Irish Moos shave stick.........

That is 100% understandable.

 

On another note though, interest in the sticks would be better if we could actually contact these people and get confirmation on the details of a large purchase. Hopefully, one of our German members will chime in on this.........

 

If you're not sure, Mike, I'd be happy to call them next week. I use skype, cheapo depot. My German is rusty, but I should be able to handle it.

 

Soooo...what's happening with this one? Should I call? If so, I need to know some specifics--for example, how many sticks? Do we want to negotiate a discount? Etc.

 

Jim, lets see if doc Mike checks in today and what he has to say. If we don't hear from him why don't you go ahead and give it a shot. Basically ask them if they can handle an order of 35 to 40 sticks (as of this date) and what's going on w/ their checkout procedures---JoAnnA seemed to have a problem. Requesting a bulk discount is always a plus. Shipping procedures or problems to the US etc. Thanks for offering to assist.

 

To add to what Shep said, if the 40 sticks is not enough to warrant a discount, find out how many we would have to get. Get back to me on it..............

 

As of right now, they haven't responded to my second email. We might want to go ahead and initiate contact.

 

OK, I'll try and give them a call tomorrow if I can.

One thing...has anyone asked Klaus to call? I mean...his German is probably pretty good...


just a thought...

 

Well, I called. I spoke to a couple of different people, but we had a pretty bad connection, so it was difficult to communicate. A couple of things were clear.

They don't seem to want to do international business. I was told (incorrectly...I believe) that their service does not accept international credit cards (there are no "domestic" credit cards any more...), so the only way to pay is the "Vorkasse" option--prepaying. When I asked how that was supposed to work, he told me just go to my bank and wire them the money. (This is extremely expensive across international borders.)

Also, I asked about a volume discount--and was given a flat out "Impossible." Das geht gar nicht. Soooo.....Hmmmm....

Next step?

 

Hmmmm, that doesn't sound good, then. I'm not sure how much of a charge my bank would tack on to such a transaction. The other possibility would be for us to contact a German member and have them make the payment. The problem there is that we would then no longer have the VAT removed, so that is going to increase the price of each stick, and we would have 2 shipping costs just to get it here to the U.S., where we would then have a third shipping cost out to individuals.

This vendor might be a dead end.

 

There is one other option. If the central distribution person trusted me with their Credit Card info/address/account, I could log in from work and try it there. I tested it again today, my work PC can get through to the CC input stage. Of course, we have no idea if they will ACTUALLY ship to the US, do we?

Of course, if that's at all uncomfortable I certainly won't be offended.

 

Thanks for all your hard work boys. This is entering convoluted and gray-area territory. Were we to proceed w/ this vendor the writing is on the wall for things to go badly and somebody to loose money. I'll update the poll w/ this latest news and do a little research later when I have time. See if we can't find another source. I've gotta say though the folks involved in the B&B group buy still haven't received theirs and it's been a couple months. Perhaps IM is an elusive grail we will never attain.

 

Well, I don't know whether I can be of any help. After all I'm located in Austria and if they don't want to ship internationally we're f***ed.

I'll try to figure something out.

 

I'm thinking you may be right. At this point, I would really be uneasy having people pre-pay for an item we aren't sure we would ever actually obtain. Ah well, it was nice to dream, if only for a little while.

 

Not that I'm trying to resuscitate a long-gone endeavor, but... has anyone given these guys a call:

https://www.alpineimporters.com/Online_Catalog.html

They have listed Irisch Moos, but they only have a few of the products not including shave sticks or soap. However, they list Tabac also... I'm just wondering if this might be the Brigadoon... if they can get Tabac shave soaps, and they can get Irisch Moos 'other stuff', they should be able to get Irisch Moos shave sticks is what I'm thinking.

We might just need to find a retailer who is willing to bite the bullet and start carrying the stuff... there are retailers who cruise this board. Hell, I wish I was a retailer... I'd pick up 100 sticks and they'd probably all be sold before I could ship the first one.

 

I've seen them before - they seem to be highly overpriced. They are charging $28 for a refill puck of Tabac. I can buy the soap in the bowl for just over half that price. No telling what they would charge for the Irisch Moos.

 

What does it take to become a distributor? Like, how much of an investment?

 

Well, you need to find a wholesaler who is willing to sell you however much you're willing to keep in stock.

You could probably start out with just a few hundred dollars worth of capital actually, depending on what you wanted to carry and how many wholesalers you wanted to do business with. You would need to set up a company - if you had a spare room you could set it up in your house probably, and you would need to open a corporate bank account. Then you would just need to find wholesalers who were willing to work with you.

The small business guys who are members here probably keep 2 or 3 thousand dollars worth of stock (soaps, blades, razors, etc...) in their 'warehouse'. Maybe less, depending on how much business they do.

Its not an endeavor that's going to make anyone rich, it would be for the love of the game. But its probably not a bad way to finance your ADs... you could get everything wholesale and you'd probably pull a couple hundred bucks a month in profit if you could get people to buy from you.

...not that I've actually considered any of this...

 

We're not dead yet. All you that expressed an interest go check out this thread and post your interest.

 

We're making headway gents. http://www.theshaveden.com/forum/showpost.php?p=173335&postcount=19. Mike may yet bag that prom queen!