Countrysiders Store (Potential WEB site to buy, sell, swap?)greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread |
I am not advertising anything... just wondering what the response is to this question:Since many of you out there make and sell stuff, like soap, cheese, gifts out of fabric/stuffed toys, probably other things like salsa, pepper sauces, etc.; why has no one thought to consolidate on a Homesteader's website and pool together to sell your wares?
Maybe I am not asking the question the right way, but I would think you would have a pretty good audience (captives maybe, but still an audience) on the 'net that would be interested in your wares.
Me, I love soap and have found a couple of ladies who sell it. I found another person who makes cheese. Another item I love (adore actually) is homemade maple syrup. Do you see where this is going? If there is one of me who is willing to buy stuff from other like minded people, wouldn't there be more? We always say we like to support each other...well this would be one way we could help each other out.
No offense Ken, I am just curious why all these nice people can't get together and find a way to help themselves market their home products. Granted, there may be a little friendly competition on the web site as more than one person makes soap or salsa, but if the ads were rotated, everyone would get a chance to advertise and hopefully capture a market share (do I sound too corporate here?, sorry..).
Anyway - I do not mean in any way to make competition for the Countryside mag, but off site there are many web sites that can be had for FREE - which someone with better webmaking tools than me, could develop for this idea.
What say you?
-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), January 23, 2002
Ive been looking fofr someone to trade honey for maple syrup
-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 23, 2002.
Maybe not sales and ads so much, but a place to list what you have and either barter or sell on a small, personal scale.
-- Campfool - So. IN (campfool@yahoo.com), January 23, 2002.
I think I just contradicted myself! What I meant to say was that I could list something I had (say, soap). Interested partys would contact me via e-mail (or whatever) to offer something in trade, or just work out a cash deal if you have nothing or are not interested in trading. What would really be nice was if buying things were totally removed from the equation. A barter-only swap shop...
-- Campfool - So. IN (campfool@yahoo.com), January 23, 2002.
I think this is a great idea, please keep me informed on any progress.
-- John Marenco (Jmarenco@aol.com), January 23, 2002.
I think it's a great idea. Start up a site on Lusenet or maybe someplace where pictures will be easy to post. Agdomain is a good place for free websites that are easy to build. We could all pool and contribute for the cost of an ad in Countryside. I don't think the competetition would be a problem, any more than it would be at a farmer's market. Farmer's Market wouldn't be a bad name for the site!
-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 23, 2002.
WHAT A GREAT IDEA....I WANT IN ON IT...I MAKE MANY THINGS...AND SOME THINGS I DONT MAKE BUT NEED SO I HAVE TO BUY....I REALLY LIKE THE BARTER THING...ISNT THAT WHAT THEY DID LONG YEARS AGO....HOPE SOMEONE DOES THIS AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU DO....KRISTEAN
-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), January 23, 2002.
Sounds perfect !!! It's not easy circulating your own product. Count me in.
-- Pat (mikulptrc@aol.com), January 23, 2002.
Sounds like a great idea! Count me in!
-- Jo in PA (farmerjo 16666@prnnndwoods.net), January 23, 2002.
YES, I am interested--I want to try homemade soap for dry and sensitive skin, and maple syrup, and who knows what else! (To buy!)
-- Debbie in MO (risinwind@socket.net), January 23, 2002.
Me again, my e-mail address came up wrong. Did it right this time! Sorry.
-- Jo in PA (farmerjo16666@pennswoods.net), January 23, 2002.
Count the Daileys in too!
-- Cara Dailey (daileyd@agalis.net), January 23, 2002.
Sounds like this may be a good idea. Will think on how to proceed from here and will probably need some help from a webpage guru too.
-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), January 23, 2002.
Great idea! I could build the website if you like, I'm no pro but not bad, last 2 I made are:http://members.getgoin.net/~cjtinkle
That's my personal page, and:
www.frontpagestarz.com
-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), January 23, 2002.
This sounds like a great idea. I make soaps and toiletries among other things but usually just give it away because I'm too shy to approach anyone about selling it. How many bars of soap would it take to buy a Nubian goat? LOLSheila
-- Sheila Smith (nannie@intrstar.net), January 23, 2002.
PS. I meant as my contribution, not for a fee!
-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), January 23, 2002.
Yes it sounds great! Now who do we volunteer to get busy? CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net) sounded interested I'll put in a vote for CJ and offer to help (to be fair) Let's concentrate on the positive to start, who has what to offer product wise? I'm thinking we should leave payment and shipment to the parties involved? More like a classified with a bit of insiteful extras like profiles of the homestead produced item being offered? We make sheep's milk soap and other soaps, plus other stuff coming. No I don't mind "competition" in fact I like trying other people's produce!
-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), January 23, 2002.
I love the idea....can you hear the 'but' in my post??You are supposed to report bartering goods/services on your federal taxes as income. Any site that sanctions or makes official these trades lends itself to being used to track tax offenders, or rather those that do not properly report their income. This could become a mess. Please acquaint yourselves with the law (and see the archives here re: bartering).
-- Anne (Healthytouch101@wildmail.com), January 23, 2002.
I would think it would work as follows (hypothetically!): You have a soap I'd like to try, I have honey (to use examples given earlier). I contact you to see if you'd like to swap. If you're interested, we work out the terms (I'll give you 8oz of honey for 10oz of soap). If it's a deal, each takes care of their own shipping cost. I would think shipping costs would come out in the wash since I'm paying to ship mine to you and you're paying to ship yours to me. Unless one item is bulky or heavy. How would you work that out to keep it even? Any ideas? Cash deals would be pretty straightforward. Buyer pays for product plus shipping since there is no even trade. Who is going to keep up with all the product posters? Could be allot of manual work!
