Bonsai Mirai store

[rockm]

Just read on Facebook that Ryan Neil is opening Bonsai Mirai's web store soon--no exact date given.

He looks to be selling high end, western bonsai pots there. Horst Heinzlereiter, Lang, etc. Nice to have some of those pots available in one source. Will be interesting to see the prices...

 

[KennedyMarx]

I think some of the trees on the site have prices on them already. Also interested in seeing the prices on the pots. I'm sure it will be out of my budget, but I'm interested still.

 

[barrosinc]

bitcoins, kidneys and livers accepted as payment method.

 

[Giga]

they will just be stupid high prices-much so for the middle class person

 

[ColinFraser]

they will just be stupid high prices-much so for the middle class person

I feel the same way about high end performance or luxury cars, but it's still fun to look . . .

 

[Nybonsai12]

i'd expect them(the pots) to be the same or just slightly more than what they have cost when available elsewhere.

 

[sorce]

Not the best thread to just "drive-by like"!

These things are funny, and true.
I joke on it as well.

But the results of such work by one man to succeed in this fashion......

Is a determination beyond what most men/women can fathom.

The next, most simply determined person I see, is Carp.

I am not even as passionate, I am not trying to put anyone down.

There are many giving 100%

Few giving 150%

This....WILL be rewarded.

Can't hate!

If I win the lotto, I'll buy one!

Sorce

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

If I were a vendor, I would want a good salesman like Ryan, to benchmark the high prices. You have to admit, he is a master at marketing and promotion. I admire his skill, in addition to admiring his bonsai skills. The higher the prices, the better for the "average vendor". Then, as a vendor, I could raise my prices to some level a little bit lower than the high benchmark. If anyone complains, you say "Hey, I'm cheaper than the "the high end benchmark guy". This lets the average vendor raise prices with less complaints. Of course as a customer, I'm always looking for a deal. Not likely to buy the sports car, luxury car or the top of the line yamadori. A level or two down is good enough for me. So I am looking forward to it.

 

[Smoke]

If I were a vendor, I would want a good salesman like Ryan, to benchmark the high prices. You have to admit, he is a master at marketing and promotion. I admire his skill, in addition to admiring his bonsai skills. The higher the prices, the better for the "average vendor". Then, as a vendor, I could raise my prices to some level a little bit lower than the high benchmark. If anyone complains, you say "Hey, I'm cheaper than the "the high end benchmark guy". This lets the average vendor raise prices with less complaints. Of course as a customer, I'm always looking for a deal. Not likely to buy the sports car, luxury car or the top of the line yamadori. A level or two down is good enough for me. So I am looking forward to it.

This is flawed in so many ways....

 

[sorce]

This is flawed in so many ways....

Do tell!

Sorce

 

[Paradox]

This is flawed in so many ways....

Do tell!

Sorce

Indeed, please do.

I agree, just want to see the logic behind it.

 

[Smoke]

No. one - the Op is comparing a vendor as in pot vendor at a convention with a bonsai professional with a retail store. The pot vendor can charge anything he likes because the stock is bought and paid for. You can put an inflated price on it and take it to the next fifty conventions until it sells in five years. Maybe it never sells and you finally take a price reduction at a convention and finally sell it for what it was worth, probably 25 cents on the dollar.

Second - Ryan will have to pay for insurance, power bills, heat, shelf space at however much a square foot, which even if he owns the space it still has to produce revenue at a profit or why do it? Liability insurance, CPA costs at the end of the year, floor taxes after inventory and many other costs associated with owning a business. Don't forget he will probably pay taxes as a personal tax return, which will kick him into higher tax paying brackets.

Tres - Ryan will have to pay the bill at the end of the month for the material he stocks in his store. Granted he buys it wholesale, but the bill is due in thirty days, but it may take a year or more to sell all the tools, the jin fluid, pots, whatever he sells. Selling goods quickly and efficiently many time per year is called turns. Most retailers would give anything to get 10 turns a year. That would be a dynamic business. That means you would turn all your merchandise every 1.2 months, a very profitable store.

