TOPIC: Selling Together

Dear ginseng collectors,

My name is Mike Lee, owner and operator of this website.

The reason I created this thread is to give you an idea on how to get top dollar for your hard work. This is just my initial post and follow-up posts will come.

After reading some of your posts in regards to getting together as a group to sell wild ginseng in bulk to one buyer (dealer) who will pay top dollar for larger quantities, I believe creating such an organization in each state and selling this way will benefit every one of you.

In order to organize these groups, we need to get the word out there. It is a good idea to start here since wildgrown.com is the biggest and most popular site when it comes to ginseng.

This website has been growing dramatically and we now have more than 6,000 visitors every day. I am sure a lot of visitors are just browsing and not participating in the forum, but we all can use this website to benefit everyone in the ginseng industry.

Please feel free to leave your ideas and comments in regards to selling your ginseng as one group.

Thanks!

-Mike

(and I'll repeat it here for good measure, too, Mike)

Mike,

You did say it, but I will point it out again, to make sure no one missed it

I believe creating such an organization in each state

.


Kentucky used to have a ginseng coop. I wonder what's going on with that nowadays. Seem to recall that I have found newsletters via google from them before.

I can hardly believe that more people arent responding to this thread. I think that diggers grouping together is a great idea and am very willing to form a group to get this done. I'm from Ohio and would be very willing to talk to anybody who wants to form a group to get a little better price.

Just jump on board ! I usually check this site every few days and am sure to reply to your post.

Mr, Lee

Need to know if you think we should have our own dealers license to make this work, for simplicity reasons, or just certify our root in our own state. Mike email me on my personal email account, I have some other things to cover with you.

I think this is a great idea. The only thing lacking are people willing to do this. As far as I know, there are very few active participants on this forum from Indiana.

As far as Indiana goes, geographically this would be very doable. I've never even heard of anyone doing this, but if you could get enough people together in a central location like Indy, and those people could get a significant quantity together, then the group could even leverage the buyer into traveling there to make one large purchase. I'm sure there's someplace like a hotel, American Legion, or VFW lodge with an inexpensive conference or meeting room somewhere.

Guys, This is what I know. There is power in numbers. Dealers lisence or not if you can get enough people banding together you can get a better price. Look at OPEC. Those guys get better prices for oil because they band together. Just Think about it. If every single digger banded together then virtually all of the middlemen would be cut out and the diggers would end up with a MUCH better price for their labors. Just food for thought! And my opinion for what it's worth.

I would be willing 5prong but I dont have much to add to the pile. I dug alot this year but only dried a pound. The rest I planted in my seedbed. I would be willing to next year.

guys i am trying real hard on this and since i started the thread a long time ago i believe its got everyones attention. So guys lets seriously think about this for we all sell. This year i have tried so hard in getting connections i have gotten my dealers license now and also have got some Korean Connections in California. That is going well by the way i forgot to let everyone know how that went. The only thing is they are new to the business also they do have the overseas connection but they are having a hard time with CITES getting all their ducks in a row for exportation. So hopefully next year i will have everything lined out and will be able to help everyone. But anyways guys just keep me informed i don't get on here much anymore like i want to been real busy at work. But hope everyone the best of luck.

I'll gladly join in next year hillbilly

hillhopper wrote:

I would be willing 5prong but I dont have much to add to the pile. I dug alot this year but only dried a pound. The rest I planted in my seedbed. I would be willing to next year.

Hillhopper, I only dug a little this fall and already sold it. My hope is that quite a few diggers would form a group and be able to sell together next year.

I have a limited number of areas to dig in, but normally can get between 3-5 dry pounds myself. I also know a few guys who would be willing to get a little higher price. I'm looking into getting a dealers license so that I could be able to join a group of diggers even if it meant crossing state lines. If I have 5 lbs. of my own seng to sell at say $200 more per pound (and I think that this may be a little conservative) I'd be willing to drive to kentucky for that difference.

I really don't know for sure what kind of price that the average dealer is getting, so this is just a guess. I haven't found a dealer yet that is willing to share this kind of info. Kind of like an old seng digger like me not wanting to share the location of my favorite spots. It is definately understandible. I just can't imagine anyone doing all the work of keeping all the paperwork that the state requires and allowing inspections by the state at virtually any time and all that stuff if there wasn't a pretty good profit margin. That is why in my thoughts that the dealers get substantially higher prices than what they pass on to the diggers. Don't get me wrong. Like I was alluding to above, The dealers do there fair share of work and subject themselves to a lot of headaches and deserve to be rewarded for their efforts. I'm not trying to talk down seng dealers. I'm just looking at ways for the bottom guys to get a little bigger piece of the pie.

Where are you from hillhopper?

Hillbilly, I'm looking to try to sell next years seng with a group of other diggers. Keep me in mind and let me know if this is what you decide to do next fall.