IS Ponding a dying hobby?

[crsublette]

Yeah, a unique business, such as with livestock, you have to be incredibly detailed and even moreso than any other typical business due to how there is so much bad business practices in that industry. I know the local livestock commision auction in my area also do their live auctions online as well and they have an excellent very small restaurant that fixes a nice cowboy breakfast. Honestly, I don't think they would be around if they were not doing their auctions online as well.

Even though I am not as old as Bill Gates, I grew up and was very tuned into during a period of when computer hardware exploded in the late 80s and 90s and along with the evolution of programming languages, such as the transition from COBOL to object oriented languages, then it became a universal module type programming (at least is how I describe it), and who knows whats out there now. I remember the big debut of when Windows 3.0 was released and a buddy of mine was able to afford to buy a computer to install it and it was amazing. I used to have some very old computer motherboards that would be the size of a small night stand, but threw away quite a bit when I just flat out abandoned that part of my life. I never would have thought of the stuff we have now and how technological things are so easy to do now.


For a typical business like a mom and pop pond store, I suppose I see the online transition different with less complexity and I know the transition is less complex due to the many tools and services available out there now and much can be done for free or for the cost of a camera. It is all about increasing the pool of customers, which then increases the business' survivability.


Your business is still susceptible to the rumor mill regardless of your business being online or not and all thanks to social media sites such as Facebook and not having the business online as well avoids none of this. This is an undeniable reality of the situation and can not allow this fear to stop progress.

 

[MitchM]

I'm actually starting to use the information available online in order to SUPPORT my local retailer.

Once I determine what item I want, I find the specs for the item online, (dimensions, electrical specs, warranty, ect) then call up my local retailer to order it. I don't ask about price. Good retailers are well aware that there are lower prices out there. They'll come close if they want to keep good customers coming back.

I feel better supporting my local business person and usually, after shipping, customs and duties are taken into account, I get the item at pretty close to the same price.
A local contact is great when it comes to warranty too. I usually figure that if I buy something from another part of the country, or from the States, that there is no warranty. It's too much hassle for me packing something up and sending it back.

 

[waynefrcan]

Bought 2 more koi from Pet Smart lol, they look good for Canadian made. Nothing can beat koi IMO, size, color, overwintering, perfect!

Charles, no doubt you're good at farming, but you have one great advantage that many don't. That is it's passed down to you and paid for. Many modern farmers are mortgaged to the hilt. My family history was farming, the Grandparents started it in 1950. None of my uncles wanted to continue it and it got sold, I still miss it.

Mitch, I don't know what items you're buying but I can beat almost any local item price shopping online including extra import /shipping fees. Part reason is the US dollar has tanked for about 4 years now.

 

[MitchM]

Wayne, one thing that kills it for me are the duty fees. UPS has some ridiculous fees. Some won't ship via any other method.
Also, most places won't ship to a PO box so that means that I have to go into Calgary to pick up from their terminal. That trip adds $40 for fuel into town.
As I develop relationships with a Calgary retailer, I can phone them and they will hold things without me giving them a credit card number. That way I can go into town on my schedule and pick up many things at once - and like I said with warranties, I never get a hassle from a local retailer.

 

[crsublette]

Bought 2 more koi from Pet Smart lol, they look good for Canadian made. Nothing can beat koi IMO, size, color, overwintering, perfect!

Charles, no doubt you're good at farming, but you have one great advantage that many don't. That is it's passed down to you and paid for. Many modern farmers are mortgaged to the hilt. My family history was farming, the Grandparents started it in 1950. None of my uncles wanted to continue it and it got sold, I still miss it.

Mitch, I don't know what items you're buying but I can beat almost any local item price shopping online including extra import /shipping fees. Part reason is the US dollar has tanked for about 4 years now.

My grandfather started farming during the Dust Bowl in the mid to late 1930s. While everyone was running away scared, my grandfather ran toward what everyone was running away from. There is some video footage and pictures in the local museum here showing him trying to farm in the sand dunes. He manage and operated 15,000 acres and, over the family generations, it got split up to the point where I am only farming 245 acres of the original land.

Inherited land and assets come with a tremendous tax here in the States, called the Estate or death tax. It hits family farmers incredibly hard here, which folk have to often end up selling land, buildup a retirement fund to pay for it, or sell equipment to pay the tax. Recently, the ceiling was increased to 5 or 8 millon, that is the point where after that amount we must pay which hovers around a 60% tax on asset's value, which is fine to save small farmers that do not have much land nor equipment. The catch here is that this value they tax is only a monetary value when we just want to completely stop farming altogether. Otherwise, farmers actually need the use of, not monetary value of, equipment and land to continue farming.

