The need for our own local online TF store

[canofwhoopass_87]

I know we do have a handful of our own local aussie online transformer stores, but none of which cater for the needs of every collector across the spectrum. Exorbitant pricing and lack of range is a bit of a downer.

I was recently approached by a fellow collector (non board member) asking to buy my g1's. Further along our discussion, he actually let fly his plan to open up his own 'premium' collector store right here in oz for people like us. It was his desire to capture the market with fair pricing and items ranging from collectible cards to g1's.

I didn't discuss anything beyond this with him, but it would be pretty cool if he expanded to importing other stuff in bulk and provided us with a local "robot kingdom" of our own.

I don't know anything about this guy beyond his name or this idea of his, but I think what he's trying to achieve is something that is sorely needed right here in our own backyard - bc I'm sure as hell not going to pay $170 for a mib g1 galvatron or $500 for a MP at the stores we currently look to.

What are peoples thoughts?

[Vector Prime]

I definitely agree that Australia definitely needs a specialised store catering towards collectors.

I normally only purchase off the shelf stuff from the mainstream department stores and toy stores like TRU, but have lately been hunting around online for items which are commonly not available widespread in Australia.

Besides eBay Australia which is hit or miss, there definitely is a need for an Australian based store offering fair and reasonable pricing on rare (and not so rare) TFs.

I myself don't mind purchasing online from oversea sellers and find that most places have fair pricing, however once the costs of postage and handling is factored in, it often becomes non viable.

It would be great to have an Australian based store set up by collectors catering towards collectors... all with fair pricing and reasonable postage costs.

The demand is there but the problem also is that it is quite a niche market and the store would also have to cater towards other items which are generally more mainstream.

[blackie]

I myself don't mind purchasing online from oversea sellers and find that most places have fair pricing, however once the costs of postage and handling is factored in, it often becomes non viable.

and this is why it would fail
the reason people charge extra selling vintage, or even non vintage stuff locally is because they need to import it in the first place.

the only way to set up a shop dealing in new items, would be to set up a line of supply with hasbro, or make your prices high enough to cover both your costs and your profit margin, noone is going to lose money just to sell collectors some cheaper toys, and if they do they are both stupid, and on a downward spiral to poorness.

As for selling vintage stuff, you would have to find a decent source of parts and bots to sell, something that is harder to come by here in aus when compared to the UK or USA, who have a much larger population base. It would require a lot of work just to build up a small stock of G1 parts, and even then, the prices would be higher than most likely what you could pick them up of a US site or ebay, because the more hands it passes through, the higher the price is pushed per part, because in the end its a bussiness and everyone wants to make a profit.

Some online stores prices are ludicris, and that could be because they were retarded and imported from a more expensive source than what some of us have in the past.

[canofwhoopass_87]

RK have the wholesale option for small businesses - perhaps this could be the starting point for a local tf business to source their more mainstream products in bulk (including exclusive items not found in oz). As for vintage stuff, with a bit of upstart money; purchasing lots or collections (even abroad) will still pull in a profit but obviously you're going to need quite a bit of $ to get this going.

I'd say you'd have to start small before you move onto the bigger fish though if you want to be the next rk/transformerland of oz. Overseas contacts would be good too.

It'd be great not having to buy stuff in USD or worry about overseas shipping though. Plus we'd be getting our orders in less than 5-6 days each time

[jaydisc]

As many of you know, in December, I'll be moving from Melbourne to QLD, and as a result, I'll be losing the benefit of the Melbourne Group buying power that I've so enjoyed for so long. As a result, I've investigated continuing to buy wholesale Takara goods, and offloading the rest of any cartons on an online store. As usual and with anything, the view from the outside is quite different from the realities therein. Here are some of the thoughts I've had along with some numbers I've crunched.

Hosting/Infrastructure
Now, I'm already in the business, so my expense here will be lesser than many, but it's not insignificant. In theory, a layman could get a USA based hosting service with a pre-existing shopping cart for $15 per month, not including setup and configuration. That's all gonna require your time and effort. In Australia, to get something similar, you're up to $30 per month, and if you want to offer the bare minimum of online safety and security, you're looking at $40.

Payment Gateway
Now we all know and love PayPal, but they're going to take 2.4% of your money on average. You can setup a proper payment gateway, but they have monthly/yearly rates on top of per transaction rates. For example, the base plan from eWay, a leading Australian provider is $350 per year and $0.50 per credit card authorization. If you increase the yearly fee to $750, you can drop the transaction charge to $0.25. Now, that only gets you the authorization of the card. You still need a bank Merchant Facility where they're going to take 1-3% of each transaction, depending on the credit card. Short Story: PayPal is the cheapest by a distance.

