Silk Road forums

Market => Product offers => Topic started by: ArmTrax on March 17, 2013, 08:38 am

Title: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: ArmTrax on March 17, 2013, 08:38 am
I have a friend who likes to grow mushrooms.

He has been doing it as a hobby off and on for some time. He does sell them, but the local market is not that great, he has a hard time selling them. In fact, about 2 years ago, he had 3 pounds of dried mushrooms sitting in his closet. He was selling ounces for 20 bucks and it took him a while to get rid of them.

Anyway, I was telling him about how much mushrooms sold for on this website, and he immediately became interested in wiping the dust off of all his equipment and starting up again and figuring out this Silk Road thing for himself. 

I told him to hold off because there is a lot more to it than even I know, with respect to being a vendor. Like, for instance, what the hell do you do with the BTC you get from selling all your stuff on here. Having more money than you know what to do with is not a bad problem to have and I am sure that it wouldn't take too long to figure that part out. This will not be a deal breaker, just a little anecdotal example of his and my ignorance. 

Anyway. If he got everything going, and had a couple pounds of fungus and made a listing on here, how long do you guys think it would take to get rid of them all if he were selling them for $100 an ounce/ $300 qp?

Basically, what kind of sales volume can a mushroom vendor expect with a good product with a decent price?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: National Direct on March 17, 2013, 09:07 am
I won't go into detail about washing BTC and other factors of selling, but I can tell u with complete confidence that your friend will sell any bit he can grow - fast - and for a good profit. Shrooms on SR are in fact such high demand, that even high volume sellers run dry in a few months. Others grow what they have the means to, list sell, take a break and repeat. If I grew them, they'd be listed here, no question. If he's selling to USA and/or Canada expect sales volumes at around 1-2oz per day if priced uniformly with competition. I think they would sell quick at $120-40/oz and $70-80 a half oz.

Learn the ropes and open shop!
Title: Re: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: blueveil on March 17, 2013, 02:25 pm
I have a friend who likes to grow mushrooms.

He has been doing it as a hobby off and on for some time. He does sell them, but the local market is not that great, he has a hard time selling them. In fact, about 2 years ago, he had 3 pounds of dried mushrooms sitting in his closet. He was selling ounces for 20 bucks and it took him a while to get rid of them.

Anyway, I was telling him about how much mushrooms sold for on this website, and he immediately became interested in wiping the dust off of all his equipment and starting up again and figuring out this Silk Road thing for himself. 

I told him to hold off because there is a lot more to it than even I know, with respect to being a vendor. Like, for instance, what the hell do you do with the BTC you get from selling all your stuff on here. Having more money than you know what to do with is not a bad problem to have and I am sure that it wouldn't take too long to figure that part out. This will not be a deal breaker, just a little anecdotal example of his and my ignorance. 

Anyway. If he got everything going, and had a couple pounds of fungus and made a listing on here, how long do you guys think it would take to get rid of them all if he were selling them for $100 an ounce/ $300 qp?

Basically, what kind of sales volume can a mushroom vendor expect with a good product with a decent price?

Thanks.

Tell your friend to get on some big boy status if he is going to come move boomers here. I am not trying to be a dick since I am a direct competitor, but the fee for an account is 500. He needs to plan a mushroom op for SR for MONTHS before he will be ready to vend SAFELY to people. It takes MASSIVE amounts of time to make both your supply chain and customers safe. I researched for nearly 6 months in order to make sure we were ready to do this the right way. We have had a lot of yahoos over the last 6 months try and get into the boomer market here and it is not going to work if you don't start big, as me and others will undercut you to death with bulk amounts available in our stashes all the time. Again not trying to be a dick, but you are stepping into waters unknown if you haven't dealt boomers in bulk before. I welcome him to the road though and more competition is fine with me as it helps the buyers get better deals and honestly our outfit is not here to get rich anyway. We donate to charity so that we can fight both the war on drugs and on poverty.
Title: Re: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: Doc_Tryptamine on March 17, 2013, 05:59 pm
The world always needs more mushrooms. Treat it as a business, but imbue your product with love and power and your product will speak for itself. And of course, be secure...
Title: Re: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: astreetcar on March 17, 2013, 07:00 pm
I would be super interested in a new mushroom vendor. I previously used Foxcave, but they appear to be on a brief moment, so I haven't really looked into any vendors, but yeah, the more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned.
Title: Re: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: MainStay on March 17, 2013, 08:22 pm
The world always needs more mushrooms. Treat it as a business, but imbue your product with love and power and your product will speak for itself. And of course, be secure...
Very well put Doc. And like BlueVeil said, this takes massive amounts of planning to be safe and secure for everyone involved. Please don't half-ass security, it's not worth it.
Title: Re: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: ArmTrax on March 18, 2013, 05:58 pm
I have a friend who likes to grow mushrooms.

He has been doing it as a hobby off and on for some time. He does sell them, but the local market is not that great, he has a hard time selling them. In fact, about 2 years ago, he had 3 pounds of dried mushrooms sitting in his closet. He was selling ounces for 20 bucks and it took him a while to get rid of them.