Yep, it's true most farmers are in debt and much of it is due to them not wanting to change their lifestyle, not changing crops nor how they farm, and making bad decisions due to buying inflated land, not doing things in a timely manner or lazy on maintenance, buying at high interest rates, buying too much new land, getting into the farm fads, or always wanting to buy new equipment. I know many farmers who will simply only grow corn and nothing else resulting them complaining how things are tough for them for having to drill more wells; whereas, if they changed and rotated crops properly, then they would not have to drill more wells, but this would involve them taking a slightly smaller paycheck.

There is a tremendous amount of gambling in agriculture. It is figuratively like playing black jack and Mother Nature is acting as the house, which she wins almost everytime. Most folk seem to want to go most or all in and then bust very hard during bad years and then there are smarter folk that leave the table after winning quite a bit, so they can return back when the odds are in their favor, rather than staying till they bust, have to leave, and cannot come back, if its possible, for a while.

 

[waynefrcan]

Mitch I don;t understand UPS charges? Not through Canada Post? Looks like your circumstanses are different. Good example is the POndmaster 100 aerator I bought last fall. Price here on a retail shelf $269. I bought it at ebay USA for $129 + shipping I think $35. and no Customs fees.

What bugs me is some retailers have not dropped prices over the past few years to adjust for the US dollar, which has been on par with Can.

 

[waynefrcan]

Charles It must pi$$ you off to see farmers getting bailed out [Government} because they made stupid mistakes. The US estate tax law is crazy, saw a movie about that, can't remember the name. The people were trying to find out ways to keep the family property due to the estate tax.

 

[MitchM]

Wayne, UPS is United Parcel Service. They have a reputation for very high customs processing fees. I don't usually get an option to choose what courier delivers my supplies from the States.
The stuff I order is usually only available from a couple of suppliers. I've never ordered anything off Ebay, for some reason part of me just doesn't trust it.

Example - I just ordered 1 - 5 gallon pail each of pharmaceutical grade magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate from Bulk Reef Supply, cost $153.98 US, shipping & customs $143.14. The same price all in I could normally get it locally, except all my suppliers up here were either out of stock or in the process of moving. If I could have ordered it delivered through the United States Postal Service and Canada Post, or Fedex for that matter, it would have been at least $70 cheaper.

I can think of lots of examples where Canadian retailers take advantage of the lower US dollar and don't pass along the savings - books, clothes, vehicles. I think it will only hurt those retailers in the long run.

 

[waynefrcan]

Sure I can see it with farm supplies as they are heavy items.

 

[HTH]

Well Mitch so much for NAFTA!

Another thing people don't realize is that the guy who is farming may have brothers and sisters. Even after tax his share of the farm may only be a fraction and that is if the farm was free and clear.

 

[MitchM]

Sure I can see it with farm supplies as they are heavy items.

Hmm, ok, how about 6 misting nozzles from Arizona, tiny little things - cost 25.98, shipping $46.07! Not available in Canada.
(BTW, the Mg supplies are for my aquarium, not farming supplies)

Howard, NAFTA means nothing when it comes to businesses making a profit! :lol:

 

[waynefrcan]

Lol I thought I read "beef" supplies as you also are a farmer.

Drop that UPS man, it's killing you.

 

[MitchM]

I'm not a farmer, but I guess my avatar is deceiving, lol.

I'd love to drop-KICK United Parcel Service sometimes! :lol:

 

[crsublette]

Well Mitch so much for NAFTA!

Another thing people don't realize is that the guy who is farming may have brothers and sisters. Even after tax his share of the farm may only be a fraction and that is if the farm was free and clear.

Yeah, it is silly how folk think in regards to agriculture. There is quite a bit of ignorance out there. There are many old negative stereotypes in regards to working conditions, wages, and benefits that simply no longer apply.

Charles It must pi$$ you off to see farmers getting bailed out [Government} because they made stupid mistakes. The US estate tax law is crazy, saw a movie about that, can't remember the name. The people were trying to find out ways to keep the family property due to the estate tax.

Sure, some of the hand holding out here disturbs me and should not be done, but there is also a growing expense imposed on farmers by the resource conservation and nutrition organizations that have added quite a bit of expense and much more politics out-about-now causing the grian and energy markets to be much more volatile, which has impacted farmers more than it was when my father farmed. The volatile market can really persuade folk to make some pig headed decisions and inflate land values.

 

[crsublette]

I can think of lots of examples where Canadian retailers take advantage of the lower US dollar and don't pass along the savings - books, clothes, vehicles. I think it will only hurt those retailers in the long run.

Bingo. One of those bad decisions that I bet will hurt those retailers once their customers wise up.

We're in an e-bay world nowadays. It's just how it is.

I understand the mistrust of it, which is why I simply do not buy certain products on ebay, but there are are quite a few reputable dealers on ebay and other internet avenues.