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selling small pepper plants

cycadjungle

cycadjungle

I am going to be making small pepper plants to sell and thought I would ask some questions to get me started. I want to price them according to the market price, so I have looked at a few websites to help me along. Refining Fire Chiles has a wide variety of plants available and seemed to be a good model to compare to. For those that have seen their website, are they priced about right? Are they a little high, or lower than others charge?
If I were to charge what they charge, what do you think the size of the plant should be before I sell it? 4 inches tall, 6 inches tall? What about larger plants grown in 4 inch pots, or even 1 gallon containers? If Butch T Scorpion plant goes for $10 in a small peat pot, should a 4 inch pot go for about $15? 1 gallon pots close to flowering for $25 to $35? I don't know, I'm just asking marketing questions.
I have Butch T plants and Bhut Jolokia plants already going good, but will also be selling Naga Morich, Moruga Scorpions, yellow 7 pots, and Fatallis. I will also be selling seeds of all these kinds as well. Maybe for the rest of the season I should concentrate on mostly seeds and do more seedlings next spring, bu thought I would get some ideas from the people who have been doing this longer than I have. At least people can be sure they are getting what they order, which I have seen has been a problem for some. I have been, and will be personally hand pollinating the plants, keep them so that they don't cross pollinate each other, extract the seeds, grow the plants, and ship them out myself, so there will be no question of the quality of the seeds or the plants.
 
Well, if you have them and you figure out a price, I would be interested in the bhut jolokias. I have seen others selling 6" super hot plants for $10 a plant and shipping for $15 for up to 4 plants. I would be interested at these prices. Let me know. I would love to save the hassle of starting seeds for my indoor winter grow.

Thanks,
Nick
 
IMO, $10 for a single small seedling is extremely high. You can probably get newbies to pay that on ebay or Amazon for the current world record holder, because of the novelty of it and because they don't know where else to look, but you're not going to get many repeat customers because sooner or later they'll find much cheaper sources. Refining Fire Chiles is pretty expensive imo. You get great quality seeds and plants that grow true but you're definitely paying a premium for it. Cross Country Nurseries is the standard imo and they sell most for something like $3 each, or $4 for rarer/more difficult to seed varieties like bhut jolokia. The Chile Woman's prices are similar to CCN. $3-5 is a fair price for small (~6 inch tall) seedlings imo.

I doubt there's much interest in 1 gallon mail order chile plants. For slow growing plants like trees and shrubs, sure, but for chiles that go from a small seedling to 1'+ in a matter of weeks and only last one season? I can't see there being much interest in that, except for a few individuals with money to burn who waited too long to order.
 
Well, I have previously looked at the company you referenced as an example, but have never purchased from them because I thought they were too pricey.

If you are looking for a good company to emulate, Cross Country Nurseries (aka www.chileplants.com) is probably the most popular/well-respected company in the online pepper plant market here in the USA. Their reputation is nothing short of outstanding, and their ginormous selection of hot pepper varieties is awe-inspiring.

Nor do you see them pricing garden-variety Bell Pepper plants for $10 each and calling it a "sale"! :rolleyes: They have raised their prices a little bit since I first heard about them, but most of their pepper plants are still priced at $3.35 each, with superhots priced slightly higher at $3.65 each.

Their shipping cost is also quite reasonable - $11 - $18 (depending on your location) for a box of 12 plants, and only $5 - $7 for each box after that.

At the end of their season, they also typically put all of their remaining pepper plants on sale for 1/2 price.

The only thing that is even remotely negative about them is that they do not cater to those looking to pick-up just 1 or 2 plants, they have a 12 plant minimum order (although they can be all different varieties). But I have seen chileheads that live near each other combine their wish lists into a CCN single order, and then split-up the plants when they arrived.

They are also extremely well-known, and have an impeccable reputation - I have been hearing chileheads singing their praises since before this site (THP) even existed!

So from a marketing standpoint, that's going to be the main company & pricing that you will be competing against.

It would be tough to undercut them on price and still make a decent profit, and impossible to beat them on selection (they currently list nearly 600 different kinds of pepper plants!)

AFAIK they don't sell larger plants online, so you might be able to pursue that niche, although that is also going to make shipping more difficult/$. And like Avon Barksdale said, unless you're selling a variety that's traditionally grown multi-season (like a Rocoto), marketing as a large plant something most people grow as an annual is gonna be a tough sell!

To be honest, from a business standpoint, it might be more profitable for your business to market locally. I can get a Chocolate Bhut Jolokia or 7-Pot plant online for less than $4+shipping, but when the hottest thing you can buy at the local nursery is say an Orange Hab, I can easily see someone willing to pay $10-$25 for an exotic Chocolate Bhut plant at a local flea market!
 
I still would welcome more comments, but you have already been very helpful. I will check out these other sites to compare with. You are right, if someone has that many types for sale, there is no way anyone can try to keep up with that. You are also right about the larger plants. I don't think a 1 gallon plant would be very good for mail order but I do think there could be a good local market for decently sized plants as long as the price isn't too bad. I threw out those prices just to see what people thought. You all have way more experience than I have on peppers. I may know just about everyone in the world who work with cycads, but this part of the pepper situation I am just starting, but this is how you learn. If I'm going to get into this I want to do it right and be one of those people who people say good things about like Cross Country. You guys are the best!
 
Omri said:
Looking for tips on how to sell chiles? seriously does not belong in the marketplace.

Moved.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry about that. I assumed a post about selling something would go in the category of the market place where people talk about things for sale. My mistake.
 
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