Anyway, I was telling him about how much mushrooms sold for on this website, and he immediately became interested in wiping the dust off of all his equipment and starting up again and figuring out this Silk Road thing for himself. 

I told him to hold off because there is a lot more to it than even I know, with respect to being a vendor. Like, for instance, what the hell do you do with the BTC you get from selling all your stuff on here. Having more money than you know what to do with is not a bad problem to have and I am sure that it wouldn't take too long to figure that part out. This will not be a deal breaker, just a little anecdotal example of his and my ignorance. 

Anyway. If he got everything going, and had a couple pounds of fungus and made a listing on here, how long do you guys think it would take to get rid of them all if he were selling them for $100 an ounce/ $300 qp?

Basically, what kind of sales volume can a mushroom vendor expect with a good product with a decent price?

Thanks.

Tell your friend to get on some big boy status if he is going to come move boomers here. I am not trying to be a dick since I am a direct competitor, but the fee for an account is 500. He needs to plan a mushroom op for SR for MONTHS before he will be ready to vend SAFELY to people. It takes MASSIVE amounts of time to make both your supply chain and customers safe. I researched for nearly 6 months in order to make sure we were ready to do this the right way. We have had a lot of yahoos over the last 6 months try and get into the boomer market here and it is not going to work if you don't start big, as me and others will undercut you to death with bulk amounts available in our stashes all the time. Again not trying to be a dick, but you are stepping into waters unknown if you haven't dealt boomers in bulk before. I welcome him to the road though and more competition is fine with me as it helps the buyers get better deals and honestly our outfit is not here to get rich anyway. We donate to charity so that we can fight both the war on drugs and on poverty.

Thanks for the heads up. I would say this though...

You mentioned suppliers. If you are supplied your mushrooms, there is no way you could undercut him. You might be able to buy more than he can grow. But those would cost him significantly less than the ones you buy. He is tickled to death to sell them for $70 a zip in the real world. That is half of what they are selling for on here. I wouldn't start an under-cut war with this dude unless you are prepared to take under $20 an ounce. He is a stubborn kind of person and he would drop the bottom out if the existing vendors started being ass holes.
Title: Re: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: ManaFromHeaven on March 18, 2013, 11:54 pm
Hey ArmTrak, tell your friend to come on in!  The waters warm, and there is lots of room!  :)

Do his/her reasearch and give out some freebies to start.  I'm sure they'll do fine.
3lbs is not much to be honest.  I've done 3lbs in a week and they're is still a demand.  Hell, at 300 a QP they could do much more then that.

The thing with mushrooms is you can't just synthesize them, they take time and attention and with the demand your friend would be hard pressed to keep a steady stream coming in.  This allows other, smaller time, growers to fille the gaps.  Plus you'll find, shipping, cleaning ( substrate ), packaging, growing, preping, yadda yadda and all the other things that come a long with it can be a real handful. And your friends prices may adjust accordingly.  I have the capacity to do more but with a full time job/life it would be impossible.

Good luck!  ;)
Title: Re: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: BenJesuit on March 19, 2013, 12:40 am
I have a friend who likes to grow mushrooms.

He has been doing it as a hobby off and on for some time. He does sell them, but the local market is not that great, he has a hard time selling them. In fact, about 2 years ago, he had 3 pounds of dried mushrooms sitting in his closet. He was selling ounces for 20 bucks and it took him a while to get rid of them.

Anyway, I was telling him about how much mushrooms sold for on this website, and he immediately became interested in wiping the dust off of all his equipment and starting up again and figuring out this Silk Road thing for himself. 

I told him to hold off because there is a lot more to it than even I know, with respect to being a vendor. Like, for instance, what the hell do you do with the BTC you get from selling all your stuff on here. Having more money than you know what to do with is not a bad problem to have and I am sure that it wouldn't take too long to figure that part out. This will not be a deal breaker, just a little anecdotal example of his and my ignorance. 

Anyway. If he got everything going, and had a couple pounds of fungus and made a listing on here, how long do you guys think it would take to get rid of them all if he were selling them for $100 an ounce/ $300 qp?

Basically, what kind of sales volume can a mushroom vendor expect with a good product with a decent price?

Thanks.

Tell your friend to get on some big boy status if he is going to come move boomers here. I am not trying to be a dick since I am a direct competitor, but the fee for an account is 500. He needs to plan a mushroom op for SR for MONTHS before he will be ready to vend SAFELY to people. It takes MASSIVE amounts of time to make both your supply chain and customers safe. I researched for nearly 6 months in order to make sure we were ready to do this the right way. We have had a lot of yahoos over the last 6 months try and get into the boomer market here and it is not going to work if you don't start big, as me and others will undercut you to death with bulk amounts available in our stashes all the time. Again not trying to be a dick, but you are stepping into waters unknown if you haven't dealt boomers in bulk before. I welcome him to the road though and more competition is fine with me as it helps the buyers get better deals and honestly our outfit is not here to get rich anyway. We donate to charity so that we can fight both the war on drugs and on poverty.

