Rumor Here (sorta) About Wholesale From PaintballGear.com??

[RRfireblade]

Originally posted by shartley

Pretty true here in Florida as well.

Most things work out to your benefit here,especially being a right to work state(no organized labor boards/unions),the state is decently set up for private business ownership.Expenses generally are in your favor and the paper work isn't to bad.Besides them repealling the workers comp exemption last year(now you must go LLC or INC)it's a pretty good deal overall.

[cphilip]

Ah true... true... South Carolina is a lousy place to do business over the internet. I often for get that. Its about the most unfriendly place in the country I am told.` They collect sales tax on everything. Both purchase price and sales.

Not only that but they will assess you 25% of your residence at 6% if you do any business out of it at all. Resulting in a increase for that 25% of your property of 3%.

Now taxes are not high here but still that results in a net cost of almost 500 bucks you have to make right off the bat! So then with the other 5% you have to tack on for sales taxes your now competing with all those states that do not collect taxes on things sold out of state... and your costs are 7% or so higher than them.

Not fun. I think there are some Federal based lawsuits going to alieviate this here as well as some local efforts. But its not a very good climate here right now.

Funny thing is I know people that conduct these business activities here out of rented houses using business licenses from other states! They pay nothing!

[shartley]

[bryceeden]

Originally posted by GTakacs


As for the MAP, don't you find it hyppocritical of the distributors and manufacturers to fix retail prices by MAP, yet discount products for high volume resellers? They are rewarding their high volume customers, yet they fix the price so the little guy can make a living too, while the "big guys" make a killing and the customer is getting ripped. Maybe paintball stores should whine a little more about the tier pricing and less about enforcing the MAP.

Again, I am not working in retail, none of my family members do, so luckily for me, I can only benefit from buying on-line. My original post was to address the misconception about MAP by the original poster (Spartan X) who thought it was a good thing and it protects everyone.

MAP is evil any way you look at it. MAP is also there so on-line retailers can hide the fact that they are getting stuff for less than some low volume local pro-shop. How would that local shop feel if they would see that pbgear was selling markers for less than what they can get it for? That would open up the can of worms and the distributors' would be caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

Get use to it because more and more companies are doing it every day. As a proshop owner(who is in a multi store partnership so we get the loest prices on orders and will price match the net as long as it isn't a close out) I like MAP befor Tippmann began using a MAP the 98custom even with the huge order discount and everything profited about $2.50 per unit. That isn't enough on anyones part, and most stores were paying more wholesale than the net was selling them for. Yes, I agree most proshops sound like they want to rip people off, and I don't know why they charge so much because they don't have to(even in ordering huge quantitys you save maybe $10 if that per unit on high end gear) But I think soon you will see a MAP on most everything in the industry(How ever just because there is a MAP doesn't mean everything will sell that low) I think the Maps will help inprove the quality of local proshops and internet companies alike, yes it costs alittle more but it will increase quality of service in most places.

[GT]

Dam good posts guys! (we really need a system to award points to posters or thier posts to give them 'Ecrdit' instead of post counts.)


Maybe TK can roll into this thread; However I have a feeling, probally not AGD's case, that the manfacture is the one that makes the money since the profit margin is so thin for dealers.....

Allow me to expand on the consumer side: It was not until this year that I spent a dime, A SINGLE DIME at a local shop, besides paint and air. I have been to more than a few shops and thier incompetnece, rather than thier prices, is what kept me from buying. It was not until this year I meet Brad and the pbmax crew that I decided to buy some stuff local. Mind you I have been playing paintball for about 4 years now and ALL of my purchases take place online.


mjs1217:
Honestly I dint think you will find that big a discount with a dealers liscence. I looked at opening an account with AGD as well as NPS. I chatted with a few dealers on AO and decided that it just wasnt worth it, besides if you know who to go through you as a consumer can dam near get dealer pricing .

jb

[RRfireblade]

Originally posted by gtrsi

Honestly I dint think you will find that big a discount with a dealers liscence. I looked at opening an account with AGD as well as NPS. I chatted with a few dealers on AO and decided that it just wasnt worth it, besides if you know who to go through you as a consumer can dam near get dealer pricing .

jb

I'd just like to clarify that a little bit.

There's a big difference between being a "Dealer" and being a business able buy wholesale.

Being a business will typically allow you to buy wholesale from any 'wholesaler' provided you qualify for an account from them(credit,references,etc.)In some cases you don't even need to be an actual business for that to be the case.

To be a "dealer" is usually far more involved depending on the manufacturer you wish to 'deal'.Many will require you to go to contract stipulating 'X' amount of product to be purchased in advance and 'X' amount to be re-ordered over a given time frame.The discounts and sales incentives will also vary based on these requirments and have a direct connection to the actual cost per unit of any item.This why you often see product advertised and sold at what seems to be under wholesale cost.All of these will vary greatly depending on the company,rights of exclusivity and overall demand.

For instance,when I was in the electronics business,we were direct dealers for many major manufacturers,Pioneer,Yamaha,Kenwood,Paradigm,Sony ,just to name a few.Many of those have very high purchase and stock requirements,in the line of 20K-50K up front and 25K+ each quarter.But the incentives and total discounts make it well worth the outlay assuming you can move the merchandise,and can afford the intial buy in.

Of Course,due to the MUCH smaller market share of paintball,dealer requirements are typically no where near that demending.

Just a little FYI.

[cphilip]

Originally posted by shartley

I suspect that incorporating in another state might be an option but I need to look into it some more. Its possible they want sales tax from anyone "Conducting" business in the state. The only way I could see to avoid that is to not only incorporate in another state but to never recieve anything within the state for shipment out. Direct drop ship everything. Which make a small personalized business difficult because you want it to pass through your hands to do the little things. Like change over parts and customize it. And inspect it. So thats where I am really in that sort of personal treatment sort of customer service that costs me more money to do. I don't need to tell you that if I have to tack 7% on to something that I am going to not be competitive at all.

[shartley]

Originally posted by cphilip


I suspect that incorporating in another state might be an option but I need to look into it some more. Its possible they want sales tax from anyone "Conducting" business in the state. The only way I could see to avoid that is to not only incorporate in another state but to never recieve anything within the state for shipment out. Direct drop ship everything. Which make a small personalized business difficult because you want it to pass through your hands to do the little things. Like change over parts and customize it. And inspect it. So thats where I am really in that sort of personal treatment sort of customer service that costs me more money to do. I don't need to tell you that if I have to tack 7% on to something that I am going to not be competitive at all.