Speaking of ebay, this really annoys me...

[TraditionalTool]

:angrysoapbox:

There has recently been a guy in North Carolina or South Carolina (lumbermaker2010) that sells products for Linn Lumber on ebay. He has ads that list most all the Linn products, at retail pricing, which ship from Linn in Oregon, but has some type of distributorship worked out with Linn.

Do not patronize folks like this, and do yourself a favor if you want parts and/or a sawmill from Linn and buy it direct from Linn Lumber. There is no reason to support a middle man in the current economy, all of the product still needs to be built before shipping. You save nothing by buying from him and Linn looses money by having to pay him.

Speaking for myself, I don't patronize folks like that who are just looking to make their cut. This is what is helping bring the U.S. economy down, folks sitting on their fat @$$e$ wanting to get a share of the pie...my $0.02...

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

If Linn didn't find the arrangement to their advantage, they wouldn't do it.

 

[TraditionalTool]

If Linn didn't find the arrangement to their advantage, they wouldn't do it.

When I exchanged email with the seller he asked me to tell Gary he found out about Linn on ebay, which I didn't. He also said he could use the commission.

I understand that a guy like Gary Linn probably doesn't have time to use ebay, so maybe his arrangement with the guy is good. As a buyer I get nothing from buying from ebay though, and Gary Linn looses some money. I still have to wait for Gary to product the products and/or sawmill.

I personally don't want a small sawmill builder to be penalized just because he doesn't have time to use ebay. The mass of listings with no sales is quite annoying to me, speaking from the standpoint of someone who searches for "sawmill" on ebay, but I ignore them for the most part.

For those that would like to see small manufacturers stay in business, buy direct when possible.

Now, if the seller offered a discount from list price with a Buy-It-Now at list, that would be a value add to buy from ebay. As-is, that does not exist.

 

[woodsrunner]

I don't really understand what you're saying here.
Seems to me like this is one more way for Linn to market their products and one more example of small business folks trying to create a business. Most every product we buy on the market moves from the manufacturer thru a retailer to the consumer. It is rare to buy direct from the manufacturer.
Maybe I'm missing the point?

Scott

 

[TraditionalTool]

I don't really understand what you're saying here.
Seems to me like this is one more way for Linn to market their products and one more example of small business folks trying to create a business. Most every product we buy on the market moves from the manufacturer thru a retailer to the consumer. It is rare to buy direct from the manufacturer.
Maybe I'm missing the point?

Scott

Scott,

I guess I'm saying that I would rather buy direct from the manufacturer so they can continue to stay in business. If it doesn't bother you, by all means buy off ebay, and support all the people that market the products on ebay and take a commission.

I don't want to do that, but maybe this is a fault of the manufacturer for not being able to participate in ebay itself. I buy mostly used products off ebay, as I don't care to be bid on price, especially if it is list to start with. I see no win for me in buying products on ebay that could cost me more, when I can buy the same product new at a fixed pricing.

To each our own I guess, was just venting as I don't care for these middle men on ebay. Again, maybe this should be a fault of the manufacturer for giving the distributorship to a guy that does want to do that.

I support buying direct whenever possible though, even in cases where it does cost a few pennies more.

 

[loadthestove]

Hope the 'Middleman"never goes out of style.If it does than I,,and my business is history.If my customers could buy direct Than I'm useless.

Dont throw rocks into a well oiled machine.I like others have agreements worked out with different manufactures,this way we all make a living.also by having "Middlemen"it spares the manufacture of having to deal with many customers on a daily basis..

It is a simple deal.Example..manufacture deal swith ten middlemen each day,each middleman deals with ten end users.so in effect the manufacture has dealt with 100 people.now which was easier ?? dealing with 10.or 100

This was explained to me by a Manufacturing owner,also it gives them someone in an area who is basically "hands on" to a customer bases needs.

This is becoming prevelent more and more as most compaines do not deal with general public,but rely on their dealers to handle the end user.

 

[rmh3481]

Hi Alan,
These types of sellers are called drop shippers. If you ever watch late night TV, you will see some of the get rich ideas that these guys put together.

For instance using the measuring tapes that the loggers use called a Spencer. Baileys sell them for around $35.
http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=15400

Whereas a drop shipper on Ebay is selling them for $97.
http://cgi.ebay.com/LOGGERS-TAPE-ME...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item20a35e7851

The idea is to find things that are either hard to find or are used regionally and then market them to a wider audience. Because Ebay is fairly inexpensive for the advertising, this works to the sellers benefit. Understand that the drop shipper has no inventory, he just takes the order and then re-orders from a credit line. When a guy on the East Coast sees the TV Axe Men show and wants a tape, where will he find one?

Best wishes,
Bob

 

[TraditionalTool]

Hi Alan,
These types of sellers are called drop shippers. If you ever watch late night TV, you will see some of the get rich ideas that these guys put together.

For instance using the measuring tapes that the loggers use called a Spencer. Baileys sell them for around $35.
http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=15400

Whereas a drop shipper on Ebay is selling them for $97.
http://cgi.ebay.com/LOGGERS-TAPE-ME...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item20a35e7851

The idea is to find things that are either hard to find or are used regionally and then market them to a wider audience. Because Ebay is fairly inexpensive for the advertising, this works to the sellers benefit. Understand that the drop shipper has no inventory, he just takes the order and then re-orders from a credit line. When a guy on the East Coast sees the TV Axe Men show and wants a tape, where will he find one?

