Coin Supply Cooperative

Coin collectors need coin collecting supplies in order to best protect, store, and organize their coins.  Options available to us are shopping on eBay, Amazon, and dedicated websites which specialize in coins and coin supplies.  Being a hobby, some folks go easy on supply spending, preferring to invest their limited funds on coins.  I understand that, I'm a bit of a tightwad myself.  The result of this spendthrift attitude is that we buy our supplies inefficiently.  We spend $5 at a time for enough supplies to get us by for the time being.  Looking at price per unit, we spend the most and get the least.  Seems to me we should do it the other way around: spend the least and get the most.  Right now, each of us is working independently-shopping for specific items, looking up the best prices, and ordering those select goods of greatest priority in small quantities suitable for their own needs.  If we simply got together, organized ourselves, and came up with a plan, we could all save a bunch of money by ordering together. 

I've been rolling this idea around in my head for some time.  It's a cooperative enterprise.  It can work, but requires several ingredients.  For this cooperative effort to be most effective, I'll explain things...

Lets define out objectives:
-We want to save money
-We want to get products of the same quality or better as we are used to
-We want to get the most value for our hard earned dollars
-We want to spend as little as possible on shipping
-We want our stuff to arrive in good shape

Volume
We can get better prices if we can put together some volume.  Buying 100 2x2s is not going to get the best price.  It takes 20,000 to get the best price.  The same with tubes, storage boxes, pages, what have you.  If we can get the volume, we can get the price.  To get the volume, we need a bunch of people involved.

Payment
To get the sort of volume we are looking at will take cash.  I don't have it.  Anyone who does have it would do just as well to buy the product, put it in storage, then sell it at the normal price and normal small quantities.  We need to get the payments in from the people involved, get the stuff, pack it, and send it out.  You will have to prepay for your supplies.  This is no different than you are doing now:  you pay Amazon now, get the stuff in a few days.  The only difference is it will take a few more days.

Committment
For this to work, all the people need to be committed.  If some people back out of the deal, we won't have enough volume to make it work, nobody gets a thing.  Don't be the guy who says he will do something then does not do what he said when the time comes

Uniformity
Most of the products we need are common.  The 2x2 cardboard cent holders I use are the same as yours.  We all use cent, dime, nickel, quarter sizes.  We don't all use cointain holders, we don't all use whitman 5 coin set holders. we don't all use pages.  For those items we use in common, we focus our attention on.  With more uniformity, we can reach the volume needed to get the high prices.  Filling orders specifically with a wide assortement of items is more difficult, requires more inventory, and generally gums u the works

Shipping
A big box gets the best shipping price.  To get the best value, fill that box completely.  A full box is better protected against crush damage during transit.

Timing
I need stuff today, you need it next week, Joe wont need anything for months.  Getting people on the same schedule will be needed.  This requires a deadline.  You meet the deadline or wait for the next batch.

Responsibility
In our litigious society, someone must ultimately be responsible for handling the money, account for delivery, and do the work of buying, packing and shipping, and will need to get paid.  I'm willing to do the job, have the space for all this stuff, and the means to get it shipped.  This requires I come up with the prices, set the package contents, and perform.  My reward is a small profit, same as Amazon or some specialty shop.

Best plan I've got so far is to put together packs of supplies.  I can fill a Large Flat Rate Box (LFRB) with similar items and some flexibility.  A single LFRB will ship anywhere in the continental US for $18.85 and hold a dozen 2x2x9 coin storage boxes and some other flat items.  Those 2x2x9 boxes will hold specific goods, be it 2x2 holders or tubes, with a little room to spare for small add on items such as 2x2 tetra coin holders, 10x loupe, and cotton gloves.
12 2x2x9 coin boxes
1200 2x2 cardboard holders choose size by the 100: 1/5/10/25/50
200 2x2 vinyl flips no inserts
48 2x2 tetra
10x loupe 10x18
white cotton gloves

This is a bunch of stuff for a collector to purchase all at once.  There will be the guy who only wants half that in order to save money.  Fact is, for this to work, about 40 people would have to get involved at the same time, all buying the same thing.
So...what are you folks looking for?
What do you need?
How much are you willing to spend?

How about you plan on taking a box in the next couple weeks?
I'll need that time to nail down prices, secure supplier(s), and get people on board.  Another week of sending out invoices, getting the money together, about a week for supplies to arrive, then a few days to assemble boxes and ship them out.