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wholesale prices

This is the old Locksmith business info area and will be broken down to fill in the new sections below.

wholesale prices

Postby bpc293 » 2 Jun 2006 16:01

foley belsaw sent me a wholesale catalog and i dont no what real wholesale prices are. it is hard to tell with all the online crap and i dont want to get ripped off. does anyone no of a real wholesaler that has a web site with prices listed so can compare. :cry:

thanks
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Postby bpc293 » 2 Jun 2006 16:12

a real wholesaler wont just sell to anyone so it would be ok to post right??
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Postby bpc293 » 2 Jun 2006 16:38

sorry i should of put all this in one post. i do not plan on being a hack and just start taking jobs from real locksmiths and i would never open a business before working at one first. just incase that was a concern.
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Postby Shrub » 2 Jun 2006 19:03

Well actually if your not a trading locksmith you shouldnt get wholesale prices anyway but i think a reputable company that has sent you a list of prices should be seriously looked at.

Most wholesalers do not have a website but if you want to compare prices just look at sites like multipick, peterson etc if you get things cheaper your on to a winner.
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Postby bpc293 » 3 Jun 2006 7:25

well i have a dba and a student i.d. lol the wholesale place in buffalo wants a tax number. i just would hate to fill out those state tax papers ever three months and have to put $0 every time. i thought there was maybe one place around that listed prices. think if i give them my dba and my pizzerias tax number i could at least get a catalog. as long as i didnt buy anything there would be no harm ya think, maybe, yes, no???:wink: [/u]
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Postby Varjeal » 3 Jun 2006 9:53

Not a good plan. Wholesale business' do not post their prices for competitive reasons.

It would be foolish for them to hand the prices out to everyone, because the people who sell their goods would suddenly be out of business as everyone would be demanding the wholesale pricing, get the picture?

The whole idea of the supply chain goes something like this:

factory, wholesaler, dealer/retail seller.

Now, it is indeed a fact that the closer you can get to dealer pricing the better. However, that generally requires purchasing in bulk, and most places are very particular about protecting their wholesalers. After all, if a factory is willing to sell to you direct, there's really not much point in having dealers for your product. It works this way because most factories choose not to have departments to worry about advertising and promotion of their products, they let the wholesalers and dealers, thats how market works.


Basically, do as suggested, take your price list around to various internet stores, and call up a few suppliers. If the list you were given is cheaper, and it may be only on particular items, then great, otherwise you have the choice to shop elsewhere. Remember when comparing prices to factor in such things as convenience, reliability of the company, and of course, shipping costs. 8)
*insert witty comment here*
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Postby NKT » 3 Jun 2006 10:24

Varjeal has a very valid point.

However, there are a lot of companies out there who do a thing called "drop shipping". This is where you enter into an agreement to be the customer face, and they ship your orders direct to the customer for you, from them, and they charge you once a month for all the sales through your account.

You typically make 10 to 20%, but risk a lot of idiots online who will happily sell those same products for a $2 margin, thus devaluing the product whilst also leaving them without any hope of sorting out mistakes that cost them (sometimes serious) money, meaning that the manufacturer winds up with a bad name.

You see this on eBay a lot, and the internet as a whole, due to the incredibly low cost of start-up, and the bizarre notion that 100 sales at £1 profit is better than 1 sale at £100 profit! The truth is, 5 sales at £20 profit is where you want to be.

As for wholesaler prices, you can get them. Start a business, buy 10 or 100 sets of something, keep one and sell the rest on. Just beware the idiots prepared to make $1 a time over wholesale killing your profits/sales dead.
Loading pithy, witty comment in 3... 2... 1...
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Postby vjbeau » 3 Jun 2006 11:16

Just beware the idiots prepared to make $1 a time over wholesale killing your profits/sales dead.

I hate those "idiots" too but they are methodical and eventually win out.

A bunch of computer stores in a southern US city I used to live in did well, including myself. I built systems and when I started I could make $500.00 a system. Then the downward spiral...When all the Asian mom and pop stores opened.. to compete I would have to match their prices and make $25.00 a system. What really hurt my sales was Microsoft required I buy a registered copy of Windows for every system I sold. The "Other" resellers included pirated copies of Windows which they all get together to purchase for a few bucks a copy....book, hologram etc. Then they sold re-marks. A re-mark is basically pushing a processer to over perform. They would take a 166mhz cpu, expertly file away the intel info on the chip and factory stamp it so it says 200mhz.

Anyway....good luck to anyone that has to deal with the $1.00 profit idiots....been there, done that.
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Postby bpc293 » 3 Jun 2006 13:17

you guys are absolutely 100% right. i now how it works i was just being cheap. i didnt want picks or stuff like that i wanted to price all the thousands of dollars worth of car stuff no what i mean. but your still right. :oops:


every one tells me i'm cheap
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Postby bpc293 » 3 Jun 2006 13:33

i no this is off topic but why dont all the locksmiths get to gether and every lock you put on throw out the stock screws and use a security tiped scews so cusin joe cant come change the locks later. i no you can get your own keyways from some companys but wouldnt security screws help to.
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Postby Raccoon » 3 Jun 2006 14:13

There ARE locksmiths out there that practice like this. They will stamp their name on customer keys, leading the customer to believe that they NEED to goto that locksmith in order to get duplicates made-- which isn't the case.

The vast majority of us believe these methods are immoral and only necessary if you really suck as a locksmith. Forcing a customer to go through you is like raping a cute girl in a parking lot. She doesn't want it, and neither does your customer.
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Postby Shrub » 3 Jun 2006 14:45

Security screws is a good idea used by many, it means the customer cant remove the lock so easily and tamper with it, when you offer free replacement if the lock goes faulty it helps if you know the lock youve been called out to is the one you fitted 2 months ago.

Stamping keys is also a good idea for advertiseing, putting your name and number on there help them if they have a problem or if a key is found they are sometimes handed back to the lockie, for selling keys? i think not, a customer will still go to the local key shop to have them copied first even if they have restricted stamped on them.

I dont think rape is somthing compareable to anything especially stamping keys or fitting security screws.
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Postby bpc293 » 3 Jun 2006 15:08

it seems like the auto and commercial stuff is ok for locksmiths. but if you didnt have diy ers and home depot it would be way better for locksmiths. security scews could be changed by any locksmith not just one greedy one. me personaly i have never seen a key to those barrel locks that the gas company puts on there meters. how do they keep them out of the public's hands?
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Postby bpc293 » 3 Jun 2006 15:11

if one manufacturer made something like that and locksmiths only used those the rest of the companies would follow suit dont you think.
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Postby Raccoon » 3 Jun 2006 15:11

Patent restricted keyways. It's illegal for anyone to make or sell them to unregistered contracts. Key blanks are not available, and keys are made to order by the manufacturer and shipped directly to the customer.
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