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Edmunter
Mr



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Essentials for starting a shop
#26500369 - 02/23/20 06:50 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Im planning on selling equipment, spores and mushroomy stuff from a a website.
What are the essential things for success?
Im in the Uk and one of my line ideas is the presto pressure cookers. Obviously the 23Q is top of the list but would you add to that? Also do any of my American brothers know where I can buy them wholesale. Im not sure if they have the info on the box of who to contact but any help would be muchly appreciated.
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Ombisha
Transmutant



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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: Edmunter]
#26500815 - 02/24/20 02:04 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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No idea how you should go about creating such a shop, but there is a huge hole on the market in the whole Europe. Its very hard to get even the basic stuff like mycobags, agar, micropore tape... its basically impossible to get agriculture gypsum in my country (central europe). If you managed to keep shipping rates throughout europe under 15 euro, a shitload of people would buy from you.
Edited by Ombisha (02/24/20 04:18 AM)
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Ifkilbadluck
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: Ombisha]
#26500889 - 02/24/20 04:04 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Start off with the basic supplies if your intent on starting a store. Gather some experience cultivating before you offer spores. You will need quite a bit of funding. If you do plan to sell supplies contact the manufacturers of mycology supplies dirtectly (I.e unicorn bags). If you do not have enough funding to get bulk supplies then just start cultivating. Since you are going for production invest in a 48x24 (or similar size or bigger). Make a barrel sterilizer so you can sell bulk pre sterilezed grains. Wish you the best of luck.
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The_Brown_Wizard
what?



Registered: 12/27/19
Posts: 188
Loc: Southeastern Carpathians
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: Ombisha]
#26500897 - 02/24/20 04:37 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Edmunter said: Im in the Uk and one of my line ideas is the presto pressure cookers. Obviously the 23Q is top of the list but would you add to that? Also do any of my American brothers know where I can buy them wholesale. Im not sure if they have the info on the box of who to contact but any help would be muchly appreciated.
I think one pc is pretty much enough to begin with. It's one of those things that you only need to buy once every few years because they last a lot and aren't very cheap. The brand most likely has a website with all the contact info you would need, you just need to search for it a bit.
Consumables are very important, people always need more of those, I'd suggest focusing on these and prints.
You should also think about ways to advertise your shop to people who might be interested in what you want to sell. Try to build a brand, with a good name and logo and everything. Make your shop recognizable.
Quote:
Ombisha said: there is a huge hole on the market in the whole Europe. If you managed to keep shipping rates throughout europe under 15 euro, a shitload of people would buy from you.
I believe there's quite a lot of mycology related stores in europe, but shipping costs really are a problem. I live pretty far from the places where I usually get my myco stuff from (usually netherlands) and because of that I usually end up spending around 20-25 eur just on shipping. Shipping price is definitely one of the decisive factors when I choose where to get my stuff from.
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There's a weird fuck lurking in these woods
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eLeSDenes
Mycelium Expander




Registered: 05/25/11
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Last seen: 1 year, 11 months
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Add crypto payment options to the website.
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The_Brown_Wizard
what?



Registered: 12/27/19
Posts: 188
Loc: Southeastern Carpathians
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: eLeSDenes]
#26500908 - 02/24/20 04:47 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
eLeSDenes said: Add crypto payment options to the website.

I always use btc when buying myco stuff
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There's a weird fuck lurking in these woods
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Edmunter
Mr