Heed well this advice. A bad start is the kiss of death. Recovery is almost impossible. Only few vendors ever recover from a bad start. Most just cut their losses and run (usually taking client loot with them if they get to the point where they can ask to FE). Plus you have to be ready for customer service. That will take up a lot of your time. I feel story for some vendors. Things wouldn't be so bad if TOR had the speed of clearnet web.

But a lot of us veteran buyers have come to expect a minimum standard level of service. And if you start off poorly, we'll try to be nice but we also have a responsibility as SR veteran buyers to give the community the straight dope. 

Bah, that's why I couldn't get in the
Title: Re: Silk Road's interest in magic mushrooms
Post by: National Direct on March 19, 2013, 05:27 am
To add to whats been said, specifically Ben's reply... Businesses can operate in different ways to accomodate certain factors. You will see this in any capitalist economy. You have grocery stores that are more expensive, but the service is excellent, so people who are wiling to pay a few extra bucks for their food will shop there. Others will choose the cheapest no-frills (no-frills is actually a canadian value/economical grocery store chain lol) and bad service stores to keep their hard earned money. Both stores will generally profit, but both from different customer bases. So what you have to figure out in the case of running a business is what you want to specialize in, but never disregard customer service and offer value and 1 day a week delivery with no communication. People always need at least some communication, and as I focus on customer relations for my business, many of them really appreciate the time I put into answering complex questions, simply inquiries, and questions that they think are stupid! But I enjoy this part of the job. Always liking social jobs and talking with customers, that trait remains with me in e-commerce.

You don't have to answer everybody in great detail or explain your decisions for questions when your decision is reasonable/logical. In any case you should have a comprehensive policy written out for your profile. I don't mind if my template is copied; using Unicode characters or Underscores or any cool character that looks like an organized line break. to separate for easy navigation of topics really helps prevent customer abandonment lol. A good policy leaves most qustions answered. Many customers don't wanna chillout on the Silk Roadside and chat while smoking the good stuff (good weed or opium lol), and for them they want to quickly order then drive away, and hope that the package they get doesnt rouse suspicion from the drug enforcement partner of theirs. Many do login to SR a lot and will generally read/reply msgs within 24 hours.

I give order status updates from the start. Once I see an order ahs been placed, I will send them a friendly message to thank them and let them know when their item will be shipped. Once Shipped, the customer receives another message confirming shipment and giving a tracking no. if applicable. Since I have a strong focus on customer service sometime during the transaction I will let customers know that they should not hesitate to ask any questions concerns or comments they may have. Many sellers confirm shipment by confirming orders which marks them "in-transit" I confirm orders by marking them in-transit and followup with a message to let them know the expected delivery time (in Canada CP's website shows delivery estimates from postal code to postal code).

Before you start look at your competition. Are they selling kilograms only? No exception? Well there's a huge market share for lower weight purchases. This is SR, where the vast majority buy for personal use and to transfer to trusted friends. Some people buy bulk for local resale, but this is a much smaller share of this market. sell a few grams at a time and you'll make many many sales. Sell oz's and up and ull get far fewer customers but depending oon prices and market competition, profits could be nearly the same with less work. Offer personal amounts strait up to small town distribution amounts, and you'll get the most money and attract the most risk as a result. If all the shroom vendors are assholes, then customer service oriented shroom sellers would be well rewarded in their trade. If they're quality is shit but customer service is up,  then grow great shrooms, advertise their greatness but add some modesty so u can get exaggerated feedback, which looks better than exaggerated seller comments  :P. I remember buying local shit that that batch was awesome, and everyone said its really good stuff. Everytime was "yo, i got some great M and coke man, much better than alst time". Always bullshit, but on SR dat shit don't fly. Research is key to success here since SR runs very differently to your dealers basment where a customer thats buying around the same time will talk shit about the guys product LOL. Too bad.

So just to finish, do average/minimum in all sides of your business, and try to excel in 1 you're good at. If you're a mycology professor at a university I'm sure you could produce some shrooms that would put you on top of the quality ranks,

Customer service (including refund policy, resolutions), delivery/processing speed, Refund/reship policy, distribution area (domestic only, continental, international, or generally trusted countries with many customers like USA, Canada, UK, and EU), reliability, delivery success rate and  packaging among other factors are important here and will spell your success, suces, or failure.

It's generally a good idea to start domestic or within your continent, as you will learn a lot from selling to these low risk destinations with great delivery success rate. Domestic only is recommended if you have uncertainty in your mind. You'll learn a lot after you start selling. Make sure you work your ass off and give free or discounted samples to established buyers who can give reviews, good ratings and recommend you to others. Free samples will get more people talking, and paid samples will get less talk on the forums because many (but quite a few don't, myelf included) base the feedback they give as a factor of how much was paid for the product regular price would mean they paid for the product and they got it, the vendor didnt pay for the review so he gets none. At a discount you may get feedback valuated as a brief paragraph of 2-3 sentences, and free samples get you great reviews, some comprehensive, some you never hear from again, and some write a nice review on SR itself (Not everyone uses or even searches the forums).

Research the market and find the biggest gap, and fill that gap with your mushis!