I think if you look over any of my posts you will see I have yet to blast a dealer on his prices paid. If someone was to sell me a pound of Seng for $200 then I would buy all they had to more than double my money.... Im in it to win it, just like everybody else.They do something that I wont in my business, and that is operate on such a small profit margin. They too are at someone else's mercy, constantly calling to see what they can pay per pound so they don't lose their ass on a trade from week to week. I speak of a shift of power to shave of that large profit margin from a wholesale supplier in China to native diggers and dealers here. We have seen what a shortage can do to the market in just a few years past due to natural causes. Why not act together to cause something ourselves rather than wait for another drought or late frost to do it for us. Sure it will rattle a few cages at first but it wont take long for the overseas buyers to realize how things are going to work and that is if they want to continue to sell wild american ginseng and have a business in doing so then they will have to open up that wallet a bit more.
The fella I sell to is a good friend of mine and is honest in what he says. I know his outlet and the price they pay to him and other dealers. He is making around $35 per pound on what I sell to him and that is plenty fair to me. I speak not to the dealers but to diggers,wildcrafters and cultivators on us not to accept the crumbs from the table. If it's a hobby, then no big deal, but if we we are to pursue this as a business (as I think most would like to) then we need to not labor for crumbs from the table and start working for greater gaines.
I did the conversion of the average root sold on kman's previous link
chinese consumer's price $4903.61 per lb
our price \"for good roots\" $450 per lb
mark up = $4453.61
Hey Chief, figure your pounds up and it will make you sick Im sure.
Think of this fellas; what if the ginseng auctions were to be held in the United States instead of Hong Kong..... Each digger or dealer paid a fee to have his Ginseng graded and entered to larger lots. A reserve could be held on each lot and auction would proceed from there. If the end work were provided for them here then it would force representatives for the end wholesalers to cut out all the uneeded middle men by attending the auctions (if you want it, it's graded,ready to be packaged and it's gonna be gone when the the auction is over). More revenue from taxes would remain here, more revenue for diggers and dealers would remain here, each state could hold their own auction or be entered into a large U.S. auction and render all the paper work of certificating small lots unecessary, diggers would see that digging small plants out of the ground didn't do them much good when they went into a lesser grade (lesser reserve) lot and then the wild population should improve. A badged certification officer could be present while grading was taking place to help influence the compliance of mature roots being harvested. Local dealers would still be needed to collect from smaller quantity harvesters not wanting to go through the trouble of attending the auction and he then could give the digger a quote on what he could make from his seng, if the digger didnt like it he could go elsewhere or go to auction.Larger harvesters or growers I would imagine would definately want to represent theirselves. I could see it being like a stock sale in a way... with \"pin hookers\" outside trying to buy people's seng before they entered with it,hoping to also make a profit. It would definately give us more options rather than settling for what we \"have\" to.It could be a auction/convention of sorts that could rotate from different venues each year like the worlds fair sparking even more revenue to be produced for that city. American companies could solicit finished products to Chinese consumers or companies that attended, I could imagine Chinese tourism would be high at these events. It might even cause American companies to enter into the bidding process theirselves due to this.If China's wholesalers seen we knew what we were doing they would be eager to snatch it up before we did. Anyhow, I think I have painted this picture colorful enough at this point so everyone sees what I think might be possible with a little more organization.
Oh yea, I almost forgot.
kman...the next time you dont want to direct a slur at one individual rather than a whole, don't use part of their post to make your point when it doesn't even have the needed relevance to your meaning. It's also highly noble of you to act as advisor and shepard for us but... we are all big boys here.
Hillhopper
...LOL 