-- Campfool (campfool@yahoo.com), January 23, 2002.
I think this is a great idea. I have wool blankets and wool yarn for sale as well as roving and batting from my sheep and goats and rabbits.I think a site where a number of different items were offered one might be interested if they see other goods. Homesteading is far from cheap and even the old time homesteaders had to sell something to keep going on.Good idea! Terry
-- Terry Lipe (elipe@fidnet.com), January 23, 2002.
I believe that the IRS is only interested when it gets above a certain cash value (no clue what this would be). Am I right? Just start a site that basically has three topicsI HAVE THIS TO SELL
I HAVE THIS TO TRADE (SPECIFIC) (list what you have and what you want in exchange)
I HAVE THIS TO TRADE (OPEN) (list what you have, then see what pops up and choose)
I suppose you could even have a give-away topic, for those of us cleaning out our attics!
-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 24, 2002.
Neat idea!!!!
-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), January 24, 2002.
Barter clubs while looking good in theory , seldom work in real operation as it quickly falls into "The little old lady that swallowed a fly" type chaos. If all your looking for is one on one trading, that can be done right here at the forum with individual threads.
-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.
I don't see why there is so much fuss about the IRS. Yes, bartering must be reported on your income tax return. So what? So does the money recieved from ebay sales, garage sales, etc. It is up to the individual to keep records on and report to the IRS, but that should not prevent us from starting a barter board. If people are inclined to cheat on their returns, and are worried about being caught because of their participation on an internet forum, they can choose not to participate, but that should not deter the rest of the people who still want to do it. Heck, no one that I know is actually making a PROFIT from homesteading, so just keep accurate records and maybe the result will be a loss to write-off!
-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), January 24, 2002.
good idea!
-- marcee (thathope@mwt.net), January 24, 2002.
Well, I certainly got everyone to thinking! I believe that it would be a good idea as I see so many people here on the forum who are asking "how to make a living? how to sell ...." or similiar topics. I think, after a couple of days of thinking this over, the page could contain categories such as:1. Those who have something to sell 2. Those who want to barter 3. Those, like myself, who want to purchase... 4. and of course, the free category... for those of us who have too much stuff or want to share what we have.
Everyone keeps their own records of what they sell, swap, or give away. Each party pays their own shipping or makes their own shipping arrangements. Payment is between the two parties (check, paypal, etc.)
The website official-whoever that may be- simply provides a place to list these categories and a way of countrysiders finding those supplies and things they need.
There is no need to keep interjecting the IRS into this as each person is responsible to keep up with their own records - the webmaster will simply be a repository (and perhaps each person selling or buying could give the webmaster a bit of soap, honey, money, etc) for his/her time. I don't think that anyone will get rich this way, but it would be a great way for us to find out what other folks have for sale and to help each other.
I am not being utopian here either - I know that bartering done on a large scale and made complicated with coupons redeemable for this or that, seldom work. What I am thinking is that if Stan has honey and someone else has maple syrup, that they can swap and each try the other's product. Then go from there. Maybe stan wants to buy a case of X's product, then they can work it out from there.
Me, I'm a soap, cheese, syrup person. Maybe I would like to try some wool mittens made from one of the poster's here, so I would purchase a pair from her instead of LL Bean. Perhaps I didn't know that someone here makes leather harness (I need a repair done on my harness now..) so I use a countrysider instead of taking the harness 100 miles to the harness shop.
I hope that together we could cooperate enough to get something like this going so everyone can benefit.
Maybe I'm a dreamer...maybe we could make this work somehow. We need to nominate the web person for a start, I suppose. Then that person can create the site and let us know how it works and how to post ads. I believe that the web master, should have creative control over how the site works with input from us (such as..this is too hard, can you make it easier to post an ad?) type responses. After all, the hardest part is making the site and maintaining it.
Perhaps we can limit the advertisers to those who are countrysiders (I mean, no big distributers like Wallyworld or Myerburg's goat milk, or commercial ventures that already have "made" it - business wise.) We should not eliminate those who don't have a farm or acreage either, cause there are a lot of countrysider's at heart who perhaps will purchase wool from a sheep grower, make that wool into a pair of mittens, which I want to buy. These small producers, like GreenThumblina (remember her?), may want to participate and I don't think she has a big farm.
What do you guys think? And CJ would you create the site?
-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), January 25, 2002.
A barter board has already been started by Chuck. Go to Lusenet and then down to barter board. Check it out, it's getting a good start! Happy bartering!
-- cowgirlone in OK (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), January 25, 2002.
You mean the new barter board is NOT a collaboration between Cindy and Chuck?
-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), January 25, 2002.
No, it was simply my idea to put forth to the group. I am merely a facilitator in getting this idea going,,I am not telling anyone what to do - just offering suggestions to get this going as I hate seeing all these good people have stuff to offer and no where to sell it. Now I am going to go check out what's out there!
-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), January 25, 2002.
Great idea I have homemade soaps and bath salts. Also dabble with quilts, ect.
-- carla (twosloans@texoma.net), January 26, 2002.
Hi,,I am interested,please inform me of any progress about this idea,,would love to have a place to barter with Countrysiders,,,:-) and offer my wares,,
-- Patsy, MT (cozyhollow-gal@care2.com), January 28, 2002.