Snail/invert group buy

i dont think the prices are right, . such as i ordered 50 astrea snails assuming that we would have over 100 ordered. making each snail basically cost 39 cents. but you have the price listed as my one order of 50 making them 54 cents. i dont think keyscritters will take orders that way. i think they will take the totall of everyones astreas and make that the cost, just like lego said. making us even farther away from the $500 amount.
 
I am up for waiting to be able to get more people in. I also would be in for more of certain critters, if the price came done some on them (which might also help the total $$ figure).
 
Guys,

Each of you have seperate orders and have seperate prices. I don't have the time to add all of your orders together and come up with a bulk discounted price for each of you. It kinda irks me that some of you are trying to "nickel and dime" this situation to save a buck or two on your order. Doing this also lowers our total making me have to add more people to get the discount, also causing me to spend more time and energy distributing and keeping track of each order. I'm sorry if i'm being irrational, but with work and this order i'm very stressed out. I welcome anyone to take this over and do the additional work to save a bit of money, because i'm sorry, but frankly this isn't worth it to me anymore. Please don't take this as a personal attack on anyone, i'm just very tired.
 
From the last time I ordered, this was how keys priced their order.
Take the total amount of a kritter and use that total to calculate the cost per. 4x25 was priced as 100, etc. The smallest they would bag bulk kritters was in packs of 25.
Shipping was around $150 and there was a club/bulk discount of some kind. Probably no box charge.

Everyone following the order last time noticed their prices drop as more and more people ordered. This was because as we reached different price tiers, the unit prices for everyone dropped. Getting to that magic $500 was tough, and we actually didn't make it with our huge order. How it worked was, when you reached $500, you could use the prices of the next tier for your unit price. For example, if you had 100 hermits in your order and your order was over $500, you could use the unit price for 250 hermits. (they don't list the higher qty prices anymore, so this may have changed.) The problem was, when I updated the unit prices to the next tier, the unit prices dropped for everyone and the order was no longer $500. I then needed more orders to get to the $500. As I added more people to get to the $500, we would hit another tier and the prices would drop again, requiring even more/larger orders.

In the end, our order never officially made it to the $500 mark. I ended up adding some random stuff to the order to make the deal work and throwing in some more cash. Some people got a few extra snails and others got some extra $ back. In the end, it saved everyone money to add stuff noone ordered just to make the propper pricing tiers. Was funny. We were over 2000 pieces when all was said and done. We are nowhere close to that on this order FYI at aroud 700 peices to date. There are a lot more expensive kritters on this order that would help reach the majic $500. Scarlets, etc.

I don't know if keys is still opperating the same way as they have updated their website from last year. teachermark, Have you spoken to them yet? We needed to hold off the order one week last time due to some confusion with how they accept orders. The online instructions were useless for bulk orders. FYI.
 
Qwiv,

I have spoken to them and the deal is the same as last time. The thing is I apparently expected the ordering to be a lot easier like the prior 2 times I was involved in this and I now realize doing this alone with a full-time job is too much especially with everyone's ever-changing needs and expectations. I'll still be more than willing to distribute, but i'm not willing to continue altering the order any longer. Again, if anyone wants to take over this order, be my guest.
 
I would do it since I work from home, but we are quite a ways out from everyone, so someone more centrally located would be better.

Does anyone have any info on the brittle stars that keyscritters sells ? IE: are they from the Ophiarachna.sp genera (like the green brittle star). Basically how big do they get and are they potential "fish-eaters" ?

I am just curious for future orders.. thanks :)
 
With something this big I think you should let the big boys handle it at the club level. Orders as big as this should be handled professionally and executed properly. I'd suggest everyone who is thinking of helping everyone out on group buys to think twice and contact the club for help if you don't think you can handle the logistics.
 
Mark, if you are willing to distribute, I'm more than happy to keep track of the totals, each person's individual order, and modifications for the order. I'll put together a spreadsheet.

It sounds like we don't gain that much by hitting 500, but if we can make it that would be cool since we'd get even better pricing.

So questions I have are: What does shipping cost, and what is your order Mark?