Registered: 05/01/13
Posts: 5,699
Last seen: 18 days, 3 hours
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: eLeSDenes]
#26500978 - 02/24/20 06:28 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Ifkilbadluck said: Start off with the basic supplies if your intent on starting a store. Gather some experience cultivating before you offer spores. You will need quite a bit of funding. If you do plan to sell supplies contact the manufacturers of mycology supplies dirtectly (I.e unicorn bags). If you do not have enough funding to get bulk supplies then just start cultivating. Since you are going for production invest in a 48x24 (or similar size or bigger). Make a barrel sterilizer so you can sell bulk pre sterilezed grains. Wish you the best of luck.
I will be funding myself as I have another business and want to buy 30 -40 presto 23's but cant find a supplier yet. To ship them to the Uk cost £100-120 so if I could get them here landed at £50-60 mark im sure id sell loads.
48x 24 im assuming you are talking about a flow hood? Ive just built one.
I will work up to an autoclave as the business grows.
Quote:
The_Brown_Wizard said:
I think one pc is pretty much enough to begin with. It's one of those things that you only need to buy once every few years because they last a lot and aren't very cheap. The brand most likely has a website with all the contact info you would need, you just need to search for it a bit.
Ive contacted presto industries .
Quote:
Consumables are very important, people always need more of those, I'd suggest focusing on these and prints.
You should also think about ways to advertise your shop to people who might be interested in what you want to sell. Try to build a brand, with a good name and logo and everything. Make your shop recognizable.
Yeah I have so many contacts and areas to aim for.
Quote:
Ombisha said: there is a huge hole on the market in the whole Europe. If you managed to keep shipping rates throughout europe under 15 euro, a shitload of people would buy from you.
I believe there's quite a lot of mycology related stores in europe, but shipping costs really are a problem. I live pretty far from the places where I usually get my myco stuff from (usually netherlands) and because of that I usually end up spending around 20-25 eur just on shipping. Shipping price is definitely one of the decisive factors when I choose where to get my stuff from.
This is something
Quote:
eLeSDenes said: Add crypto payment options to the website.
On it and have a payment option already
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clockworkshroom
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: Edmunter]
#26502867 - 02/25/20 10:06 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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I just ordered a 23q for $140! I should have waited to chip in on your bulk purchase!
I'm going to buy spores from cylocybe unless there is somewhere else in the UK you can recommend?
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: Edmunter]
#26502904 - 02/25/20 10:31 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Edmunter said: Im planning on selling equipment, spores and mushroomy stuff from a a website.
What are the essential things for success?
Im in the Uk and one of my line ideas is the presto pressure cookers. Obviously the 23Q is top of the list but would you add to that? Also do any of my American brothers know where I can buy them wholesale. Im not sure if they have the info on the box of who to contact but any help would be muchly appreciated.
They're not listed for sale in your country. That's why they're only ever sold through ebay to get into the UK which their importer kind of smuggles that item through. The presto 23q would need CE certification to be sold retail in UK. And probably other certification too. You would need to talk with an import company and presto themselves to start selling them in the UK
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filthyknees
no coincidence