Names/Registrations
Domain names cost $20 per year (you might need a few: .com, .com.au, etc.);
SSL Certificates cost about $130 per year

Product (Wholesalers)
As a currently, relevant example, let's use a case of Alternities. We just placed an order for a slab of these from Toy Wholesaler, and it's going to work out to be about A$60 each shipped. Now, for the sake of comparison, the same item at RK is US$40, and if I order 2, they come to about A$58 shipped, so already the cost to my supplier is close to equal the retail rate of my perceived competitors, i.e. RK.

GST
This is one of the killers. Now, the government says that any ABN holder must collect GST if they make over 75K. Now, in my case, I'm already a sole proprietor that collects GST, so the only way I could avoid collecting GST for this venture would be to establish a separate Company (w/its own ABN) which would make less than 75K, to avoid this. However, companies cost about 1K to set up and have some pretty stringent accounting and filing requirements every year, so that's not really an option. If you have a full time job and are considering doing this on the size, you can probably avoid GST as this business by itself won't generate over 75K after expenses. For anyone doing this and other self-employed things at the same time, GST will be a requirement. So that brings the COST of each Alternity up to A$66, because $6 goes right to the government after sale. Let's reverse calculate PayPal's commission on top of that, bringing us to $68 ($69 if the buyer has a non-Australian account, e.g. NZ).

Postage & Handling
Sure, you'll get your stuff sent to you in cartons you can recycle, so in a perfect world you shouldn't need to buy cartons, but I don't know if you've seen HasTak shipping cartons. They're packed very tightly and don't have any bubble wrap or other packing materials, so unless you're selling in perfect quantities of 6 every time, you're going to need some packing supplies. For example's sake, let's say that's about $1 per package. Now, you can try to make a profit on shipping, but you don't have to go searching to far on this forum to find complaints from buyers that the postage they paid didn't match the postage on the label. Personally, I think that's unfair on behalf of the buyer, but it undeniably exists. It's going to cost around $13 to send an Alternity by itself registered post to most places in Australia. Even if we don't markup the shipping, the cost to the customer is now about $82.

So here we are with an Alternity figure that if we sell for $70, we make NO PROFIT. That's WITHOUT factoring in the regular business expenses of hosting, registrations, accounting, etc. How much can we charge on top of that $70 and still attract business? Let's say we sell each Alternity for $80. That means we should make $10 profit each and the customer is paying $93 per Alternity. Uncle Kev is going to 25% off the top of that profit leaving you with $7.50, meaning that you need to sell an ENTIRE case of Alternities each month simply to pay your hosting bill.

Australian Consumer Protections
Guess what? If you're an Australian business selling goods NOT at auction, you are required to give a refund in the case of goods not being as described/fit for purpose and/or defective. Guess what else? Your overseas wholesaler is NOT governed by the same principle and even if they were, the cost of you shipping stuff back for replacement is cost prohibitive, so remember to build that into your estimates as well.

Currency Conversion and More
What if the dollar tanks two days before your deposit is due, and shoots back up a week later? What do you do to backup your computer data? What if your server crashes? What if you're hacked? All of these things cost money, a fair bit of it, and all in an unpredictable fashion. So, while I always used to laugh at Transfigure's prices, I actually completely understand now.

Your Time
Now all of the above requires time and effort. So, while that time itself might not cost you, that's time away from your real job that actually generates real money.

The Clientéle
Let's be realistic. Collectors are SHIT customers. They ruthlessly search for the cheapest price. They complain about postage not being charged at cost. They complain about quality, and the list goes on.

Summary
Unless you have special arrangements or situations like not being required to collect GST, already have hosting infrastructure and accounting skills, it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to even break even at such a business without being seen as an extorionist by your customers. In others, forget it.

[blackie]

ahh jay you say it so much better than i do :P

[liegeprime]

Since Ive migrated here, I find the geek culture indeed has not been well catered to.
Yes every country indeed has its loads of problems when TFs are concerned..... amazingly for a poor Asian country, Phils even has more easy access and supply of TFs but thats prolly due to all them Jap/Chinese merchant business owners setting up shop - who have established contacts to nearby suppliers - Singapore/HK so even if TFs are a luxury merchandise they thrive and spring out branches like mushrooms. One principle Ive learned on how they sell is, even its just small profit is okay as long as the merchandise moves out , rather than have a big profit put on top of and have the merchandise stagnate there - meaning money sleeping on the shelves. Jay sums up the prohibitive stuff that serves to hinder this wonderful idea.....
Mostly prohibitive I guess here would be the cheaper sourcing (access) of the merchandise and a heck of a lot of fees/money to set shop here.... not to mention manpower cost. If the owner does it him/herself it would be cheaper somehow. Labor here IS expensive. Also the clientele , well collectors here are hit and miss bunch.

[TheDirtyDigger]

Wow Jd...good to see someone's thought this through properly.

Personally I wouldn't like to turn my hobby (which is for fun) into a capitalist venture (which is unfun).

[kaiden]

I've never liked Transfigure's prices, but that explanation tells me why i dont XD