Well after my “Are Mountain Bikes Too Expensive Thread” I’ve decided for the moment to stay with my current bike.

However, it did strike me that there’s lots of people on here quite often buying the same bikes/frames and more often than not speccing with the same wish list componentry eg XTR/X0, Fox forks, Stans rims etc.

So, why not join together order in bulk and get the benefit of reduced prices? Ok, so a cooperative is perhaps too grand a word, but perhaps we could have a sticky thread which allows people to post what they’re looking to buy and when, which people add to when they see fit. Then at an agreed set date the order is placed/negotiated. Obviously there would have to be a payment system set up but maybe its worth a thought, or am I still half asleep? 🙂

I like the idea.

But.

Sounds like a lot of work for someone to collect the cash and do the negotiation. It could also be open to scammers.

However.

It could work. I think there are a few bike shop workers/owners on here. So you could post up what you want, a bike shop dude could reply and say if 10 people commit they will do it for a certain price. Once 10 peeps have said yes they all pay the bike shop directly keeping things a bit safer.

Or maybe I am also still half asleep. 😯

My thinking goes like this – good idea – what we need is someone / or indeed some people to set them selves up as an internet dealer to get trade price on kit. We can then buy stuff through them at substantially less than RRP.

But problems will be in the form of protectionism, loss of dealerships etc. In other words once we make a success of it we will either loose dealership status or it will be too much work for people to do for free, or we will take over the world and there will be no one to fix bikes when they go wrong, and the co-op will probably have a lot of warranty issues to deal with, for free and with no substantial pay back for the hassle and cost. So – possibly not the greatest idea.

Far better to build a good rapport with your dealer and persuade them to give a discount.

or we will take over the world and there will be no one to fix bikes when they go wrong

😆
I feel like some evil despot!!

If you think about it, the potential buying power on here is huge, and this could be as formal/informal as we want. TBH the bike shops may hate it but would they have much choice??

what we need is someone / or indeed some people to set them selves up as an internet dealer to get trade price on kit. We can then buy stuff through them at substantially less than RRP.

There’s a flaw in this. Well, several actually.

But let’s see how long until you work it out 😉

Brant, are you a dealer by any chance? 🙂

these were just some of my musings made public this morning, if there’s a flaw (or several) then point them out , after all this is a “forum” for matters to be discussed because at the moment you’re running the risk of coming across as a “slightly superior” individual

are you a dealer by any chance?

Not really, but in the industry. But anyone just being “in business” should be able to see some gaping holes appearing.

Tax on income?

There is a guy who could run it for you over on BM 😈

Tax on income?

Well, not if you’re not planning to make any profit.

The VW forum I use does something like this occasionally in the form of ‘Group Buys’ and it generally works well. The way it functions is that someone negotiates a bulk discount rate with a retailer/supplier and undertakes to coordinate the whole thing, usually starting a forum thread and seeing who’s interested etc.

Sometimes the organiser might have everything delivered to him or her in bulk then send the stuff out to individual forum members, other times it’s direct from the supplier. There are also suppliers who’ll give an ongoing forum discount, so any forum member can get 10 per-cent off.

Setting up as a retailer is a ridiculous idea btw, I don’t know where to start… The group buy thing works well and also means that different people organise different buys, so the workload is spread.

I don’t know if it’d work here – you’d essentially have to be able to undercut the big web retailers and they’re already priced competitively – check out the cost of built wheels relative to the component prices for example…

Anyway, just my tuppence worth 😉

what we need is someone / or indeed some people to set them selves up as an internet dealer to get trade price on kit. We can then buy stuff through them at substantially less than RRP.

So what you need is someone with plenty of spare time to give away?
Who would also need to be good at walking to the post office every day & dealing with all the returns & warranty problems.
It’d also be quite handy if they wiling to stand the cost of ‘lost in the post’ kit etc.

Where do I sign 😉

Haha, and for that matter, which shop would be foolhardy enough to deal with a singletrackworld co-operative? Words “hornets” and “nest” spring to mind…

Trout 🙂

One flaw that I can see is that people the likes of Merlin are selling things at prices that are less than what the ordinary trade buyer can get them for (or so I’m told).

Plus for the mug that organises it: how long before they gets fed up of being pricked around by all the fannies on here?

😀

I think this is where “club discounts” come into their own with some retailers.

There’s a similar scheme up and running on Digital Wedding Forum (DWF) where I spend a fair bit of time, but it’s run by the owners of the site.

They’ll stick up a thread along the lines of; Group Buy, Fannytastic Albums!! First 20 to apply get a great discount!

Seems to work well for them – the suppliers get a big sale, the site gets traffic and presumably some kind of reward for hosting the offer, and the buyers get cheap goods.

Bagsy not volunteering to run it here though.

I wanted to tell you about the row of houses down the road where they buy many of their dry goods (baked beans and stuff) in bulk, it arrives on a pallet. All kept in one of the garages but I am not sure how they manage it AND then I read ‘Digital wedding Forum’?!*?!* on STW I lost the plot and I am going to go and ride and get as far away from here as posss…….