Are all brokers the same?

californiadreamin

This brings up Great Questions!
I have been on the printing side,the supply side, the machine side,
the buying side and the selling side! On all of these sides, one has to
realize a reasonable "profit" in order to stay in business.It has been my
experience, that no mater what side you are on, there are those that think
that somehow the other side is getting unfairly compensated one way
or another! The salesman think the "guys" in the back are low lifes, the
"guy" in the back think all "salesman" are thiefs. They both think the
"Owners" are getting rich, and are not paying them, what they are truly
worth! The "purchasing agent" feels that he is the reason, why the company
is making their money,until he changes jobs and goes to another company
and finds out, the vendor he was buying from, was selling him the same
item for much less than the previous company! Which means should the
"buyer" have been fired much earlier for not negotiating a much better deal,
or was it the "vendors" fault for taking advantage of him! What about the
leasing companies? All of this became way to clear for me, when I was hired
by creditors,sellers, buyers to liquidate shops and got to look at a "history"
of paper work and found GIANT discrepances from shop to shop! And last but
not least the "Nike" shirt that sold for $35.00, The screenprinter made all
the money, because he did all the work! Right? I wish!
winston

EmbellishAthletics

Great summary of the general perceptions and realities Winston. Part of the reason I originally created this thread was due to some of the things you have listed above.

In the situation I orignally described Paul was just trying to make a quick buck. He had not done his homework nor made any effort to provide any value. Now had his fee been something reasonable it would have been understandable (you get what you pay for) but he was trying to make a *few* hunderd for doing absolutely nothing but re-posting an add. We need to make the industry aware of these types of situations. We as a country have to get back to getting paid for what we produce and the value we add to any situation whether it's in this particular industry or another. I have no idea when it changed that people started looking for the easy buck. Maybe it has always been that way but just more predominant these days.

Just work hard, work smart and provide value to your customers no matter what you do and you will succeed. If you are looking for the quick fix......try one of those work from home make a Million schemes and see how far you get.

PAULB

Well I am trying to prodive a service that helps smaller shops, and if any body asks I tell them I am a broker. Even if I might not know everything on equipment I am selling, I try to learn as much as I can. I am sorry you feel like I didn't provide you with the best answers, and know I am working my Butt off to give my customers better service. I'm not perfect by any means and hope you can understand I'm not making 5k off of every deal. I do appreciate the honest feed back and will work even harder to provide customers with better information on the products they plan to purchase. Thanks Paul B

EmbellishAthletics

Paul you are taking a big step by posting and explaining your side of the story. I suggest you read Winston's post and take as much from that as you can. Evaluate the services you provide and determine what you think they are worth. Ask yourself how much you would pay for the effort and service you are providing?

I know for a fact in this case you were trying to make $200 - $400. Maybe you can enlighten us as to how much work you did to earn that money. I assume you called the seller and ask would they be willing to let you sell the equipment for a cut? So you made a phone call. Then you copied the add from the CraigsList orignal posted by the owner and re-posted on here. Now the question is how much is that worth?

You have alerts setup or you scan the internet for listings, call someone up and ask them if you can sell it for them (15 minutes of total work) and then you re-post or have to create an add. (15 minutes more?). So for a total (over estimated) you spent ~30 minutes and you believe that effort is worth $200 - $400? Not so sure that is going to fly unless you are deling with high end realestate or $100,000.00 cars and such.

On top of that can you describe to me the condition of the equipment? Was it beat up? Was it rarely used? What was the original cost of the equipment? Does the equipment work?

You are in a difficult situation. Who is your customer? Is it the seller or the buyer? It's really hard to represent both but it can be done but only if you provide value to both. You need to understand and feel confident that you have earned your money. You said you are "trying to help the small shops" around the country. In what way did you help that in return for the service you provided is worth $400?