Registered: 03/08/13
Posts: 6,283
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You'll probably want to separate your buisnesses. You don't want to be selling supplies for cult AND spores TOGETHER.
Not a good look. Idk about legality in UK but that was a red flag for me. Choose one or the other or separate and don't affiliate one with the other.
Just check out vendors websites. I'll you one of the most well known us vendors.
I think it's a great idea if there's demand.
-------------------- But if you're in a hurry, and really got to go If you're in a hurry, might have to find out slow That it's one thing to try and another to fly You get there quicker just a step at a time It's one thing to bark, another to bite The show ain't over till you pack up at night
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Piaseski
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: filthyknees]
#26503277 - 02/25/20 02:14 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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If you figured out the Presto's myself and many other growers would be all over it, lot of us using Hawkins at the moment but not ideal.
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notdave
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: Edmunter]
#26503476 - 02/25/20 03:56 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Prestos would be a major thing - $70 in the US, cost me around £150 with shipping and import tax. Tax fucked me good.
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MH5109
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: notdave]
#26503501 - 02/25/20 04:14 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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That sucks but 150 isn't that bad for a purchase you will only have to make once. Unless you damage the PC they last a very long time, iv ran hundreds of grain/agar cycles in my presto. I do agree the imports about double the price, but id still get one even if I was outside the u.s.
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notdave
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: MH5109]
#26503510 - 02/25/20 04:20 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Yep, I look after them, bought another one recently :-)
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FreeCanadianHugs
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: Edmunter]
#26503532 - 02/25/20 04:37 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Hi. Not trying to bring you down but I'd suggest you slow down on investing heavily in stock like pressure cookers. There's a term in business that applies to "dead stock" that I think you might be building towards. A lot of people find a need or want and think I'm going to supply everything, invest heavily with no backup plan and then claim bankruptcy after things don't go as well as expected.
So let's say you do order your 100 pressure cookers including shipping at aprox $100 a pressure cooker. So you sell them at $150 to make a profit of 50% on your investment of $100. I can buy them on ebay for $140 so why spend $10 more to buy from you? People will usually buy from the cheapest trusted source, and ebay/Amazon will refund you. So now you have 100 pressure cookers that you bought and shipped and could only sell 20. Now you have 80 pressure cookers that you have to pay to store because you can't throw them away as you spent good money on them. Storage costs money unless you have an empty place to store them securely so each month you hold on to them costs you more money, and every month is a month closer to bankruptcy if you can't sell them.
Why not start with prints and syringes and then move into grow bags, sterilized grains, and pasteurized sub? I dislike being a negative Nancy but better to hear this than to invest and regret it after.
Prints have a low cost and storage and are in demand. How many prints could you store in the room one pressure cooker box would take up? I'd build up a client base and website and then expand my services and products as my customer base requests it. Instead of saying I know what my future customers want why not wait for the demand to be there from them? Start small and plan for future growth. Best luck
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Quote:
Josex said:
Quote:
Tiamo said: Thanks for the help guys! Didn't realise PCs in EU sucked so bad. Looks like I have to import a PC. Boatloads of money, but will be worth it. Gonna start saving up now, I can't wait to work on agar. Gonna do a few more runs of PF tek first to get the gist of all this tho.
This is gonna be fucking long, but it's something that I've experienced myself and I've been kinda looking forward to an opportunity to vent...
Definitely, PC's in Europe suck big time, no matter where you look. They tend to be very small and if you want something bigger it can cost you an arm and a leg, and still they aren't able to reach pressures beyond 8 psi in most cases.
The popularity of home canning in the US was what led to the manufacturing of pressure cooker/canners (AA, Mirro, Presto...) which happen to be perfect for mycology uses. Home canning is not popular at all in Europe, so it wouldn't be profitable to manufacture them here only to satisfy a marginal demand. PC's in Europe are meant for cooking only 
Currently, pressure cooker/canner style PC's and sterilizers don't comply with EU regulations and safety standars (ludicrous I know), so EU imposed a trade embargo on these items. In layman's terms, pressure cooker/canners are prohibited in Europe.
As said, this trade embargo also applies to AA sterilizers, but with these you'd also need to produce a series of permits and a medical license in order to import it, so just forget about those.
I didn't know all this two months ago, so I ordered an AA sterilizer from Fungi Perfecti (paid via PayPal) and this is the last email they sent me after a long period of anxiety, uncertainty and lots of emails and calls. Take a look and don't be the next sucker.
 "In accordance with our policy, we will not be able to refund you any part of the costs associated with this order". So they refused to refund a single dollar of the 682 USD I paid. I could speak volumes about how shady and dishonest Fungi Perfecti was about this whole issue, but I will keep that to myself.
It was crazy... thankfully I paid with PayPal and resorted to the customer protection, even though I had little hope I could ever get my money back. I phoned PayPal about this and they told me that in these cases they could not do anything, because I needed to produce some permits to release the sterilizer from Customs, which I didn't possess. I was already resigned to the worst... I was gonna lose 647 euros (682 USD) and my dream to grow like a fucker shattered to pieces in that instant, I was gonna quit everything and never look back.
By some miracle, the next day I received an email from PayPal telling me that the final decision had been made and that they had ruled in my favor. I got a fucking full refund baby! Karma's a bitch Fungi, karma's a bitch...
I must admit, I was fucking obsessed with owning an AA sterilizer or at least an AA PC but in light of the above I had to suck it up and start looking for shitty European PC's and THIS is the best I could find on ebay (ridiculously expensive) and I was gonna buy that fucking shit but paypal didn't allow me to complete the transaction for some weird reason, so I couldn't. The nerd in me took this a a sign and I stopped the search for shitty EU pc's.
Now, with all this shit, is it even possible to acquire an AA PC (or even Presto o Mirro) if you live in Europe? Fuck yeah baby 
One night I decided to sit and meditate a bit, all relaxed and peacful and I had an insgiht, a very mundane revelation actually. I was very new to ebay but I kept seeing this thing all over the place buy I hadn't paid much attention to it:
 Somehow, and without knowing why, I knew that'll allow me to fucking buy my AA PC. I researched a bit about the "International Priority Shipping" on ebay and found out that it is carried out by Pitney Bowes. Upon further research I learned that these guys are like the mafia of the shipping business and they can pretty much send a parcel to whatever country they wish, regardless of the import restrictions associated with a particular item.
These guys have Customs agents all over the globe if any issue should arise. They change the harmonized code of a restricted item if necessary to pass through Customs. Plus, any item on Ebay that has "International Priority Shipping" has very cheap shipping costs and you pay a reasonable price beforehand for import duties and fees.
Long story short!? I was able to buy this beast, 941 PC, my preciousss...

