Group Seed purchases

[Farhan Ahmed]

Very limited varieties of annual/perennials and especially shrubs are available in Pakistan. Only resort is purchasing seeds from abroad which generally cost Rs250-500/packet. I was thinking what if we make a group purchase(two or more member sponsoring one variety of seeds/packet) from abroad. By group purchase i mean that when some members agree on specific seed varieties (like three/four members depending upon seed count in a packet) we include that in our next order. This way we can bring the cost per packet down even if it is expensive. Generally seeds are enough in a packet to be divided in three four members. This way we can order lot of varieties and cost will come down by three to four times. Once the order reaches us we can distribute seeds amongst ourselves. More people growing same variety can share experiences etc.

Meaningby the people will have to decide on two aspects. Vendor and Seed variety.
Possible seed vendors shipping to Pakistan are already known to us.
Members can post their wish list and whenever we have commons we can include that item for next order from whichever vendor people agree. One benefit of this would be more interaction between members and sharing of info regarding possible success of said variety in our climate and growing tips.
This way some more advantages are:-
Shipping will be only for one order therefore almost negligible when divided.
Whenever order is large, either shipping is waived off or some other free offer/seeds are awarded. These can be shared between sponsoring members.
Some members are unable to buy online due various reason in this way they avail seeds they want.
Some members only want one odd variety in a season therefore don't want to make purchases they can easily get seeds through group purchase.


Some problems could be.....
Centralization. Hence someone will have to be responsible for smooth and honest process.
Difficulty to divide very small seeds


Looking forward for views on this suggestion.

[khabbab]

I totally agree. In my opinion the best thing to do is, have a separate thread on group purchases. When an offer comes in, we will post the offer and interesting members will either inbox the poster or directly on the post. For Thompson and morgan, my card does not work but on all the remaining vendors i can use my card to purchase.

We can only buy on the behalf of other if the person has explicitly asked us to buy in that particular offer. I think the next offer of T & M would be christmas offer which might be 50% off. So i am already in

[Farhan Ahmed]

hmmm Khabbab bhai looking forward to T & M offer and more members flocking in....
I can order on T & M

Aur i would propose you as the center person (ordering,receiving and distributing)....if you don't have a problem

I think for transparency all the communication should be on the thread and pm should be avoided...just a suggestion

[khabbab]

Well for T &M i can not order due to my card. So if you order then you will be getting share from others. Rest i got no problem.

[Farhan Ahmed]

Thats no big deal. delivery address can be yours once i place the order.

[khabbab]

Okay i am good with that.