73 Heaths Rd. Hoppers Crossing, Vic 3029, Phone: 03 9005 7569, Mobile: 0412 134 047
New Prices
Prices:
If there is no number (like 5, or10 or 15) before price, it means that a small packet will have 20 seeds, usually costing $2.25. Rare and/or hard to get seeds are in packets of 5, 10, or 15 seeds, shown in the column between species name and price. Some seeds are available in 2.5x and 5x multiples of small packets. Thus if a small packet contains 10 seeds, then 2.5x multiple will have 25 and 5x multiple will have 50 seeds. If a small packet contains 20 seeds, then 2.5x multiple will have 50 and 5x multiple will have and 100 seeds. The availability and prices are in the last two columns.
New prices
Though nobody complained to me about my prices, I am certain some people seeing my prices and the prices of a few seeds sellers overseas will think I am making good profits. But they don’t realize my costs - CITES permits and phyto certificates in the countries of some suppliers can be quite expensive. I have to pay for them, and for airmail.
Australian Quarantine Inspection Services (AQIS) inspections of the shipments became a lot more vigorous in the recent years and they are not cheap - they charge AU$35.50 for the first 15 minutes of their time and $40 for every 15 minutes after that. They allow 30 seconds for inspection of every packet (soil & insects contamination) and to check their database if the species is allowed to be imported. I have to pay AQIS $1.30 for every packet they inspect Most of the packets that I import have 100 seeds and then I repack most of them into lots of 20’s. Thus the AQIS fee of $1.30 per packet of 100, will add $0.26 to the price of each packet.
But then a friendly soul in AQIS gave me tips how to legally avoid those inspection fees. It worked – so far I didn’t have to pay anything for seeds inspections, though some import costs increased slightly. They were not high enough to increase the prices, but other factors were.
Very often the inspector’s fees are higher than the value of the shipment - that alone often forces me to resell the seeds at double the prices I paid for them. Then, when my supplier makes a mistake with a label and misses even one letter in the name, or the AQIS clerk will make a typing error, computer will not recognize it and the clerk will reject it, even if the error is as small as Mamillaria (one m missing), or if the supplier uses an abbreviation that the clerk is not familiar with (and the AQIS clerks are not very familiar with cacti and succulents names) they will reject them as well. Then I have to pay AU$ 42.50 to send the seeds back to the supplier, or they are destroyed.
Inflation
Inflation is another factor. I started selling seeds in 1990 at $1.00 for the standard packet. Recently I heard one union spokesman saying that wages increases since 1992 averaged 4%/year. This is very labour intensive business so I feel I am justified in adjusting the prices according to wages increases. Calculating annual 4% increases from 1990 to 2008, the price now should be $2.03+$0.20 GST, so the prices for the cheapest packets will be rounded to $2.25. If it wasn’t disclosed to me how to avoid the AQIS fees, I would have to add another $0.25 to the price.
From now on I will increase the prices annually, according to the wages increases. That way the increases won’t hurt so much.
I know I will lose some sales, but my prices didn't change since 2001. You were getting discount of 4% every year and now I am just adjusting the prices. Really, the seeds cost the same as in 1990.