PAULB

With paying me the $200.00 extra you would of get the exposure unit that is packed the right way on the pallet for shipping. You would of saved that $200.00 off the top from shipping too. Even though you might think I'm trying to get something for nothing your wrong. I spend hours for free sending out quotes (equipment/shipping)and showing custumers equipment. Like any business my time is money. I'm sorry you feel the way you do, but if you gave me a chance you would see I go above and beyond for my customers.

EmbellishAthletics

Did you answer the questions I put in the post? No! Did you think about the questions? No! You might want to reconsider deflecting. List your efforts.

Surely you are not going to spew about shipping! Really? Hmmm...I am local. I drove over to the owners shop and saw the equipment myself. Had I purchased the equipment then I would have loaded the equipment and brought it back. I am quite certain we had that conversation.

Don't go down the path of some of the other people out there. If you do you will not succeed. You will be in the same shape as them. You won't even be able to give it away.

You might be a good guy. I have no clue. I described the situation just as it happened. You are deflecting just like some of the other crooks on here. Again, read Winston's post. Read and answer my questions if you would like. Use them for input to decide if you believe you are providing a service that is worthy of your price. In this case you didn't even come close!!! Hell, you kept saying over and over that the equipment was only 2 years old and it was made in 2008! I kept correcting you and you kept going back to it.

I am not going to keep banging heads with you. I told the truth! I gave you an opportunity to state your "value" in this deal and you bring up some kind of BS about shipping that is not even relevant! Have you been reading the other post on this thread concerning an individual who has chosen the same path?

Answer these simple questions and then we will be getting somewhere:

On top of that can you describe to me the condition of the equipment? Was it beat up? Was it rarely used? What was the original cost of the equipment? Does the equipment work?

eetherman

Quick story!
I found my javelin on this site about 4 yrs ago. The broker, who still sells here to this day, was trying to sell for $12,500. I found the originally owner and bought for $7,500. This just shows you how much these guys can make on a deal without even seeing the machine. I know you don't always have the ability to track a machine down and I may have gotten lucky. One thing I do know is if these guys don't take the time to see the machine in person then stay away!!

.

EmbellishAthletics

Surely PaulB wouldn't do that. He wouldn't try and make $$ selling something he has never seen. Right Paul?

PAULB

Quick story!
I found my customer Mark in north Ga a 2007 Lawson 6 color 8 station automatic press (LCD screeen) for $8k. I saved him close to 2k to 5K on that press. Maybe he would tell you about me driving up to Indianapolis, cause the seller couldn't be there for the LTL truck to pick up the press. Yes I saw the press. I rented a truck and picked the Lawson press and drop it off at the depot (LTL) at 11 pm at night. Now he's printing 5k T shirt orders. I work very hard for the money I earn, I'm sorry your not happy with my service. Oh yeah I'm in south Florida right now to see no presses. I always look at the automatic press I'm selling. I was in Naples running a Javelin for another customer to check out just yesterday.
I hope you have a nice Sunday.

Printwizard

There is definitely a place for good brokers. I think good brokers need to have mechanical knowledge, and to an extent ex techs make good brokers as they understand levels of wear and tear and how omething has been maintained. You pay for the level accordingly and like printers, brokers reputations are made on the level of work they do. There will be a truckload of unseen variables on deals and also deals that never go through from brokers and these will alter on every item. The big stuff surely they are there to see the machines, but the little stuff with no margin you can excuse them for not previewing as long as that is also talked through with the buying party. Paul, I think you are just not going to please the persons on this thread. There is definitely a place for good brokers and traders. Of course there will be knockers of middlemen because someone got a sharper deal or bought direct and that works for some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time. IMHO the best thing you could do Paul is tag around with someone like Winston for a week and buy him breakfast, lunch and beer for what you will learn would be invaluable. Also perhaps go visit some of the manufacturers. And of course these forums are invaluable for information also. Even then you will never please some people because you made a margin on something to make a living,how dare you!!!!