How easy to buy straight from the distributors.

[BlueMR2]

How easy is it to buy models straight from a distributor eg AutoArts uk one.

How much would you have to spend at a time and what sort of saving would you get considering you give it to yourself a 0% mark up and no extra vat etc.

[Big Al.]

Going back a few years when I owned a model shop in the 80's, you had to set up an account with most suppliers and that was many £1000's at the time.

If you were in the trade then, customers buying direct from suppliers was frowned upon.

[BlueMR2]

I was just wondering as i've heard of people buying say 2 of a model, keeping one then selling the other and thus getting it cheaper, was wondering if you could get big enough to put in an order from a forum users and get the models cheaper for everyone.

[Chris_w666]

Most distributors have Minimum order quantities for new customers. Some always want you to spend at least £500, others will set up accounts for you. The last price lists I have from UK based distributors are somewhere in my garage but on low end stuff their prices were 15-30% below retail (ex VAT) in general and on the better items 20-40% below.

I did think about buying things to sell on but as with everything else someone else has deeper pockets and unless people pre-order certain items from you or are willing to PX older more interesting stuff for new models it wasn't worthwhile as a part-time business.

[BlueMR2]

Hmm, i'd have though a forum that is quite large could get enough people to make a £500-£1000 order up.

Wouldn't mind a Veyron for £100ish and thats 10-20% of the way there.

Edited by BlueMR2 on Tuesday 5th January 18:56

[rich1231]

Why should a distro sell to you?

[BlueMR2]

rich1231 said:

Why should a distro sell to you?

To make money.

[Chris_w666]

BlueMR2 said:

rich1231 said:

Why should a distro sell to you?

To make money.

It is very hard to deal with distributors, I made 90% of my enquiries through friends that trade in similar goods and trade fairs. Not many of the big distributors that deal with the better goods at the best prices will deal with a little guy. Me in my spare bedroom, selling online, stocking 1000 worth of toys at a time is of little interest to them and could be seen as bad for their image especially if I tried to compete with the likes of modelzone etc and reduce prices much below RRP.

It would be a royal PITA to go through the process of setting up an account to get access to the price lists in the first place, then collating the orders from a forum of people, then collecting the payments and distributing the models. If laying out 1000 could net 400 profit at recomended retail prices once the other costs are covered the discounts to the guys collecting would be small in relative terms and someone would have put in quite a bit of leg work for no reward.

If you were upfront with the distributor and asked for a credit account they would likely refuse as your 1000 order could cost them custom from frustrated volume retailers in the future.

[BlueMR2]

Chris_w666 said:

BlueMR2 said:

rich1231 said:

Why should a distro sell to you?

To make money.

It is very hard to deal with distributors, I made 90% of my enquiries through friends that trade in similar goods and trade fairs. Not many of the big distributors that deal with the better goods at the best prices will deal with a little guy. Me in my spare bedroom, selling online, stocking 1000 worth of toys at a time is of little interest to them and could be seen as bad for their image especially if I tried to compete with the likes of modelzone etc and reduce prices much below RRP.

It would be a royal PITA to go through the process of setting up an account to get access to the price lists in the first place, then collating the orders from a forum of people, then collecting the payments and distributing the models. If laying out 1000 could net 400 profit at recomended retail prices once the other costs are covered the discounts to the guys collecting would be small in relative terms and someone would have put in quite a bit of leg work for no reward.

If you were upfront with the distributor and asked for a credit account they would likely refuse as your 1000 order could cost them custom from frustrated volume retailers in the future.

I could understand if they didn't want to sell you any. It would perhaps be a single order at a time so would set a price over which the order would need to be and the payment would be upfront like most group buys.

Not being willing to sell at a reasonable price is what can cause people to get grey imports instead. So the big shops lose sales and the distributor doesn't get any money either. One of the cheaper sellers on ebay seems to be in Greece but they seem to have good feedback. I bet they would deal on a large order.