During the discussion about James Reading Jimmy raised a point that we need to add a note on the site that items sold by the club are based on the condition that they are for the exclusive use by members and cannot be resold to third parties!
I added the line 'Items are sold for the exclusive use by members and cannot be resold to third parties' to each of the shop item pages but then realised it might not be that simple.
What happens if a member dies - can his/her family sell the items?
What happens if a member looses interest in live steam - can they then sell the items?
What happens if a members buys some items but then realises that they are not need - can they then sell the items?
Although I asked the question "can they then sell the items" common sense tells me that it is a bit of a rhetorical question as they will just go ahead and do it anyway, so making any form of words a bit pointless.
However I do feel that Jimmy's point is valid so having given it some more though how about at the top of each of the Hornby and OOLS Product something along the lines of
The OOLS club request that purchases are only used to maintain/repair members own locos.
Agree/disagree?
Any other form of words or suggestions spring to mind?
Ahh so it just another rouse to shift your dvds!!! Nice move squirrel! I have no intention of selling club merchandise on eBay or any other place apart from our club shop. End of!!
Ive started a new thread with the idea. It's not really relevent here.
https://membership284.wixsite.com/ools-com/forum/promotions/new-product-idea
Its like a bottomless pit of ideas!
I don't agree that its a good idea but I have got to admire your persistence in trying to come up with something new 🙂
... and here's an idea for a product to promote on our home page for (say) £19.99....
Hornby Live Steam Refresh Pack
contains:-
100ml of distilled water pre-loaded into syringe
our recommended steam oil pre-loaded into syringe
One tender bung washer
Errata sheet for Hornby Manual
DVD
and sell it on ebay. Any purchasers (or potential sellers!) of Hornby Live Steam would be attracted to this.
What’s wrong with leaving it as it is??? We don’t have any problems at all with our membership and club support! We have a loyal following and more people are joining every day. I have a constant out going if parts and stock so there is absolutely no need for looking down other avenues of sales. We turnover £10k a year, not bad I think for a not-for-profit organisation.
The crazy bit is hiding our great service to members behind a requirement to join.
What's wrong with promoting our £6 water on our public home page?
I don’t see it as crazy at all!! We supply water to benefit the club and it’s signed up members. That’s the ethics of the whole thing. I buy water at £1 a litre and sell it for £6 that’s enough profit I think and what others do on eBay is up to them! You really have no idea Adrian. Just analysing figures for the sale of it is one thing, being practical is another story altogether! We do not need more and more members, but we try to look after the ones we have and not rip them off!! We are all aware of your little ebay trick to sell a used loco and a live drive for a ridiculous amount of money, it doesn’t work!!!!
I have no intention of selling water.
I just think that to have a very advantageous price of £6 per litre (equivalent on ebay is £8.99/£9.99) and hide that price behind a requirement to join our Club is crazy.
At the very least put a strong 'advert' on our homepage saying "£6 per litre for members"
Good news about James. I look forward to seeing the detail.
Adrian I have got to say I sympathise with Nick on this one. When you look at what we do as a club then you quickly realise that, as with every small club that I have been involved with, despite the overall size of the membership the majority of the work falls on the same few shoulders. Any additional layers (such as two tier pricing) just create more work for said people.
In addition one of the aims of the club is to help members, not scare them off with retail pricing. That is for others to do.
We have just had the discussion about James Reading and many of the disproving comments revolve around overpricing. AC Models are now doing the same thing and I for one don’t want to join that group.
Now that James has been educated on what the club is about he has ‘climbed on board’ and now made two offers to support the club (I will post these up tonight). Neither of these offers will preclude him from making his products available on the open market but they will really benefit the club.
I don’t believe that free membership is a barrier to people as these days nearly every website you sign up to wants a log in.
In the case of water there is nothing to stop you proving you’re theory by selling water over the web as long as it does not include any reference to the club, direct or indirect to market it. If you do prove a case then common sense says we would need to reconsider our position.
I think at the very least we should offer distilled water on ebay and on our homepage at a "Retail Price".
On ebay this would at the very least be an advert for us at the very place that people are buying locos . It would also give a guide on price sensitivity and provide evidence (if significant numbers buy) that the obstacle we place (joining the Club) is a real one.
Don’t you think I have enough to do selling through the club shop!!! Having a two tier pricing and more aggro to boot!! Our club products are club products not general public products. No , I think WE have it just right as a club and members trust our business. eBay is useful for getting rid of all the dross, but we don’t have any of that I’m afraid.
That's almost my point.
I think we SHOULD sell on ebay and particularly the public side of our website but at a higher "Retail Price". There would then be an incentive for people to join the Club.
I for one often avoid buying on the web if I have to jump through 'joining' hoops and if the likes of James and AC are actually getting business at higher prices then it shows there are people out there prepared to pay higher prices.
If someone does buy from us via the premium price route then we explain in the documentation they receive that discounts are available to members.
This process would permit us to enforce a "no resale and exploitation policy" especially for Maurice's loco sales. I support Maurice's policy not to premium price his loco sales to members but am uneasy about how easy it is for those buyers to sell on and make money. Is that Papyrus he sold still with the buyer?
This is also why we don’t use ebay or similar to sell our wares!! It’s a club prerogative to keep our members on the front row!!
We don’t have a public shop side,,, only members can enter the shop and buy parts. All our OOLS parts and supplies are not affected as they are easily replenishable. I don’t think we can ultimately stop any one selling on their own items for their own needs and wants. Its up to the buyer to be wise and realise when a deal is not a good deal!! When James Reading cant move on any of his items because his prices are too high he will realise his error. We have a good membership of over 1200 so we don’t need to worry. I do think we need to offer a buy back scheme though to spread the butter a bit more thinly !!!
What about the pricing of non-Hornby items? Water? Live Drive? Our own produced chimneys, tools, bogies etc.
I know it is classic (a con?) marketing but lots of organisations have 'insider' or 'member' prices.
I think it's worth considering setting and listing "Retail" prices on the public part of our website with a 'discount' for members only accessible through the members part of the site.
While i understand your point, we are currently obliged to match the market price on spares, this way we don’t tread on any toes and we make 100% profit on Hornby spares. I have had to match ACModels all the way on Hornby spares. I believe this was the arraignment at the outset. We have never offered a discount for members,,,,,just a decent service and a 3 month garuntee on locos sold..!! If we charged a membership fee, then a discount of 5% would seem fair. I totally agree with your second and third point.
We should in our membership conditions show a policy of "Retail Price" and "Members Price" and being a member should permit purchasing at the lower "Members Price"
A condition of purchase should be that it is for personal use and should not be sold on for profit.
If a member needs to dispose of items for non-commercial reasons they should first be offered back to the Club and/or the Club be invited to release the Member from their obligation. If that release is given no further items will be supplied.
In the end the above may be academic and our only resort will be the suspend membership.
Maybe add something like...... “ if you have any unused Hornby Live Steam spares please contact the club shop for further buy-back details”
I would propose to buy them back at 50% of the original value!! Subject to item and condition. This way we may also recover valuable spares from the ever diminishing Hornby cloud!
we did this a couple years back with a member (Gilivray) who packed in live steam. We ended up with £960 retail worth of shop stock for about £150!