Rip Off Reagent

[Aqua Tom]

My mini master test kit has ran out of nh3 reagent & is getting low on the rest so I thought i would get a new kit.

I decided to get an API as this seems the kit of choice amongst the fishy community.

I could not believe the prices.

Pets@Home £30.99

Local fish Stores £32 to £35

Ebay cheapest I could get £17.99. (that is nearly half the price of the dearest quote from a lfs), needless to say this is the one I have bought.

Think I will open a lfs as they must be making 75% profit at least.

 

[KittyKat]

Yep, the point of a business is that one is trying to make a profit.. surprising, eh?

Also keep in mind that a shop has considerably higher running costs compared to a warehouse or someone's spare bedroom. What I have taken to doing is going to my favourite LFS and saying "here it is online, sell it to me at the same price or I will buy it from there".. it is harsh, but it works as they loose a customer otherwise.

 

[Dan-CR4]

I would really like to support the local fish shops more, but the way things are, I dont. I buy most of my stuff for the aquarium online as it is far cheaper, the other day I bought 2 new light tubes for £16.50 delivered, all my LFS wanted between £12 to £16 per tube.

I know what you mean about the reagents like the API kit, if someone can do it for £18 online then the local shops/stores could do it for a few pounds more, I would pay an extra £3 for it locally to have it there and then, anything above that, its mail order for me.

The only thing I really buy from the LFS or P@H is frozen food and fish, as doing fish mail order does not work out much cheaper if you are only buying one or two fish at a time, as postage costs on fish are high.

 

[KittyKat]

I would really like to support the local fish shops more, but the way things are, I dont. I buy most of my stuff for the aquarium online as it is far cheaper, the other day I bought 2 new light tubes for £16.50 delivered, all my LFS wanted between £12 to £16 per tube.

I get 2 for about £5 delivered, labelled "Philips"

 

[neo83]

I would really like to support the local fish shops more, but the way things are, I dont. I buy most of my stuff for the aquarium online as it is far cheaper, the other day I bought 2 new light tubes for £16.50 delivered, all my LFS wanted between £12 to £16 per tube.

I get 2 for about £5 delivered, labelled "Philips"

Hey Kat, could you please give any information as to which online stores you get the tubes from?

Thanks

 

[KittyKat]

Usually from Amazon re-sellers, I like the 865 colour.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Yep, the point of a business is that one is trying to make a profit.. surprising, eh?

Also keep in mind that a shop has considerably higher running costs compared to a warehouse or someone's spare bedroom. What I have taken to doing is going to my favourite LFS and saying "here it is online, sell it to me at the same price or I will buy it from there".. it is harsh, but it works as they loose a customer otherwise.

errr not suprising no. if I buy an item from Ebay brand new I expct it to be maybe a couple of quid cheaper, NOT HALF PRICE. If that was true i would buy all my TV's, oven's, fridges, actualy anything because i would be saving myself a hell of a lot of money.

The reagent is a ripoff in lfs'.


simples

 

[BethK]

Ebay is our friend

 

[KittyKat]

/me wonders if explaining the concept of irony is worth it...

Also keep in mind that a shop has considerably higher running costs compared to a warehouse or someone's spare bedroom. What I have taken to doing is going to my favourite LFS and saying "here it is online, sell it to me at the same price or I will buy it from there".. it is harsh, but it works as they loose a customer otherwise.

if I buy an item from Ebay brand new I expct it to be maybe a couple of quid cheaper, NOT HALF PRICE. If that was true i would buy all my TV's, oven's, fridges, actualy anything because i would be saving myself a hell of a lot of money.

The reagent is a ripoff in lfs'.

There are two methods to selling (to get the same profit):
1. shift with small mark-up in bulk
2. shift with high mark up in smaller quantities
..for obvious reasons 1 works via the internet very well (and won't through a shop front), while 2 is the only option for most shops as their customer base is limited.

..are you trying to imply that you do not buy anything else here? Or that you buy something for your TV and oven? You might want to rephrase it. On the subject, yes, all of those items can be found cheaper online. Yes, very often for over 10% less than the shop price.. I take it you have been missing out on the offers?

 

[Skins]

Hi Tom,
Just got my fluval 405 new and delivered for £80 off ebay, well pleased. Like one of the other members said ebay or online retailers, you can save a lot of money.

Keith S.

 

[Aqua Tom]

/me wonders if explaining the concept of irony is worth it...

Also keep in mind that a shop has considerably higher running costs compared to a warehouse or someone's spare bedroom. What I have taken to doing is going to my favourite LFS and saying "here it is online, sell it to me at the same price or I will buy it from there".. it is harsh, but it works as they loose a customer otherwise.

if I buy an item from Ebay brand new I expct it to be maybe a couple of quid cheaper, NOT HALF PRICE. If that was true i would buy all my TV's, oven's, fridges, actualy anything because i would be saving myself a hell of a lot of money.