Quatre - Leo does not have a bonsai store, he keeps referring to vendors. Vendors have no overhead per se.

so.....to compare apples and apples, let Leo go rent some selling space from a landlord, buy some liability insurance, (in case someone slips and falls), workers comp if you have employees, a CPA, and then pay the monthly bills on time (power and heat), run a household (personal rent or mortgage, power bills, food, car expenses, gas and oil) and manage to turn a profit by selling just below Ryan enough to say "Hey, I'm cheaper than the "the high end benchmark guy". Then I will give you an atta boy

 

[crust]

No. one - the Op is comparing a vendor as in pot vendor at a convention with a bonsai professional with a retail store. The pot vendor can charge anything he likes because the stock is bought and paid for. You can put an inflated price on it and take it to the next fifty conventions until it sales in five years. Maybe it never sells and you finally take a price reduction at a convention and finally sell it for what it was worth, probably 25 cents on the dollar.

Second - Ryan will have to pay for insurance, power bills, heat, shelf space at however much a square foot, which even if he owns the space it still has to produce revenue at a profit or why do it? Liability insurance, CPA costs at the end of the year, floor taxes after inventory and many other costs associated with owning a business. Don't forget he will probably pay taxes as a personal tax return, which will kick him into higher tax paying brackets.

Tres - Ryan will have to pay the bill at the end of the month for the material he stocks in his store. Granted he buys it wholesale, but the bill is due in thirty days, but it may take a year or more to sell all the tools, the jin fluid, pots, whatever he sells. Selling goods quickly and efficiently many time per year is called turns. Most retailers would give anything to get 10 turns a year. That would be a dynamic business. That means you would turn all your merchandise every 1.2 months, a very profitable store.

Quatre - Leo does not have a bonsai store, he keeps referring to vendors. Vendors have no overhead per se.

so.....to compare apples and apples, let Leo go rent some selling space from a landlord, buy some liability insurance, (in case someone slips and falls), workers comp if you have employees, a CPA, and then pay the monthly bills on time (power and heat), run a household (personal rent or mortgage, power bills, food, car expenses, gas and oil) and manage to turn a profit by selling just below Ryan enough to say "Hey, I'm cheaper than the "the high end benchmark guy". Then I will give you an atta boy

Wow--you are quite the anal-yst.

 

[Smoke]

Wow--you are quite the anal-yst.

Capitilize that when you write it....ANAL-yst

 

[sorce]

Tres

Quatre

ANAListo!

Sorce

 

[Giga]

If I were a vendor, I would want a good salesman like Ryan, to benchmark the high prices. You have to admit, he is a master at marketing and promotion. I admire his skill, in addition to admiring his bonsai skills. The higher the prices, the better for the "average vendor". Then, as a vendor, I could raise my prices to some level a little bit lower than the high benchmark. If anyone complains, you say "Hey, I'm cheaper than the "the high end benchmark guy". This lets the average vendor raise prices with less complaints. Of course as a customer, I'm always looking for a deal. Not likely to buy the sports car, luxury car or the top of the line yamadori. A level or two down is good enough for me. So I am looking forward to it.

understanding the logic behind this don't people suffer on a whole when prices are higher because someone "can" so then others "also can". I'm all for bonsai business doing well but Ryan's prices are Ferrari level and not many can afford them. My business sense is not at kung fu levels so maybe I'm just ranting

 

[Smoke]

understanding the logic behind this don't people suffer on a whole when prices are higher because someone "can" so then others "also can". I'm all for bonsai business doing well but Ryan's prices are Ferrari level and not many can afford them. My business sense is not at kung fu levels so maybe I'm just ranting

Your not ranting at all, you can see thru the veil of someone with no overhead and a side business taking advantage with someone with a legitimate business and riding their coat tails as it were. Hey I get it, thats capitilism, inflate that product if you must...like ink cartridges, just don't come here and gloat about it....

 

[sorce]

Ferrari

I feel you.....

Even enough if you crash a Ferrari, with the insurance that pays for 3\4 of it, you still got a bit left!

Not the same as still having a $35,000 piece of DEAD WOOD for a Bitch ass Tanuki!


HONEST QUESTION. .....

IS there paperwork?
Agreements?
Insurance?

Of course someone buying this is probably keeping it at Mirai anyway but....

Sorce

 

[rockm]

No. one - the Op is comparing a vendor as in pot vendor at a convention with a bonsai professional with a retail store. The pot vendor can charge anything he likes because the stock is bought and paid for. You can put an inflated price on it and take it to the next fifty conventions until it sells in five years. Maybe it never sells and you finally take a price reduction at a convention and finally sell it for what it was worth, probably 25 cents on the dollar.