From QWIV's comment it sounds like the "Cost By Volume" column (price tier) is how keys calculates price. So the calculation I did above should be fairly accurate.

We should collect money up front so no one gets stuck holding the bag. I have a paypal account and can collect the $ if you would like.
 
Sounds great, i'm definitely up for that. I'll post my order in the morning. Thanks for stepping up and picking up my slack, lego.

Lego, please add rleechb's order to the spreadsheet. I missed that one.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9418589#post9418589 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by andyman
I'd suggest everyone who is thinking of helping everyone out on group buys to think twice and contact the club for help if you don't think you can handle the logistics.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Andy :eek1:

It does look like Mark and company have it covered.

Just wanted to comment that BAR isn't really set up nor intended to be a buying club.

Our primary focus is to spread the knowledge and values relating to ethical care, husbandry, and propagation of marine life. I'd say that club officers have their hands more than full in trying to do justice to the club's mission.

From time to time there have been individuals who have had the time, energy, and ability to organize group buys. Though not sponsored by the club, much appreciation, thanks, and props to those that can do so :)
 
Lego,

Since we missed the target for ordering to get it delivered by this weekend (had to be ordered by today, right ?), when will your cut off be for order modifications/additions ?

I was thinking of adding some of the brittle stars to our order. Keys Critters responded that they could be Ophionereis, Ophioderma or Ophiocoma but not Ophiarachna. The last being the one most known for being piscivorous (having the green serpent star in it's genera). With that info, unless I hear anything to the contrary, I was considering adding a few of them to our order. Definitely not a deal breaker if you have already frozen the order list.
 
Also, how will you be handling the PayPal fees ? 3% I think it is.. will you be adding those to the $$ amount that you request from everyone ? Don't forget them, or you might end up short 3% when it comes time to pay.
 
ah if the pickup isn't this weekend, let me know when it is, I may be able to get in on the order depending. =)
 
I have a Personal PayPal account meaning transfers are FREE provided they are made from your PayPal Balance, PayPal Instant Transfer or PayPal eCheck. I'm not set up for credit cards.

This will be very simple as no one insists on paying with a credit card.

If someone that is setup to accept Credit Cards wants to coordinate credit card payments + their fees and transfer correct amount - for the people that need to pay with credit card - that will work too. (i.e. you figure out what credit card fees are, have the person pay you their original total plus fee, and you transfer the original total)

Or if someone wants to spot people for their order and collect cash when they exchange (as Mark described) - that will work too.

All I am offering to do is collect orders, divide up shipping, figure out individual totals (no fees), collect PayPal Transfers together, and arrange payment with keyscritters. (and to provide the itemized list of what each person ordered so that when people pick up from Mark, its easy to keep track of who gets what).

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees

Can we calculate shipping or do we just tell keys what we plan to order and they tell us how much shipping will be?

I'm assuming that we aren't going to have any more takers (maybe kinetic).

For timing, Mark and Lordhelmet's avilability are the most important factors. If the same time next weekend works for them and everyone else, let's shoot for that?

If the above works, let's plan to cut off orders Sunday Night, so that everything is set with plenty of time to get the money collected and the order placed.

If you set up a paypal account now, you can deposit from your checking account in plenty of time to make this work (and save everyone the hassle of dealing with credit cards and fees).
 
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next weekend would be a million times better for me. please if everyone doesn't mind i would really appriciate it so i don't kill myself. :)
 
next weekend works for us also. Depending on the timing we can either pick up from the delivery site" on Friday, or if not then possibly get Lordhelmet to pick up our order (if he didn't mind ?) and just pick it up from him in SJ (which should be closer to us than Pacifica :)). Plus that way we would finally get to meet LH :)
 
Lego,

You should talk to Nicholas (craazyreefer) about the wholesale discount through his business. I don't know how much we'll save, but it should be a decent amount.

Also, my order will be as follows.

12 blue legs
12 cerith
12 astrea
3 scarletts
6 large cerith
 
Qwiv - I don't see my order on the list.

Also, If I can, I'd like to order a few more scarlets for a friend.

My order looks like this
1 cuke
18 scarlett hermits

Thanks

teachermark - Are you still going to be a pickup location?
 
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