The reagent is a ripoff in lfs'.

There are two methods to selling (to get the same profit):
1. shift with small mark-up in bulk
2. shift with high mark up in smaller quantities
..for obvious reasons 1 works via the internet very well (and won't through a shop front), while 2 is the only option for most shops as their customer base is limited.

..are you trying to imply that you do not buy anything else here? Or that you buy something for your TV and oven? You might want to rephrase it. On the subject, yes, all of those items can be found cheaper online. Yes, very often for over 10% less than the shop price.. I take it you have been missing out on the offers?

sigh

 

[JoshuaA]

Most eBay sellers don't have a full on shop front, therefore don't have the overheads that a LFS has.

Also whilst working in a LFS they won't be buying the items from API directly they buy it through another company who buy it from API otherwise they'd have to be chasing around a hundred independent companies. That middle company controls the price so majorly, I remember one day working there to find within a month the price had more than double on light tubes because they decided they weren't making enough money. Obviously we then had to keep up with the price change and well I was disgusted.

You also have to remember though that for a lot of LFS you will have to talk to the customer for about 15-20 minutes for a good sale and that cuts into wages and other potential sales that may have been missed.

You open up a whole can of worms when you look into it really. Most LFS will barely make a profit if at all on Fish, the place I worked also had a pet department which was where most of my responsibilities lay.

We sold hamsters at £7.95 and we bought them in at about £3 I think each, we then had to take into account the wages consumed for the hour each day it took to clean ALL the hamsters/gerbils/rats and birds. We also had to take into account the disinfectant spray which we use to go through bottles of it a week we replaced all bedding, paper/straw and woodshavings and replacing all the food. Each food had it's own price and life expectancey then you also had to take into account things like water bottles.

In the end my boss told me he wasn't happy as it appeared we were only making around 30-50p per hamster sold and that we really had to push home on the other products. However due to the fact a lot of people were going else where for the hamster homes etc he had to drop the price and once again he stumbled into the situation. Business is hard even harder when you get blamed for not making sales when no one is the store

 

[Aqua Tom]

Most eBay sellers don't have a full on shop front, therefore don't have the overheads that a LFS has.

Also whilst working in a LFS they won't be buying the items from API directly they buy it through another company who buy it from API otherwise they'd have to be chasing around a hundred independent companies. That middle company controls the price so majorly, I remember one day working there to find within a month the price had more than double on light tubes because they decided they weren't making enough money. Obviously we then had to keep up with the price change and well I was disgusted.

You also have to remember though that for a lot of LFS you will have to talk to the customer for about 15-20 minutes for a good sale and that cuts into wages and other potential sales that may have been missed.

You open up a whole can of worms when you look into it really. Most LFS will barely make a profit if at all on Fish, the place I worked also had a pet department which was where most of my responsibilities lay.

We sold hamsters at £7.95 and we bought them in at about £3 I think each, we then had to take into account the wages consumed for the hour each day it took to clean ALL the hamsters/gerbils/rats and birds. We also had to take into account the disinfectant spray which we use to go through bottles of it a week we replaced all bedding, paper/straw and woodshavings and replacing all the food. Each food had it's own price and life expectancey then you also had to take into account things like water bottles.

In the end my boss told me he wasn't happy as it appeared we were only making around 30-50p per hamster sold and that we really had to push home on the other products. However due to the fact a lot of people were going else where for the hamster homes etc he had to drop the price and once again he stumbled into the situation. Business is hard even harder when you get blamed for not making sales when no one is the store

as far as I know you do not have to feed, clean out, take for a walk or in any other way, have to look after a reagent kit.




it is a rip off

 

[waterdrop]

I go back and forth a lot about the LFS vs. online thing. I do buy online to some extent to save money on supplies but I also buy things a fair amount at a couple of LFS places knowing full well that I'm probably paying extra in many cases. My thinking when I do this is about the pain I would go through having to get fish without seeing them first (I'm willing to do this too but it's a really big plus getting to see them first.) This recognition of the wonderful service of someone being a keeper of fish I can see before I buy is one feature and for me the other feature is what I call "brick and morter" speed, where I really want some supply item right away and don't want to wait for it to ship, this too is a valued feature. I suppose I'm being foolish but these two things cause me to do my "little bit of charity" at times by buying things from my LFS that I know I could get cheaper elsewhere. I'm a bit random in when I do or don't do this, but for me, that's what I do. There's always the thing of individual circumstances and it's obvious at times we have plenty of students and younger people (and others) in the forum for whom it's totally understandable to be watching their finances closely.

~~waterdrop~~