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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: bodhisatta]
#26503699 - 02/25/20 05:47 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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TLDR Even if you buy presto cookers you can't resell them without breaking the law, even after brexit
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eLeSDenes
Mycelium Expander




Registered: 05/25/11
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: bodhisatta]
#26503777 - 02/25/20 06:26 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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I ordered my AA into the UK from amazon, arrived in about 12 days. Paid a hefty $200 import charge + some shipping 
I had no idea why these canners did not exist here or if it is 'banned'
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: eLeSDenes]
#26503786 - 02/25/20 06:32 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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You can import one off Amazon or ebay easily. There's a big difference buying one for you and selling them to the public
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mushboy
modboy



Registered: 04/24/05
Posts: 32,273
Loc: where?
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: bodhisatta]
#26503798 - 02/25/20 06:36 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Josex, man
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eLeSDenes
Mycelium Expander




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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: bodhisatta]
#26503812 - 02/25/20 06:42 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Could you please point me to a reference which says pressure canners are prohibited in Europe? I tried googling but haven't found anything.
You can buy bho extraction kits with the same pressure rating as a PC so not sure what regulation this is.
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Edmunter
Mr



Registered: 05/01/13
Posts: 5,699
Last seen: 18 days, 3 hours
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Quote:
bodhisatta said: You can import one off Amazon or ebay easily. There's a big difference buying one for you and selling them to the public
Thanks for the info.
I will do some more research on this.
Quote:
FreeCanadianHugs said: Hi. Not trying to bring you down but I'd suggest you slow down on investing heavily in stock like pressure cookers. There's a term in business that applies to "dead stock" that I think you might be building towards. A lot of people find a need or want and think I'm going to supply everything, invest heavily with no backup plan and then claim bankruptcy after things don't go as well as expected.
So let's say you do order your 100 pressure cookers including shipping at aprox $100 a pressure cooker. So you sell them at $150 to make a profit of 50% on your investment of $100. I can buy them on ebay for $140 so why spend $10 more to buy from you? People will usually buy from the cheapest trusted source, and ebay/Amazon will refund you. So now you have 100 pressure cookers that you bought and shipped and could only sell 20. Now you have 80 pressure cookers that you have to pay to store because you can't throw them away as you spent good money on them. Storage costs money unless you have an empty place to store them securely so each month you hold on to them costs you more money, and every month is a month closer to bankruptcy if you can't sell them.
Why not start with prints and syringes and then move into grow bags, sterilized grains, and pasteurized sub? I dislike being a negative Nancy but better to hear this than to invest and regret it after.
Prints have a low cost and storage and are in demand. How many prints could you store in the room one pressure cooker box would take up? I'd build up a client base and website and then expand my services and products as my customer base requests it. Instead of saying I know what my future customers want why not wait for the demand to be there from them? Start small and plan for future growth. Best luck
If it was possible to get them to the UK they would have to be at a landed price of $70-80 and I would be selling at $120-$160. There is a huge market for them here and it would be easy to sell them and parts. Im an importer already and have been for years. This business will be a sideline to my already successful import business which I have lots of storage for.
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Essentials for starting a shop [Re: eLeSDenes]
#26503833 - 02/25/20 06:51 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
eLeSDenes said: Could you please point me to a reference which says pressure canners are prohibited in Europe? I tried googling but haven't found anything.
You can buy bho extraction kits with the same pressure rating as a PC so not sure what regulation this is.
They're not. They just have to be certified. The ones for sale in america are not certified to be sold retail in most other countries. You can import one for yourself but you'll be in a liability nightmare if you open a shop and start selling them.
They're essentially de facto banned due to import and tariff and certification laws.
Ebay and amazon just sneak them through customs basically. No one cares that you buy some american pressure cooker for yourself. They're just not allowed on store shelves. One could presumably get one a certification but you would need to deal with presto to become an official importer to your country. They're probably making you foot the bill for that because you are going to be wholesaling their product for profits.
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