a shame to let it go.

Reply to
Kalera

Sounds like somebody has a nasty case of sour grapes... listen, it's OK... not everybody can be that coordinated, and I think everyone understands that hot glass and flame can be intimidating to little old guys like you.

I was going to give it to you, so you'd have something besides a can of Sterno to cook with.

Keep 'em coming, I never get tired of your cunning wit!

Reply to
Kalera

TOP POSTING....yeah, deal with it..

hey, you guys are the BEST show in town!! this is getting really amusing!!

you beadies...i love your work and i think you're damned talented... the guys are just suffering from a bit of middle-age male menopause (mental-pause)...

they'll get over it...

what do they know about beads anyway...their one and only dingle-dangle ain't much to look at...but they don't want to take anyone's attention away from it...

now if THAT appendage could be beaded, well, i'm sure they'd be your best customers.

hmmm...now there's a thought!

ar.

Kalera wrote:

Reply to
arlene.carol

If it's a thought, it's the first one you've had since you started infesting this board.

There are a lot of people on this board that have forgotten more about SG than you will ever know. I have a feeling that any more of your dumb-ass newbie questions will be met with a stony silence.

I, for one, am done giving you any help or advice. Next time you want to know how to do something, go ask Abdul or whatever that goat-herder's name is.

Reply to
Moonraker

Well, I've started leaving a couple of Thorazine pills with the mothers who have succeptible children.

Reply to
Moonraker

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.