Motoxs3th;4034660; said:
my LFS has a large show tank full of large bala sharks and other fish that are rarely seen over a foot long. so there prized bala shark died of old age at 25 and they knew i had a few huge balas so they contacted me wanting my biggest one. how much is a huge 10" bala shark worth? and how much should my lfs pay me in store credit for him?
conditions: 1 fat healthy bala shark, Washington state, 10" long easy.
if your opinion is educated it would be greatly appreciated thanks for your help
Motoxs3th: IMO here's what I would do if I was in the same or similar situation.
1) Decide if you REALLY want to sell or not.
2) Shop around in Washington State, (other LFS in major cities like Seattle, Spokane, Olympia, Bellingham, Belvieve, Longview, Tacoma,Yakima, etc.) and ask them what it would cost you, even if it has to be special ordered and then you can get an "IDEA" of what it would cost you retail.
3) Once you have an IDEA, then you would have to make a sound and profitable offer to your LFS which is wanting to purchase your Bala Shark.
4) To do this, take the amount of which you would have to pay if you were buying, add 37% profitable mark-up, take 65% in trade, and 35% in cash. Here's an example: Say you call 5 different shops in 5 different cities in Washington, you add all of their costs together and then divide their total by 5 and the average price of all of the shops combined is $75.00. 33% of $75.00 is $24.75. ($75.00 + $24.75 = $99.75) The $99.75 is YOUR Retail price. Next calculate your state sales tax for your area, and add your sales tax to it. (For me if I was to do this in my home town, it would be $99.75 x 8.1% = $8.07975 tax or $8.08 rounded up to the nearest penny.) So the total cost of your Bala Shark as you would sell it would be $107.83. I would round it up to say . . . $110.00, to make it even to the nearest ten dollars.
5) Now you have asked for a sale price of your Bala Shark of $110.00 to your LFS. Now depending on what you may need in trade from your LFS, depends on how much cash you will take in return. If you require say, 1/3 in cash, (which is $36.30) I'd take $36.00, and require the remaining $74.00 in trade for items from their fish shop, at wholesale cost. In other words, what ever they would give to you in trade, would be at the stores cost, and not customer cost. This way, you are not paying more in trade, and you'd actually be saving money. (You'd not be paying out sales tax or customer (retail) mark-up on items purchased from your LFS.) You'd be getting it at the stores cost of what they buy it for from their suppliers.
6) If they agree to your terms, then I would do it, but no other way. Make sure you get a reciept for every transaction. Keep track of your reciepts. Re-calculate and recheck the math on your reciepts to ensure you're not being taken advantage of and not recieving your full money's worth. If there is something you're unsure of on the reciept, ask them to explain it to you. If their a reputable business they should keep to their terms with you and they'll explain the calculations on your reciept without to hesitation.
I hope this helps you with your decission and your situation with your Bala Shark sale. I'd like to know how the outcome ends up. Please keep me advised.
Sincerely,
David K. Bradley