Best wishes,
Bob

Bob,

Yes, this seems to explain the situation. I personally don't care for it. Sawmills are hard to find, so it seems to fit this situation just dandy.

loaththestove, I don't care if middlemen go out of style or not, as I said I would rather spend my money direct with the manufacture myself than have them loose a piece of their pie in this case, since the price is the same or more to me. The reason I say "or more" is that the price is retail list price, but I stand the chance that someone will bid me up on it, so it might be possible to pay more.

If that is what being a middleman is all about, you can have it.

I don't see how what you say applies to this situation, Gary Linn seems to have made a business off dealing with the public, has his prices listed on his website, and builds/fabricates the products when he gets the order. In the best situation, the price is the same. I still have to wait for Gary to fabricate the order. What happens if Gary gets really busy, and decides to fill my order first as he makes more money on it than the middleman? Do you think that doesn't happen in the real world? :monkey:

 

[gemniii]

These sellers are examples of Darwinism. They are simply weeding out the people with more money than sense, while the original mfg sticks to making things.

Linn doesn't mind, where's the beef?

 

[highpointtree]

You can buy from the man on ebay or from the manufacturer. but if you buy from the manufacturer he will have to hire a salesman or 2 and pay them all the cost associated with an employee or salesman. including commission, holidays, taxes,etc. not really sure how much your going to save. I know if I'm selling and getting paid commission, I'm going to look for "retail sales".

 

[trimmmed]

Of course, this guy is a middleman with the owners blessing. Maybe the owner knows better what he needs, maybe this guy can help him expand. Maybe now just maybe, the owner does not want to suffer the expansion difficulties typically experienced by one man band type operations.

Quite simply, the business owner is approving this method, hell he might even have been the one to come up with the idea. He might be thankful in a big way that somebody out there is willing to sell his product.

HE MIGHT JUST NEED A SALESMAN! Not a novel concept and not one that's going away any time soon.

 

[TraditionalTool]

Of course, this guy is a middleman with the owners blessing. Maybe the owner knows better what he needs, maybe this guy can help him expand. Maybe now just maybe, the owner does not want to suffer the expansion difficulties typically experienced by one man band type operations.

Quite simply, the business owner is approving this method, hell he might even have been the one to come up with the idea. He might be thankful in a big way that somebody out there is willing to sell his product.

HE MIGHT JUST NEED A SALESMAN! Not a novel concept and not one that's going away any time soon.

Dave,

Yep, you are certainly entitled to your view, and you present a decent one, as does loadthestove (I see I misspelled his name...unintentionally, sorry 'bout that...). That is what makes this country so great, the fact that we can have our own view and see things our way.

You guys make some valid points, most of which I have considered, but when it comes to spending my $$$s these days, I'm getting more and more particular with who I do that with. Maybe being unemployed for a stretch has done that to me, maybe the fact that I see our country going down the toilet with many of these marketing schemes, I'm not sure.

All of what you say could and may be valid, but I would still opt to give my $$$s direct to Gary Linn in this case, to the manufacturer as much as I could. Sure, the middleman would like to get his commission, and so would ebay, but in the end I can put that money in the manufacturers pocket and that seems good to me, to help keep them alive.

I rarely turn the TV on as I don't watch it much at all, but when I do I see car companies selling cars at 0 percent interest, I see many of the banks in my area having been acquired by other larger banks in the best case, or folded. For the first time in my life, most all industries are in the toilet, I think we all can see this is the worst shape America has been in for a long long time. As the times continue to spiral, I see it as being more value to spend direct with the manufacturer. Some loggers can barely give logs away, I have talked with many that would be glad to get $300/1000, who would have thought???? Nobody is buying lumber, nobody wants trees/logs, and this is bringing the logging industry down the same spiral with everyone else, the freight companies, retail stores, etc...what I'm saying is that I would love to take care of the middlemen in this country, but we don't have enough business to support it, we are too busy giving it away to China.

OTOH, it helped me find a used mill at a price I could afford.

Thanks for sharing your view!

 

[Can8ianTimber]

Hey Traditional, I saw that add this morning as well and it pissed me off. Mostly b/c I was not sure if he simply bought a kit and copied it and then started reproducing it or if he had Garys authorization.

If we talk about the middle man there is a big difference between a large corporation vs. a small shop like Linn. I plan on buying one of his mills later on this year and I don't want to talk to anyone but Gary.

 

[TraditionalTool]

Hey Traditional, I saw that add this morning as well and it pissed me off. Mostly b/c I was not sure if he simply bought a kit and copied it and then started reproducing it or if he had Garys authorization.

I think he's legit, just that he wanted me to provide feedback to Gary that was not true, he wanted me to tell Gary I found out about him on ebay, which I didn't. He told me straight out he could use the commission.

If we talk about the middle man there is a big difference between a large corporation vs. a small shop like Linn. I plan on buying one of his mills later on this year and I don't want to talk to anyone but Gary.

You and me are on the same page.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Scott,

I guess I'm saying that I would rather buy direct from the manufacturer so they can continue to stay in business.

So, fine. Go buy direct. No problem.


But don't suggest that Linn doesn't know what's best for his business. If having dealers were bad for business, there would be a lot fewer dealers out there. They exist - in all industries - because they improve a company's bottom line.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I think he's legit, just that he wanted me to provide feedback to Gary that was not true, he wanted me to tell Gary I found out about him on ebay, which I didn't. He told me straight out he could use the commission.

That sure isn't somebody I'd do business with, middleman or not!


You ought to let Linn know about his dealer's dishonesty.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I agree, now you can see my point, possibly.

Nope.

To some extent I think it's between Linn and the dealer,

Nope. It's 100% between Linn and his dealers. It's his business; he can run it any way he sees fit. That's his choice.

but as a customer I can try to go direct when possible.

Yep. That's your choice.



That's called, "freedom".