nancya

I have not done any for fabric but I have a huge jewelry making group on Yahoo, over 6,000 members and I run some massive Co-op buys. Everything is coordinated by me, shipped to me, and mailed all across the country and some international orders. I even have one vendor that I use that will drop ship for me.

For a first time organizer, it can be a "very" big headache, so I strongly suggest, start out small and work up to more buyers, if possible or have a mentor or helpers.

As for the shipping, most of my buys are equally split shipping...total shipping cost divided by number of buyers. Only for items weighing a lot, like the copper wire I offer is by the pound instead of ounces, those people must pay more as it is not fair that a buyer that orders only 4 or 5 ounces of wire has to pay the same amount of shipping as someone who orders a pound or more of wire.

Another thing to consider is charging a buy fee. A hostess should never do this for free because there are expenses. While you can use priority shipping and get free supplies, or if you do it locally, and everyone picks their stuff up, you still have expenses, because you really need to print out invoices for each of your buyers as some people use these on their taxes. Believe me, that can add up. My usual buy fee is $1.50 per buyer, in some instances, it may be more.

There are a bunch of other things to consider but if you get a good bulk discount, the savings can be tremendous.

If you ever have a question on running buys, just email me. I have been doing them for 11 years now so I think I have run into every obstacle imaginable. I would be more than happy to help you. Email [email protected]