Second - Ryan will have to pay for insurance, power bills, heat, shelf space at however much a square foot, which even if he owns the space it still has to produce revenue at a profit or why do it? Liability insurance, CPA costs at the end of the year, floor taxes after inventory and many other costs associated with owning a business. Don't forget he will probably pay taxes as a personal tax return, which will kick him into higher tax paying brackets.

Tres - Ryan will have to pay the bill at the end of the month for the material he stocks in his store. Granted he buys it wholesale, but the bill is due in thirty days, but it may take a year or more to sell all the tools, the jin fluid, pots, whatever he sells. Selling goods quickly and efficiently many time per year is called turns. Most retailers would give anything to get 10 turns a year. That would be a dynamic business. That means you would turn all your merchandise every 1.2 months, a very profitable store.

Quatre - Leo does not have a bonsai store, he keeps referring to vendors. Vendors have no overhead per se.

so.....to compare apples and apples, let Leo go rent some selling space from a landlord, buy some liability insurance, (in case someone slips and falls), workers comp if you have employees, a CPA, and then pay the monthly bills on time (power and heat), run a household (personal rent or mortgage, power bills, food, car expenses, gas and oil) and manage to turn a profit by selling just below Ryan enough to say "Hey, I'm cheaper than the "the high end benchmark guy". Then I will give you an atta boy

Ryan apparently has also struck deals with more than a few of the higher profile, high quality MAKERS of the bonsai pots he's selling. Those potters sell him containers in lot sizes (or at least in more than 4-5 quantities), I would guess at a bulk discount of sorts. "Vendors" and even "bonsai retailers" mostly don't cut those kinds of deals. Most, if they have any Western bonsai pots in stock, are selling one-off pots second hand or buying three, four or five or five at a time from the potters directly. I don't think the more well-known potters have got the time or capacity for smaller retailers.

I don't know if those kinds of things will be reflected in Ryan's pricing, but it does give him an advantage in pricing (and simply stocking a range of western pots) over some bonsai retailers.

FWIW, if I want a high-end pot from a notable bonsai potter, I usually go to the source and commission one (not hard to do at all and not additionally expensive). I'll have to see if Ryan's store makes that a number 2 choice.

 

[rockm]

No. one - the Op is comparing a vendor as in pot vendor at a convention with a bonsai professional with a retail store. The pot vendor can charge anything he likes because the stock is bought and paid for. You can put an inflated price on it and take it to the next fifty conventions until it sells in five years. Maybe it never sells and you finally take a price reduction at a convention and finally sell it for what it was worth, probably 25 cents on the dollar.

Second - Ryan will have to pay for insurance, power bills, heat, shelf space at however much a square foot, which even if he owns the space it still has to produce revenue at a profit or why do it? Liability insurance, CPA costs at the end of the year, floor taxes after inventory and many other costs associated with owning a business. Don't forget he will probably pay taxes as a personal tax return, which will kick him into higher tax paying brackets.

Tres - Ryan will have to pay the bill at the end of the month for the material he stocks in his store. Granted he buys it wholesale, but the bill is due in thirty days, but it may take a year or more to sell all the tools, the jin fluid, pots, whatever he sells. Selling goods quickly and efficiently many time per year is called turns. Most retailers would give anything to get 10 turns a year. That would be a dynamic business. That means you would turn all your merchandise every 1.2 months, a very profitable store.

Quatre - Leo does not have a bonsai store, he keeps referring to vendors. Vendors have no overhead per se.

so.....to compare apples and apples, let Leo go rent some selling space from a landlord, buy some liability insurance, (in case someone slips and falls), workers comp if you have employees, a CPA, and then pay the monthly bills on time (power and heat), run a household (personal rent or mortgage, power bills, food, car expenses, gas and oil) and manage to turn a profit by selling just below Ryan enough to say "Hey, I'm cheaper than the "the high end benchmark guy". Then I will give you an atta boy

Well, this is flawed too. It's an INTERNET STORE...there is virtually no overhead for such a thing. That's why Amazon is killing Wal Mart.

From what I can tell Ryan's store will probably operate more closely with how a typical bonsai supply vendor at a show works, than with a bricks and mortar store. Heating costs, liability and stuff like that is probably very minimal if it's there at all.